Allen McKenzie (born January 1, 1960) is an American musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

glam metal Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam r ...

band

FireHouse __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire apparatus, fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective eq ...

Personal life

McKenzie grew up in a rural area of

Jackson, Ohio Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Ohio, United States approximately 27 mi (43 km) SE of Chillicothe. The population was 6,239 at the 2020 census. History Established in 1817, residents named the to ...

, before moving to

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

with his family in 1977. In June 1978, McKenzie graduated from Garfield High School. In September, he enlisted in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and served for three years in

Landau Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...

, West Germany, then three years stateside. On October 8, 2005, he married his wife Tina. They have three children. McKenzie started playing a C.R. Alsip bass customized to McKenzie's liking in July 2014. McKenzie met master luthier Jake Willoughby of

C.R. Alsip Guitars C.R. Alsip Guitars, is a small American guitar manufacturing company founded in Arkansas City, KS on Feb. 2012. The company operated in Kansas from 2012 to 2014. The company is now based in the Atlanta, GA area. C.R. Alsip LLC was named after Conn ...

through bandmate Bill Leverty in 2012. After McKenzie heard Leverty's guitar he asked Willoughby if he would be interested in building a bass guitar. Willoughby agreed, building the iconic "Guinness Harp" 5 string bass that made its first appearance onstage with McKenzie in 2014.

Career

Foxx

On leaving the army, McKenzie became involved in the music scene in Akron and played with

cover band A cover band (or covers band) is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. Ne ...

s. McKenzie then, by chance, met Dave Jackson in the rubber refinery where they both worked. Together, they founded a local

band called Foxx in late 1985. Foxx released two albums – ''Foxx'' (1989) and ''Stick It Out'' (1991) – and toured. Foxx disbanded in 1992, but reunited in December 2012 and still perform on occasion.

Quest

In 1993, McKenzie joined Quest, a

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band based in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. Membership of Quest allowed him to explore his interest as a singer, keyboard player and songwriter. At the end of 1994, Quest released a CD, ''Opposite sides of the picket fence''. In summer, 1994, Quest gave an opening performance for a

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * YES (Your Extraordinary Saturday), a learning program from the Minnesota Institute for Talente ...

concert at the

Blossom Music Center Blossom Music Center, locally referred to simply as Blossom, is an outdoor amphitheatre in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, United States. The venue is the summer home of The Cleveland Orchestra and site of the ensemble’s annual Blossom Festival. Blossom M ...

Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio Cuyahoga Falls ( or ) is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 51,114. The second-largest city in Summit County, it is located directly north of Akron and is a suburb of the Akron metropol ...

. Quest's prog rock CD failed and in 1995, the group disbanded.

Peacetree

McKenzie joined Peacetree, a hard rock band, as a bass guitarist. The band was fronted by Elijah Black. Peacetree released three CDs, ''Insense'' (1996), ''Wonderful Day'' (1998) and ''Nice to meet you'' (2000). ''Nice to meet you'' earned Peacetree a nomination for "Best hard rock band" at the 2000 Cleveland Free Times Music Awards. Peacetree gave opening performances for bands who were touring nationally such as

Mötley Crüe Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1981. The group was founded by bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil. Mötley Crüe has sold over 100 million albums ...

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, whic ...

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

and

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

. Peacetree also appeared on ''

The Jenny Jones Show ''The Jenny Jones Show'' is an American syndicated daytime tabloid talk show that was hosted by comedian/actress/singer Jenny Jones. It was produced by Quincy Jones-David Salzman Entertainment and Telepictures Productions and was distributed by ...

''.

Warrant singer Jani Lane

Peacetree disbanded in 2002. McKenzie played with the JAK band, a local

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

band. He also rehearsed with a new band led by Elijah Black. Then,

Jani Lane Jani Lane (born John Kennedy Oswald; February 1, 1964 – August 11, 2011) was an American singer and the lead vocalist, frontman, lyricist and main songwriter for the glam metal band Warrant. From Hollywood, California, the band experienced su ...

, the original vocalist for the band Warrant, approached McKenzie to join him on a solo tour to promote Lane's CD, ''Back Down to One''. McKenzie worked with Lane from October 2002 to March 2003.

FireHouse

On October 23, 2003, McKenzie joined

at the recommendation of Billy Morris, the guitarist for Lane, and Tony Avitar, FireHouse's current sound engineer. FireHouse toured the USA, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan, India, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Greece and the UK. Allen, along with the rest of the band, contributed to the CDs ''Monster Ballads Christmas (Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, released in 2007)'', ''Hell Bent Forever-A Tribute To Judas Priest'' ("You've Got Another Thing Coming", released in 2008), the DVD, ''Metal Mania Stripped Across America'' ("Don't Treat Me Bad", released in 2005), and the band's latest full-length CD, ''Full Circle'', a re-recorded "best of" album, released in 2011.

References

External links

Firehouse Music - The Official FireHouse Web Site

Allen McKenzie , Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos
{{DEFAULTSORT:McKenzie, Allen 1960 births Living people American rock bass guitarists American male bass guitarists FireHouse (band) members American male guitarists Guitarists from Ohio 20th-century American guitarists People from Jackson, Ohio Musicians from Akron, Ohio Musicians from Columbus, Ohio