Page 6 - Harnett Life Winter 2022

The Music Man of Dunn

By Crissy Neville
The Band of Oz’s

Keith Houston

There’s a celebrity in your midst, Harnett County, but as he
quietly lives his life, travels to and fro and gets the job done,
you may not even know it.

When Houston moved from Raleigh to Dunn in 1988 to mar-
ry the then Paige Thomas and now current owner, pharmacy
manager, immunizer and third-generation family member of
the circa 1952 Thomas Drug Store family, he was in the throes
of a successful music career that began 20 years earlier.

Beginning in the mid-1960s with junior high school friends
from his Lenoir County hometown, Grifton, and the neighbor-
ing Pitt County city of Greenville, Houston’s first band, The
Avengers, was started when he was 12. The band played gigs
on base in Jacksonville at the NCO club, school sock hops and
more.

It was a cover band whose members Houston’s dad “hauled
around in his Chevy station wagon” with “a little red trailer full
of band equipment” in tow.

A few years earlier, the elder Houston, who, the junior Hous-
ton said, “played a little guitar but mainly lived vicariously
through me,” asked him at age 9 if he wanted to play the guitar
“or something.” He got his first guitar for Christmas.

The rest is history.
Dunn’s Keith Houston is the founder, co-owner and
guitarist for The Band of Oz Houston, who attended East Carolina University, shared that

his early music career blossomed into the only profession he
Dunn business owner. Dad. Guitar guru. Husband. Beach has ever had, apart from “working on a farm with a friend one
music superstar. Local church member. Van driver. Producer. year until I realized I could go play music, not work nearly that
Neighbor. Engineer. Friend. Fun-loving fellow. Who are these hard and make just as much money,” he quipped.
12 people, you ask?
BOZ’s biography reads that the early group of young men fea-
Try again. It’s one. tured Keith Houston (guitar), Chuck French (trumpet), Gary
Warren (saxophone), Randy Hignite (keyboards), Jim Heiden-
One man with many titles. Many stand out, but in the world of reich (drums) Johnnie Byrd (bass) and Buddy Johnson (vo-
Keith Houston, a regular small-town resident ― like you, like cals). BOZ became a professional touring band during the late
me ― all these monikers and more are fitting for the musician 1970s.
that founded the Band of Oz. A musician to marvel at and an
all-around-good guy to hang out with ― all rolled into one. Though going through multiple personnel changes through the

Page 6 Harnett Life ~ Winter 2022