The Ninth Annual American Song Festival
Amateur R & B / Soul Winner
for his song, 'Losing Control'

...about the winner —

Randy Hebert's life has been dominated by music and he wouldn't have it any other way. But, as is the case with most young people who decide to chance something as risky as the music business, his parents urged him to hedge his bet.

"They wanted me to go to college and study something practical", Randy recalls. "They effectively exerted enough pressure that I gave in in a moment of weakness and enrolled as a business major. To say I hated it would be understated. I hated it so much, in fact, that I dropped out and joined the Navy. A year later I was back to my music."

Randy was born in New Orleans and started playing guitar at the age of 15. His early influences were guitar virtuosos such as Wes Montgomery and George Benson, but later he found himself being greatly influenced by singers and songwriters such as Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway and Quincy Jones.

"I started playing in bands when I was 16, and I was hooked on it. There was no question in my mind what I wanted to do with my life but, to appease my folks, I did the college thing."

"My tour in the active Navy was for only a year and when I got out, I totally applied myself to music. I enrolled as a music major at the University of New Orleans and studied theory and composition. I became an avid student of all styles of guitar playing...folk, rock, classical, jazz, blues. I even studied piano privately for a year."

"All during this period, I was supporting myself playing in bands. In fact, I have always supported myself through my music. I've only had one real job in my life and that was when I was a teenager. The job was in a music store, so even it was music related."

"After two years of college, I dropped out and spent full time pursuing my career. I worked for a time as a studio musician in the early '70s and continued to perform as both a player and a standup singer in various bands. In the more than 15 years I've spent performing, I've been in about 20 different bands...top-40 groups, original material units, etc. It's been an education."

"However, in 1979, I felt that part of my education was complete so I left the band business to pursue a solo career as a writer, singer, player and entertainer. Although I became interested in songwriting in my late teens, I started getting serious about it at the age of 25. I also became interested in synthesizers, especially guitar synthesizers. Taking all my interests and experience and putting it all into one package, I started a super solo act which I perform with synthesizers and computers. With the use of the synthesizers, I can make my guitar sound like a bass. I can play guitar solos, or I can simulate the sound of horns and strings. Then, by writing my own material and performing it as well, I am a completely self-contained unit...an electronic one man band, if you will. The tape I submitted to the Song Festival on Losing Control was realized with all my equipment and gives a good idea of what I sound like. And if you're in the neighborhood, I've been performing my solo act for over a year now at the 711 Club which is located at 711 Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

"Winning in the American Song Festival was a big thrill for me and I'm looking forward to the awards ceremonies in Los Angeles."