Sawyer Brown

== Biography =

Sawyer Brown is a country music band formed in 1981 in a Pizza Hut in Apopka, FL. That is where lead singer Mark Miller asked keyboardist Gregg "Hobie" Hubbard to play piano for a couple songs he had written. The two left for Nashville, TN where they met up with Florida drummer Joe Smyth, Michigan bass player Jim Scholten and original lead guitarist Bobby Randall. They first called the band Savanah, but renamed themselves Sawyer Brown after the street they rehearsed on - Sawyer Brown Road. Miller likes to say "We thought it would be easier to get work if people thought we were one person." The band played up to 5 sets a night 6 days a week, until they auditioned for the TV show Star Search in 1983. They auditioned just to get the videotape to promote the band, and ended up winning the $100,000 grand prize and record contract.

The band signed with Capitol Records and had a top 20 hit right off the bat with their first single, "Leona," in 1984. That success was quickly followed by their first number one hit, "Step That Step." The band had their ups and downs on the charts throughout the 1980s....