By Danielle Ray, Senior Reporter
For Jared Price, music is more than just pure entertainment – it literally has been life altering.
Price said he went through a really dark period during his teenage years.
“Right out of high school ‘til around 20, I was in a very bad mental rut as I was getting thrown into the real world and knowing the path I was being told to go down by the world wasn’t for me,” he said. “I was at the bottom of every societal totem and feeling backed into a corner. I snapped and started doing music not just as a hobby. It was the area that when no one could get through to me like lyrics could, especially Alter Bridge and Bon Jovi…Music was my saving grace through one of the hardest points and it made me want to repay the favor as I saw it like a debt I needed to repay.”
The result was an idea that came to Price in December of 2017 to form a band, which he dubbed Fellowship of the Much Obliged.
“It started as me wanting to repay a debt I had to music and use it to help others, as music is what helped me pick myself up by my bootstraps and figure out who I wanted to be,” he said.
Price said the band lineup is currently just himself. He has a few friends who were slated to join him and then COVID hit, forcing him to go at it alone as a one-man band.
“I go by ‘Smokey’ while fronting this because it allows me to separate my music and personal life and helps me emphasize parts of me I want heard while running this,” he said.
The name of the band originally was going to be just The Fellowship but got extended to what it is now because Price is “grateful for music”.
“Its intent is to focus on the music and the message no matter how the lineup may look,” he said. “Because of this I like to see the listener as part of that fellowship.”
Price said his sound “has a very heavy Bon Jovi influence…There are also some hints of bands like Alter Bridge, Creed, and AC/DC to name a few,” he said. “I listen to a lot of music and pull from a good amount, but in the end pull from Jon Bon Jovi the most.”
Price plays both cover and original tunes.
“If I didn’t play covers at this point, I would have no marketability, but I make sure they stay true to the themes I try and have of my brand,” he said.
He said he hopes at one point to invite his musician friends to join him in his musical endeavor.
“The buddies I almost got to help have not played alongside me in public yet as right as we were planning on meeting to pretty much jam and see if we blended well, COVID hit and we all didn’t want to take unnecessary risks,” Price said.
At this point he does not have any gigs coming up “as live music is taking a hit” due to the pandemic, but said he hopes to play at Davis Mega Farm Festival in town at some point in the future.
“I really like the venue they have for the few weeks in the fall,” he said.
Price said his goal is to finally get the band together sometime in the future and share the stage with other musicians.
“I am looking forward to feeding off a crowd again and just playing live with as much energy as I possibly can,” he said. “I would like this to become the equivalent of a glorified bar band, maintain a steady release schedule, and honestly just have some fun. Nothing can match feeding off a crowd’s energy as you play music with other musicians.”
For now, Price is content to continue playing and making music on his own, a therapy of sorts for himself that he hopes to convey to his audience.
“My hopes are to help people with music,” he said. “I am a firm believer that today, the most rock-and-roll thing you can do is be for everything original rock and roll was against. The more you dive into that, the more it makes sense.”
For more information visit https://fellowshipofthemuchobliged.bandzoogle.com/ and follow Fellowship of the Much Obliged on Facebook and Instagram.
