Sights & Sounds: Former Lion Brings The Funk to Dearborn Homecoming

You might call Larry Lee a man for all seasons.

The 51-year-old played nine years in the NFL-five with the Lions during the 1980s. And from 1993 to 2001, he worked as the Lions' vice president.

After the organization hired Matt Millen in 2001, Lee left the team and began the Back In The Day Band, a nine-person set that takes pride in its funk. The group–led by Lee at bass–has since toured the country and been awarded numerous accolades.

The Back In The Day band was nominated as the area's most Outstanding R&B Group by the Detroit Music Awards. Lee, meanwhile, was nominated for Outstanding Urban Funk Musician two of the past three years.

And while he was at it, he became the director of Business Development for Rickman Enterprise Group, a firm that offers everything from pest control to waste stream management to asbestos removal to various industries.

Lee and The Back In The Day Band will play 8:30 p.m. Friday night to help kick off the 32nd annual .

Lee spoke with Dearborn Patch about funk, football and bringing old-school concert energy to this weekend.

Dearborn Patch: Being in the Lions front office–what was that like?

Larry Lee: It was awesome, man. I crossed a lot of boundaries. I did player contracts. I did all of the team travel, training camps, all of the day-to-day operations, player development. 

I had my hands full, but it was a fun time, especially when you have players like Barry Sanders and Herman Moore on the field. We were winning somewhat back then.

Dearborn Patch: What was your favorite memory from 18 years in the league?

Lee: As a player, I was with the Broncos when we went to Super Bowl XXII. We lost to the Redskins, but being part of a Super Bowl is something special as a player. 

For front office, it was being successful. In the '90s, the Lions went to the playoffs six out of 10 years. We didn’t do squat once we got there, but we got there.

Dearborn Patch: You don’t really come across too many athletes who are also professional musicians on the side. What's your music background? How did the Back in the Day Band start?

Lee: I grew up in Dayton, OH. And in the '70s, Dayton was very popular for funk music. We had about eight or nine groups who made it nationally on the charts. When you grew up in Dayton, music was just part of your thing no matter what you did.

I played in a band in high school that eventually made it nationally. But my senior year in high school, they gave me an ultimatum. They basically said, ‘Pursue football, or stay in the band.’

I was pretty blessed. I had the opportunity to go to almost any college I wanted to. I chose UCLA and pursued football.

When I got to the league, I got drafted by the Lions in ’81. Monte Clark, our head coach, used to have bands perform in training camp once a week to break the monotony.

I would sit in with whatever band and players got to know that I played.

2001 was the year that the Lion’s hired Matt Millen. And Matt basically came in and wanted his own people, got rid of all of us. So I sat around for a couple years waiting for the next team to call.

When they didn’t, a friend of mine said, ‘Larry, you know, we all are blessed. But some of us don’t manage our blessings as well as others. Man, the way you play the bass guitar, with your background, why don’t you put together a band?’

Dearborn Patch: What do you want people to take away when they listen to your music?

Lee: I love old-school music, even though we do Top 40. To me, the '60s and '70s was just the best music era ever.

I want to try to relive the old-school feeling of going to a concert. When I grew up in the '70s, going to a concert was unbelievable. You’d walk away from the concert going, ‘Oh my god, did you just believe what we saw?’

I try to recreate that with my band: high energy, fun-loving crowd interaction. People love coming to our shows just because of that.