Slim Man at The Collective – Encore – Columbia, MD

Conceived on the Isle of Capri in Italy, he was born in Baltimore, Maryland.

When he was 5 years old, Slim Man saw a movie with his dad. That film was The Five Pennies, and when Slim Boy saw Louis Armstrong play the trumpet and sing, he told his Dad, ”That’s what I want to do.”

Slim Man studied trumpet for the next 9 years, and taught himself how to play piano and guitar. After studying piano, composition, and harmony at Peabody Institute in Baltimore, MD, Slim Man got signed as a songwriter to Motown Records. He’s had songs recorded by the Temptations, Angela Bofill, Carl Anderson, and others.

Slim Man recorded a CD for Motown, which gave birth to his signature style–a unique blend of jazz, soul, and pop.

Slim Man went on to form the band BootCamp, who had two of the first 100 videos ever played on MTV. Those videos catapulted BootCamp into a successful concert career, performing with The B-52s, Squeeze, Split Enz, Johnny Winter, and others.

After BootCamp broke up, Slim Man organized and hosted a nationwide country music talent contest. It was during this contest that he got the nickname Slim Man. Slim’s big discovery during the contest was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at a honky-tonk called Tulsa City Limits.

The guy who won the contest that night was Ronnie Dunn, who went on to win the national finals in Nashville, and later hooked up with Kix Brooks to form the multiple Grammy award-winning country music duo, Brooks and Dunn.