There’s a distinct difference between a lead singer and a front man. A lead singer is someone who matches their bandmates’ instrumentation with a sound all their own, a finely tuned harmony of their creation, honed through careful training of the lungs, diaphragm, and vocal tract.
Yes, they get most of the attention. But that’s by design. They don’t have a drum set or a guitar to hide behind, just the thin cover of a mic stand. On stage, they’re exposed.
A front man, on the other hand, wants nothing more than to be exposed. They want to be the central focus of the performance, and an instrument would only get in the way of that. The rest of the band plays instruments. A front man plays the audience.
“It’s all about getting attention,” said Jeff Gilmer, the rambunctious front man for MuddyCreek. “And I’m a total attention whore.”
Jeff Gilmer turns it on for the camera in Old Town Bluffton.
That need for attention, which perhaps serves as the greatest distinction between lead singer and front man, has come to define Gilmer’s career.
“I love playing guitar, but I’m just a chord player. I’m not going to impress anybody, and I’m definitely not going to impress (MuddyCreek bandmate) Bryan Baker. They make it easier for me to not play and just be the front guy. That’s all I ever wanted to be,” Gilmer said. “I’m not the greatest singer in the world. I can’t sing beautiful notes. I’m more of an entertainer.”
The Opening Act
Growing up in a huge musical family, Gilmer was raised with the itch to get out front and center. During massive house parties, musicians – from uncles and cousins to his dad’s bandmates – would bring their instruments over for jam sessions. After buying his first guitar, a Gibson Dove, and immediately selling it to his brother for $8, young Jeff Gilmer soon realized that his playing alone was not going to capture the spotlight.
“I remember as a kid just wanting to sing, and thinking that if I could ever learn to sing, I’d want to be in a band,” he said. “I never learned to sing, so I just learned to dance instead. I’m still a bad dancer, but at least it’s funny.”
But there’s more to a good front man than just singing or dancing. The job of a front man is to make whatever venue they’re playing the biggest party in town, and Gilmer came into his own during the Golden Age. His formative years saw icons like David Lee Roth, Axl Rose, and Vince Neil crafting stage shows that remain legendary.
“Right around when Van Halen’s ‘1984’ came out was when I started to think, ‘I’m a rock ‘n’ roll guy,” Gilmer said. “And David Lee Roth was the man to me. I wanted to do that.”
While the ’80s were a time when front men became rock gods, there will always be only one King of Rock and Roll. As the wide-rimmed glasses and “TCB” ring Gilmer wears might tell you, Elvis had made an outsized impression on the young entertainer.
“The main reason I wanted to sing and play music was because of Elvis. Everyone in my family was huge into Elvis. I’d be singing, wetting my hair, and lip synching to his music when I was 7 or 8,” Gilmer said. “Also a few times last week. And once on the way over here.”
On stage, this melting pot of influential front men swirls together to make Gilmer one of the most exciting performers to watch in the Lowcountry music scene. Despite his self-deprecating sense of humor, he can hold a tune with the best of them, but his voice is just one part of the orchestra of his stage presence. During songs, he’ll pop out into the crowd, challenging them to sing the next set of lyrics (and giving them a hard time when they can’t). Ask him his favorite songs to perform, and he’ll point out the ones that give him a chance to be his own chaotic self.
“I love doing the song ‘Polk Salad Annie’ because I can get up, dance, and do some karate kicks,” he said.
To hear him talk about being on stage is to see the Jekyll and Hyde nature of who he is as a performer. Sitting down to an interview, nursing a beer on a warm afternoon, he’s Jeff Gilmer. Put a mic in his hand and he becomes something else entirely.
“There are people who play music and there are people who have a character. I kind of grew into the character of Jeffree Shots,” he said. The name, as you may have guessed, derived from his old band the Free Shots, which he formed with Todd Toho, Randy Rockalotta, and C.W. Jameson. “It made sense in the Free Shots to become Jeffree Shots, and all of the sudden I became this character instead of a person. The character is amazing, but it got to where I’m known for drinking a lot of shots.”
He’ll be the first to admit that Jeffree has gotten him into trouble on a few occasions, like a performance a few months back where people began handing him Rumple Minze shots as soon as he walked in. “A lot of people don’t understand that sugar messes your brain up,” he said. “Yeah, I can’t really remember that gig.”
He’s been slowing down on the shots lately, but it’s a reputation he earned through years as an enduring presence on the local music scene. After hosting open mic nights at Moneypenny’s for years, he started a band called Spank with Jesse Watkins, John Sturm, and Terry Smith. Those players eventually introduced him to his eventual bandmates in Free Shots, who tore up the music venues around the island during the party-heavy days of the mid-aughts.
And while the Free Shots never really broke up (“We kind of faded away,” he said), there are plans for a reunion show in February. And in the meantime, he’s found a way to fuel his need for attention, with or without shots, with MuddyCreek.
“The thing about this community is that we’re all good friends. We like every band we know pretty much,” Gilmer said. “I’ve been very lucky to play with the people I have. I’ve shared a stage with some of the best musicians on Hilton Head and I’m blessed to be a part of it.”
