Exile Announces Its 50 Years In Music Tour

Event Kicks Off Jan. 29 in Kansas City, Missouri NASHVILLE – January 25, 2013 -- The band Exile will launch its 50 Years In Music tour Tuesday, Jan. 29, at the KCI Expo Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Projected to extend into April 2014, the tour will highlight Exile’s enduring impact on the pop music and country music genres since its founding in Richmond, Kentucky in 1963. Like the Rolling Stones, who celebrated their 50th anniversary last year, the current edition of Exile boasts the same musicians who created the band’s biggest hits, including founding member J. P. Pennington. "The Rolling Stones music was raw and daring and their image was intimidating - everything any young rock and roll band wanted to be,” commented Pennington. “We were no exception. Fifty years in, I'd say the inspiration we draw from them now is more from a perseverance point of view. Just stay the course and something good is bound to happen!" In addition to Pennington (lead vocals, lead guitar), the band boasts Sonny LeMaire (bass, vocals), Les Taylor (guitar, vocals), Marlon Hargis (keyboards, vocals) and Steve Goetzman (drums). Pennington and LeMaire are Exile’s principal songwriters, having penned such chart-toppers for the group as “Woke Up In Love,” “I Can’t Get Close Enough,” “Give Me One More Chance” and “Crazy For Your Love.” A radio special produced by Cool Broadcasting, featuring musical reminiscences from each member, will support Exile’s tour. Particularly, the bandsmen will talk about having toured the world as both a pop and a country band and having shared billing with acts ranging from Fleetwood Mac and Aerosmith to Reba McEntire and George Strait. As part of its 50 Years In Music tour, Exile will make a series of on-air appearances at country music and classic rock music stations throughout its homestate of Kentucky. LeMaire’s daughter, Nicole, will tie the band’s myriad achievements together with her insider’s history of Exile—Life In Exile: A Journey Home—due to be published later this year. The book will include extensive interviews with band members past and present, as well as insightful commentaries from staff members, road crew, family and friends. After having distinguished itself as a pop band its first 20 years -- a period crowned by its 1978 international pop hit, “Kiss You All Over”-- Exile moved effortlessly into country music in the early 1980s. There it proceeded to command the charts with 10 No. 1 singles, including the ones cited above and “I Don’t Want To Be A Memory,” “She’s A Miracle,” “Hang On To Your Heart,” “I Could Get Used To You,” “It’ll Be Me” and “She’s Too Good To Be True.” BMI, the performance rights organization, has awarded Exile songs for having racked up more than 15 million plays on radio. Worldwide, the band has sold more than 8 million albums and 5 million singles, thus attaining Gold Record status in the U.S., England, Germany, Australia, South Africa and Canada. The influence of Exile’s music on popular culture continues to be huge. It has been featured in numerous movies, including Happy Gilmore, Thunder Heart, Man on the Moon, Employee of the Month, Wild Hogs, Zookeeper, and Big Momma’s House. In Billboard magazine’s 2010 list of the “100 Sexiest Songs Of All Time,” “Kiss You All Over” earned the No. 9 spot, landing between Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” and Rod Stewart’s “Do You Think I’m Sexy.” Songs written by the various members of Exile have been recorded by Alabama, Kenny Rogers, Janie Fricke, Sheena Easton, Tracy Lawrence, Travis Tritt, Restless Heart, Diamond Rio, Clay Walker, Englebert Humperdinck, Juice Newton, Rita Coolidge and Trace Adkins. Exile music has been sampled and used in songs recorded by Tupac Shakur and Jagged Edge. Additional details of Exile’s 50 Years In Music tour are forthcoming.