What do record mogul Ahmet Ertegun, blues legend Gregg Allman, and Grammy award-winning producer Jim Gaines have in common? They all played a significant role in the music that is truly Danny Liston.

Growing up in the St. Louis Irish working class neighborhood known as Dogtown, Liston camefrom a mu sical family. His mom Lucille sang on KMOX radio in the 30's, and his grandmother, who was from Reinze Mississippi, was a self-taught five string banjo player. As far back as he can remember music was the landscape of his childhood. His older brother Mike had Ray Charles and Little Richard singles that Liston sang along with so much that he knew the A side as well as all the B sides. At a very early age he found that R&B stirred something in his deepest soul. As a teen he started out as a drummer playing in soul bands around St. Louis, but eventually he took up guitar, under the threat of he, his mother and brother being evicted from their apartment.

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