Local Spins spotlights the long-lived band which has released two new singles. Plus, this week’s radio show podcast features new music from other Michigan acts, including Desmond Jones and The Minor Pieces.
Celebrating 25 Years of ‘Fun’ Guitar Rock: The Rockit King (Courtesy Photo)
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As singer Jessie Beveridge puts it, the formation of The Rockit King 25 years ago was sort of an accident.
A few musician pals decided they wanted to jam and rounded up some players for the fledgling rock band in November 2001.
“It was just real fast. We all got together the night before Thanksgiving,” Beveridge recalled. “I think we wrote two songs and within a month, two months, we were gigging. It was a pretty busy time.
“We were younger, of course, and so we rehearsed multiple times a week and got in that writing cycle real quick and recording cycle real quick. It was fun.”
A quarter-century of fun later, The Rockit King is still rocking while celebrating the band’s 25th anniversary with new music: The band released a single this summer and drops another one, “Forever Weekend,” today, just a couple of weeks removed from the official anniversary of that first jam session. Both tracks were recorded at Joel Ferguson’s Planet Sunday Studios.
The current lineup – Beveridge and Mary Sumners on vocals, Anthony Mannino on guitar, Dan Cox on bass and Daine Hammerle on drums – unleashes what Beveridge calls “guitar rock,” an approach that incorporates hard rock, metal, blues, Southern rock, country and more.
‘Lots of Vocal Harmonies’: Beveridge with Mary Sumners. (Photo/Eric Stoike)
“Always lots of guitar, lots of vocal harmonies,” he said. “Over time, we just explore more. We get further afield with the music that we’re writing – sometimes lean heavy toward the blues, sometimes heavy toward Southern rock, sometimes heavy almost metal.
“But it’s still us playing it and it still sounds like us to me. … It still ends up sounding like The Rockit King.”
For Beveridge, the seeds of rock ’n’ roll revelry were sown at a very young age: His father, Hal, was part of the Beveridge Brothers Band, one of the region’s most popular Southern rock, country-rock and blues bands of the 1970s and 1980s, often revving up the area’s bar and biker scene.
“My whole youth was those memories,” noted Beveridge, now 50 years old. “There was a lot of falling asleep in a bass drum … a lot of setting up and tearing down.”
In fact, his first stage experience came as a young child, playing drums at the Great Northern Music Hall in Grand Rapids.
“The whole place lit up,” he said. “That was my first memory of being on stage in front of an audience and getting that entertainment bug.”
Beveridge and other musicians pay tribute to that era by honoring the legacy of Hal Beveridge – who died in 2018 at age 72 – at the annual “Hal Beveridge Music Festival,” traditionally staged at Eastern Avenue Hall. Another festival is being planned for late May 2027.
The Rockit King also intends to head back into the studio and release a couple more singles next year, uncorking more of the guitar rock that’s become the band’s trademark for a quarter-century.
“I love it,” Beveridge said. “Very blessed for sure to be able to still be doing it, still be rocking.”
In addition to featuring the latest singles from The Rockit King, this week’s Local Spins Michigan Music Showcase spotlighted tracks by several other Michigan artists: Seth Bernard, Desmond Jones, RyneShyne, Izzy Reign, Mella, Deerfield Run, Roosevelt Diggs, The Minor Pieces and Brandon Fitzpatrick. Listen to the interview and the full radio show podcast below.
The Michigan Music Showcase airs at 11 a.m. Fridays and 5 p.m. Sundays on WYCE (88.1 FM) and online at wyce.org, and on Interlochen Public Radio at 7 p.m. Saturdays. Check out previous show podcasts online here.
PODCAST: Local Spins Michigan Music Showcase (10/30/26)
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