FAYETTEVILLE — There was a time when Tower of Power strayed from its funk-loving,feel-good soul music that made the band popular.
Like when the band made the plunge into disco some 30 years ago. Stephen "Doc" Kupka, the group's founding member and baritone saxophonist, declared it a disaster.
"Every time we strayed to try and get with the times, as it were, get with what's happening now, it just didn't work out," Kupka said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.
"We have much better success staying true to ourselves, which is what we do now."
Now in its 41st year, the 10-piece band, complete with a horn and saxophone section, has long returned to the style that spawned such hits and favorites such as "So Very Hard to Go," "You Got to Funkifize," "You're Still a Young Man" and "What Is Hip?" in the early 1970s.
Tower of Power will perform Oct. 2 at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville.
Kupka co-founded the band with Emilio Castillo, who plays second tenor sax with the group. The duo co-wrote the band's hit songs and are the anchors of the large group, which has had numerous personnel changes through the years. Also featured from the original lineup is bassist Francis "Rocco" Prestia and drummerDavid Garibaldi.
The band gained a strong following after touring as an opening act for comedy duo Cheech and Chong, and albums such as "Bump City," "Tower of Power" and "Back to Oakland" landed on turntables everywhere, prompting the group to climb the Billboard charts.
When the hits began to wane, and after an unsuccessful stab at the disco genre, a youngrising star from the 1980s named Huey Lewis played a key role in the band's success.
"He's my favorite person in music," Kupka said. "I just really like him a lot."
Lewis, who was a Tower of Power fan, performed with the group in the early 1980s during the Bay Area Music Awards. He befriended the band and began using them on his albums as well as taking them on concerttours.
"We were going through a really hard time and almost broke up," Kupka said. "The early '80s were really rough for us. The reason why Tower of Power is here today, Huey Lewis has a lot to do with it."
The band, however, has always been a favorite as a backing group for many artists, including Elton John, Aerosmith, Phish and Santana. The band also collaborated with several artists for "Great American Soulbook," an album released last spring. It not only features Lewis, but Tom Jones, Joss Stone, Sam Moore and band members singing soul classics like "Me & Mrs. Jones," "634-5789" and a tribute to the late James Brown.
Kupka said the band is also releasing a DVD of its 40th anniversary/reunion show from last year at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco.
"It'll be out, hopefully, before the end of the year," he said.
As for the Fayetteville show, Kupka said expect to hear some "hard-hitting" R & B, which will feature the old hits as well as tracks from "Great American Soulbook."
"We do really well on the East Coast, and then the Chicago and Minneapolis : but the mid-South and Deep South, we don't get there as often as we would like," Kupka said. "It's a real thrill to play there. R & B, that's where it comes from, and we're just thrilled about playing in Fayetteville, I'm tellin' ya."
Entertainment, Pages 27 on 09/25/2009