![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/da93c1e43bca8419ec718cb7a5e7af8fea-father-son-bands.rvertical.w570.jpg\")
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On That Note<\/a><\/p>\n \n A rock-and-roll-centered column from Vulture\u2019s Devon Ivie that dives into the big stories, trends, and crazy ideas coming out of the music industry.\n <\/p>\n \n Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty, Maggie London\n <\/p>\n Philip Bailey and his son, Oshunde, have been touring together for the better part of 16 years in Earth, Wind & Fire \u2014 the band that Bailey, the insanely groovy singer and percussionist, has been a member of since 1972. Despite this passage of time and hundreds of \u201cShining Star\u201d and \u201cBoogie Wonderland\u201d run-throughs, the duo hasn\u2019t been able to reflect on this unique type of familial achievement until now. \u201cThis is the first time that we\u2019ve ever done an interview together,\u201d Bailey admits. \u201cEvery night when we introduce the band, there\u2019s a different warm applause when I say \u2018my son.\u2019 We probably take it for granted more than we should.\u201d Oshunde, a fellow percussionist and singer, doesn\u2019t disagree. \u201cThere\u2019s a normalization of it because this is the life I was given. But then there are the moments where I go, Wow,\u201d he says. \u201cMy favorite Earth, Wind & Fire song is \u2018Serpentine Fire.\u2019 I should appreciate it more that I get to sing it.\u201d This is news to his dad: \u201cI didn\u2019t know \u2018Serpentine Fire\u2019 was your favorite song. You should tell me these things!\u201d<\/p>\n The Baileys are just one of several professional father-and-son pairings who have been on the road performing together this summer, comprising a paternal \u201cdudes rock\u201d trend so endearing we\u2019ll choose to ignore the nepo of it all<\/a>. There\u2019s James Taylor and his son Henry; John Fogerty has two juniors with him, Shane and Taylor; Train\u2019s Pat Monahan brings out his teenage son, Rock; and the Barenaked Ladies now employ front man Ed Robertson\u2019s son, Lyle. Spencer Tweedy, meanwhile, will be back in tour mode with his dad, Wilco\u2019s Jeff Tweedy, soon. While the backstory for every offspring\u2019s involvement differs, they\u2019re all united in loving the music, having the full blessing of their dads\u2019 respective bands, and being talented enough not to get booed off the stage every night. Why not get involved in the family business and further enshrine that surname if the opportunity arises?<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to consider the professional end of it and make sure nobody is being taken advantage of or feels like they\u2019re being taken advantage of.<\/p>\n Rock Monahan is the only one of this group being paid in guitars. The 14-year-old, who sings and shreds on a trio of preselected songs at each gig, is missing his first day of high school to complete the current Train tour. Monahan, who jokes that his son was \u201cborn a 40-year-old man,\u201d says his fellow Train members had no issue approving Rock\u2019s presence given the virtuosity of his playing, which has repeatedly gone viral<\/a> in recent weeks. \u201cWe wanted to tee up Rock to be successful,\u201d Pat says. \u201cThe band gets excited about it just as much as I do. If it was \u2018cute\u2019 instead of \u2018great,\u2019 then they would have some reservations about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Rock is aware there may be a preconceived notion or two when he comes out onstage. \u201cYeah, I bet the audience thinks, This is going to be adorable,\u201d he puts it. \u201cBut then when I start playing, it\u2019s a whole thing and really fun, and I let it rip.\u201d Rock\u2019s mother supported his decision to go on tour and stay with his father on the bus. \u201cShe\u2019s a very big support system,\u201d Rock says. \u201cShe loves that I\u2019m singing with my dad. I\u2019ve had chances to go home, and I\u2019ll ask her if I should go home or not. And she\u2019s like, \u2018You should probably stay on the road.\u2019 She knows it\u2019s very important.\u201d He only hopes, next year, that his allowance will increase to three guitars instead of two.<\/p>\n Rock wants to pursue a career in music upon graduation and is already anticipating the next Train tour. \u201cThis is what he wants to do with his life,\u201d the elder Monahan explains. \u201cHe\u2019s always like, \u2018Why do I have to leave?\u2019\u201d The duo has, remarkably, not dealt with any strife while adjusting to the close-quarters rocker lifestyle. \u201cI\u2019ve always seen that front-man vibe with my dad,\u201d Rock says. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t change an insane amount.\u201d (\u201cWhat Rock is trying to say,\u201d Monahan quips, \u201cis that I\u2019m an asshole onstage and offstage.\u201d) They both also appreciate how this experience has strengthened their bond in a way that, say, school drop-off can\u2019t. \u201cAs he gets older, he becomes funnier and wiser and more talented. It\u2019s fun to watch him become what he has longed to be since he was little,\u201d Monahan says. \u201cI really miss his sisters and his mom. But they\u2019re having their life moments together, we\u2019re having ours, and then we\u2019ll all be together again soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Coincidentally, Barenaked Ladies are on the same double bill as Train this summer, with Robertson\u2019s son, Lyle, subbing in as a utility player after bassist Jim Creeggan had to take a leave of absence to care for his family. The pair had a trial-by-fire run of sorts last December, when Lyle, who\u2019s in his mid-20s, joined the band for a series of holiday shows across Canada. \u201cYou do 30 half-hour shows in a week and travel by train,\u201d Ed recalls of his son\u2019s entry into the world of touring. \u201cYou pull into a random town, the side of the train opens up, and you do a set for a tiny community in minus-30-degree weather. It\u2019s a fun and challenging start point.\u201d Creeggan made the suggestion to keep Lyle on retainer for future gigs if need be, which, despite the vote of confidence, still gave his father pause. \u201cIt was more like, Am I forcing my kid on the other guys in the band?\u201d he recalled. \u201cI would be nervous about ramming my son down everybody\u2019s throat and saying, This is what\u2019s gonna happen because I want this to happen. That\u2019s not me. But since all the other guys liked the idea, it took the stress away and made it simple.\u201d<\/p>\n When Robertson introduces Lyle each night, he\u2019s struck, like Bailey, by the audience reaction. \u201cI remember feeling that when I went to see Crowded House and Neil Finn introduced his son Liam onstage,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was like, Oh, no wonder why they sound so great singing together.\u201d But Robertson doesn\u2019t necessarily think this arrangement can work for all families, especially when contracts and negotiated wages come into play. \u201cLyle is being treated like a professional musician and being paid fairly,\u201d he notes. \u201cIt\u2019s important to consider the professional end of it and make sure nobody is being taken advantage of or feels like they\u2019re being taken advantage of.\u201d<\/p>\n You can\u2019t take a day off from being a parent, either, when more sensitive feelings bubble up to the surface. \u201cI have to think about how this affects Lyle\u2019s other siblings. I know his younger brother really wishes he was out here doing this. So there\u2019s a lot of parenting to be done around it,\u201d Robertson admits. \u201cLyle is in a band and teaches music \u2014 his whole life is music. His brother works at a financial-investment firm. When I asked his brother a couple of days into the tour, \u2018Hey, are you good? Do you need anything?\u2019 He went, \u2018Yeah, a fucking time machine so I can go back ten years and stick with the drums and be on the road with you guys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Now clocking in at over a decade touring for his dad\u2019s non-Wilco projects, Spencer Tweedy \u2014 a drummer who also works with Waxahatchee \u2014 had the inverse challenge of seeing the man we know as Jeff in a deity setting. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a heavy topic, and I don\u2019t want to get into the specific stories that may cause me to reflect on that. But the main thing is I was overly cautious and concerned with people feeling like my dad is punching down and yielding his power over them,\u201d he explains. \u201cI had to learn, from putting myself in my dad\u2019s shoes, that sometimes respect looks like tough love.\u201d<\/p>\n Now 30 years old, Spencer began his first tour with his dad the day after graduating from high school; the duo had done a collaborative album, 2014\u2019s Sukierae, when Spencer was finishing up his senior year. A compromise was made after a long family meeting: He could do the tour and take a gap year, but he still had to go to college. \u201cMy mom was happy, and I was also looking forward to getting the privilege of going to school,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of things were normalized for me, but I never thought I\u2019d directly get to play and make music together in a professional sense.\u201d<\/p>\n He gets a chance to feel where I was in the absence of his life and why the show must go on.\u201d<\/p>\n Watching Wilco over the years helped give Spencer insight into why his dad\u2019s unusual career required extensive time away. \u201cMy parents deliberately tried to make that not a mystery for my brother and me, so when Dad was on the road, we wouldn\u2019t have to worry and wonder too much about where he was and what he was up to,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI still have a childlike wonder with rock music. There\u2019s no getting rid of the romance of being in a band. I like hanging on to that.\u201d Even though Spencer doesn\u2019t necessarily \u201ccount down the days until the next time we can tour together\u201d \u2014 they\u2019ll be reunited in October \u2014 he\u2019ll never step away from it. \u201cHell, no,\u201d he declares. \u201cIt\u2019s not a stepping stone or a means to an end in the absence of other opportunities. It\u2019s the opposite. I get something out of touring with my dad that I don\u2019t get anywhere else. It\u2019s more fulfilling because we can relate to each other on a musical level.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bailey family wasn\u2019t as open as the Tweedys during Earth, Wind & Fire\u2019s era of cultural dominance. Bailey and his wife shielded Oshunde from the full scope of Bailey\u2019s day-to-day life; when they first began touring as father and son, it was almost as though they were making up for lost time. \u201cYou have to understand that I missed so much of all of my kids\u2019 lives because I was on the road doing exactly what I\u2019m doing right now in hotel rooms,\u201d Bailey says. \u201cOshunde didn\u2019t really know what I did; he just knew I was never there. He didn\u2019t know how famous we were. So now, being on the road, he gets a chance to feel where I was in the absence of his life and why the show must go on.\u201d He points to an ongoing band issue, drummer John Paris\u2019s medical emergency<\/a>, as a test. \u201cNow he sees that, no, you can\u2019t leave 30,000 fans wanting,\u201d Bailey adds. \u201cAt all costs, you have to do that gig. Canceling comes at a price.\u201d Oshunde, now in his late 40s, compares their relationship less to spending time together and more to living a shared experience, telling his father, \u201cI was going through something and crying in the airport, and I said something to you and you were like, \u2018Man, I remember feeling that exact same way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Those experiences don\u2019t translate to wild nights out. \u201cWhen Oshunde joined the band, we had done this stuff for 30 years,\u201d Bailey says. \u201cAll the craziness was over.\u201d Father and son maintain a tradition of finding the best cappuccinos in each city they travel to, an exclusive activity that not even founding member Verdine White can talk his way into. \u201cIf we walk in and don\u2019t see that it\u2019s an Italian espresso machine, we know it\u2019s not for us,\u201d Oshunde says. \u201cWe\u2019re coffee snobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Every now and then, though, he\u2019ll get a reminder of the patriarch\u2019s bona fides. \u201cWe were recently playing overseas, and one time this cat told me he smuggled Earth, Wind & Fire records into Russia when the Iron Curtain was up and he would\u2019ve been imprisoned if he was caught,\u201d Oshunde recalls. \u201cI was like, Damn, okay, this is what he means to people\u2019s lives. But I play it off real cool. I\u2019m like, \u2018Yeah, no big deal. That\u2019s just Dad.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up for the Vulture Daily<\/p>\n An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n