Their actual big break came one year after their Bon Jovi run-in when they met Kool & the Gang. While that experience gave them exposure, it didn’t seal CMB’s pro deal. Initially wary, Bon Jovi was so blown away he invited CMB to open their concert the next night before 20,000 people. They duo were tired and heading back to their hotel, Calderon remembered, but the ambitious teens asked the New Jersey singer to let them perform an a cappella number (“Daddy’s Home”). In 1987, they spotted Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, of the hair metal kings Bon Jovi, exiting a Penn Square Mall movie theater and took advantage of the chance encounter. Being in Oklahoma City, you had to take any breaks you could,” Calderon said of their rogue auditioning techniques. “I was like, man, I’m just gonna sing with this guy, forget about singing against him.”Ĭalderon brought in Watters and Thornton and, despite teen awkwardness, the four nutted up the moxie to perform guerilla-style for some major acts, including Bon Jovi, Kool & the Gang, and Huey Lewis and the News. “Bryan and I, we started the group in 1984 in Oklahoma City in the hallways of our school,” Calderon said, remembering how they originally met throwing down in a sing-off. “We kind of give the audience a break from the rap,” said CMB’s Mark Calderon, laughing.Īs new jack swing leaders in the early 1990s, the quartet of Romeos - Bryan Abrams, Sam Watters, Kevin Thornton, and Calderon - dubbed Color Me Badd conquered the earth with a succession of crooning hits, led by “I Wanna Sex You Up” and “I Adore Mi Amor.” Their rise to fame began in the middle of the country and is as colorful as the band’s moniker. The band, known for its amalgamated style that blends hip-hop samples, pop, and R&B, is on tour with Vanilla Ice, Salt-N-Pepa, and Tone Loc. What do Kool & the Gang and Bon Jovi have in common? Both bands figured in the ascension of multiplatinum recording artists Color Me Badd (CMB), who perform a middle set on the I Love the ’90s bill at the S.B.
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