He then toured and cut an album with Jerry Hahn, "the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood" released in 1970. The Serfs were the house band at a nightclub in Wichita, Kansas at the time. įinnigan recorded Early Bird Cafe with the Serfs in the late 1960s, with Tom Wilson producing. įinnigan toured with and sessioned for Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Etta James, Sam Moore, Crosby Stills and Nash, Dave Mason, Buddy Guy, The Manhattan Transfer, Taj Mahal, Michael McDonald, Maria Muldaur, Peter Frampton, Cher, Ringo Starr, Leonard Cohen, Tower of Power, Rod Stewart, David Coverdale, Tracy Chapman, Los Lonely Boys, Bonnie Raitt, and Saving Escape. The group went on to win many awards.įinnigan frequently returned to Wichita, where his wife, Candy - a well-known alcohol and drug addiction specialist who appeared on TV’s “Intervention” - was raised.Finnigan was born in Troy, Ohio, and attended the University of Kansas on a basketball scholarship.
In the early 2000s, Finnigan joined the Grammy-winning Phantom Blues Band, which was formed as a studio band to back up Taj Mahal, as keyboardist and vocalist. Throughout his career, he toured or recorded with acts like Dave Mason, Taj Mahal, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jerry Hahn, Maria Muldaur, Rod Stewart, Dan Fogelberg, Etta James, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Peter Frampton and Joe Cocker. In the 1970s, Finnigan moved Los Angeles and became one of the most revered session players on the music scene. Jimi Hendrix heard them and invited them to join him in a long jam that became “Still Raining, Still Dreaming” on the “Electric Ladyland” album. Soon they began playing around the country and got a deal with Capitol Records. Every other joint had a live band, at least a trio.” “In Kansas City there were scads of places to play. “Back in those days, if you were good and you wanted to work, you could find live gigs,” he told The Star. They appeared at a number of Kansas City venues. In the 1960s, he joined a Wichita band called The Serfs.
KU had always had a great program and there was no point in someone keeping a scholarship if I wasn’t 100% devoted to it.” There was talk about redshirting me, and I thought, ‘Maybe this wasn’t what I was supposed to do.’ My heart wasn’t in it. “My dad, ever the realist, said, ‘They hired you to do something you’re supposed to concentrate on that.’ I was 18 and thought that was terribly unfair. “Their philosophy was: You show another interest and you’re out. “I started getting interested in the music scene right away, which no one in the basketball program was too thrilled with,” he said. In 2004, he told The Star about his brief basketball career. Soon, he was renowned for his skill on the Hammond B-3 Organ. But he gave up hoops and moved to Wichita, where he became a regular performer on the club scene. I’ve loved a lot of great singers in my day, but Mike Finnigan, in my opinion, is the best singer to this point who has ever walked the planet.”įinnigan, who was born in Ohio, was a 6-foot-3 basketball star who was recruited in 1963 to play at KU. He just had an approach that no one else did. “There are great players and then there are people who are just touched,” said Drake Macy, a Wichita musician whose father, Ed Macy Sr., was one of Finnigan’s early Wichita band mates.
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