LeRoy McQueen
& Thee Vatos Supreme
Select 2024 Gigs with Special Guest
Lexi Len

SHORT BIO: 

LeRoy McQueen is an Alt. Country, honky-tonk, folk singer, and songwriter based in Bloomington, Indiana, and frontman of LeRoy McQueen & Thee Vatos Supreme since 2014.

Born in the limestone country of Oolitic, Indiana, he cut his musical teeth in the punk rock scene of nearby Bloomington. After falling under the spell of Texas songwriters like Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Joe Ely, and Adam Carroll– he moved to Austin, Texas to hone his songwriting and performing skills. LeRoy has played high energy Honky Tonk and Punk Rock influenced shows from Philadelphia to Denver (where he opened for Gordon Gano of The Violent Femmes), Minneapolis to Galevston, Phoenix to Chicago.

An energetic performer and multi-instrumentalist with an unmistakable voice and vividly honest lyrics, LeRoy McQueen (& Thee Vatos Supreme) have an outstanding passion for bringing folk and country music into the 21st century.

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FULL BIO:

 

Born Alexander Lee Mysliwiec, and formerly known as Alexander-Lee McQueen, in 2018 he changed his handle to LeRoy McQueen in order for better search engine optimization.♣ Throughout his years entertaining, LeRoy has opened for distinguished musical stalwarts of the pop and country genres such as Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes), Robbie Fulks, Linda Gail Lewis (Jerry Lee Lewis' little sister), and Redd Volkaert (Telecaster picker for Merle Haggard, George Jones, & Johnny Paycheck).♦

 

In the year 2000, 14 year old LeRoy started cutting his teeth in the art of busking, entertaining on Bloomington Indiana's Kirkwood Avenue while building enough courage to try that town's Farmers Market. But in 2005, he found himself milling about scholastic endeavors at an exclusive East Coast university. He ignorantly reconsidered academia and embarked on a journey curating a unique repertoire of American and Punk-rooted music, and the art of satirical, tongue-in-cheek songsmithing.

 

Impressing passers-by from all generations with his quirky song selections, he quickly learned his dedication to this craft generated money, and more-so that folds rather than jingles. LeRoy hit the long grey ribbon, busking across the USA, seeking the holy-grails (at the time) of lesser known singer-songwriters (over the Bob Dylans and Paul Simons), and composing his own catchy and humorous originals. Over this 15 year odyssey, LeRoy traveled far and wide, busking and gigging Americana and Punk inspired music throughout the USA, (around the Great Lakes and Midwest; up and down the Rocky Mountain Range; North and South along the seaboards of the East and West coasts). Along the way he relocated to, and embraced, the cultural, artistic, and social fabrics of: Minneapolis, MN; Sebasco, ME; Marlboro, VT; Vincennes, IN; Austin, TX; Denver, CO; Flathead Lake, MT; and Gilbert, AZ. It was there in 2014, LeRoy was overcome by a divine musical intuition, in the form of "Back Home Again In Indiana," to make the pilgrimage back to Bloomington, IN.♥

 

In 2015 LeRoy joined gigging forces with the internationally acclaimed, recording and touring, Telecaster & pedal steel dominant, multi-instrumentalist, Jerry G. Miller (Nashville, TN). ♠

 

In 2018, LeRoy & Jerry, along with drummer Sam Pierce and dawghouse bassist Justin "J-Boy" Meier, hit the recording studio to record LeRoy's serious effort debut with Thee Vatos Supreme. Recorded by Greg Moore at Noisy Chair Studio (Bloomington, IN), and mixed and mastered next door by Rich Morpurgo at Midwest Audio Recording, this record is self produced by LeRoy McQueen & Jerry Miller, and made possible by funds generated by crowd funding, and the pockets of LeRoy McQueen.

 

Derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic from rehearsals, live performances, and recording progress, Thee Vatos got back at it as soon as things slowly started to normalize in Southern Indiana. When Jerry Miller had to separate from the band due to the pandemic, the band needed to fill his extremely wide and pointy snake skin boots, and so recruited South Bend Indiana's Peter Doyle -- and fill them he did. Wes Eberhardt stepped into the bass slot when J Boy announced he would become a father in October 2022.

 

Fast forward to 2024, LeRoy McQueen & Thee Vatos Supreme are joining forces and performing select gigs with, Southern Indiana's: Honky Tonk Queen & Junkie's Ex-Wife, Thee Redhead Bombshell, Singer-Songwriter, Recording & Performing Entertainer: Lexi Len.

 

♣ Apparently there was a famous British fashion designer, born Lee Alexander McQueen, who committed suicide in 2010. "Alexander-Lee" McQueen & Thee Vatos Supreme never had a chance in the search engine results against a world famous fashion designer, so he changed his stage name to "LeRoy" McQueen in honor of his father, an accomplished Polish-American old time fiddler and folk artist. Ironically, now he competes for SEO with Leroy Macqueen, a musician from Australia. (Sigh, Smile + Eye Roll)}.

 

♦ Beginning in 1990 young LeRoy took a piano lesson every Sunday, for which his father would trade massage therapy sessions with the piano teacher (and no, not that kind of massage...). At 10 years old, LeRoy walked away from the piano and picked up the guitar. In awe of his older brother -- as a teenager already an accomplished youth orchestral violinist and guitar player -- LeRoy began woodshedding and learning easy Violent Femmes songs he heard on the radio.

 

♥ Leaving a life of luxury, and suburban thrills of day drinking, in conjunction with: golf 7 days a week, skinny dipping at any hour, and gourmet cuisine - all made possible by a bad-ass, corporate executive Cougar-Queen-Bee. Once home, LeRoy reconnected with his established and stable roots to recruit pickers and grinners, to assist in executing his fantasy of: an Alt. Country, Americana, and Honky Tonk revue - Thee Vatos Supreme. 

 

 ♠ Since 2005, Jerry Miller has been the lead guitar sidekick to Eilen Jewell, of the world touring Eilen Jewell Band (Boise, ID). Notably, throughout Jerry's career, he has recorded and toured with artists such as: J. Geils & Magic Dick, Freddy Fender, Dave Alvin, Elvin Bishop, Chris Smither, and Sonny Burgess -- to name but a few. Jerry was featured in a two page spread article in the March 2020 issue of Guitar Player Magazine, which shares Jerry's teenage years in Nashville, TN during the 1960s. There, he was heavily exposed to the local music scene and Grand Ole Opry shows. Jerry found he and a friend could go to the legendary RCA Studio B to observe sessions. "We would sit there and mind our own business. No one questioned who we were or asked what we were doing there. When I was about 16, I saw Chet Atkins recording Jerry Reed's vocals. If there wasn't a session going on, the engineers might ask us to jam on the instruments while they checked mics.