I'm sorry to say, the real ending to the story isn't so happy
SACRED RITE left Hawaii in March, 1987, with the highest of hopes, but it wasn't long before desperation set in. While most bands would opt for Los Angeles or New York as a home base, SR was forced by lack of finances to start out in the Midwest. They moved to Tulsa, OK, of all places, where Jimmy Dee had family that could take care of the band.
After weeks of phone calls around the country, it became apparent that the only way for the band to get hired was to learn cover tunes. The band was reluctant at first, but with interest from Polygram Records seeming to fizzle out, and no money in their pockets, they finally broke down. They learned several hours of the Guns-n-Roses, Poison type of covers that were standard at the time, and for the next five years, they toured the bar circuit from Tucson to Denver to Kansas City, Omaha, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and everywhere in between.
It wasn't long into the adventure that drummer Kevin Lum's health became a problem. He was a life-long diabetic, who's required regimen of diet and sleep was impossible to maintain on the road. He had severe seizures, which became more and more frequent. Finally, it was obvious that he had to return to Hawaii. He was replaced overnight by Scott Dickerson, veteran of cover bands 'Teacher's Pet' and 'Helen Killer'. He had to learn SR's set list in one night and perform it the next day.
He pulled it off without a hitch, and would remain with the band for the next six years.
By 1989, SACRED RITE had fallen into a rut of dirty bars and dirty motel rooms, boring songlists and little pocket money. They hadn't written an original song in almost 2 years. Mark Kaleiwahea left the band in September, feeling that the band had run it's course. He joined up with ex-members of the 80's-cover-band-icon 'Mannikin' to form 'Bomb Squad'.
Dee, Crane, and Dickerson continued under the moniker 'Beauty Knows Pain', adding a young vocalist - Jeff Pain, a controvercial Jim Morrison clone, who aggravated more audiences (and employers) than he impressed. When it became too much to take, the boys (now in their late 20's) were forced to go it as a three-piece, with Crane taking on the vocal responsibility. But the music had changed, and the required covers were just intolerable. Nirvana, Pearljam, and the like.
Peter Crane grew disenchanted and left the band for a short time in '92, leaving Jimmy Dee and Scott Dickerson with the opportunity to work on original material again. They added a second guitar player, Mark 'Rat' Folta, and vocalist Tim Hewitt, an ex-bandmate of Dickerson's, who had a fantastic voice. When Crane learned that a good singer was finally available, and originals were in the picture, he returned to Tulsa and the five formed 'Tragic Nancy'. They recorded a long string of demos, in a heavy groove-rock vein, with lots of catchy background vocals. The material was very good, but it was never heard by the right people.
Finding themselves again overwhelmed by financial desperation, the band returned to the cover circuit, this time playing classic rock epics by Kansas, Journey, Queen and so forth. Hewitt was the first singer that Dee and Crane had ever played with who could sing this type of material, which the boys had been fans of all along. But again, it was their vocalist who turned out to be the problem. Hewitt frequently became sick on the road, and the grueling pace of five, sometimes six ours of singing a night was too much for his voice. The band was constantly repeating songs in their list because so many of their songs had become too hard for him to sing.
Scott Dickerson had also grown tired of the road, and in '94, Crane and Dee were left as a duo. They performed that way (along with some electronic sequencing) for a short time in Tulsa, covering easy-rock songs by The Eagles and Elton John, and then in Las Vegas, where they added a new drummer, ex-'Cats In Boots' member Randy Meers, and fellow veteran of the Honolulu rock scene, Rocky O'nan to form 'Time Machine' - another epic classic rock tribute.
'Time Machine' was an excellent band, and over a two-year-span grew a good following in Las Vegas, but the project ended when O'nan insisted on raising the price of the band's performance to a point where no one in town would hire them. Crane and Dee preferred to play as often as possible. The disagreement came to a head one night, just moments before the band walked on stage. They struggled through a very tense set, and when the agent for the gig demanded a fifth encore, Crane had had enough. He put down his bass and walked off stage for the last time.
That was the end of the story, until one day in 2000, Peter Crane was surfing the net and stumbled onto a website called 'Is Nothing Sacred?'. He saw the fantastic artwork for Sacred Rite's third album displayed on his monitor, and he thought he must be dreaming! Were there actually people out there who remembered Sacred Rite?
And so, The Official SACRED RITE Website was born, so that those of us who remember can share with each other and learn about the band and the albums that they've loved for so many years.
We want to say thank you to all of you who've contacted us since the website opened in 2000. We've had e-mail and from Germany, France, The Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Greece, UK, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and the US. It still blows us away that there are people all over the world who remember SACRED RITE. We are so grateful, and so excited about bringing SR's memory back to life. It's great to hear from all of you, don't be afraid to drop us a line anytime. And don't forget to sign our guestbook.
Thanks for your support!
