Date posted: 10-11-04

Editors: You are encouraged to use this story in your publication. Please credit the author and DeKalb News Service as shown. And, please send two tearsheets to: Jim Killam, Department of Communication, Watson Hall, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115.

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1,400 words

The Rise, fall and rise of Lee Sutherland: Rock-star dream faded, but passion for life stayed strong.

By Nathan Lindquist
DeKalb News Service

Lee Sutherland had written his name thousands of times before. But as he sat in the lobby of the Gateway Theater signing autographs for his newest fans, Sutherland could not help but be excited.

The year was 1994. Clothed in a flannel cut-off shirt, torn jeans and a sweaty bandana around his foot-long brown hair, Lee had just finished blasting through his band's first set at the Gateway in downtown Chicago. After experiencing the rush of the live show and the autograph session that followed, Sutherland had found his calling.

"Once we started playing there, that was my first taste of rock stardom and I realized that is what I wanted to do," Sutherland recalls. "It was so cool. It was a large arena, we were doing all original music and people really did like it."

But the story did not end on that Saturday night. Sutherland's quest for rock stardom became more difficult than he had ever imagined. Serious health complications, marriage issues and band breakups worthy of a VH1 documentary eventually derailed his dream. He and his family now live in Poplar Grove and remain active in the Elgin church that helped him turn his life around. Through it all, Lee insists every good and bad experience helped him grow as a person.

Larry Sutherland was stationed in Lanstuhl, Germany, when his eldest son, Lee, was born Sept. 8, 1963, at a U.S. Air Force base hospital. After leaving the service a few years later, Larry relocated Lee and younger brother Brett to an Italian neighborhood in Long Island, N.Y. where they spent their childhood.

When his son turned 9 years old, Larry bought him a small, classical guitar and Lee instantly fell in love.

"As far-fetched as it might seem, when I was a kid and I first started playing guitar, I wanted to be a rock star," Lee said. "Even though I didn't know how to play, I just followed along with the radio and played the notes on the strings. That's how I developed my musical ear."

After a decade in Long Island, the Sutherlands moved once more, finally settling in Schaumburg, Ill. As a child of the 1960s and 70s, Lee loved the classic power rock of Boston, Kansas and Queensryche. But his musical ambitions did not fully develop until he met his wife, Anna Marie, a waitress at a local Schaumburg restaurant Lee frequented.

"I started my first band right after we got married, which was…," Lee pauses for dramatic effect, "July 7, 1990." Anna Marie quickly flashes a dubious glare from across the table at Steak n Shake, quietly reminding Lee that he'd better remember the couple's anniversary.

"I was the one who really pushed him into music," Anna Marie said. "I told him I don't want to be 65 and living with regrets and 'what ifs.' I encouraged him to really go after his passion and start a band."

By 1992, Lee became the lead singer and guitarist of his own four-piece rock group named, ironically, Sutherland. The rock group made a name for itself at local clubs in Glendale Heights and Schaumburg with an energetic live show and a powerful arena sound comparable to the likes of Van Halen.

The sonic force of Sutherland, along with its regular-guy image, slowly built a suburban-Chicago grassroots following. The band began playing regular shows two times a week at larger venues like the Gateway and the Thirsty Whale in downtown Chicago.

Sutherland tried to capitalize on its growing popularity and soon hooked up with a booking agent/promoter who formerly worked for A&M Records. The band eventually recorded a self-produced 15-song CD at Crystal Recordings in Lombard in 1994, with Lee writing all of the lyrics and music.

Thanks to intensive promotional campaigns and local radio airplay of its singles, Sutherland was at its strongest in 1995. The band was flawless in concept and execution, and Lee was happier than ever. It seemed like only a matter of time until the band would get the big break Lee had always dreamed of, a major label record deal. But as soon as everything looked like it would fall into place, the band began coming apart at the seams.

The demands of weekly practices, weekend gigs and morning shifts at a Bridgestone tire factory stretched Lee to the breaking point. The consuming desire to fulfill his lifelong ambition and make a better life for his family caused Lee to neglect his wife and infant daughter Angel at home.

"The music industry was very hard to break into," Lee said. "It was difficult emotionally to even do a gig because I knew my marriage was falling apart. We actually did separate for a summer. Music became my solace at that point and actually some of my best material came out of that."

"There weren't too many hardships at first, but a lot of stuff came out later," Anna Marie said. "He really wasn't there much when Angel was growing up. Sometimes he would come up to me and say, 'Did you see Angel do that?' and I would say, 'She's been doing that for months, hon.' Little things like that."

Difficulties in Lee's personal life only magnified the band's internal problems. Sutherland had gone through three lineup reformations already, and the rock-and-roll lifestyle was taking its toll. Heavy drinking and drug use by Lee's bandmates affected their performance onstage. At one performance in 1998, the bassist passed out and fell through a plate glass display. Instead of getting paid for the concert, Sutherland ended up paying the venue for the damage.

"I put a lot of faith in a lot of people and unfortunately they let me down," Lee said. "I was striving for perfection and I didn't want anything to get in my way. It was totally a VH1 'Behind the Music' special in real life. When things started to fall apart, I started looking out for myself."

It was at about that time when Lee started to feel sick. He had a hard time swallowing and felt his heart was racing for no apparent reason. A doctor's examination confirmed Sutherland had an erosion in his esophagus. Playing in smoky clubs was no longer an option if Lee wanted to recover his health, so he left the band for good in 1998.

Following the diagnosis, Lee began searching and saw the recent hardships as a sign from God to refocus his life. An invitation to a neighborhood Bible study group led Sutherland to accept Jesus in Feb. 1999, and his whole outlook on life immediately changed.

"Music was always a part of me," Lee said. "But I learned that it's just a tool. I didn't always think that way. Music is not the essential, only Jesus is. That fact really helped me return my priorities back to God and my family."

After becoming a Christian, Sutherland connected with the First Baptist Church of Elgin and quickly met Joy Saquing, the new worship pastor. Despite their disparate images, the burly, long-haired rocker and the short, clean-cut Filipino pastor instantly connected on a musical and emotional level. Saquing recalled Lee's proficiency on guitar and eagerness to serve were obvious, so he asked Lee to play on a regular basis with the worship team.

"Lee and I always had fun serving together," Saquing said. "We shared a similar style of worship and our musical abilities complemented each other. When we worshiped together our strengths fit perfectly into the needed roles of the worship team."

Saquing and his family moved to Florida in fall 2003, but Joy still values the friendship the two men developed.

"Lee is an easy person to get to know and be friends with," Joy reminisced over the phone. "There is no pretending with Lee. What you see is what you get. He is able to be vulnerable because he is a man of integrity and has nothing to hide. During my time in Elgin, he was definitely a trusted friend with whom I could share my personal joys and frustrations."

Now at age 41, Lee's musical ambitions are reborn. He still plays regularly for First Baptist's worship band. To make ends meet, he's a service technician and installer of wireless internet for T6 Broadband, and also does independent remodeling on the side. But when he has spare time, Lee is building a music studio in the basement of his family's new house in Poplar Grove and still dreams of putting a band together again. After experiencing all the highs and lows life has to offer, Sutherland believes there is a master plan.

"There's a reason for everything," Sutherland said. "I look at things very differently now. I've evolved in many ways emotionally, spiritually and musically. I've learned to put God first, family next and then the music. There's a reason for why my life has gone the way it has, and I don't know why. Only God knows."

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