Willis Mattison's
Personal Interview

Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Thief River Falls, Minnesota and raised on a small dairy/small grain farm near Plummer, Minnesota.

What was your first exposure to music? What type of music did you prefer?
Listening to country music and then fifties rock music on KFGO Fargo radio, listening to neighbor lady play guitar and sing country/western and gospel music when we visited her; and going to wedding and barn dances featuring old-time/country music when I was a teenager. I studied the guitar and taught myself to play simple cords, enough to play along with records and the radio on a guitar my parents bought for my sister Beverly. I longed to perform in a musical group and I would often bring my guitar in to local bars where a local band was playing. I would sit at a back table and strum my guitar as I watched the guitar players in the band change cords to the lead instrument, usually another guitar or accordion.

What was your first musical group that you joined? What kind of music did you play? When and where was this?
I joined Alton Skallet’s “Twinkling Stars” band in 1959 playing lead and rhythm guitar. We played Country/Western, Old Time and Fifties Rock out of Thief River Falls, Minnesota. I left this band in 1961 to attend college in Bemidji where fellow students of mine formed the band “The Avengers” and played Rock and Roll for college events and toured northern Minnesota playing at High Schools, dance pavilions and National Guard Armories.