Keith Wilkins

Seminole High School

Class of 1993

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Keith Wilkins - Class of 1993 - Seminole High School

First Name	Keith
Last Name	Wilkins
Graduation Year	Class of 1993
Gender	Male
Current Location	Redington Shores, Florida
Hometown	Detroit, Michigan
Relationship Status	Divorced
About Me	Keith Wilkins official bio, from www.keithwilkins.net: Keith Wilkins is a Syndicated Music Columnist, Contract Songwriter (lyricist), & retired Session Drummer with a diploma in music business management. Keith is the founder of KAM Music Publishing, co-Founder of both KAM-BABS Promotions & the up-and-coming KDJ Productions, and a consultant for Bay Area Band Source. Keith currently writes the "St. Petersburg Live Music Bar Scene" music column which is published on the Examiner.com news website. Keith's Examiner music column is the #1 most read Examiner column in the Tampa Bay market, beating out nearly 200 other columns. Aside from his #1 rated Examiner column, Keith is also a contributing writer for The Bay Buzz, and the former cover story writer for Mayhem Magazine. Keith's "St. Petersburg Live Music Bar Scene" Examiner column is syndicated on numerous news websites including The Bay Buzz. Keith has made numerous appearances on both radio & tv, as well as on stage hosting live events. Keith has been featured in numerous magazines & books, has had four of his songs released on three albums, and makes appearances as a guest speaker at music seminars as well. Keith currently sits on the Board Of Directors as a Vice president for the Florida Music Hall of Fame and the Tampa Bay Music Hall of Fame. Childhood 1974 - 1991 Keith was born in Detroit, Michigan on September 12th, 1974. Keith was the third child of a five-time Michigan state weightlifting champion (Fritz Wilkins-Father) and a homemaker (Tina Wilkins-Mother). Keith's family moved to the Tampa Bay area in 1985, taking up residence in a small city called Seminole. Keith's first little taste of musicianship came when he joined his elementary school band class, playing the clarinet. A couple of years later In Middle school, Keith composed his first original song on the Clarinet. Once Keith entered high school, he then switched from the Clarinet to the drums in his school band. In 1989 Keith co-formed a rock band called "Gateway" as the bands drummer. Unfortunately for Keith, he developed severe Tendonitis in both of his arms before "Gateway" could even play their first gig. Fortunately This one major set-back in Keith's hopeful music career did nothing to detour him. Being a poet since he was in Middle school, Keith dropped out of high school in 1991 to concentrate on becoming a Contract Songwriter. Contract Songwriting 1992 - 1996 As a Lyricist, Keith specialized in writing love songs/Power-ballads in both rock and country styles. Keith Developed a style of lyric writing that would help give him an edge over other Contract Songwriters. In a time when Female singers where big in both rock and country, Keith wrote many of his songs from a females perspective, for females to sing. Keith quickly gained a reputation from fellow songwriters in the industry as not only having a knack for telling a story in a song, but for having the knack for coming up with the perfect song titles as well. Keith would partner with several songwriters in the recording studio in order to create demo's to be shopped to artists looking for new material. In a time when contract songwriting was much more competitive then it is now, Keith devised a unique way to "shop" his songs to record company executives and artists management team. In a time before there was email or the internet, Keith would mail out his demo tapes & bio, stuffed inside a shoe. when the recipient would open up the package, they would find a cover letter inside the shoe that read..."Now that I have my foot in the door...". Though this unique form of self promotion didn't always guarantee the sale of his song, it did almost always guarantee a call back from the recipient, new relationships made, and Keith's name being remembered ("That crazy songwriter who sent us the shoe"). Keith sold his first song ("News For You Baby") in 1992, at the young age of 17, to singer, Dave Sharky. The song was released on the 1993 Hollywood Artists Records album, "Music of America". Shortly thereafter, Keith would go on to sell 3 more songs... "Always" & "Hard Promises", recorded by Jon Clarke and released on the 1993 Rainbow Records album, "Hollywood Gold"...and "Every Time I Cry", recorded by Stephanie Allen and released on the 1994 Hollywood Artists Records album, "America Sings". In 1993 Keith was taken under the wing of Tampa Bay Talent Agent and Chrystallis Management co-founder, Jacqueline Langley. Langley acted as a mentor for Keith...guiding, consulting, and advising him on how the local & National music industry works. Keith later studied and received a diploma in music business management. After joining BMI In 1993, Keith founded "KAM Music Publishing" in order to administer is own songs. Through "KAM Music Publishing", Keith would work for other songwriters...critiquing their songs and handling their copyrights for them. In 1994, Keith wrote his first editorial piece for a national Music magazine. The piece was titled "Lock & Load", and talked about the issue of gun control. "Lock & Load" was published in the June/July issue of "ROC Magazine". 1995 proved to be the busiest year for Keith. Keith co-wrote two songs ("Together" & "Good Lovin' Gone Bad") with well known, multi-million dollar songwriter, Don Hecht. Don Hecht was mostly known for the song "Walkin' After Midnight" that he co-wrote for, and was released by legendary singer Patsy Cline in 1957. The song was later re-recorded and released by Garth Brooks. Also in 1995, Keith became a charter member of the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame & Museum located in Cleveland, Ohio. Keith's name was displayed in the museum, on a plaque along with the other charter members. During his four year career in the early to mid 90's, Keith had collaborated with or written for countless musicians and songwriters world-wide including, but not limited to, Dave Sharky, Jon Clarke, Stephanie Allen, Don Hecht, Ralph Lake, Andrei Cheine, and Cathy Clark. Keith has written nearly 200 songs, selling or contracting out many of them. Keith has had 4 of his songs released on three albums, and has appeared in several local & national magazines including Stars Magazine & Jam Magazine. Keith has been interviewed on both tv and radio, including his 1993 appearance on the tv show, "Dave's Garage". Keith was also a strong activist, fighting for musicians freedom of speech issues. Keith teamed up with the Ohio based anti-censorship group, Rock Out Censorship, to help fight the PMRC's attempts to censor recording artists. Keith's last project that he worked on was in December of 1995. Keith partnered up with singer/songwriter, Cathy Clark, on a 4 song project ("Down By The Ocean Shore", "They'll Come A' Runnin", "Could It be You", & "Magic Moment") that was recorded at House Quake Recording Studios in Ybor City, Florida. While at House Quake Recording Studios, Keith also wrote and recorded the drum parts for one of Cathy's original songs, "You're A Part Of Me". Semi-Retirement 1996 - 2010 In 1996, Keith retired from the music business in order to get married and to start a family. Keith would eventually go on to have successful careers in both banking management & casino management...though he always missed working in the music business. Later that same year, Keith was invited to the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences "Masters Of Music Awards Ceremony", held at Julio Iglesias' home in Miami Beach, Florida. In 1997, the International Biographical Centre, located in Cambridge, England, approached Keith about publishing his biography in the "International Who's Who in Music, Volume two-Popular Music" book, published by Melrose Press. Keith's biography continues to be published in the annually published hard-cover book to this day. Also in 1997, Keith was invited to the 2nd Annual "Pre-Grammy Awards Show Celebration" held at the Miami Hard Rock Cafe & hosted by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. In 2003 Keith was hired as a Talent Scout for Trans Continental Talent, a subsidiary of Trans Continental Records. Trans Continental Talent was owned by Lou Pearlman who is credited with discovering such young acts as Briteny Spears, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, O-Town, and several others. At Trans Continental Talent, Keith scouted the Tampa Bay area for fresh, new models and musicians. Within the year, Keith would resign from Trans Continental Talent due to his own suspicions of fraud that he believed was being committed by Trans Continental Talent towards it's clients. In 2004, Keith's 2nd wife gave birth to their daughter. Keith himself delivered his daughter. Unfortunately though, Keith's marriage wouldn't last. In 2007 Keith was left to raise his daughter on his own after him & his wife divorced. In 2008, Keith was contacted by the president of the Memphis Songwriters Association (MSA). Keith was invited to travel up to Memphis and appear as a guest speaker at a songwriting workshop, hosted by the Memphis Songwriters Association. The renewed interest in Keith's past musical accomplishments by the MSA refueled Keith's interest once again in music & writing. Music Columnist 2010 - present In 2010, Keith found out that the Examiner News website was looking for a free-lance music columnist to write their "St. Petersburg Live Music bar Scene" column. This seamed like the perfect opportunity for Keith to get back into professional writing once again, not to mention it was related to music as well. Keith submitted his bio and catalog to the Examiner...and no, he didn't mail it to them in a shoe! Based on Keith's past experience in both music and writing, the Examiner offered him the column. Keith's debut article was published by the Examiner and appeared in his column on May 14th, 2010. In his column, Keith reports on the local Tampa Bay live music & bar scene. His articles include band interviews, Music scene news, event previews, show reviews, and bar/night club reviews. Along the way Keith has interviewed many bands and artists in his music column, both local & National, signed & Unsigned. Some of the bands and Artists that Keith has interviewed include: Eddie Money, Julie Gribble, Diamond Gray, Wikkid, The Jenna Stone Band, Jeremy Thomas, Love Struck Robot, and many others. Within the first 6 months of writing for the Examiner, Keith's column became the #1 most read column of 2010 in the Tampa Bay market...beating out nearly 200 other columnists. By the end of 2010, Keith's column was syndicated in several other News websites including the World News Network, World News America, Breaking News Worldwide, and Fwix.com. In 2011, The Bay Buzz also started syndicating Keith's column as well, listing Keith as a contributing writer. Keith partnered up with Dina Meed of "Bay Area Band Source" in early 2011 to form "KAM-BABS Promotions"...a collaboration of Keith's "KAM Music Publishing" & Dina's "Bay Area Band Source" (BABS). Through "KAM-BABS Promotions", Keith & Dina plan, organize, promote, host, & MC benefit concerts, awards shows, and other musical events in the Tampa Bay area. The first project that "KAM-BABS Promotions" started working on was to bring National recording artist & actress, Julie Grible, down to Florida to perform in the Tampa Bay area on her 2011 tour. The second project KAM-BABS Promotions organized was the "2011 KAM-BABS Sexiest Musicians of Tampa Bay Awards Show Ceremony" held in Tampa. The awards show started from a competition that Keith held in his Examiner column. The third event that KAM-BABS Promotions organized was the day & night long outdoor concert called Wildstock. Wildstock was held in Wimauma, Florida on the 7acres of land owned by Elmira's Wildlife Sanctuary. The event was a benefit concert to help raise money for the sanctuary, and had national recording artist, KOLE, headlining the event. Also in 2011, Bay Area Band Source & Black Pearl Rock Radio honored Keith by roasting him on his Birthday. The "Birthday Roast of Keith Wilkins" was held at the Wild Indian Saloon in Largo, Florida on September 8th, and was broadcasted on Black Pearl Rock Radio on September 14th. In September of 2011, Keith became the Cover story writer for Mayhem Magazine, published by Vertex Worldwide Media. Keith helped the new music magazine gain popularity in the Tampa Bay market, writing for the first three issues and helping the magazine win the "2011 TBMN Favorite Media Source" award at the 4th Annual Tampa Bay Music Network Awards Show in 2012. Keith left Mayhem Magazine on December 29th, 2011 when Vertex Worldwide Media failed to renew his contract. Also in December, Keith was brought on as a consultant at Bay Area Band Source. On February 28th, 2012, Keith was appointed Vice President of the Florida Musicians Hall of Fame and the Tampa Bay Music Hall of Fame, siting on the Board Of Directors for both organizations. Also in 2012, Keith founded the Tampa Bay Music Scene Historical Society, and plans on launching the official website in late December, 2012. Keith Wilkins is a BMI artist, and a proud member of the American Press Association. In the past, Keith has also belonged to numerous other organizations including: The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences inc.; American Federation of Musicians (AFofM); Songwriters Guild of America (SGA); Florida Music Association (FMA); Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI); South West Virginia Songwriters Association (SVSA); Memphis Songwriters Association (MSA); National Academy of Songwriters (NAS); Songwriters of Wisconsin (SOW); and the Central Florida Musicians Association. Keith still resides in Seminole, Florida with his daughter, Kayla, and is currently writing his Autobiography which he is hoping to publish in 201...(read more)