Steve Benavides has enjoyed singing practically all his life. As a kid growing up in Cave Junction, Oregon, he sang in the choir at church and in middle school, he won the role of Teen Two in a production of “We Are the World,” based on the hit song from the 1980’s. In high school, he focused on sports rather than music, and was a star pitcher for the baseball team. He also played football and basketball and wrestled. However, he decided he wanted to learn how to act but after speaking with the instructor, found himself in the school choir “by accident” where he sang as a tenor.
The instructor had a lot of faith in Benavides, and Benavides himself always knew he could sing, but for a while he focused on being a self-described “hoodlum” after he and his mother and seven siblings moved to Pheonix, Oregon, following his parents’ divorce. Fortunately, his life of crime was short lived, and things began to turn around. It was while on a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain in southern California with a friend when he was 18 that Benavides recorded a record for his mom in a demo booth. As he recounts it, “We had just gotten off the log ride and were soaking wet when my friend suggested I make a recording.” He decided ‘why not?’ and proceeded to cover the song “Every Rose Has it’s Thorn” by Poison as well as “Friends in Low Places,” by Garth Brooks, which his mother loved. Benavides didn’t give the matter much more thought until moving to Veneta at age 20 to join his mom and learning that he was something of a local celebrity due to her having played the demo for many appreciative people. His mother, who wanted him to do something to get out of the house, suggested that he make singing a career and to show just how much faith she had in her son, she came home one evening with a clipping from the now shuttered Seafood Grotto restaurant in Eugene touting a karaoke contest. Benavides entered and won 4th place. This was followed by competing at the Seafood Grotto’s Springfield restaurant in part two of the competition where he was pitted against 49 other people from around the country. Cameras were everywhere to record the contest, Benavides remembers, as were his friends, cousins, and then girlfriend, who all came to cheer him on. He performed “Blaze of Glory” by Jon Bon Jovi and won. His confidence in his ability as a singer grew and he began to think that his mother was right, that maybe he could make it as a singer. This belief in himself was then reinforced when a friend in Medford proposed that he should sing at a bar in Ashland. When he performed “Friends in Low Places,” he brought the house down. Benavides had caught the performing bug and competed again, this time at the Golden Years Festival in Coburg which found him pitted against two bands, one of which was Red Desert. He placed 2nd and was then approached by the band’s manager who asked him to join. Two months later, Benavides became a bona fide member. The band played together for a while, but things such as the death of a guitarist and the leaving of two others ended things but Benavides and a bandmate he declined to name continued to perform together at locales such as the Sweet Home Jamboree, Chinook Winds casino, Three Rivers Casino, along with traveling to gigs in Portland and Washington. Further, Benavides and his bandmate opened for the likes of Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sara Evans, Sawyer Brown, and Ricky Van Shelton. Benavides drummer even taught the drummer for Confederate Railroad how to do the double pedal stomp. As the gigs continued, Benavides and his entourage traveled through Montana, Wyoming, and North and South Dakota. It was a dream come true, this touring and singing, and though things weren’t always the best on a personal level, professionally, they couldn’t not have been better. Then, Covid hit and 2 ½ years of gigs that had been scheduled were abruptly ended. While on lockdown, Benavides used the time to hone his guitar skills and proceeded to learn some 300 songs. Once the pandemic ended, he found himself and his group, Redrock Project, really having to struggle to find jobs as businesses everywhere toiled to get back on track. Steadily, things have gotten better, and Benavides and his band are “excited” to get back on stage doing what they love. When jobs started being offered again, Benavides says other bands became angry with him for being given opportunities they weren’t, but he didn’t let this bother him or slow him down. As a solo artist, Benavides is a regular performer at Crazy Al’s in Veneta, along with the Beer Station and Bugsy’s in Junction City. He is established as a performer at the Veneta Harvest Festival and has played at the Eagles Club in Eugene. Later this year, he and his band have been asked to sing at the Sister’s Rodeo and at the Prineville Hardtails. “The future is bright,” Benavides says. There is a lot to look forward to and he hopes to continue to perform for as long as he can. As he succinctly puts it, “You can’t keep a good band down.” Also, he adds, “Brown chicken, brown cow.”
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