Drummer finds niche with Three Miles Out

By John Benson

The Champion native has been drumming for more than two decades.

Over the past two decades, Champion native Kevin Jackson has provided the beat for many local and regional rock acts.

However, it wasn’t until he joined up exactly a year ago with Cleveland-based alt-rock Three Miles Out that he felt the possibility of something bigger happening with his drumming career.

“I probably started when I was 17 years old,” said Jackson, a 1986 Champion High School graduate. “I played in the Youngstown-Warren circuit pretty much all through the ’90s, and then I toured for a year and a half from 2002 to 2003 with a band out of Cleveland named CottonMouth. We played a lot of bike rallies and rib cook-offs. We went from here to Sturgis and back.”

He added, “But as I got a little bit older, I started looking towards Cleveland to see what was going on up there. I started looking for a band that needed me, rather than building it from the ground up. It was easier that way.”

After being impressed with what he had seen in the few Three Miles Out gigs he had caught over the years, Jackson said he was so excited to learn the band was in search of a new drummer that he left another Cleveland band, Nye, for the gig.

“When I went to the first audition, the first couple of tracks we played, I started getting really comfortable with these guys,” Jackson said. “It’s pretty much the most cohesive band I’ve been in in a long time, where everybody gets along and there’s not just one person who makes it really difficult.

“The music is much more my style. I guess we’re still considered modern rock, but I think it’s just rock ’n’ roll. It’s kind of been compared to the Goo Goo Dolls and Lifehouse.”

Proving just how much Jackson got along with the band members — Ken Voll (vocals), Mark Knapp (guitar, vocals) and Mick Corcoran (bass) — is the fact the group had already recorded its newest album, “Nobody,” prior to his joining. Jackson said that didn’t phase him one bit.

“I figured I wasn’t on the new record, but if things worked out, I’d be on the next one,” Jackson said. “So I just feel fortunate to be a part of the band.”

Considering Jackson is a veteran of the music scene, does Three Miles Out, which is scheduled to perform tonight at the Victory Lane Lounge in Warren, possess a make-it-or-break-it feel regarding his career? That is, at the age of 39, how much longer does he pursue rock ‘n’ roll stardom?

“That’s a tough one to answer,” said Jackson, whose day gig is as a Cleveland-Akron area Verizon business field engineer. “I just take it day by day. I mean, I have high hopes for this record to do well, and I feel like there is a potential for it to get picked up, but I know I’m kind of getting to that age where I’m not banking on it.

“I’m not getting my hopes too high. I know that’s not what I should say, but I just see myself as grounded and don’t get too excited about it.”

Still, he admits he does dream of having a “Take This Job and Shove It” moment.

Quipped Jackson, “I’d enjoy that.”