In every song I love, there’s a note of my dad.
I was raised on the music he’d play in the family car, blasted through the speakers in the back seat and into my impressionable ears.
Don’t knock the sound system of a 1996 Jeep Cherokee. Stephen Stills, Little Feat, John Prine, and Bruce Springsteen just sounded better in that car as ashes from my dad’s Marlboro Red whipped from the driver’s seat through the back window and into my face.
That was the price of admission for a good tune, and I didn’t mind. One of the most romantic things I ever saw my parents do for each other was light a cigarette for whoever was driving, so a bit of ash on the baby makes sense. That romance likely made me.
Though my dad had absolutely no rhythm, his musical taste became the foundation of my career. He’d bash his hand against the steering wheel, always out of rhythm but with a lot of enthusiasm. That made up for the rest. From there, I’ve built a career in public radio and as a writer, simply from watching him read the Sunday Free Press on the couch every week.
“You don’t want to end up like me, painting Dodge trucks on the assembly line,” he’d say. “You want to sell your ideas instead.”
In my head, that meant journalism — telling other people’s stories. More than 20 years later, I’m still in this profession.
People ask me all the time why I use my full name. It’s to tell my dad’s story in some small way. His name is Kevin Patrick, and I’m his only son. I’ll never be able to capture his totality through my byline, but with every published piece, I hope to keep the idea of him alive.
My dad’s musical taste evolved on the assembly line. This Springsteen-loving, suburban dad could later rap DMX songs front to back. He went from growing up in the boonies to being in Detroit and hearing new things from co-workers who grew up in the city with very different life experiences. He loved it and was eager to share it with me, hoping to impress his brooding teenage son.
That’s how 101.9 WDET-FM entered his life: He heard it from someone else’s radio on the assembly line. He rushed home to brag about discovering new bands that he prayed I would like.
It worked, even if I didn’t show it at the time. In fact, it’s influenced everything I play on my radio show, attempting to recreate the feel of the assembly line: a rhythm that’s constant with musical influence coming from all walks of life but is always Detroit, speaking to the elevated sense of taste we have in the greatest music city on the planet.
When I was 21, my dad died from a terrible accident. I don’t need him to be here today to know that he’d be proud of me, that he would see a bit of his personality, his charm, and his musical taste reflected in everything I do today.
You might be reading this and wondering whether your father is proud of you on Father’s Day, too.
I don’t need to know your whole life to know that there’s a piece of your dad’s song in you, no matter what rhythm (or lack thereof) you’re currently following.
Ryan Patrick Hooper is the host of In the Groove on 101.9 WDET Detroit Public Radio (weekdays from noon to 3 p.m.).
This story originally appeared in the June 2026 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
|
|
|
|
|
|
