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George Winters — A Michigan Music Life: Flint, Davison & The Red Piano

• Radio Free Flint Podcast • Season 3 • Episode 33

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A Michigan original. A musical storyteller. A man who made a lifetime of memories from behind a piano.

In this episode, we sit down with George Winters, the beloved “Red Piano Man” from Flint and Davison. George is a lifelong musician, entertainer, teacher, and creative force. His signature red electric piano has become a staple at community events, local concerts, senior centers, benefit performances, and neighborhood gatherings across Mid-Michigan.

George reflects on:
 • His musical beginnings in Flint
 • Performing everywhere from bars to churches to backyards
 • What inspires him to keep bringing joy to people
 • The meaning of local community arts in Michigan
 • How the Flint/Davison area shaped his identity as a musician
 • The people, mentors, and moments that built his sound

Warm, humble, and full of heart, George Winters represents the best of Michigan’s creative spirit — a man who used music to bring people together, one performance at a time.

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Arthur Busch:

So we're recording this. This is Arthur Busch, you're listening to Radio Free Flint, and I have as my guest a very accomplished musician. George Winters, Welcome. I do. Hey, it's a pleasure to see you this morning. George is talking to me from I don't know, Davision, Michigan, home of Michael Moore and John Sinclair. So let's let George do what he does best, which is play music. This is a tune called C Jam. George Winter's the piano man from Davison, Michigan. Playing in our region. And I want to talk to you a little about your career, the music, how music scenes changed, what you think of Flint. Are you a Flintstone?

George Winters:

Yeah. I was born, raised in Flint until high school, and then we moved to Flushing.

Arthur Busch:

So what does it mean to be a Flintstone?

George Winters:

Something it's it's home and it's a it's an incredible place. I don't know. That's that's kind of a toughie actually. Just the people that you grew up with there, it's just a bond that you never lose. I don't know. Something about it coming back to Flint too is always home. After all the places I've been on the road, it's kind of amazing, you know, that you'd want to get back here, but you just do.

Arthur Busch:

If you had to describe Flint in one word, what would it be?

George Winters:

Home.

Arthur Busch:

All right, I'll take that. How long have you been playing music?

George Winters:

Let's see, since I was nine, so that's been what about 23 years? That's actually adding up quite a bit now. It's over 50 years.

Arthur Busch:

So you missed a couple decades.

George Winters:

Yeah, yeah.

Arthur Busch:

Just so the audience knows. I mean, there's some that are my age that probably have watched you play in a club or someplace along the path in the Flint area. But uh just so that uh my audience who also comes to us from all other uh venues around the globe, tell us what kind of musician you are and what it is that that you do exactly.

George Winters:

Well, uh it's probably not that definable in one word for sure. Like just a lot of things. Actually, uh mainly what I've been doing the last 23 years or something like that, 24 years, uh, is doing pianos. We do a lot of corporate events, and and I was doing them, I still do a little bit around the country even trying to get away from that. You know, uh I did it a lot for a while. In fact, for five years, it's been less than about four years ago. I kind of got out of that, but I was just full-time, I was crossing the Mississippi almost every week. I got I got home every week, which was cool, you know, for a few days, but it was just kind of crazy driving out there to Nebraska and you know, Kansas and North Dakota. I I make it from here to Fargo in 16 hours. Only time I stop is to get gas or a rest stop or one 15-minute stop, maybe a subway and boom.

Arthur Busch:

You play the piano. Yeah, do you play any other music?

George Winters:

Yeah, I've I play um I picked up the guitar when I was about 16 and I kind of got a little more serious at it when I was 18. And then I I really worked hard at it for a long time. So I've been doing that, you know, ever since then. And I I play a little harmonica to get a hard shot at singing.

Arthur Busch:

Are you a solo or do you have a band that you travel with?

George Winters:

Or what I do they do on pianos is typically with a partner, they call it so be two piano players. Most of the time anymore, I travel with local guys. If I travel or just play local gigs, I try to stay in Michigan. In fact, uh right at this point, right now, I have nothing else on the state. I just got back from a little big deal. I did a couple gigs in uh Indiana and then one in just north of Pittsburgh like a summer about a week ago. That was pretty cool. But hey, I've been doing something else kind of cool too. I just kind of fell into this thing with the sheriff. I don't know if you knew anything about this at all. The sheriff was saying, I don't know how many Bill Features you know. I want to be some people called me and they had a gig going on. Yeah, so we played that, and the sheriff got hold and he said he was gonna be thinking about doing a Bobby Sear tribute. I said, Really, I love Bob Search, so yeah, I I'd give it a shot, you know. So he wanted to be in these He got like a 10-piece band. And we've been rehearsing and we did our first gig last Saturday and Sag at a place called the Ball. He actually was a union haul.

Arthur Busch:

Oh, he's in the band too?

George Winters:

He's yeah, not only is he in the band, he's a singer, the lead singer. And he's also a piano player too, but he just wants to sing. And uh that's cool. I mean, and he does a good job. I I was, you know, pleasantly surprised at how good he is. And he sounds a lot like Bob Seeger. And he looks a little bit like him. I don't know if you've seen his picture, he threw his beard out, he's got longer hair.

Arthur Busch:

I saw the clean cut picture when he wanted to be the sheriff, though. And uh he's been there quite a long time.

George Winters:

I'm I'm kind of a patriotic guy, I love America, and I like to you know recognize his bad. So we do a little thing, you know, and and we get if we can, we do poke him up to the front of the stage. So we do that, and then then we do uh learn the fight song from the army fight song, interruptor, navy, air force, uh coast guard, and then uh of course the marine. It's a cool thing. And there's usually always a police officer there. So I would do like uh a little bit of I Pot the Law, get people to sing it, you know, I paw the law and boom, people singing all along.

Arthur Busch:

So let's talk about music. Let's hear some of your music. I think the audience would enjoy it. Here's uh red piano by George Winters from Davidson, Michigan. We'll play the song in its entirety and come back on the other side and talk some more about George's music and about the fun music scene and what he's learned after 50 years of being the piano man.

George Winters:

I can tell that you felt for a fan. I'll say on my ready. So went to flushing high school and you grew up in uh well actually in Flint until 1969 graduated in 1974, so I did my high school in flushing.

Arthur Busch:

I see. And what neighborhood did you live in in Flint?

George Winters:

It's right on Begole Street by Melbourne. Can I back you up a little bit just for a second here? Back to that Flint. Yeah, sure. When it went because I told you I lived on Gold Street by Melbourne. Well, my dad actually he when he came to Flint, the family came from uh Royal Oak, and his and he was a president of, they moved him up to president of Pudenties, insurance guy. Something happened, business wasn't doing as good as they expect. They wanted firing them. They didn't do him, they did him wrong. Anyhow, my dad was a great piano player. He went and he got a job selling organs. He loved organs, you know, anyhow. So he brings home an organ and he sets it in the living room and he's all proud of it. He's got this new job. He's like, I can have anybody playing both hands and a foot in five minutes. He says, You come here, and I was the baby of the family. So he sat me down. And uh, anyhow, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. So I kept doing it anyhow. I'll I'll finish this before I get to the other part, but I I couldn't do it, so I kind of let him down. I felt bad, I guess. And he left the thing there, and I just kept messing with it. Pretty soon I was getting so I was getting the hang of it. One day I'm like, Hey, yeah, come here, look at this. He's like, turned it on and started jamming. He's like, Oh, okay. But so then he anyhow, the the point of the story I'm trying to take this to is he wound up getting uh taken over the Hammond Orchestra, which was on Chevrolet and Mackin. And that was a very uh hobnob for uh Hammond B3s were the big thing in the late 60s, early 70s. All the rock bands had them. The bands that came to town, the IMA and stuff would they would their manager would get a hold of my dad, he'd run them a B3. We got to see a lot of bands backstage. Jethro Tall. We thought they were done with their concert. We ran back there to get the my brothers and me and my girlfriend at the time. We run back there to get the B3, and all them guys are sitting around kind of looking at us like, Who are these guys? And we just froze, you know. And then all of a sudden, they started playing their second set we watched from backstage, and that was incredible. Anyhow, I love Jeff O'Toole. Uh, my dad came home one night with this story. He says, Yes, hippie come in. He says, He's really classy, hippie. He says, He says, He had a ponytail, he said he had a sideburns, came down to his chin. He says, So you want to see a B3, and a B3 was like 3,500 bucks, plus you had to buy a Leslie was another thousand bucks or whatever, 900, you know. And uh, I want to see what he goes, yeah, right over here. And he says, the guy turned it on and bought it like a pack of cigarettes. He said, Have you ever heard of Grand Punk Railroad? At the time, I'd heard of them. They weren't really famous in Flint yet, you know. He goes, Well, the guy bought this thing, we're gonna deliver it. You want to you want to go with us? I'm like, sure, you know. So we went to Mark Farner's house out in London. It was outside of town, just off London road. But anyhow, went in there, brought that B3 out there. When we pulled in the driveway, this guy came out of the house. He's a big after, he's about nine foot tall, and you know, got in his link in and took off. It was Don Brewer. I didn't know that at the time, but he was so under such a distinct looking character. I just still see him in my mind. But anyhow, we went in there and met Mark Farner, and he got that B3, and we brought it over there. And as soon as we left, he started playing and he he broke footstone for music. Danny McClain was an organ player, and I was big time into uh baseball. But anyhow, my dad uh uh says to me, Denny McClain McClain is coming to town at the IMA for something, I'm gonna go meet him. And I kind of laughed. I'm like, yeah, right. You know, good luck that, you know. Next day he has the guy at my house, okay. And oh, Denny McClain. And I had him my mit. And Denny wasn't that friendly to me, to be honest with you, remember. I was like, okay, whatever.

Arthur Busch:

Now, Denny McClain was often seen playing at the Shorthorn Lounge in Flint's on Dort Highway near court. Did you ever play that lounge?

George Winters:

I did. In fact, uh, more after it, after it was done, uh, you know, after the heyday, I played there a little bit. In fact, the guy that owned it, he had taken it back a couple times. And I told him, I said, I'd love to own a club like this. I wish I had a little more money, you know. And he goes, you know what? He says, I I I like the idea of an entertainer owning this place. He says, uh, I might just like sell you this place, let you pay me out until he started telling me some of the numbers that it used to do, and they're amazing.

Arthur Busch:

George, how did you first get interested in music? Was it the story with the organ or was it something something else?

George Winters:

Yeah, I think it was that, and I don't know why I I I often have scratched my head to why I glued to it like I did, but I just I it was when I was really young, like back then, that was middle sixties. Uh, it was it was organ and baseball. That was my two things, you know.

Arthur Busch:

So, George, let's listen to a different one of your songs with a mood synthesizer and your Hammond B3 organ. This one's called Heaven since we're talking about flip. George, you uh have spanned quite a long time. You said you've been a musician for 50 years, and I can only think of a few others that are still at it. So I think that Jimmy Zimbo, who's also out there still trotting around with his fingers on the keyboards, Bob Ado, who don't know what this too is.

George Winters:

Jimmy is actually working for a company that I've been doing sales for. He went down there and helping. I've been selling piano shells. Uh, I don't know if you know what a piano shell is. It looks it's furniture, it looks like a piano. You put a keyboard in it, they make different sizes, and we've been selling them all over the world. And when I got off the road, I tell you, I was on the road for like five years solid. I was kind of looking for something. He offered me a job selling for him, and I I didn't think it was gonna turn into much thing, and it's just kind of taking off.

Arthur Busch:

You played a lot of joints in the Flint area over those 50 years, if that's what it is. Yes, tell me your favorites.

George Winters:

You know, I think I I love Bosleys, I really love Bosleys. That was like a home, and Doug Bosley was uh such a great guy to me. I mean, I could can't even tell you he was like he looked out for me like nobody really ever did in that kind of business, you know, for that long. That's amazing. I had raised my family basically working for him and also for John too at the speakeasy. He was also very cool, and um talking about John and Marianne Barnadelli and flushing, yes, at the speakeasy that was a great spot, it was. Yes, and and and I love them people too, they're just super good.

Arthur Busch:

There's gotta be some old ones, like maybe the fireside, yeah.

George Winters:

Like you, you know, I was just funny you said that because that's what I was gonna say next. And actually, I played at the fireside and the Bob Badato trio back in the 70s. Uh yeah, in fact, in fact, and too, another thing about Bob just I mean, he's always been one of my heroes, and one of my favorite sax players. In fact, I did an uh album that had him play sax on it, and it's worldwide. You can dial it in anywhere and check it out.

Arthur Busch:

We didn't talk about one of my favorites of all time, which is Jimmy Lump's Aloha Lounge. Did you ever play that one?

George Winters:

You know what? I never really I think I did play a couple off nights, I think. About I've forgotten that, but I used to go in there, it was just a cool place. You know, you're talking about how things you mentioned earlier about you know, how things are they are and I see to me, it's not like that at all. It used to be where you play someplace six nights a week, have a house gig, they call it. And some of these guys still want to do that. They're like, hey, we should get together and have a house gig. I don't they don't do that anymore. It just doesn't happen.

Arthur Busch:

Why isn't it popular anymore?

George Winters:

I think if you want my take, I'm just a piano player and got my own little point of view, but I just think times change and and people were really into live music for a long time. And I know, like, I had my trailer worked on, and it was right by this country bar out in the decline, and I drove by there and they turned it into a dispensary. So I I mentioned it to this kid that was working on my he said, Did you ever go there? And and he's like, uh, no, he says, I never went there. He says, My dad did that kind of stuff. I've never been in that at all. And that's I think that the younger generation is a lot like that. They've never bought an album because they stream it. Another thing is what was really fascinating, I got remarried out almost 20 years ago. My wife had daughters. I took them on a field trip down to Sloan Museum, and I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and I was fascinated. I couldn't, they want run run through the place. I'm reading everything about how Flint became a boom town. You know, people moved up here from the south to be get rich in the in the auto plant. You know, I mean, just things were a lot different. Things were it seems like you always knew somebody, just about everybody was affiliated with somebody that worked for General Motors. You know, it's just that because I thought all right then.

Arthur Busch:

Let's take just a moment to one stretch your legs. This one's an up tempo song called Lucky by George Winters of Davison, Michigan.

George Winters:

It was a great time. It was a nice mix, too, because between Flint and Flushing.

Arthur Busch:

What is it about flushing? Because people do really love flushing. I don't ever talk to anybody who says, Oh, it sucks. I can tell you what I like about flushing, which is the AW. Okay. You got good popcorn, and there's something about their hot dogs I really like.

George Winters:

And the room is not bad either. Maybe it was the time, it was just a cool place. Going to school there, there was a guy that was the art teacher. Yeah, Wolfgang was his name. Everybody knew that guy, Richard Wolfgang. Everybody knew him, but he was a great guy. He motivated a lot of music. He was really into music, he played banjo. We'd have jam sessions. I think I think I did have him, I did take one art class, but even when I wasn't his class, he had me bring a piano down on Friday sometimes and just jam, you know.

Arthur Busch:

When he retired from flushing, eventually he ended up in a gallery, bought a gallery on Mackinac Island. Wolfgang did the posters for the Mackinac Lila Festival. They're collector's items now.

George Winters:

To his place there, his gallery, actually, a few times. And what was really interesting too is he had like you're talking about, he made the the the artwork he did for up there, and I come back down here and I seen it like where the holiday innocent or the gateway holiday in there in Hill Road. They had it hanging in there, and I seen it a few other places too. It was just amazing, you know. It's like uh it's almost like seeing Craig Frost, you know, music tours, you know, round the pre stuff, which was kind of cool because I knew that guy back way back when, you know, but he played with Bob Seeker.

Arthur Busch:

So besides growing up in flushing, you've played in a lot of places around the country. What when you tell people you're from Flint, what do they have to say about that?

George Winters:

Well, that's actually what I was gonna say a minute ago. So I was out west. I hate to say it, but you know, I got traveled with this one guy from Phoenix, and you know, people say, Where are you guys from? Well, I'm from Flint, you know, because you want to you don't want to say Davidson or Flushing or something, because they mostly never heard of it. Yeah, but you say Flint, oh okay, where are you from? Phoenix. They just they just grab it, they turn they'd ignore me a lot of times, you know, it's like you're from Flint, but you know, and then they joke a lot too about the water, you know. You got good water? Yeah, I have a well.

Arthur Busch:

Dueling piano thing. I first found out about that in San Antonio, Texas on the riverwalk.

George Winters:

I've been there, beautiful place, but the concepts spread around the country, like most of the piano bars, like Rum Runners Down to Lance, right by right across from where the lug nuts played. It was like very high traffic area, JD's key club down to Pontiac. It was when downtown Pontiac was really booming, and there's a lot of people there, just population coming in from all the little suburbs. It wasn't really Pontiac people, but so and the same thing with Mojo still does good out in uh Grand Rapids because they have the right demographic. I didn't play down there much when I was young, a little bit, but mostly I got I got to know the city a lot more in my older age, like after the speakeasy days, even especially doodle and pianos, because that kind of took off, you know. And there's a few places that opened up. We used to do another one on Haggerty and Fort 14 Mile. It's called Good Fellows. And uh, and that place jammed. It was big and it was packed all the time. I remember the owner was a super nice guy, he was a builder, he made his money building. He bought that place, and he says, he says, You want to make a lot of money, don't buy a duel and piano. I'm looking around. I don't understand, you know, you get a cover charge, you know.

Arthur Busch:

A lot of the musicians I talk to, and he and even ones that are known nationally, they do a lot of these gigs like you're talking about. Once they reach a certain age, they don't really want to play clubs if they can avoid it. And so they start playing houses and house parties and garden parties and all that. Is that a natural progression?

George Winters:

Maybe, and especially with the way things have gone. Like I say, it's not like the live music isn't five, six nights a week. People don't just go to see it like that. But there is still, I think since the shutdown, people have realized they want to do, they just want to live life more, they want to go see it. Um, it's been playing these piano shows, and it's nothing to do with me because dueling pianos is not personal. It's they'll say, we're gonna sell do we're gonna have a dueling piano gig. It could be any two guys, really. So it's you know, I can't really take the credit for selling them out. It's not because of me, it's dueling pianos, it's uh shtick, you know, and people like it. It's fun.

Arthur Busch:

Yeah, no, some of those people that are dueling pianos, they start dancing around on top of their pianos and all kinds of crazy stuff.

George Winters:

Yeah, that's an interesting thing you brought up because when I was working at Rum Runners, uh, I asked some people one night, some of the recorders, I said, Who do you think's a good piano player? I'm just curious. And they they named off a couple people. I said, I didn't think they were that good, but I, you know, I comparatively speaking, you know, on a music level, whatever. But I said, Why do you like them? And they said, Well, I like the one guy because he gets up on top of the piano. But you know, people. They listen with their eyes. So if you can give them a show, that's kind of you know, it's a showy thing. It's just not a personal thing. It's like I can do this, you know, command and do the song and do the command and get the audience to do that. You can do it. Joe Blow can do it. Anyone can do it. It's just if you do it right, it works. So it's a formula kind of thing, and it's not personal. It's not, I went from playing Bosley, speak easy, playing a lot of dinner music. You know, my hands were in good shape when I got into it. I'd play licks that you know would impress me and nobody would even notice. Not even, they just wouldn't even notice. But as soon as you start really, you know, doing this kind of stuff, you know, they're like, Oh, look at this, look at this guy, you know, it could be just one note. You know.

Arthur Busch:

So the the performative part of this business that you've gotten yourself into, you're pretty good at. You were always a little more performative than some of them other guys. Although, I mean, you take watch a guy like Zimbo, he knows how to work the crowd.

George Winters:

He has a knack with people and a great voice. Well, it's funny because we've got a little bit in a competition because he's there and I'm here, you know, I know he sings great and all that. People, a lot of people might not realize him and me actually traveled in a rock and roll band before any of that stuff happened. I've no uh it's like I have another lifetime before with you know before all that stuff even happened, you know, and he was part of it.

Arthur Busch:

You're from Flint, you've seen a lot of changes over the years. You've gone from some of the heydays of the rock bands from Flint. We didn't talk much about your rock your experience as a rock star, but um you've seen a lot of things come and go. Mostly it was going for General Motors, and that changed significantly. How did General Motors going change Flint and a music scene as far as you were concerned?

George Winters:

Uh I just think that uh the money was not there anymore. People didn't have the security, the money, a lot of people left town. I mean, the the population has diminished quite a bit, I think. Plus, along with the times changing too, like I say, people now. If you ever go in a bar, too, you ever notice that most of them have like 25 TVs everywhere you look, and they got cage fighting, they got hockey, they got just it's all action. It's hard to people don't seem to. I think that between their phones and all that stuff, it's harder for them to focus.

Arthur Busch:

George winners, I really appreciate taking the time to talk to me. Goodbye for now. All . Thank you very much.

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