Corporate Rockers Compete for Bragging Rights at Hall of Fame

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- When the sun goes down, Symantec Corp. executive Tom Rhoton loses the suit and cranks up his Fender guitar to practice one of the songs he’ll be playing this weekend at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Rhoton and other Symantec executives formed a group called ManageThis for the love of the music and local gigs. Then things got a little more serious. In Cleveland they’re competing for the title of best U.S. corporate band on Oct. 3.

The ninth annual contest is organized by Fortune magazine and the National Association of Music Merchants, the trade association of the musical-instruments industry.

“We’re practicing as often as we can, although sometimes we can’t rehearse together,” Rhoton, 49, Symantec’s Utah-based vice president of marketing for the Americas, said in a phone interview. “It’s a hobby, but we do work hard at it.”

Also in the running are bands with names like the S.A.P.’s from Johnson & Johnson in Morristown, New Jersey; Slump, made up of executives from Oceanside Glasstile in Carlsbad, California; the Weasels, a sextet from Sunflower Group, a promotional- services company based in Overland, Kansas; and the trio Aeroroot from Frontier Natural Products in Norway, Iowa.

The U.S. South will be well-represented in the final round with the Roland’s Stones, a 13-member ensemble comprising staffers from Chevron Corp.’s Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery; the Mighty Electric St. Jude Band from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis; and Strat 5, a seven-piece group made up of Healthways Inc. employees based in Franklin, Tennessee.

“The competition offers a guy who is sitting behind a desk at a company a chance to get together with other like-minded people and actually play at the Hall of Fame,” Steve Dobo, the institution’s director of sponsorship and promotion, said in a phone interview. “The experience itself of playing is all we ever hear about from the participants.”

‘Pretty Darn Good’

“The quality of the music is pretty darn good,” Morgan Ringwald, NAMM’s director of market development for the Carlsbad, California, nonprofit, said in a phone interview. “In fact, if you make it to the finals, you have a pretty good band.”

The judges are Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, musician and author Jeff Carlisi and Antoinette Follett, editor-in-chief of Making Music magazine.

For the winner, there will be glory but no cash prize. In fact, each band pays a $9,000 fee for entering the finals and the money goes to support the Hall of Fame’s many educational programs.

‘Funky Music’

ManageThis began playing five years for Symantec events in the Salt Lake City area. The word got out that it did exceptional covers of songs by the Killers and Green Day and funk classics like Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music.”

The band started getting gigs at local charity events, high schools and even one with the Utah Symphony, Rhoton said. “We’re not a house band at any one place,” he said. “We have a lot of repeat business.”

The Mighty Electric St. Jude Band, a seven-member group started in 2002, thinks it will sway the judges with its repertoire of Motown and rhythm-and-blues classics. For the finals, it plans to play one of its most requested songs, a soulful version of the Temptations’ “I Can’t Get Next to You.”

“We all love performing, and if we could make a living, we would, but we’re keeping our day jobs,” said Brent Royer, 35, the band’s vocalist and the hospital’s director of creative media services. “We’re fortunate to have them in this economy.”

To contact the writer on this story: Patrick Cole in New York at pcole3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff in New York at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.