I was born
in Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami Florida in 1950. My father, Buffalo Tiger and my mother, Anne
Marie Winslow, were divorce when I was at the early age of two or three years
old so I grew up with my father’s side of the family. My brother, Stephen Tiger, and I grew up as
very tight brothers living sometimes in boarding homes and from time to time
staying with our Miccosukee grandmother and uncle in Miccosukee Indian
Villages. I attended Arlington Heights
Elementary school in Hialeah Florida and later moved to Miami when my father
was remarried to his second wife and I then attended Allapattah Junior High
School. When I was in the eighth grade
we moved back to Hialeah were I attended Hialeah Junior High School and then
Hialeah High School.
At the age
of twelve Steve and I got a hold of some plastic guitars that were among some
of the Christmas gifts that were donated to the Miccosukee families. That was the beginning of the interest in
pursuing a music career for my brother and me.
While learning how to play the instruments we also learned that our
neighbors had already started up a rock band and we were blown away by hearing
them perform. We said to each other, if
they can do it, we can do it, and we did.
At the age of thirteen I got my first guitar which was a Harmony. At the age of fourteen I started playing
with one of my school mates at roller rinks, school sock hops and parties. My brother was away at that time and when he
got back we formed our first rock band called “The Renegades” in 1964. We became a successful local band in Miami
performing anywhere and everywhere that our manager, George Kirdy, booked for
us.
A few years
later we formed other groups including ”The Charades”, “The Bangles”, “The Bangs”,
“Sun Country”, and of course our main group “Tiger Tiger”. One of the high lights in my life was when
our band “The Charades” was the opening act for this incredible group called
“The 7 of Us” out of New York City, and when I say incredible they were totally
out of this world and they were the house band at the night club called The
Cheetah Disco tech in South Miami.
Fortunate for me the guitar player Lenny Kimmil had an appendicitis attack onstage during their performance and the band
immediately asked me to fill in his spot.
I happily agreed not knowing that a few days later they would ask me to
remain as their lead guitarist indefinitely.
At that time it was a chance of a lifetime to play with such
professional and charismatic group. I
asked my brother his thoughts in leaving our group “The Charades” and joining
“The Seven of Us’. My brother was
incredibly enthused and said “it’s a chance of a lifetime and you must go for
it” and I did. A few years later I
rejoined my brother and a couple other musicians and that is when we started up
a group called “The Bangs”. The group
was a hit and that was one of the first versions of what became later the group
“Tiger Tiger”. Before the group was
named “Tiger Tiger” we started writing and performing our own compositions
under the name of “Sun Country”, which was also a hit group in the early
seventy’s. We also cut our first EP in
1969 which later was released in Germany under Sony ZYX Label. Sun Country toured throughout the country including
L.A where we live and performed at places like “Whisky a Go Go”, “The Troubadour”, “The Experience”, and “The Coral”. We also performed at the first Miami Pop
Festival along with Jimi Hendrix and others.
We toured Ohio, New York, and Atlanta and then later came back to Miami
in the early seventies when my father asked us to come back and help him in
creating a positive awareness of the Miccosukee Tribe, which at that time
hardly anyone knew much about the Tribe.
So I asked “Pop, we are musicians, how can we be any help to your cause?”
he replied “Well you guys are musicians, why don’t we put some concerts on out
here in the Everglades and invite the South Florida Communities to come out and
learn about us”. My brother and I agreed
and we left L.A. to come back and start up these concert series in the
Everglades. In 1976 my father asked me
to help him design a boardwalk and structures to facilitate a museum with
artifacts, paintings, etc… I got my
ideas from Walt Disney World’s campgrounds and tree houses. It took about a year to complete and during
that time my brother was hired as an artist to paint pictures that would go
into the museum. All during that time
and after we continued to write, perform, and record our music. When Tiger Tiger started up in Nashville we
later started doing concerts globally to promote the Miccosukee tourist
activities.
In the year
2000 we signed a five year record contract with Sound of America Records to
produce three CDs. After that we
continued on and opened up our own record company called TTM Records which
produce three more CDs completing our six album catalog. My brother had an unfortunate falling in his
Miami home in 2007 at the young age of 5and passed away. A week before he passed away we were awarded
the Life Time Achievement Award from the NAMMYs. I became a bit depressed for a while and
later snapped out of it and started writing music again which I plan to record
a new CD sometime in the near future.
I currently
own a company Lee Tiger & Associates which specializes in Native American
Tourism Development. Also I own Native
American Indian Global which designed a project called City of Rock Resort and
Casino which is currently a project in works. TTM Records, mentioned earlier,
keeps my office busy with marketing and sales of our catalog.
My future
plans are to continue what I started out in life doing which was music and
educate, communicate, and promote Native America Worldwide.
