INTERVIEW LEE OSKAR
It’s an almost unique story, a fully paid-up member of rock’s elite getting involved in the grimy day-to-day of instrument manufacture, but one that will ring bells of recognition for virtually anyone familiar with either side of this murky, yet addictively satisfying business. Today, while no longer at the top of the
Harp operator N
early 30 years ago, while still enjoying the crest of success with the jam band, War, Lee Oskar started making harmonicas.
charts, Oskar is still very much at the top of his game and manages to combine two very successful lines: Lee Oskar harmonicas and the Low Rider Band (no longer allowed to use the name War, but more of that later).
28 miPRO JUNE
The Lee Oskars harmonica brand was launched at the NAMM show in 1983
The man behind some of the funkiest hooks of the ‘70s is also one of the most inspirational MI manufacturers operating today. Andy Barrett felt obliged to ask War veteran Lee Oskar how he does it – and why…
“People are always asking me how I manage to combine the two,” he begins. “But, you see, if I’m playing a gig, I get to do some brand sponsorship, and if I’m at a show like Musikmesse or at NAMM, then I’m playing. It’s not as though I’m doing two different things – they go hand in hand. “The harmonica is my tool,” he explains. “It’s how I live, but I was always frustrated with the instruments I got, maybe because of the quality of the supply. For years, of course, like most other struggling musicians, I had no money and I had one harmonica, so I had to make do. I had been playing since I was six years old, so I was always on the look out for something better, it
was like a quest. But then, once I started playing with Eric Burden and War, suddenly I had all the money I could want to spend on harmonicas. “All that happened was that I got even more
frustrated, having to buy ten instruments to get one decent one.” It is tribute to Oskar’s ‘quest’ that it was when
War was at its commercial peak in 1976 and 77 that the ‘how’ part of that question was answered. “I had been looking around for someone to make me a harp for some time, but I hadn’t had any luck,” he recounts. “Then, on tour in Japan, I was on my way down to the lobby to give an interview, when I heard this harmonica playing. I never made it to that interview.
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