Legendary Bay Area “soul” band and Northern Nevada favorites Tower of Power return to Harrah’s Lake Tahoe on Friday & Saturday, February 2 & 3, 2018, in the South Shore Room. 

For well close to five decades, Tower of Power has delivered the best in Rhythm and Blues music. But, as group co-founder Emilio Castillo says, they could have had a much different name.

“We were a Soul band called The Motowns,” he recalls. Rocco Prestia was the bass player, I was in there, and my brother was the drummer. I met Doc Kupka at the Alameda County Fair over the Fourth of July weekend back in 1968 and gave him an audition. He came in the band, and we eventually changed our name to the Tower of Power.” The reason for the band name change was that they had a specific goal in mind.
“We wanted to get into the Fillmore Auditorium and with a name like the Motowns, dressed in suits with razor cuts, we knew we’d never get in there. We grew our hair long, and started to be hippies, and changed our name. Doc then suggested to me that we should start writing our own songs. Our first song was ‘You’re Still A Young Man.”

In 2014, Tower of Power will be on the road – a lot – as a result of their tour with Journey and the Steve Miller Band. He credits their involvement to an old friend, Journey guitarist Neal Schon. “We’ve known him for years, back to when he was hired to play in Carlos Santana’s band as an extra guitarist. When we were new, Carlos really dug the band, and he used to take us on tour – even when people around the nation didn’t know us. Some of those nights, we were playing at a high level and gave him a good run for his money. He liked that. He liked being challenged. It made him play better. At the time, Neil was in the band, and we’ve known him ever since then. About a year or two ago, he noticed our presence was becoming a little more known on the Internet and TV. He came to a few gigs, and the next thing we know, we get this offer to tour,” he says with a smile.

Fans that come out to see Tower of Power this year will get a look at their brand new lead singer, Ray Greene. Castillo says he’s a perfect fit. “It’s phenomenal. Most bands lose their singer, and it’s over. But, we’ve changed singers and other players so many times, the fans actually get excited about who’s next.” he said, as the band has had over forty members throughout their history. “I worked on finding a new singer for about a year and prayed about it a lot. I found out about Ray, and he’s amazing. All the guys come on stage, and we just think ‘Wow. God has really blessed us.’ He’s doing a great job, and has a great personality. One of the things you learn when you’ve been in the business as long as I have is to hire good people with principles because you’re going to spend as much as twenty hours a day with these guys. Ray’s got everything – he looks great, he sings great, he’s a good person. We’re just really blessed to have him.”

With a new member comes a new attitude, and Emilio says it’s contagious. “Everybody in the band is saying ‘Wow, what is happening?’ You get to an age where we’re at and things can start to run down but it seems like for us that things are really kicking into high gear.”

And, that’s the way Tower of Power likes it!

Harrah’s Lake Tahoe
15 Hwy 50
Stateline, NV 89449
(775) 588-6611