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Former local pursues music scene in Hawaii

Doyle Purdy still visits roots in Barstow
March 30, 2010 2:58 PM

By EUNICE LEE, staff writer

PEARL CITY • By day he’s known as the tech guy and a chief warrant officer in the U.S. Navy. By night, he’s a singer and guitarist for Hawaii-based rock band Kilroy. And in Barstow, Doyle Purdy is better known as a part of the family that runs longtime local businesses like the meat store and tire shop.

The Barstow native’s recently formed band is working to break into the island music scene with concerts and television spots, like their first local morning talk show to air in Hawaii Friday.

Doyle joined the Navy fresh out of high school at age 19.

“I just wanted a change of pace and decided to joined the Navy and see the world and learn some things,” said Doyle, 43. Part of his education was getting introduced to the guitar.

As he traveled from port to port on the USS Essex, Doyle and a few other musicians on board formed a cover band. The as [sic] the band entertained crew members, other ships and even locals at naval ports, the Navy supplied them equipment like amplifiers and mixing boards.

“The ship noticed that we had a lot of good things to offer the crew as far as morale,” he said. But it wasn’t until several years later that Doyle’s singing voice was unearthed during karaoke.
“It’s kind of surprising,” said his uncle Tommy Purdy. “I didn’t even know he could sing.” Since then he’s wielded his voice and guitar on stage with the three other members of Kilroy, which Doyle describes as being influenced by bands like AC/DC and Motley Crue.

Recently Doyle and the band have focused on promoting their band around Hawaii.

“You really have to get out there and sound really good and capture the hearts of the audience,” he said.
Aside from holding down a day job and being a husband and father, Doyle also regularly pays visits to Barstow to see his roughly 75 or so relatives. When he’s in town, he’ll visit his uncle Tommy at Purdy’s Quality Meats where Doyle cut meat as a teenager, hang out at family get-togethers or go off-roading with friends.

Once during a family gathering he played an original song he called “84,” which was a tribute to Barstow.
“It’s a love song about some of the things I’ve experience while I was there,” Doyle said. His father, Doyle Purdy Sr., didn’t expect to see his son become a musician later in life since he grew up mainly around sports, but said he’s proud of his son’s band.

“All the music is stuff they wrote,” said Doyle Sr. For Doyle, a late-blooming talent has now turned into much more than a hobby.

“Now it’s a passion in my life,” he said.