By Deb Peterson
Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
David Hungate, minor royalty in the rock music world and a native of Troy, was inducted into the Musicians’ Hall of Fame in Nashville last month.
Hungate, the son of the late U.S. congressman and federal judge, Bill Hungate, was inducted with a class of musicians that included Chet Atkins, Charlie Daniels, former Jimi Hendrix bassist Billy Cox, and the group Toto.
Hungate, 61, started his career with Boz Scaggs, playing on his “Silk Degrees” album. From there he became the bass player for Toto. The Musicians’ Hall of Fame is dedicated to honoring the “unsung heroes” of the music world – the studio musicians and record producers who create hit records.
Since Hungate’s first recording session in 1969, he has performed on hundreds of albums, movie scores, TV shows and commercials and has won four Grammys for his work with Toto and Chet Atkins. He continues to be active in the recording studios and on the concert stage, most recently touring with Vince Gill.
Hungate graduated from Buchanan High School in Troy in 1966. He went on to attend North Texas State University (which is now the University of North Texas).
He credits his teachers with having taught him a lot of music.
“I owe a debt of gratitude to my music teachers in the Troy schools – Olive Haffner who taught elementary music and Larry Bono and John Schofield who taught High School Band. Each of them gave me wonderful direction and encouragement. There were others like local musicians Charles S. “Chilly” Hutt from Kirkwood; my first and only guitar teacher, Toley Smith, a great trombonist from Louisiana; and Sonny Lefholz, bandleader from Hermann,” he said in an e-mail.
Hungate got his start playing at a little nightclub, Clara’s Country Corral, on Highway 61 a few miles north of Troy. In 1964 he and four friends — Denny Mashek, Jack Manning, David Berry and Vern Elston, started the rock band — “The Downbeats.”
Hungate’s mother, Dottie Hungate, lives in Town and Country. His sister, Katie Hungate Wood, lives in Hannibal.
Hungate maintains his Missouri roots with periodic trips to his farm near Cyrene and visits to family. He currently lives in Sumner County, Tenn., with his wife, April, a singer and songwriter. Hungate is the father of two sons, Noah of Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Matthew of Nashville. Both are professional musicians.