Biography Of The Twitty Fever Band

In the year 1969, Dave Rehrig who was performing with his family in a group called "The Rehrig Family" wanted to learn to sing the song "Proud Mary" by "Credence Clear Water Revival". Dave's twin brother Dennis gave him an album of Conway Twitty's music and told him to listen to Conway singing the song. Well, Dave listened to the album over, and over again, day and night, and decided he wanted to sing like Conway.

In 1972, Conway performed at "Ontelaunee Park". Dave and Conway met for the first time. Shorty Long who was the manager of the park introduced Dave to Conway. He had arranged for Dave to board Conway's bus and sit and talk to him. Whenever Conway and or Loretta Lynn appeared at the park, Dave and his wife Donna would try to catch their performance. Roy and Nellie Bachelor, friends of Conway, would arrange for Dave to meet and eat with the band, and talk about how Conway would just work on new material and sing it and perform it with ease.

In 1975, when Conway came to the park, he asked Dave to come up on stage and perform with him. Dave was so nervous he said "there was no way he could stand on stage next to his idol Conway and perform his songs." Dave said "maybe another time" and Conway replied, "there will be another time." Unfortunately before Dave could get over his nervousness Conway had passed away.

In 1979, Dave went to see Conway perform at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa. He went to meet with Conway to get his permission on using the "Twitty" name. Conway said "I would be honored to have a band in Pa. use my name." Dave had his picture taken with Conway while he was wearing a jacket with the "Twitty Fever Band" name and bird on it. The band got its name from Dave. He said that people were always calling him Twitty. And one day while at work, he was feeling ill, had a fever and thought "hey why not, “Twitty Fever”." The "Twitty Fever Band" was formed in the year 1979 to perform the songs of "The Great Conway Twitty." The band consisted of Dave Rehrig on drums and lead vocals, Dennis Rehrig on steel guitar, Dean Rehrig on piano, Jim Baldwin on bass guitar and back up vocals and Denny Kratzer as sound technician.

In 1980 Dave met Conway in Scranton Pa. where he was performing at the Masonic Temple. Dave and Donna had dinner with Conway, who had eaten Prime Rib and ever since then Dave loves to eat prime rib whenever he can. Donna also has memories of that evening. To this day she still has an empty pack of Vantage cigarettes that Conway was smoking that night. Other places that Dave has met with Conway are Sunset Park, Willow Grove, Valley Forge Music Fair and Penn National Race Track in Pa.

In 1989, Dave retired from the band because of his full time job and all of his family obligations. However, he continued to follow Conway and never stopped thinking about all the wonderful songs and what a wonderful man Conway was. On June 5th 1993, Conway Twitty passed away. Due to the lack of radio airtime and the sale of Twitty City, Dave's son Dustin felt like this was the perfect time to reform the band and keep the legend of Conway Twitty alive. In 1994 Dustin reformed the band by finding all the right musicians, which was a challenge because Conway's style of music is very difficult to play.

In 1995, "Twitty Fever Band" had a debut at the Rehrig home in Walnutport Pa. Hundreds of people came to the debut and since then, Dave has devoted all of his efforts to singing. People have been telling Dave that his use of Conway's gestures and his body language is very "polished". Dave says that he owes all his fame to Conway who will always be his idol. Since the restart of the “Twitty Fever Band” they have been breaking records at almost all of their performances. The "Twitty Fever Band" has become known to be fresh, new, exciting, different and enjoyable to watch, listen and dance to.

The “Twitty Fever Band” has a very entertaining show including a mixture of top forty and classic country hits. Together the mixture of all artists, comedy and a tribute to “Conway Twitty” this band is a must have for all fairs and festivals. When we enter the tribute part of our show the audience sits back, closes their eyes and swears “Conway Twitty” is on the stage.

In 2004, The “Twitty Fever Band” changed their name to “Dave Rehrig & The Fever Band”. The reason for this change is because Michael Twitty (Conway Twitty’s son) is also performing a tribute to his father. There was much confusion between the two shows. We were getting calls for his show and he was getting calls for ours. We decided the easiest thing to do was to drop “Twitty” from our name and try to alleviate some of the confusion. This will take some time for everyone to adjust to this change because we have had the name since 1979. On the contrary, we are very excited to have a new name and have been announcing the change since last July.

The “Twitty Fever Band” has opened for the following national entertainers: George Jones, Roy Clark, Lorrie Morgan, Charlie Daniels, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, David Lee Murphy, Cledus T Judd, Mark Wills, Loretta Lynn, Marty Staurt, Ronnie Mcdowell, Stonewall Jackson, The Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Pride, The Statler Brothers and many more. Dave Rehrig also sang with the Eddie Rabbitt band in Brasnson, MO.