gives a lot of credit for
his remarkable achievements in music to one man: Charleston High School band
director R.G. Williams.
Miles, who will be inducted
Saturday night into the Hall of Fame, said, "R.G. was a great, great band
director. He was very strong-willed; you did not cross him. He always had very
good marching bands and fine concert bands."
According to Miles,
Williams believed that if something was worth doing, it was worth going all out
for. He demanded his students give him their very best. "R.G. installed a work
ethic in me that's stayed with me since my high school days," Miles said. Williams would be proud.
Miles grew up in Hinton and
Charleston and only missed being a native Mountaineer by an early arrival
during the summer of 1944. His parents had gone to visit relatives in Russell,
Ky., over the Fourth of July weekend.
"And I guess I wanted
in on the party," he said.
The tiny town did not have
a hospital, so his mother was taken to Ironton, Ohio, where he was born.
"But I've always
considered myself a West Virginian," he said.
Miles got started playing
the drums in elementary school, and then joined the school band in junior high.
He stuck with it through high school and even branched out into rock 'n' roll
with some kids he knew from school.
"We called ourselves
The Thunderbirds or The T-Birds," Miles said. "We'd play at lunch in
the assembly room. Kids would pay a dime each for us to play for them."
In 1960, he said, rock 'n'
roll was kind of dull, especially if you were a drummer. Miles wanted more out
of his drumming than just keeping time. He decided he needed some lessons.
"Everybody told me to
go see Frank Thompson at the old Guthrie and Dean Music Store."
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