Pablo Cruise

History

Pablo Cruise began in San Francisco, in 1973, with former members of Stoneground (Cory Lerios on keyboards and vocals, David Jenkins as vocalist and on guitar, and Steve Price on drums) and It's a Beautiful Day (Bud Cockrell on bass and vocals). Lerios had formed a band while at Palo Alto High School. His classmate, Steve Price, signed on as a roadie (because he owned a van), then joined the group on drums when their drummer left. They were eventually to find their way into Stoneground, where they were joined by Jenkins (originally from Ypsilanti, Michigan and the group's only non-Californian).

Initially, there were many fans who were left wondering who Pablo Cruise really was. When asked the question, the band, which is a quartet, would answer, "He's the guy in the middle." When asked what Pablo Cruise meant, the band would say that "Pablo represents an honest, real, down to earth individual; and Cruise depicts his fun loving and easy going attitude towards life."

The band released its first album in August 1975, a minor success self-titled Pablo Cruise, and their second album in April 1976, titled Lifeline. Their second album achieved slightly higher success than their first but still only managed to chart at No. 139 in the United States. The instrumental "Zero to Sixty in Five" from Lifeline was used as theme music for various sports television shows. That success encouraged the band to try their hand at more film and TV scoring.

1977's A Place in the Sun was the turning point in the band's career as they finally entered the mainstream music scene. With hit single "Whatcha Gonna Do?" and the title track "A Place in the Sun", the album peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard charts. Other chart hits followed, including "Love Will Find a Way" and "Don't Want to Live Without It" (both from their platinum selling 1978 release Worlds Away), "I Want You Tonight" (from 1979's Part of the Game) and "Cool Love" (from 1981's Reflector).

"Whatcha Gonna Do?" and "Love Will Find a Way" had nearly identical seven-week ascents on the Billboard Hot 100, capping with their #6 peaks, a year to the week apart, from mid-July through August.

In 1979 Pablo Cruise contributed the song "Reach For The Top" to the movie Dreamer and the following year, they placed "What Have You Got to Lose" with the film Inside Moves.

Lineup changes

In the middle of 1977, Bud Cockrell left to form a duo with his wife and former It's a Beautiful Day bandmate, Patti Santos, and was replaced by Bruce Day (who had played in a band with Carlos Santana before his Santana days). Day had a short tenure and was replaced himself in late 1980 during the recording of the band's sixth album, Reflector (July 1981), by popular session bassist John Pierce. Also, earlier in 1980, the band had added Angelo Rossi as an additional guitarist.

In mid-1981, Price left suddenly and was succeeded by Donny Baldwin, who had played with Elvin Bishop and would move on to Jefferson Starship by the summer of 1982. David Perper was next to take over the drum throne and Angelo Rossi was replaced by Stef Birnbaum (aka Stef Burns) after just one album.

In 1983, the group released Out of Our Hands, which featured a change of sound to a more "80s pop keyboard direction", with Lerios bringing in more synths and down playing the piano that had been a huge feature in the group up to this point. The band then toured again that year with another new member, Jorge Bermudez, on vocals & percussion. Mostly due to the rising popularity of new wave, the album struggled with sales.

By the end of 1984, Pierce, Birnbaum and Bermudez had left.

1985 attempted reunion

In 1985 the four original members reunited hoping to score a new record deal. It was not to be, however, and the group called it quits in 1986.

Jenkins moved on to join country rockers Southern Pacific in 1987, alongside former Doobie Brothers Keith Knudsen and John McFee and Creedence Clearwater Revival bass player Stu Cook. After leaving Southern Pacific in 1989, Jenkins relocated to Hawaii where he was introduced to Hawaiian artist Kapono Beamer and began writing music with him. This eventually led to their album Cruisin' On Hawaiian Time (2006), a collection of songs dedicated to the Hawaiian Islands.

In the meantime, Cory Lerios worked on movie & TV scores, providing the music for the popular 90s show Baywatch, among many others.

1996 partial reunion

Around 1996, Jenkins and Cockrell reunited once again as Pablo Cruise. But Lerios, at the time, was not able to rejoin due to his busy sessions schedule and Price was likewise unavailable, so keyboardist Kincaid Miller and drummer Kevin Wells were brought in. Percussionist James Henry appeared with the band as an occasional special guest from 1999 to 2008. Second guitarist Ken Emerson and two additional backup singers, Caroline and Renita, were also recruited (briefly in 2002) for added stage attraction. Drummer Billy Johnson (ex-Santana) temporarily sat in for Wells in 2002.

Former Pablo bassist Bruce Day died June 30, 1999 in Windsor, CA from unknown causes. He was 48.

2004 to present

In June 2004, all four original Pablo members were back together playing again at Steve Price's wedding. This led to three of the four—Jenkins, Lerios and Price—deciding to reconvene permanently. Cockrell was not involved this time and George Gabriel joined on bass and vocals. During his time away from Pablo Cruise, Price went on to become a leading figure in providing E-learning and also formed his own aerial photography company.

In 2010 veteran bassist Larry Antonino (who has worked with Air Supply, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Laws and many others) came in in place of Gabriel, who'd left Pablo Cruise in November 2009.

Bud Cockrell died on March 6, 2010 after complications from diabetes. He was 59.

On November 8, 2011, Pablo Cruise released their very first live album, it's good to be live, on the Red Recording label. The package included both a live CD and DVD. The live performances were taken from concerts performed at the Blue Goose in Loomis, CA on July 9 and 10, 2010. The CD also featured new versions of their songs "A Place in the Sun" (featuring fellow Red Recording artist Katrina) and "Love Will Find a Way" (with Ty Taylor of Vintage Trouble).

In 2015 Cory Lerios released an EP, If I Could Change Anything It Would Be You!, under the name Cory Charles.

The band continues to tour, mainly in and around California.

Current members

Past members