Ax man turned businessman
For Frank Dean, it’s not the stage that matters, it’s the music.
“Rock and roll’s a lot of fun,” said Dean, owner of Frank’s Guitars, located in downtown Franklin.
Dean would know. During time with his band – Sindicato – and as a solo act, he has played with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ricky Skaggs, the Beach Boys and other big names.
But Dean didn’t begin on stage, under the bright lights with his guitar and hundreds of screaming fans. Like most, his love affair with music began at a young age.
“I guess I started playing guitar the same way everybody does: You’re a kid and it’s cool.”
At a young age, Dean was a fan of The Beatles. But it wasn’t until The Rolling Stones came across the pond that he became hooked on rock and roll music.
“I discovered The Rolling Stones and that was pretty much it for me,” he said. “These are the cool guys, the ones my mom doesn’t think are cute.”
Counter-culture icons like Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young took it from there.
Rock music about the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement inspired Dean to strive for rock stardom.
“Rock and roll became more than just fun,” he said. “Rock and roll became a social movement.”
Dean focused on his music and played in local coffee shops until he was old enough to travel and play in clubs and bars. He found people he liked to play with and formed Sindicato.
With the release of its first album, the band looked like an instant hit. The debut album, “Appalachian Pipeline,” won Album of the Year from the Indianapolis Star, the Indianapolis News and NUVO.
“Nobody had ever done that before, so we were pretty much being able to call our shots and play anywhere we wanted,” Dean said.
Their next self-titled album did the same.
Despite that success, Dean equated the accomplishments to “hitting the most home runs in the minor leagues.”
Sindicato was never able to reach the tier of success that bands strive for. For all their local accomplishments, the band never received recognition on the national stage.
At the same time, Dean was getting tired of the rock-and-roll lifestyle.
“The world starts looking like a Motel 6,” he said. “You get to your next gig a day ahead of time and it’s in a small town somewhere with nothing to do, which basically means you’re going to go on a drinking- and drugging-stupor for 16 hours. It’s almost unavoidable.”
Dean said he wanted to settle down, so he found a small town to live in and found places where he could play a few times each week.
As far as his venture into business, it was just natural.
“I don’t know how to do anything else but play,” he said. “It’s pretty easy actually, you just go to a town where there’s not [a guitar shop] and stick guitars on the wall and you’re going to have a certain amount of people come in.”
