“There was an aura about him,” Bartner said. That’s it.’”ĭavis won the vote of his fellow students and became drum major for the fall 1977 football season. “The people who are in charge of a family, their motto is they ‘wear the pants.’ And then he said, ‘I’m gonna wear the skirt in this family.’ Everyone said, ‘That’s it. “He was talking about how the band was a family and he was going to take care of his family,” remembered clarinet player Joan Joya Kahaleuahi. His speech is still memorable to band members who were there. As part of the audition process, he gave a motivational talk to his fellow members. The photogenic warrior was seen around the world leading the band in the Rose Parade and was the focus of television cameras during USC football games.ĭavis tried out in advance of his junior year, attempting to unseat the incumbent drum major. Under Bartner’s direction, the drum major had become synonymous with USC pageantry: a Trojan simulacrum wielding a metal sword while clad in metal armor, a long flowing tunic and leather sandals. He joined the Trojan Marching Band on alto saxophone and had his sights on being the best there as well: He wanted to be drum major. I was the first Black person allowed to live on the row.” He went on to become president of the fraternity, another first.ĭavis also became one of the first Black students to perform in the USC Thornton Symphony, where he became first chair clarinet. “I had a friend who was already there and said, ‘Why don’t you try anyway?,’ so I went ahead and did it,” Davis said. He pledged the Theta Xi fraternity his freshman year and was accepted at a time when the Greek system was still effectively segregated. Rodney Davis: A man of firstsĪrriving on campus in 1975, Rodney immediately broke barriers. Davis, drum major of the Carson marching band and first chair in the Junior Philharmonic Orchestra of California, applied only to USC - and was accepted. They encouraged him to attend USC as a clarinet performance major and join the band. Bartner, director of the Trojan Marching Band at the time, and Robert Wojciak, a professor at the USC Thornton School of Music. While attending Carson High School, 15 miles south of USC, he received regular visits from Arthur C. They showed the video and he said something like ‘I should be paying him residuals.’”ĭavis’ rock star moment was just another achievement for a young man striving to be first and to be the best. Mick Fleetwood even mentioned me in one of his concerts a couple of years ago. “I get hits on that on Facebook almost every week,” Davis said. (Photo/Courtesy of the USC Trojan Marching Band) Bartner, then band director, during the recording of the “Tusk” video at Dodger Stadium in June 1979.
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