Joe Gannon: Behind the Music
Joe Gannon could probably tell VH-1 a thing or two about his show biz past and the elite entertainers he’s represented. But now that he’s “retired” into the restaurant business, the popular cable music channel might have to take a number.
A Joe’s kind of place was in the back of Joe’s mind 45 years before it actually opened. As a radar navigator for the Navy, he stopped on a tiny atoll in the Pacific called Wake Island to refuel.
“We went directly to this Quonset hut that housed a bar called Drifter’s Reef. Just outside was the most beautiful lagoon I’d ever seen. I thought to myself, ‘Boy, one of these days if I could be in the Pacific and have a place like that…’”
After the Navy, the Philadelphia native packed up for college in Northern California where ha and a few friend started a musical group called The Kingston Trio.
“I played bass, but wasn’t any good at it. And I couldn’t sing, either,” Joe says with a chuckle. So he put down his bass, picked up his degree from Menlo College Business School (and a #1 class ranking) and moved to Minneapolis to work as an executive for a grocery store chain. A year later he heard his old buddies on the radio singing “Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley” and realized the music business was his true calling. Do he headed back to California and eventually became the road manager for…The Kingston Trio.
Joe was instrumental in changing the staid, lackluster shows of the time into true theatrical events. In 1970, Joe was the first to use moving sets, this time working with Neil Diamond.
And the jobs kept coming. He ran Frank Zappa’s record company, produced records for CBS, was road manager for Bill Cosby and staged Madonna’s first film appearance. Joe traveled the world as a producer, director and lighting designer for such stars as Alice Cooper, Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross, Barry Manilow, Julio Iglesias and almost every entertainer represented by rock n roll manager Shep Gordon. It was Joe, Alice Cooper and Shep Gordon who were responsible for yet another industry innovation: the rock n roll extravaganza, that one-of-a-kind stage show that generated more press than the music itself.
It was during his show biz days that he met his future wife, Beverly, who at the time was a road manager for Liza Minelli. Years later, they ran into each other in Dallas where Beverly had shifted careers and started her own catering company. They came to Maui on holiday and never left.
Now, almost two decades later, they own and operate two nationally acclaimed restaurants: Hali’imaile General Store and Joe’s in Wailea.
Joe created the stage-like atmosphere and lighting to show off the family talent. The end result is no Drifter’s Reef, but Joe’s is definitely a dream come true, with show-stopping food served in a show-biz atmosphere with sweeping views of the Pacific and Hale’akala.
Beverly oversees the kitchen at Joe’s, and turns out delectable comfort food. Daughter Teresa “Cheech” Gannon-Shurilla whips up the sinful selection of desserts. And Joe, himself, brings a smile to every guest that experiences his 45-year old dream.
