A phone call can change your life in an instant.
Just ask Dan Beehler.
“I remember everything about it,” explained Beehler, 53, drummer and lead singer of Ottawa-based heavy metal legends and speed metal pioneers Exciter.
“It was devastating.”
The year was 1999.
Beehler learned of his older brother Richard’s death from his sister Sheila.
She said the phone rang around 2 p.m. Her mother was calling from the hospital. “The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life was tell him that,” Sheila said.
Richard had been Dan’s best friend, mentor and biggest fan since the beginning of his career. Despite his brother’s encouragement, Beehler hadn’t touched his drumsticks since 1993 but his older brother’s death led to a reconnection with both music and his old bandmates.
Beehler, guitarist and former Algonquin student John Ricci, 60, and bass player Allan Johnson, 56, reformed Exciter in 2014 and are playing their first Canadian show since the mid ‘80s in Montreal on March 18. This wasn’t the first time Richard had a role in bringing the group together.
Beehler first met Johnson when he was a teenager. An 18-year-old Johnson knocked on his door clad in platform boots and long blond hair. Johnson had put an ad in the paper looking for a drummer but wasn’t expecting to be jamming with a short-haired, shy 15-year-old.
The audition was a surprise for both Johnson and Beehler, who had only learned of it that day. It was his brother Richard who had called Johnson on his behalf.
Richard’s gamble had paid off.
“You’re in the band, dude,” Johnson said.
“But you’re going to have to grow your hair. And fast!”
Playing the drums was something Beehler had wanted to do for years. He struck gold when a friend sold him a kit for $30. He practiced daily despite complaints from neighbours – sometimes as far as three blocks away.
In 1982, Exciter got their first big break: opening for Black Sabbath to a sell-out crowd of 7,000 at Lansdowne Park.
Beehler, Johnson and Ricci had front row seats to the concert. Following a fateful phone call, they were now part of the show.
“The original opening act, who was Johnny Van Zant, couldn’t make it,” Beehler said. “John, our guitarist, was friends with Dennis Ruffo who was the promoter in Ottawa. So he called us up in the afternoon, the day of the concert, and said ‘Do you guys want to open for Sabbath tonight?’”
“That was the turning point for the band’s career,” said Ricci.
Beehler met Ricci through Johnson in 1978. He was seeking a new bass player and drummer for his band Hell Razor. According to Johnson, the drummer set to play with him and Ricci never showed up for the audition. Johnson told Ricci “I know a guy” and called the Beehler residence. Within minutes, Richard Beehler drove up to Ricci’s warehouse with a drum kit and his little brother Dan.
“There was incredible chemistry between the three of us,” said Ricci.
Hell Razor spent the following few years perfecting their craft, although Ricci admits their first attempts at stepping out on their own weren’t the greatest.
“The first original music we wrote was horrible,” Ricci said.
In 1980, Hell Razor changed its name to Exciter after the unofficial fourth member of the band, Richard Beehler, suggested it was a “wicked name for a band.”
Although the band had originally looked for a singer, it was decided that Beehler’s vocal style suited the band’s sound after a particularly rousing rendition of AC/DC’s T.N.T.
“The turning point,” said Ricci, “Was I wrote the guitar riff to the song World War III.”
World War III was included on Shrapnel Record’s compilation album U.S. Metal Volume II released in 1982. This led to their first record deal. The following year the band’s first album Heavy Metal Maniac, released through Shrapnel, would hit record stores. Fan mail from all over the world began flooding in.
Exciter then toured New York State, with opening act Anthrax, following their new contract with Megaforce Records. Exciter later released Violence and Force and toured the U.S. with Denmark’s Mercyful Fate and Britain’s Motörhead.
This was the first of many tours across the United States, Europe and South America. Beehler was playing to crowds of thousands with bands like Motörhead, Mercyful Fate, Accept and Venom. Acts like Anthrax, Megadeth and Sepultura were opening for them.
Despite success all over the world, Exciter couldn’t get a break in Canada. Beehler’s home town of Ottawa was no exception.
“It was total depression the whole plane ride home. We’re all living with our parents and we come home and we’re nobody,” Beehler said. “The radio stations didn’t give a shit. The newspapers didn’t give a shit. Nobody cared. It was depressing. We hated coming home.”
The financial strains and lack of recognition, especially back home, became too much for Beehler. After years of touring and getting ripped off by managers, record companies, vendors and even roadies, Beehler called it quits in 1993.
“I just packed my drums away in the basement. Cut my hair. I shut it off. I was just so emotionally wrecked by the whole thing. I was angry that everybody else made it and we never made it. Just everything. Feeling sorry for myself. Just having no desire to play music ever again.”
It would take years of healing and a phone call to get the original lineup of Exciter playing together again.
“In 1999, my brother died,” said Beehler. “And for those seven years he bugged me, and bugged me to play in Exciter again.”
It was something many of their fans thought would never happen.
“I hope we can keep going as long as we can possibly go,” Beehler said.
Richard Beehler would surely be excited as well.
“He’d be over the moon, man. He’d be totally ecstatic,” Beehler said. “He’d be happier than the three of us.”