| Dewell Edwards/Slaughter Incorporated
SLAUGHTER, INC., Wichita
While lead guitarist Byron Pyles was in the military and stationed in Yuma, AZ, he started a band in 1972 that became Slaughter, Inc. It disbanded and Pyles returned to Wichita, where he and his wife Cynthia ("Tootie") had grown up, met and married. Byron and Cynthia hoped to find new bandmembers, but weren't having much luck until they cruised out to Bill's Le Gourmet Restaurant and Club, at the time a favorite hangout for some of the area's musicians.
"We just wanted to jam," said Byron Pyles. The only other musicians in the place that night in 1974 were drummer Billy Lynch and bassist Dewell Edwards. Not being the type to walk away from a jam session, the four hit it off. Things just naturally clicked. The four and Oklahoman Ernie Potts, on sax and flute, formed the nucleus of Slaughter, Inc.
The band recorded a single in 1975 that got very little airtime on Wichita radio, "Here I Am". "We decided to get out of Kansas then and see what our record could do," Pyles said. "We actually booked ourselves to L.A. It's a rat race. We spent a year out there and played almost every nightclub in Los Angeles." The trip paid off, though, because the group was booked for their first overseas tour.
Playing in places like Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan, the band accomplished three important things. They made money; they recorded an album; and the group made contacts that bettered their recording potential in the U.S. The album, called Slaughter, Incorporated was special, not just because it was their first, but because Slaughter, Inc. was the first black American group ever to record in Hong King. It was also the first group to play for an extended period in the British colony.
Slaughter, Inc. signed with Atlantic Records in late 1979 with their first U.S. album scheduled for release in 1980.
From: Kansas Rockers...The First Generation [i] (out of print) | 
