Snapshot: Stan West

Position: Band Manager

Hometown: Andrews, N.C.

Joined the Band: 1987

Stan's Story

Music always has energized Stan West. In high school, the hardworking Andrews, N.C., native had three jobs and sang in a barbershop quartet, a gospel quartet and the high school chorus. "I enjoyed the excitement and the constant change. I couldn't get enough," he says.

Stan has been hooked on music since he started singing in church at age 7. He took guitar lessons from Sherman Mason, a local music store owner, who invited Stan at 14 to perform with a show in Peachtree, N.C. In his first performance with a band, he played rhythm guitar and sang Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" in front of 300 people in a high school auditorium.

At 15, Stan formed a barbershop quartet, which sang at competitions on and off for two years. A year later, he joined the Jubilations, a gospel quartet from Robbinsville, N.C., and spent many weekends singing at churches and conventions in the Southeast. "All those musical experiences were adventures," he says.

After graduating from high school, Stan took a job as a patrol officer with the Andrews Police Department. Law enforcement always had fascinated him, and he quickly moved up in rank, becoming the assistant chief of police in two years. While with the police department, Stan received his associates degree in police science from Tri-County Technical College and his law enforcement certification from Western Piedmont Community College .

In 1980, Stan joined the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department, where his passion for music came in handy. "I brought my guitar into the small Cherokee County Jail and played and sang for the prisoners," he says. He often moonlighted at weekend music festivals.

He stayed with the sheriff's department until 1984, when he became a special officer with the Norfolk Southern Police Department at Hayne Car Shop in Spartanburg, S.C. There, he was assigned to train Dale McCoy, a member of the Lawmen, in police work. The two would play music together during lunch breaks. "Dale and I became very good friends," says Stan. "I was just amazed at his musical talents. He could play any instrument with strings on it."

A temporary position in the Lawmen opened in 1987, and Dale asked Stan to fill in. He had one week until the next show to learn the bass guitar and tenor parts for 15 songs. Never one to balk at a challenge, Stan trained with Dale all day, every day, and the show was a huge success. He joined the Lawmen in October 1987 and was promoted to band manager in 1994. As manager, Stan schedules and coordinates some 200 annual appearances of the Lawmen across the country.

Stan looks back on his early years as foundational to his musical development. "It seems like I lived 100 years back in high school," he says. "But I wouldn't change a thing if I had to go back and do it all over again."