John Waite plays The BayCare Sound in Clearwater, Florida on March 29, 2025. Credit: Photo by Caesar Carbajal

Former Babys frontman John Waite recently took part in a documentary on his life, and while watching it took him back, it wasn’t necessarily to his heyday.

Bits and pieces of “John Waite: The Hard Way” were put together during COVID-19, and as a result, the 72-year-old Englishman was taken back to “really strange times” earlier in the decade. These days, he’s constantly touring and has been in Tampa Bay to open for the likes of Men At Work, Pat Benatar and Styx.

Ahead of his opening slot for Little River Band, Waite told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay about prog-rock outfit Family being the best gig he ever saw. Read his full quote below.

I was 15 when I first saw Family play at Lancaster University. The circle I moved in heard they were very different and were the next big thing. These were art and university students. I hung out on the edges of that world so I got the word and saved whatever money came my way for a ticket. They came from Leicester. They were sort of prog, jazz and blues. They dressed like London and sounded like the hippest band on the planet. Roger Chapman sang lead and was unique. I’ve never seen anyone do what he did that night ever again. I was transfixed. I understood on some profound level what was happening and fell in behind as a devotee. Me and my friends talked about nothing else for the next six months, waiting for the release of their first album Music in a Doll’s House. That and Hendrix’s Are You Experienced and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers were my plastic 12’ inch bibles. I never looked back.—John Waite

Tickets to see John Waite and Little River Band play Clearwater’s BayCare Sound on Saturday, March 29 are still available and start at $30.