EARLY BEGINNINGS...

According to Mom Heinzerling, from the time he was a small boy, Ken Heinzerling was always "monkeying around", which eventually evolved to "monkey business" in his teen years.

"Monkey Business" was always on young Ken's mind throughout his early twenties as he searched for a way to goof off and get paid for it. Ken spent a lot of time hanging out with musicians throughout this incubation period. In his subconscious mind, he was still working out the details of his his master plan.

One day it occurred to Ken to become a musician. Of course... he had heard Dire Straits' song "Money for Nothing" so many times over the years, but now it made more sense than ever! He had sat in on drums during band rehearsals of some of the guys he was hanging out with before, so he knew he could do it. Plus, he had voice training and experience singing from his school years. It all seemed to make sense that he take a crack at it now.

Ken's first band, "Blind Lab Rats" lasted for about 3 years before certain events found the members going their separate ways. That was when "Monkey Business" was born.

MONKEY BUSINESS v1.0

Ken and fellow "Blind Lab Rat" guitarist Byron Wooten found a third member, Mario Salazar, to form the first lineup, which didn't last long enough to really get out gigging, as Byron made a decision to "go into retirement" from the band scene due to his newborn child and his need to bond with his own family more.

MONKEY BUSINESS v2.0

The next incarnation of the band included two ex-members of the band "Results May Vary". Drummer Ben Davis and Bassist Scott Bekebrede joined Mario and Ken and now Ken was trying his hand at the role of "Lead Singer/Front Man". They tried out other lead guitarists to fill the "Byron" void, and found Kevin Simnacher, ex-Lead Guitarist of "Tan Yer Hide"/"Fighter"/"Ratler"/"Big Spender" bands. This particular grouping left Ken missing drumming and then after 3 months Kevin jumped ship to join progressive rock cover band (the short-lived "Idol Threat") Ken decided to bow out at this time as well.

MONKEY BUSINESS v3.0

After a week or two of leaving the 5-peice grouping, Ken realized he had committed "Monkey Business" to playing a benefit gig, but he no longer had a band. He contacted Scott Bekebrede and his old friend Byron Wooten to join him in putting together an hour worth of entertainment for the benefit gig, which they did.

It was a great chemistry between the three, and they performed brilliantly as they played their first and only performance together. When asked if he was going to "come out of retirement" and start gigging again, Byron was unable to commit.

Fortunately, Kevin Simnacher had recently become available again, as he found himself "band-less" at about this time. So together, these three musicians banded together on a quest for grand scale assault on the Cedar Rapids area bar scene. The world may never again be the same.

MONKEY BUSINESS v4.0

After 4 years gigging steadily with the band, Bassist Scott Bekebrede announced in the Spring of 2009 that he would retire from the band to do other activities, like rest and get sleep, but would play out the band's schedule through August, or whenever we felt a suitable replacement was ready to take the reins.

Enter bassist Roger Lambert. It was less than a week of our posting an ad online with bandmix.com that Roger contacted Monkey Business through an email. He was currently playing in a band called "The Trux", but wanted to play out more than just once or twice a month and saw that we played out quite a bit more than that.

MONKEY BUSINESS v5.0

Only a short time after bringing Roger on board, Kevin had become replaced by guitarist Rick Madden. Rick came from another band Ken is currently working on with Rick called Spiderweb. With Jenny Cruz on Vocals and Dave Suri of Somewhere in Iowa on Bass.

Rick bring's a nice bluesey style to Monkey Business. Come out and witness Rick's stellar soloing over Roger and Ken's tight rhythm playing.

MONKEY BUSINESS v6.0

Roger sadly followed life's choice to move out of state. He is now living in Florida. Monkey Business is looking for a new bass player and Scott has agreed to rejoin until the position is filled. Wish us all luck!

Check out Ken's page >> ..... Check out Scott's Page >> ..... Check out Rick's page >>