Catching up Pablo Cruise band member Cory Lerios

What was it that fueled the musical explosion that erupted on the mid-Peninsula in the late ’60s and early ’70s? That’s what we asked Pablo Cruise band member Cory Lerios who will be at The Guild on May 9.

“There was an explosion once the Beatles hit,” said Cory, who attended both Palo Alto High School and Menlo School. “Everyone started putting together combos. People wanted to be in bands.”

Cory said he saw the Beatles when he was at Menlo and used to see members of the Grateful Dead walking down University Avenue in Palo Alto. He was a big fan of Stevie Nicks who, along with Fleetwood Mac bandmate Lindsay Buckingham, graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School.

“I got involved with a teenage nightclub, the Crystal Ship in Roundhill Village, on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe,” he said. “I think I paid Fritz Rayband — Stevie and Lindsay’s band —  $200 to play there in 1968.”

Fast forward to today, and Cory is not only a successful film and TV composer but performs about 50 shows a year with Pablo Cruise, which was started in San Francisco in 1973.  This will be the second time they appear at The Guild.

“I think the thing that keeps me going is the Pablo Cruise repertoire,” he said. “I don’t think you ever retire from performing music.”