Dr. Keith Kilgo

STORY BY LAKEISHA JUDKINS, FNN REPORTER, ANACOSTIA BUREAU. 

May 6, 2013.  Did you ever dream of becoming a musician or dealing with music? If so, sit down and have a conversation with Dr.Kilgo, a former member of the Blackbyrds to see what it’s like.  Killgo has always been a person with a dream for music.  He initially joined a jazz group, the Blackbyrds, as a song writer/jazz drummer.  During that time, he accomplished some things he thought he could never do.

Killgo has been playing instruments ever since he was 5 years old as he watched his father play in his band.  His inspiration came from his dad, who was a member of band.  Keith has played 7 instruments throughout his life.  His favorite instruments are the drum and piano because those are the first two he learned how to play.  Besides R&B, Kilgo also listens to and plays Reggae, Blues, Rock & Roll, and Country/Western. While he was in the group, he went through a lot. The biggest obstacle that the group endured together was trying to get paid for songs they wrote.

Killgo stated that if anybody wanted advice on music he would say “Learn as much as you can about it before you go into music.  Follow people around to see how they do it.”  One significant thing Killgo did in his life was becoming a teacher at Anacostia. After he is finished with Anacostia, he’s going to become a psychologist.

Today, Keith Killgo is in fact a teacher and band director at Anacostia High School.  Killgo modestly does not consider himself to be a living legend.  Rather, he sees himself as someone who still has things to do in the music business.  He teaches his students to not let destruction bring them down but to let faith carry them on.

Lakeisha Judkins is a freshman at Anacostia High School.