Herb Pino
Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar

This is a killer shot of Herb taken at the  Orlando Youth Center circa 1967.  According to Herb, the "look" was inspired by  having attended a concert by the "Dave Clark Five" Photo by John Malarkey  Contributed by Evelyn Rivenbark Hughes.

This one's a little later shot circa 1970 or 1971 when the band consisted of Herb, Frank O'Keefe, Hughie Thomasson, Billy Jones (on keyboards)  and Monte Yoho.

Back in the early days of the Outlaws, the primary vocal duties as well as additional guitar stuff were provided by Herb Pino, born May 28, 1949.  He was the "front man" of the band--a 5'5" dynamo with a 10 foot tall voice.  Going back even before the Outlaws as WE old folks knew them, he had crossed paths with Hughie Thomasson at a party near Ybor City.  Some time afterwards, Herb auditioned for a band called The Rogues and the two crossed paths again. ( I believe there was another band "Four Letter Word" in here somewhere).....eventually they came to be the Outlaws (see "Outlaws 101 Chapter 1")

Herb was actually the first person I met in the group--he introduced me to J.B. (don't know if I should thank him or slap him for that one).  A lot of fun was had in those old days...Herb once "tested" the audience at the Orlando Youth Center, figuring they were not listening to the lyrics of the songs anyway, by doing a creative, totally adlib re-write of Credence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising", changing lyrics which started out as "there's a bad moon on the rise" to  "There's a bathroom on the right".  SOME of us were actually listening and were laughing so hard we needed that bathroom...

Herb eventually left the band and joined the Navy..upon the end of his military duties he returned to the Bay area and landed in Clearwater where he spent some time again with Frank and J.B. before returning to north Florida (referred to jokingly as the "midnight escape"--I still don't believe my old Pinto actually made it to Fernandina Beach...).

There he was playing acoustic music with one of his old Navy buddies, Ben Bridges, under the name Moontree.  Seven people shared a three bedroom stilt house on the beach--but it wasn't as crowded as it really sounded--several were still in the Navy and were gone quite a bit.  Eventually, Herb, Ben and myself, who were all working together hanging wallpaper (hey, its a living) moved down the street a ways.  I was commuting back and forth every weekend as I had a gig as Program Photographer at the now-defunct Golden Gate Speedway and eventually I did relocate to the Tampa area. In 1984 I had the sad duty of calling Herb to tell him that "The King" was gone.  That was my last communication with Herb Pino until Thanksgiving, 2000, when, through the help of a nice lady at a "find your old friends online" service, I was able to locate him in Ohio.  Herb had rejoined the Navy and served until medically discharged in the early 1990's.

Vividly remembered was Herb telling me the story of how he was driving down the road when he suddenly heard
"Keep Prayin' (Everything's gonna be Alright) on the radio.  He said he headed for the first record store he could find, knowing that he and Frank had written this song, to see if his name was on the record.  It was not.  He later had the same experience with another song, "Man of The Hour".  I don't think he was too happy about this.....but I sure understood it.  I had the same reaction to those old songs coming out on albums, songs I had first heard in Youth Centers in my high school days.

Herb has continued to write music over the past 16 years and is hoping to complete a CD sometime in the near future.  He is married and lives in Ohio where he works for Kroger.