KETTLE RIVER, MN — Monty Lee Wilkes, an occasional tour manager, noted FOH engineer and producer, passed away peacefully on Aug. 26, 2016 in hospice at his parents house after a lengthy bout with terminal cancer. He was 54. Wilkes’ work spanned nearly every musical genre, with his resume including credits with The Replacements, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Joe Strummer, Curtiss A, The Suburbs, Soul Asylum, Prince, The Smithereens, Beastie Boys, Britney Spears, The Go Go’s, Engelbert Humperdinck, Soul Asylum, The Suburbs, Babes in Toyland, Lisa Marie Presley, Red Kross, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The B-52’s and the Commodores.
Born on May 14, 1962 and raised in the small Minnesota town of Barnum, Wilkes’ musician father Howard Wilkes took him to a Grateful Dead concert as a youth. From this experience, he became hooked on the sound reinforcement process, and as a teen, Wilkes began doing sound for the Leisure Brothers, his dad’s band.
From there, Wilkes branched out to work with other bands and around 1981 started a lifelong involvement with Minneapolis’ First Avenue, a 1,500-capacity club that began as a Greyhound bus depot in 1937 and eventually morphed into a music venue that helped launch the careers of bands such as Prince and Hüsker Dü. A few years later, Wilkes was asked to tour with The Replacements. He quit his day gig at a local record store, went on the road and found his true calling.
But through it all, Wilkes retained his hometown roots and love for the Twin Cities’ music scene. While not on the road, he designed sonic upgrades for First Avenue, taught at St. Paul’s McNally College of Music and worked in the studio producing local artists including The Magnolias.
Wilkes is survived by his father Howard Wilkes, mother Sandra Wilkes, daughter Olivia Wilkes and brother Ray Wilkes. A celebration of the life and music of Monty Lee Wilkes is planned for Saturday, September 3, 2016, from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, at The Elmwood Inn, 2145 Highway 61, Carlton, MN, 55718.
