Freddie Meyer From Ivan & The Sabers
By Lee Hay • Oct 4, 2019
Bob Fries (Cinti filmmaker who moved to NY & became John Lennon's film partner & producer of film Ladies & Gentlemen The Rolling Stones), Doug Yeager, & Freddie Meyer at 1975 party in band's house Straight St Cinti
Freddie Meyer was the original drummer and singer of Ivan & The Sabers, a popular Ohio band in the early to mid-60s, who later became a star in France with his band Salvation & His Army.
He's lived in France for the past 51 years. Lee Hay recently learned more about Freddie from his longtime friend Doug Yeager. (The music at the end of this interview by Ivan & The Sabers was supplied by Shake It Records.)
Freddie Meyer
By Lee Hay • Sep 25, 2019
Doug Yeager speaking by phone with Lee Hay about Freddie Meyer on 9/23/19
Freddie Meyer, the original drummer and singer of Ivan & The Sabers, a popular Ohio band in the early to mid-60s, later formed his own band Salvation & His Army (while studying TV production at UC). Doug Yeager took the band to France in 1968 where Meyer became a star and protege of Brigitte Bardot. He's lived in France the past 51 years. Lee Hay recently spoke by phone with Freddie's longtime friend Doug Yeager about him.
Born without a leg above the knee, Freddie Meyer was the poster child of the company that manufactured artificial limbs in Dayton, Ohio. While at UC, he helped engineers invent an artificial leg with a hydraulic pump, so he could get out from behind the drums and dance like James Brown. That artificial leg became the model that everyone in the world would then use. In Europe, he became known as the "white" James Brown.