During the day, Baton Rouge musician Ben Herrington has an engineer’s approach. He’s calm, deliberate and steady. But on stage, he’s a wild man, playing piano, trombone and accordion—sometimes all three in the same song—with local bands such as Minos the Saint.
“It’s like playing music is his drug,” Peter Simon, lead singer and guitarist of Minos the Saint, tells 225 in a new feature on Herrington.
Herrington’s love of music started in childhood. At 4-years-old, he wanted to be Huey Lewis. The next year, he started playing piano. In high school, he excelled in playing trombone, then got a scholarship to LSU for that instrument. In college, he played in as many college ensembles as he could and even studied under jazz professor Willis Delony.
Throughout his musical journey, he has never wanted to focus on playing just one instrument or genre.
“It’s been more of a marathon than a sprint,” Herrington says. “My key is that I’ve kept my curiosity going relentlessly. I wasn’t the best at any one thing, but I did all of these different things. I’ve synthesized all those things into my particular musical voice.”
