Tell the Savannah vampires — 'The Lost Boys' Tim Cappello is still the Sax Man

Musician and actor Tim “Timmy” Cappello has had one of the strangest journeys in modern music history.

Although he has a storied music career as a multi-instrumentalist and composer, it only took 12 seconds of screen time in the 1987 teen vampire movie, “The Lost Boys,” to burn into the collective conscious the indelible image of a buff, oiled up Cappello draped in chains, sporting a codpiece, pulsating his hips, and wailing on a saxophone while surrounded by flames and singing his hi-octane version of The Call’s “I Still Believe.”

Cappello, now known as the seductive "Sax Man" from the 1987 film, is bringing his one-man-show to Lodge of Sorrows for Nevernotgoth Night. Cappello is still buff, still wears the chains and codpiece, still wails on the sax, and still has a pelvic thrust that can blow skirts up from across the room.

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“My first gig ever, when I was 19, was touring with Billy Crystal, and he over the years has done a number of one-man shows,” a loquacious and engaging Cappello said over the phone when describing his own show. “My career has been a strange one, so I like talking to people about it in between songs. I probably do as much talking as playing and singing, because there’s just so many crazy things that happened to me over the years. If people start yelling back at me crazy things and getting into it, I love that. It makes each night different.”

The son of a conductor and music teacher, Cappello dropped out of high school when he was 15 to attend the New England Conservatory of Music where he played drums and keyboard for his audition. It was later that he picked up saxophone and studied under jazz artist Lennie Tristano.

In the 1970s, Cappello played saxophone and piano in Peter Gabriel’s band and appeared on his album “Peter Gabriel 2” (1978).

“That band, we had so much fun,” recalled Cappello. “(Drummer) Jerry Maratta was somebody that I went to school with and he got me in that band. I quickly became friendly with Sid [McGinnis on guitar], Larry [Fast on Synthesizer], Tony [Levin on bass], and Peter as well. He was such a nice just-one-of the guys...Personally, it wasn’t a boss-employee relationship. Not that he didn’t give us instruction from time to time.”

“I think I was a little too young, emotionally, to get everything I could out of it, but I still remember it with so much fondness.”

Cappello developed a heroin addiction that he decided to kick cold turkey when his young niece recoiled from his appearance in fear during a visit. He replaced drugs with body building, which led to his imposing and legendary physique.

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Cappello developed a reputation as a dynamo onstage through the 80s and early 90s playing in Tina Turner’s band. In a YouTube clip of a live performance of “Private Dancer” from 1993 an energetic, muscled Cappello dances, bangs on piano and percussion, and solos seductively on the sax, all while threatening to accidentally steal the spotlight from Turner.

“It’s kind of hard being somebody’s second banana, or third banana,” said Cappello. “I love touring for myself because I have no choice, I just have to totally go for it...and she wasn’t always so accepting of that.”

Cappello recalled a moment during his last tour with Turner that sums up the dynamic they shared on and off stage. “She came in holding a poster during rehearsal and it was like a heavy metal cartoon drawing of a guy with long hair and he was all just a skeleton,” said Cappello.

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“He was mean and in this over-the-top rock and roll stance. She said, ‘This is what I want on my stage, and if I can’t get it I’m going to hire a bunch of 18 year-olds and they’ll be happy to give it to me...Not you Timmy. You just stay right where you are.’”

Cappello appeared in the video for Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” from the “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” soundtrack. One could imagine another universe where instead of the guitar playing freak from “Mad Max Fury Road,” it’s the Sexy Sax Man leading the charge of mutant vehicles with flames shooting out of his saxophone.

“There was always a tension,” said Cappello of his 15 years with Turner. “I had my shenanigans in the back and I think she just thought I was trouble. Basically, because she told me that’s what she thought I was. It was probably, of any gig I did, the most musically, and on stage, the best fit I ever had as somebody’s foil, but it was not a comfortable situation. It was a tough gig.”

Despite band tensions, Turner did buy a codpiece for Cappello while in Berlin.

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“In Berlin you’ll have a Chanel store right next to an S&M store,” explained Cappello. “She just came back and said, ‘I saw this and thought of you immediately. Here put this on. It’s you. It’s perfect.’ I was just so touched by that, that she would think of me. It was totally unexpected and I thought it was so sweet to do that for me. I have worn a codpiece ever since.”

The codpiece adds to Cappello’s sexually charged dancing during performances.

“That’s just the way I feel the music,” explained Cappello. “I feel the music in my hips and that’s just what it is. I have no control over it. I’m not a dancer, so I can’t do spins or splits. I ain’t Prince. So, that’s the only way I can feel the music and it puts me in a spot where I feel like myself and it makes me play and sing like myself. It’s not a talent I have. It’s just the only way that I know how to react to music.”

Cappello’s unbridled energy is also expressed through the way he attacks the saxophone. Cappello cited Earth, Wind, and Fire’s saxophonist Andrew Woolfolk (who recently passed away) as someone who’s style is much softer than his own.

“He had this beautiful tone, but he was very raspy, but he wasn’t blowing very hard,” said Cappello. “He had this very relaxed, rock and roll sound. I was listening and listening, and I said to myself, ‘I could never do that.’ The only way I can play the saxophone is totally balls-to-the-wall. It’s the only way I can do it.”

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By the end of the 90s, Cappello retired from touring and led wedding bands instead, which turned out to not be a good fit for him. “I developed an anxiety disorder about it because if I had to play ‘Uptown Funk’ one more time I was going to pull my head right off my neck.”

Cappello’s fortunes changed in 2010 when Jon Hamm played a sexy sax man named Sergio in an SNL skit that clearly played homage to Cappello’s persona. Cappello’s friends and family thought he would be offended by the skit, but instead he was elated.

“I saw it and I just [expletive] loved it!” exclaimed Cappello. “I thought if there’s anyway I’d like to be remembered it’s this.”

The popularity of the SNL skit led to invitations to appear at conventions, the opportunity to finally record his solo album, “Blood on the Reed” (2018), touring, and a career renaissance.

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Since then Cappello has made several hilarious screen appearances including “Saxophone Apologies” on the “Break with Michelle Wolf,” the song and animated video for “Dark All Day” by Gunship, and sharing the stage with Corey Hart and Charli XCX in the “Stranger Things” tie-in concert “Live from the Upside Down” where he is attacked by a creature after finishing a sax solo.

“I really got to be a buffoon which I just love,” said Cappello.

Cappello’s growing popularity has earned him three generations of fans, from grandparents to children. It always surprises him when a 24-year old fans shows him an enormous tattoo of him on their body, which happens more often than you think.

“I’m 67 years old, I just don’t get it,” said Cappello. “I don’t get how I got so lucky without trying to do anything or get anywhere in the business. I know there are people who make millions of dollars in the music business, but none of them are as lucky as me.”

“It’s that look on their faces,” continued Cappello. “After I finish a song, that roar that just literally pushes me back a little bit, and those big ugly smiles. And they really are kind of ugly and people have no idea because they don’t know that they’re smiling. No one would smile like that for a picture. And I look out and see these smiles and they’re so beautiful because they have no idea how crazy they look. It’s beautiful.”

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA events: Lost Boys Sax Man Tim Cappello at Lodge of Sorrows