Rock Hendricks and Billy Perry

A talk with sax great Rock and Billy perry about blind musicians. Music was in Rock's blood from the day he was born.  In fact, Rock was born with a rare congenital eye disease rendering him virtually blind.  As he came to rely solely on his hearing , his was instantly drawn to the beautiful, sweet tone of the sax.  When asked why Rock chose to play the sax as his instrument, he said, "I didn't have a choice"... he just knew it was his destiny.  During his younger years, great symphonic music such as Mozart, gospel music, and the songs of Little Richard and Fats Domino were of great inspiration to Rock and his passion to play the sax grew a life of its own.

​After several eye operations, Rock was divinely given the gift of partial sight at the age of seven.  According to Rock, it was the most memorable day of his life and the day he first laid his eyes on a saxophone followed a close second. No one could deny it was love at first sight and this resulted in Rock's father giving him his first saxophone at the age of nine.  In no time, Rock proved to be a natural prodigy.  At 15, he started performing with the soul groups of Oakland, California and Rock believes this experience is what gave him the true soul that can be heard in his music today.   

​Throughout his career, Rock performed and recorded with many legendary performers such as Michael Jackson, John Lee Hooker, Lydia Pense & Cold Blood, The Funkadelics, Michael Buble, Marvin Gaye Jr., Marvin Gaye Jr. III, The Temptations, Bobby Womack, Coke Escovedo, Walter Becker and Don Fagan, Steve Arrington, The Family Stone, Bonnie Raitt, Leon Russel, Dave Mason, Sammy Hagar, Motown Records, Gabriel Hasselbach, Jeff Lorber, and Paul Hardcastle.

​Rock wrote and produced music for the Electronic Arts game "The Sims" with over 150 million games sold.  

​He has also enjoyed living in Hawaii for over 20 years performing and recording with a number of Hoku award winning Hawaiian artists such as Cicilio and Kapono, The Cazimero Brothers, Music Magic, Nohelani Cypriano, Azure McCall, Kalapana, and Tenyson, Stevons..

​Since 2009, Rock has recorded over 30 songs with Paul Hardcastle and has had nine Billboard #1 smooth jazz hits.  Rock is playing sax with Paul on yet another upcoming album to be released at the end of 2016.