Todd Steed has been a fixture on the Knoxville music scene since starting his first band in high school. As a guitar student of both Knoxville guitar legend Terry Hill and Glenn Laney (Knoxville Grass), Steed has been enamored with almost any style of music he could find since an early age. He credits his sisters for getting the ball rolling when they forced him to sing Beatles songs on long car trips when he was five years old.
Steed has led a number of successful Knoxville bands (Smokin’ Dave, Apelife, The Suns of Phere) and released several nationally recognized recordings, earning positive reviews in publications such as Creem, Musician, No Depression and several international publications.
As much as he loves Knoxville, Steed’s other passion is travel. He has lived in Guatemala, Lithuania and Indonesia, as well as traveled to over 40 countries, though he claims, “I’ve never really counted the ones I couldn’t spell.” In Lithuania he was a news broadcaster for the first independent TV station in the country, Tele-3. He helped run a language school in Bogor, Indonesia, and in Guatemala he “just ate a lot of fruit and explored the country via bicycle,” as well as studied Spanish in a school in Antigua.
Over the years he has enjoyed working as a bus boy at Red Lobster, a club DJ, music director at WUTK 90.3 FM, and teaching English as a second language. At the University of Tennessee he taught various courses including History of Rock and Jazz Appreciation, as well as a course on Cross Cultural Issues. He also served as a coordinator in the Programs Abroad Office in the Center for International Education.
Currently, Todd is pursing his passions in music as host of WUOT’s Improvisations and the new Studio 865, which also airs UTTV. His day job also is in the musical realm, working in artist management and radio programming for AC Entertainment.
“I’ve enjoyed all the various careers and occupations, even the bus boy job,” Steed says. “But I am really excited to be doing radio and TV again. And being around music and music lovers all day is really about the best possible scenario. I still want to train to be a bush pilot in Botswana, though, when I get some free time.”
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