DJ Lance Rock on Yo Gabba Gabba!

As a father of a 2 year old I’m subject to a lot of bad children’s television programing. Normally I can tune it out and concentrate on whatever PHP book I’m reading that week, but one program that caught my eye was Yo Gabba Gabba!

If you’ve never had the privilege to see Yo Gabba Gabba! you truly are missing out. The show is about five toy monsters that are brought to life by a man, DJ Lance Rock, in a bright orange spandex jumpsuit and sporting a puffy orange hat and thick rimmed black sunglasses. Everyone sings and dances while teaching the children good life lessons like ‘don’t hit your friends’.

Jack Black dancing on Yo Gabba Gabba! | Image borrowed from smotherhood.biz

The episode I saw guest starred Jack Black. Jack was flying a talking scooter which ran out of gas and landed in the strange Yo Gabba Gabba! land, and yes I did say flying. In an effort to find more gas he sings and dances with the different characters of the show. I don’t want to spoil the ending for you, but I will tell you that Jack ends up in a bright orange spandex jumpsuit as well.

Jack Black on Yo Gabba Gabba! | Image borrowed from Nick Jr. nicknz.co.nz

The reason I started paying attention is because I’m a fan of Jack Black. But while watching this I started to wonder who this DJ Lance was, and why would someone like Jack Black be on his program. He must have been someone famous in the music world before Yo Gabba Gabba! offered him more money.

Whenever I want to know about anything I go to Wikipedia first. Wikipedia knows everything.

Lance Robertson | Image borrowed from nocostl.com

According to Wikipedia, DJ Lance Rock was born Lance Robertson in St. Louis, MO. He graduated from Hazelwood East High School in 1983. Why am I telling you this about him. Well, for starters, I live in St. Louis and had a lot of friends that went to Hazelwood East. After reading this I was hooked. DJ Lance just became very interesting to me.

In the 90’s Robertson was the singer in a rock band, My Other Self, and owned a record store called Deep Grooves.  Eventually he moved to LA to work at Amoeba Records and became well known in the local indie rock scene with the band The Ray Makers. While with the Ray Makers he met anther local musician Scottie Schultz from the band the Majestic. Schultz eventually co-created as show NOGGIN, now Nick Jr., called Yo Gabba Gabba! and called on his old friend Lance Robertson to host it for him and the rest was history.

Now this once indie rocker hosts a show featuring stars such as Jack Black, The Shins, Shiny Toy Guns, Tony Hawk Andy Samberg and the hobbit himself, Elijah Wood. This is truly a case of a ‘local boy done good’.

So if you get the opportunity to watch DJ Lance Rock on Yo Gabba Gabba!, and you just so happen to be from the St. Louis area, root on the local boy and know that anything is possible.

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