The Gants was an American garage rock band that formed in 1964 in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the cultural and geographic Deep South. History The Kingsmen began with Sid Herring & Johnny Freeman in 1963 playing R&B covers and the type of instrumentals popularized by The Ventures. The Gants were formed shortly after by Sid Herring (lead vocals and guitar), Johnny Sanders (October 8, 1945 – September 29, 2012; guitar), Vince Montgomery (bass guitar), and Don Wood (December 19, 1949 – May 14, 2011; drums). Several events combined to push the band from the obscurity of playing other artists' songs at Greenwood, Mississippi dances and into the popular genres of 1960s garage-rock. Freeman dropped out of the Kingsmen because of conflicts with his parents over touring out-of-town. After discussions with Vince Montgomery and Don Wood, Sid Herring replaced Freeman with Johnny Sanders. The band name was changed to The Gants, after a popular brand of shirt with a button-down collar, which is also the French word for "glove". In 1965, The Gants released their first single and album, Road Runner. At the same time, Herring, who resembled Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, began writing some original songs. In early 1965, The Gants were overheard by a U.S. tour manager and coordinator for The Animals, York Noble, while playing in the Holiday Inn ballroom in Laurel, Mississippi and were chosen to open for that band's Florida tour. This turned out to be a typical development for The Gants — playing the first set for more famous groups — but opportunities were limited with half the band still in high school and the other half in college. At this point, The Gants had a professional sound and a repertoire of original material and an even larger repertoire of covers, which were reflected in the choice of sides for their first single: (Bo Diddley's) "Road Runner" backed with (Herring's own) "My Baby Don't Care", released on the Statue label in mid-1965. The record showed enough potential for re-release on a major label, Liberty Records, in September, and it gained some modest chart success, reaching #46 in the US and #28 in Australia. Later that year, Liberty released The Gants' first album, Roadrunner. In January 1966 a new single was released, "Little Boy Sad", which included an early use of the talk box later made famous by Joe Walsh and Peter Frampton. The band tried