“Lucky” Lee Hendler

“I got the nickname when I was working with Lucky Peterson, a blues artist that I started touring with in my twenties, when I went around the Chitlin’ Circuit with a lot of blues artists.

- Frank Etheridge

I’ve played piano since I was 14, and started playing with bands on Bourbon Street when I was 18. I’m 49 now.

I know 18,000 songs. I was playing at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop in ’98 when an agent came in and asked me if I wanted to go to Norway. From there, I went to Holland and played the largest dueling piano bar in the world, Crazy Pianos, which is still running. We had 22 piano players on staff. I learned the craft of how to do the dueling show—it became part of my trick bag.