Leucadia Soul — Wally Passet: The Last Real Rocker In Leucadia

Snakebyte on stage at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas, 1986, packed floor — 1986 — Snakebyte draws a large crowd at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas. *Photo by Robbie Maya.*

“I heard him on the way to a party,” Carlos Rivero remembers as if it were yesterday. “It was over forty years ago and I was a couple years out of high school, and we’d go to a lot of parties back in the seventies and there was always a band. Me and my brother and a couple of friends were walking to this party and probably a block or two away I heard a band playing this Led Zeppelin song, Nobodies Fault But Mine, and I go, ‘Man, who is this?!’ This guy was doing such a good job, that I fast-paced over there and started asking, ‘Who the hell is this guy?!’ I didn’t even know. Then someone told me his name was Wally. I was amazed by this guy. He was probably 16 or 17 at the time. We later became friends. Hearing him definitely motivated me to become a better guitar player.”

Wally remembers that party Carlos first saw him at. “Ya, I was doing Jimmy Page on the guitar and Robert Plant on the vocals,” Wally laughs.

I personally know two other people that have told me virtually the exact same story. Different parties on different weekends, but the same shared memory of “Damn, who is this kid that can belt it out like Lou Gramm and play guitar like that?!”

Wally Passet in seventh grade singing into a microphone with a guitar at Oak Crest Junior High — Wally in 7th grade, performing “Suzie-Q” at Oak Crest Jr. High.

A 1971 newspaper clipping in a scrapbook showing a young Wally Passet playing an electric guitar, beside a La Paloma Theatre concert flyer — May 20, 1971 — the local paper announces Wally, 12, a sixth grader at Capri School, playing the Miss San Dieguito contest at the Lomas Santa Fe Country Club. “Wally started playing when he was eight, and learned much of his technique watching guitarists on television.” Beside it, a flyer for Neptune at the La Paloma Theatre. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

Wally’s musical talents emerged early in life, and his musical drive and leadership kicked in when he started his first band, Wally and the Gators, at age six, after getting his first guitar and amp. In sixth grade, Wally was performing solo acts at assembly playing guitar, and singing Creedence Clearwater stuff like “Suzie-Q” and “Born on the Bayou” at Pacific View Elementary School. Wally also began performing at local events such as the Miss San Dieguito Contest, the Del Mar Fairgrounds, and the Boys Club in Encinitas. “I knew Hendrix to Jerry Reed by the time I was ten,” said Wally.

A child's crayon drawing of a band on stage, pasted in a scrapbook, captioned Wallys 1st Band 5 years old The Busy Bees — From Wally’s scrapbook — a crayon drawing captioned “Wallys 1st Band – 5 years old – The Busy Bees.” The drum kit reads BUSY BEES; two of the players are labelled ARCHIE and WALLY. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

A 1971 letter on California State Assembly letterhead to Wally Passet, mounted in a scrapbook beside a dance-night flyer — 9 June 1971 — Assemblyman John Stull writes to 435 Third Street to congratulate Wally, then twelve, on his playing at the Miss San Dieguito Pageant. “You are a talented young man and I know you will go far if you continue along these lines.” Beside it, a flyer for a dance night at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

“When I was eleven, I began playing at the Sand Castle in Cardiff, I was being managed by Danny Smith,” remembers Wally, “and my mom was doing my setlist, and I’d tell her, ‘Mom, I want to do Johnny Be Good.’ And she’d tell me, ‘No, you’re going to do Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home,’ but I wanted to play rock ’n’ roll.

A typed sheet headed SOME OF WALLIE'S SONGS listing around seventy song titles, with further songs and set lists added in blue ink — “Some of Wallie’s Songs” — the set list Wally’s mother typed out for him, then kept adding to in pen as he learned them, along with running orders worked out for particular nights, one of them at La Paloma. Nobody starts out knowing seventy songs; the sheet is a record of a boy getting better, year by year. He was playing the Sand Castle in Cardiff, the USO in Oceanside and the naval base at Point Loma. Second on the list, in his mother’s own spelling: “Johnny Be Good.” *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

“Then between the summer of 6th and 7th grade, I joined the band Swamp Rat,” recounts Wally. “All my band members (Matt Gallagher and Ed Merrin on guitar, Howard Kaplan on bass and Tom Wilcox on drums) were close to, or in, their twenties, and I was twelve still. The first time I sang Jumping Jack Flash, I was hooked. As a result, I went on to play rock music. I can play the other stuff too. I can play the mellow stuff, but I choose to play rock music.”

Snakebyte posed on the balcony of the La Paloma Theater beside its vertical marquee, 1985 — 1985 — Snakebyte on the La Paloma balcony: Wally Passet, Kurt Anton, Johnny Ferrari, Andy Milner. *Photo by Robbie Maya.*

A cartoon-illustrated gig poster for Summer Madness at Golden Hall, San Diego, billing Neptune and Mickey Ratt — Summer Madness at Golden Hall, the San Diego Community Concourse — Neptune billed with **Mickey Ratt**, the band Stephen Pearcy would shorten to Ratt. Advance tickets $3.00. The poster gives the date as Saturday, August 5th, but no year. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

Wally later went on to dominate the Encinitas and San Diego rock scene with his bands, Hard Road, Neptune, Black Star and then began writing original take-no-prisoner rock as Snake Byte, (where they opened up for Quiet Riot in front of 10,000 people) and then King Neptune and for the past thirty years as Wally World, with the current band members; Loren Kofsky – Drums, Benny Petrella – Bass, Aaron Meyer – Guitar, and of course Wally Passet – Lead Vocals & Guitars.

Snakebyte performing live in colour, Wally Passet playing a red Flying V guitar — Snakebyte live. Restored from the original by Kyle Thomas, 2025. *Photographer unconfirmed.*

Snakebyte performing on an outdoor stage outside Belmont Park with the band banner on the barricade — 1980s — Snakebyte outside Belmont Park and the Mission Beach Plunge.

Wally Passet screaming into the microphone playing a Flying V guitar above the crowd, La Paloma Theater 1996 — 1996 — La Paloma Theater, Encinitas. *Photo by Robbie Maya.*

Reflecting on the ups and downs and all the hard work over the years, Wally warns, “The music business is a really f**ing evil business. It’s dangerous. It’s a dangerous business, man. I’m glad I never made it big in the rock business. I’m alive to say that. I saw this interview on Vince Neil. It showed his house up in Beverly Hills with all his swimming pools and waterfalls. He said to the girl interviewing him, ‘You like it right?’ She goes, ‘I love it. It’s so awesome!’ And Vince says, ‘Yeah, and I’m never here to f**ing enjoy it.’ They had to bleep him and everything. ‘I’m always on the f**ing road and on tour!’ It was so hilarious,” Wally laughs, “I f**ing cracked up.”

The five members of Wally World standing in the street as a city bus blurs past behind them — Wally World, 2008 — Philip Vanderwater, Loren Kofsky, Wally Passet, Jeff Moore, KoKo Fukuda. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

Make sure you watch the Wally World viral video on YouTube, Raise Some Kaine, search: Wally World Encinitas. Said by some haters to be the worst video ever made but strongly defended by the many who can’t get enough of it. You be the judge. “This initially just made me laugh. Now I can’t get this crazy tune out of my head. I watch it every day,” says one YouTube commenter.

Snakebyte album cover: a green snake coiled around a tree above a moonlit beach — The Snakebyte album cover. *Art by Darcy Baker.*

My challenge to you is to search out the older original music of the Snakebyte (1986), and the Wally World albums; Locals Only (2003), Locals Only Vol. 2 (2006), and Locals Only Vol. 3 (2010), and go down the Wally World rabbit hole.

Be looking for great, now classic, songs like D Street, Raise Some Kaine, Local Disposal, Stick it In, Johnny B, and Wicked Ass Bitch. Best rock music ever!!!

Wally Passet in 2021, long blond hair, black shirt, against an orange and blue painted backdrop — Wally, September 2021 — still ready to rock. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

For info about guitar and vocal lessons with Wally Passet or for booking Wally World, contact Benny Petrella: benny.gezaxrecords@gmail.com

Best of Wally World and King Neptune is now available on Apple Music.

From Wally’s Scrapbook

Wally kept everything — the flyers, the clippings, the letters, the prints. These pages were photographed at his place in September 2021, and almost none of it has been seen outside the album.

A scrapbook page with three colour concert photographs mounted over a 1968 youth football certificate of participation — One page, sixteen years apart. Three colour frames from the Snakebyte years, laid over a **1968 Football Certificate of Participation** — “Wally Passett of the Barracudas,” Jeffco Midget Football Association, Jefferson County, **Colorado**. Before Encinitas, there was Colorado. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

A 1974 handwritten letter on Jimmy McHugh Music letterhead mounted in a scrapbook beside a 1972 Miss San Dieguito Pageant programme and a snapshot of a boy — 28 February 1974 — a handwritten letter on **Jimmy McHugh Music, Inc.** letterhead, Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills. The writer’s mother had passed on a record of Wally’s: “I listened to record and I like the song ‘Music Is a Friend of Mine’; the song shows that you have great potential as a songwriter and as an artist… So Wally keep writing and playing and we’ll see what we can do.” The record was already two years old, which puts Wally at about thirteen when he made it. Beside it, the programme for the 1972 Miss San Dieguito Pageant — May 21, 1972 — listing him under Entertainment. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

A scrapbook page holding the Belmont Park photograph, dated in handwriting above it — The Belmont Park photograph where it lives, dated in hand across the top of the page: “Belmont Park Mission Beach The Plunge 1980’s.” *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

A scrapbook page with a colour photograph of a drummer under a Snakebyte banner above a Troubadour concert ticket — Doug Weston’s **Troubadour**, 9081 Santa Monica Boulevard — Snakebyte, **4 December 1984**, ten o’clock. No age limit, two drink minimum. Above the ticket, the drummer under the banner. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

A black and white print in a scrapbook showing a band on stage with hands raised in the crowd at the front — Another print in the album — the room close, hands up at the lip of the stage. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

A black and white print mounted in a scrapbook showing Wally Passet singing into a microphone and playing a Flying V guitar under stage lights — A print mounted in the album — Wally and the Flying V, under the lights. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

A black and white print in a scrapbook showing Snakebyte performing under stage lights beneath their banner, with the crowd in the foreground — Snakebyte under the banner, the room full. Another print from the album. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

From the Shoot

More frames from the September 2021 session that didn’t make the printed page.

Vertical portrait of Wally Passet against the painted backdrop, 2021 — September 2021. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

Wally Passet looking into the camera against the orange painted backdrop, 2021 — September 2021. *Photo by Kyle Thomas.*

As It Appeared in Print

Encinitas Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 4, pages 26–29. The story above is my original manuscript. The printed version cut Wally’s Vince Neil story entirely and changed one song title in the closing list. Those pages are reproduced here exactly as they ran.

Encinitas Magazine Volume 8 Issue 4 page 26 — Page 26.

Encinitas Magazine Volume 8 Issue 4 page 27 — Page 27.

Encinitas Magazine Volume 8 Issue 4 page 28 — Page 28.

Encinitas Magazine Volume 8 Issue 4 page 29 — Page 29.

Leucadia Soul — Wally Passet: The Last Real Rocker In Leucadia

From Wally’s Scrapbook

From the Shoot

As It Appeared in Print

Sign the guest book