Say the name Dr. Rock to anyone in Dallas or the adult industry and watch every single one of those faces light up. The man is an industry legend, working the Dallas market for decades and becoming a local celebrity in the process. But how did Glenn Procell, our 2015 Panda Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, rise to such glorious heights? It’s one helluva story.
Glenn moved to Dallas in 1982 after his band finished its United States tour. He had no clue what he was going to do next and in most of our DJ spotlight stories this is where our subjects end up DJing in a strip club…right? Nope. He walked onto a construction site where he started building apartments, houses, and more. It didn’t take him long to see how the process worked and he started hiring his OWN laborers to work for him and he started his own sub-contracting business. 3 years later, he found himself with a booming business but a sneaking suspicion that the housing industry was slowing down. One one particular job site, it was ritual to take a long lunch break at the local gentleman’s club, Caligula XXI. Free lunch and dancing girls were the perfect reason to get his crew out of the hot sun. He knew the day manager of the club from his traveling days, so that, along with their frequenting of the club 5 days a week, allowed him to get in the know with the staff there. One day his crew went in and it was the day DJ’s birthday. His crew was a generous lot and hooked the DJ up with 6 hurricanes in 15 minutes. Next thing you know, the DJ was down and the club was in need of a fill in. Having known Glenn from his singing days, the manager asked if he could take over for a while. Next thing you know, he was in the booth, spinning records (ACTUAL RECORDS) and entertaining the crowd. He sent his crew back to the job site and rocked the party for the rest of the day. As the night time management showed up, they started inquiring to who the DJ was who had the crowd on their feet hooping and hollering. And just like that, he was offered a job working 4 nights a week. He began to slowly work his way out of the construction business as he started to pick up more and more shifts. Eventually, after working 6 months of 7 nights a week at Caligula, as well as some day shifts here and there at other clubs, Dr Rock was able to live his dream of owning a corvette that he’d always dreamed about. And that, my friends, is how you get things done.
He worked at Caligula for 9 months before the night time manager fired him. When he asked what for, he was told that he had more control over the girls than the manager in question did and he felt threatened. He knew he loved the business and took his chances at one of the top clubs in the city, the Fair Club. He was hired there the very night he was fired. He stayed there for about 18 moths before he was headhunted for a new club in town called Lace. Employing around 15 women who had appeared in Playboy, the club quickly became the new hot spot in town. He approached management with a plan to bring in an assistant to spin the records and work the lights so he could start MCing from the floor. A new idea in the industry, this drew jocks from other cities to his club to see exactly what it was he was doing. This lead him to be one of the most sought after DJs around, the world famous Dr. Rock. Speaking of that, how does one get such a catchy moniker? During his last few months at Caligula, he had some dancers come back to his place after hours and he mentioned he needed a stage name. So after a heavy night of drinking, they took his rock star look, and his bachelor’s degree from LSU in Pre-Med, and came up with the name, Dr. Rock…and it’s been with him ever since.
One of the biggest reasons the board chose Dr. Rock as our Lifetime Achievement recipient this year is because he is more than just a PANDA. He’s worked for the Dallas Mavericks on their dance team for 12 years. The group has been featured on Jay Leno, ESPN, Sportscenter, Take Two, Fox Sports SW, as well as performing at 2 NBA All-Star games including the one at the new Cowboy Stadium, where they were seen by nearly 110k people that night. They have even done numerous half time show for the Cowboys, with the Cowboys cheerleaders. They even made it to the top 48 on one season of America’s Got Talent! Definitely a huge achievement but Doc has an even more important story.
One of the biggest honors I had in my time in Dallas was to accompany Dr. Rock to the 10 year memorial of Dimebag Darrell’s passing. While it rocked most metal lovers in the industry, it was personal for him. The night he was killed, he was dealt a double blow as he lost a brother and was asked by Vinnie Paul, Eddie Van Halen, and Jerry Cantrell to put together a rock and roll funeral for his friend. He spent the whole next day writing out the eulogy and putting together an order of who was to come up and speak. The speakers that day? Eddie Van Halen, Zakk Wilde, Charlie Benante of Anthrax, Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez of Alice In Chains, and more. He was buried in a KISS coffin, that Gene and Paul donated, along with Eddie’s black and Yellow guitar, the one he used during the Van Halen II album. “Sad day for rock and roll,” he says.
Currently, Dr. Rock is the DJ at the Clubhouse in Dallas where he’s been for the last 18 years. And for those that don’t know, he’s been in a business partnership with some members of the rock group Pantera for many years, running clubs in the DFW area for years. When asked about his biggest influence, one name comes to mind: Gary Littlefield. As the DJ of the Fare back in the 80’s, Gary was full of energy and knew how to light up the crowd and create a party atmosphere. Something that Dr. Rock has always aspired to bring to his own show. And his advice to upcoming DJs? If you treat it like a job and show up on time, are fair but firm with your entertainers, talk to the crowd and not AT the crowd, then you can also be one of the biggest DJs in the business. Anyone can push buttons and switches, but if you try to be more, you can excel. You can see Doc at the Clubhouse Thursday through Sunday every week!!
