Skipper Drost, The Cadillac Counselor

If the good Lord had intended Skipper Drost to spend his entire life practicing law in Lake Charles, He probably should have thought twice about giving the man a guitar.

Drost, who has christened himself the “Cadillac Counselor,” has been writing and performing music longer than he’s been practicing law, which means he really has no choice in the matter. The music has him cornered.

And it isn’t just the songs. Skipper dresses like a man who might walk out of a courtroom, climb onto a stage, and demand a spotlight. He owns a pair of blue suede shoes, for crying out loud, and I suspect Elvis would have at least wanted to borrow them.

Call his law office, and rather than being greeted by the usual sterile Muzak or some unfortunate rendition of elevator jazz, you’ll find yourself listening to Skipper’s own original compositions while you wait. And if you stick around long enough, you might discover that his songs are as humorous as the man himself.

In this installment of Beyond the Bar, we step outside the courtroom and into the curious, Cadillac-fueled musical mind of a lawyer who appears to have taken the long way around to the law and brought a guitar along for the ride.

Skipper’s law office is a veritable museum, or at least it ought to be. There are guitars and musical instruments scattered about — the kinds of things that make you wonder whether you’ve entered a lawyer’s office or accidentally wandered backstage at a particularly well-dressed honky-tonk.

SKIPPER DRESSES LIKE THE ONLY ROCK STAR IN TOWN. WHETHER HE IS ON STAGE OR NOT, THE ADAGE “WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET” COMES INTO PLAY WITH SKIPPER. But the instruments are only part of what makes the place interesting. The building itself carries a little history of its own. Skipper’s office occupies the historic home of Charles Sallier, the man whose name was eventually bestowed upon the city of Lake Charles. So, in a way, Skipper has managed to put his law practice right in the middle of a little piece of Lake Charles history.

And that suits the Cadillac Counselor just fine. There is something fitting about a lawyer who writes songs, plays guitar, dresses like a rock star, keeps blue suede shoes in his wardrobe, and practices law in a building with enough history to have its own stories.

The guitars may be there because Skipper is a musician, but the old house seems almost tailor-made for the man. It is part law office, part musical clubhouse, part living scrapbook, and a place where the past and present seem to sit down together and wait for somebody to pick up a guitar.

“Music — it’s all I’ve ever done,” said Skipper. “My father, Charles Drost; his brother, my uncle Tommy Mitchell; my uncle Bob. They all played music. When I was five or six years old, they were my heroes. My older brother played, my sister played the piano, and it was just kind of what we did. As a family, when we would get together, we’d play music.”

Skipper had his first band in junior high and continued in a band through his high school years and into college. Even through his law school days at Loyola, he and some like-minded musicians gigged around New Orleans as Elmer Fudd and the Fuddpuckers. When Skipper returned to Lake Charles after law school, the family band began to do shows as The Choupique Bayou Drifters.

After his father and uncle passed away, Skipper continued to write music; his breakout original song, Six Dollars a Day, became so popular that his group became known as The Six Dollars a Day Band.

“I like playing original music,” Skipper said. “I try to do songs that the crowd likes, like ‘60s and ‘70s rock and roll. And country; I grew up on country music. And I throw in some of my own stuff. It’s fun. It’s a passion for me. It’s a thrill, and it gets in your blood.”

Music is so much in the blood of the Drost family, Skipper said, that his son, Charles “Chas” Drost, who is also Skipper’s law partner at Drost Law Firm, plays music. And Chas passed that love of music down to his son, Brooks Drost, who is also a talented musician and is currently attending Tulane in New Orleans.

Skipper described his grandson, Brooks, as “extremely talented.” Chas has original music on Spotify and seems to be following in Skipper’s footsteps, gigging around New Orleans with his NOLA-based band.

The late Lemmy Kilmeister, who founded the band Motorhead, once said that he believed that if someone is going to be a rock star, they should look like a “being from another planet” as opposed to getting on stage and dressing like the guy next door. Skipper dresses like the only rock star in town. Whether he is on stage or not, the adage “what you see is what you get” comes into play with Skipper. It’s part of his showmanship, and he makes more of an effort to cultivate the image than any other local musician.

“I grew up watching Porter Waggoner, who walked out in Nehru suits and rhinestones all over the place, and of course Dolly Parton and all those old-time country stars dressed up,” said Skipper. “To me, that was like what Elvis did. And who didn’t like Elvis? I kid my bandmates, Dwayne Barrilleaux and Darryl Hebert, who shows up in shorts and a T-shirt. And no offense to those guys, but I always say ‘y’all didn’t have to get so dressed up to come and play the gig.’ The old performers always dressed up with coats and ties. I just like to dress up, for starters, and back at home I have a room that I call the ‘costume room’ filled with shirts and ties, coats and shoes. And I really think people like it. I love it and have fun with it, and I might as well look good doing what I do. And if you’re not going to have fun doing something, why do it?”

Full disclosure: Skipper is a huge Elvis fan. From the Elvis Presley acoustic guitar in the lobby of his law office to his ownership of a pair of blue suede shoes, Skipper screams Elvis. While Elvis may have had a love of fancy footwear, Skipper may own more pairs of shoes than Elvis Presley ever did. In fact, Skipper’s shoe collection has spilled over into his upstairs office on Clarence Street.

“I recently discovered Temu in the last six months or so, and I can go completely berserk on Temu shoes. If I have to spend a couple hundred dollars on a pair (of shoes elsewhere), I can get the same thing for $20 (on Temu); it’s a whole new world of shoe shopping out there,” said Skipper. “From time to time, when I play and someone will come up and say to me ‘Hey, I like your shoes,’ I will sometimes give my shoes to them.”

Skipper Drost could very well give someone the shoes off of his own feet. If they fit, of course. Very Elvis. The King was known for giving up personal items, from a wristwatch to a Cadillac, to his fans.

Skipper has released albums of his music to the public, with CDs such as “For the Money” and “Down Along the Bayou” featuring original music, written and performed by himself. For anyone wishing to hear his original tunes, they only need to call his office and be put on hold. For his showmanship, everything around Skipper seems to be implemented by design.

“When we moved over to our current office and they were installing the phone system, the guy putting in the system asked me what I wanted for my on-hold music,” he said. “I asked him what my choices were, and he said ‘anything you want.’ I then asked him if I could put my music on there. And he said ‘well, sure.’ I get comments all the time from people who’ve been on hold and then ask me, ‘Was that you? It sounded like your voice.’ And people seem to like that. If anything, it’s different.”

Skipper is indeed a performer — a showman. It’s a skillset that he said helps him in the courtroom. However, he admits that his rockstar wardrobe never enters the courtroom. He admits to wearing “the normal lawyer suit” but does occasionally wear a pair of flashy shoes.

“A lot of (practicing) law is theatrical in and of itself,” Skipper said. “I have to make people listen to me somehow, and if I put them to sleep, they’re probably not going to listen to me. I don’t dance or anything in the courtroom, but I can’t dance anyway.

Skipper Drost, The Cadillac Counselor

Comments