Dallas Pryor will headline the live music at the street dance on North Neosho for Washunga Day’s free Community Night on Friday, June 19.
Pryor’s early years were split between two Kansas homes he came to love equally. His mother raised him on the Shawnee Heights side of Topeka, while his father lived on a farm in Dickinson County near Abilene. Over time, Pryor came to think of the Interstate 70 stretch between the two communities as home.
Music was part of Pryor’s life from an early age. He sang everywhere he went — in cars, stores, churches and homes — often without realizing how loudly or intently he was singing. While singing came naturally, a music career would not come easily.
Pryor also learned the value of work at a young age. At 14, he started his first job at a dairy in Tecumseh. That job led to many others through his high school years, including work on the family farm, bussing tables, making pizzas and spending summers laboring at the grain elevator. While the later years of high school were not always easy, choir class was a place where he felt at home. His only formal vocal training came from his choir director.
After high school, Pryor wanted to attend Kansas State University in Manhattan, a place that had become important to him. Without a financial path to college, he chose another route. At the end of the summer after his senior year, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. Drawn by the discipline and pride of the Marine Corps, Pryor embraced the challenge of military training. While training as an avionics man on CH-53E “Super Stallions,” he began building another close circle of friends. During off-duty time, Pryor and other young Marines often gathered in the barracks smoke area or in their rooms, singing country songs while others played guitar. One of those friends, who had received orders to Hawaii, sold Pryor a guitar for $50 because he could not take it with him. That purchase began Pryor’s long effort to learn the instrument.
Unlike singing, guitar did not come easily. Pryor spent years developing rhythm, strumming and enough finesse to play well. Eventually, one night after closing time at his favorite bar near his duty station, he began playing and singing for the bartenders as they closed. The owner told him that if he did not start playing there for money, he would not be allowed back in. The owner bought a PA system, and Pryor played his first paid show.
After leaving the Marine Corps, Pryor returned home to Kansas with his guitar. He began working as an electrician and spent weekends trying to book shows at honkytonks and small venues. Near Abilene, he met fellow musician Keegan Knox. The two were the only people in a bar one night and began swapping songs. From that meeting, the Lazy Wayne Band was born.
The band name came from Knox’s college nickname, “Lazy K,” and Pryor’s middle name, Wayne. The two performed as a duo and later formed the first full version of the Lazy Wayne Band. In 2017, Knox moved out of state but encouraged Pryor to keep the band name. Pryor, who was not yet comfortable performing under his own name, continued to grow the group as the Lazy Wayne Band.
After years of playing bars, smalltown festivals and regional events, Pryor and the band became busy enough that, in 2021, he left his electrical career of nearly a decade to pursue music full time. The band continued to evolve, and by 2023 the current version had come to- gether. The Lazy Wayne Band began playing more than 100 shows a year, headlining festivals and venues across the region and opening for national Nashville and Texas acts.
Pryor later took the next step in his music career by booking studio time in Nashville and recording songs he had written over the years. On June 13, 2025, he released his first single, “Woman Like You,” under the name Dallas Pryor.
Although he stepped forward under his own name, Pryor did not want to leave behind the Lazy Wayne Band name. He chose to pass that legacy on to band members Sam Williams, who joined in 2018; Logan Sanders, who joined in 2022; and Tyler Jiminez, who joined in 2023. While the music is now marketed under the name Dallas Pryor, the musicians on stage with him remain known as the Lazy Wayne Band.