The exotic and wholly improbable journey Rhett May has made since his birth in the far-flung locale of Calcutta, India is the stuff that makes great movies. The influence of western music made its way to the far-flung east by the mid-’60s and Rhett May, in response, formed his first band at the tender age of fifteen. The Wooly Bullys soon morphed into The Flint Stones and attracted national attention as India’s most popular musical act of the era. Their hit song “Be Mine (Happy by My Side)” was released by the HMV/EMI label and May and his young bandmates parlayed that success into interest from iconic Beatles guitarist George Harrison and concert appearances in the UK.

May emigrated from India in 1969 and ended up in Australia where he formed another band that went through a number of name changes before settling on the name Lucifer. Lucifer experienced significant success in the region and frequently opened for major touring acts like Queen and Ray Charles. Changing fashions knocked May’s musical career out of the box and, by the late seventies, May would find himself exiled from popular music for three decades.