After more than 40 years as a professional musician, Randy Tessier’s latest project is bringing him full circle.

Perhaps best known as the long-serving bass player in George Bedard and the Kingpins and the soulful frontman in the local party band FUBAR, Tessier is going back to his roots as the frontman in brand-new The Joe Cocker Tribute Band.

“When I started out in 1965, the Beatles had come out and I was smitten,” Tessier recalled. “I wanted to be a lead singer.”

Tessier got a guitar and tried halfheartedly to learn it, before switching to bass. Although he shares lead-singing duties with Sophia Hanifi in FUBAR, he never really got the full experience of being a no-holds-barred lead singer.

Then, several months ago, he got a call from keyboardist Chris Benjey, who was putting together a Joe Cocker tribute project and wanted Tessier to sign on as the lead singer.

“All of a sudden, I’m a lead singer and it’s a gas,” Tessier enthused over coffee on a recent Ann Arbor afternoon. “It comes so naturally, I don’t even have to try.”

The 10-piece band, which was conceived by Benjey as a project to attract good-paying corporate gigs, debuts on April 18 at Live nightclub. Singer-songwriter Dave Boutette opens the show.

Benjey, a longtime music professional, who has worked as a studio cat in Muscle Shoals and in the commercial industry, said he was working with Tessier at one of the latter’s sessions for a solo record, when he was struck by Tessier’s vocal presence.

“I Know Randy as a friend, but also as a character,” he said. “I looked at him and I thought, ‘We should do this project.’”

Benjey had already been researching different tribute bands, but found that most covered bands whose sound was more restrictive than what he wanted to pursue.

But the Tesssier—Cocker connection was perfect, and the music was open enough stylistically to allow for the musicians to have some fun.

“He’s a working-class hero,” Benjey said of Cocker. “”And his band, even in its heyday, was covering hit songs when they were still practically brand new.

“They were kind of a high-level cover band.”

And so is the Joe Cocker Tribute Band.

Featuring a horn section, as well as backing vocals, the band approximates Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen-era experience, reviving robust arrangements to tunes like “The Letter,” Cry Me a River” and “Unchain My Heart, as well as lesser-known sides, like "Delta Lady.”

And of course no Joe Cocker tribute band would be complete without an approximation of Cocker’s somewhat spastic mannerisms at the microphone.

But for Tessier, a born showman, that’s not a problem.

“I approach it a little like method acting,” he said. “One of the reasons I had trepidations is that it’s easy to slip into parody.

“But I’m not so much trying to be Joe Cocker as I am trying to be Joe Cocker-esque.”

So far, the band has high-quality promotional video, as well as a website, and is honing its set for an initial spate of gigs, which also includes a June 14 show at Canton Liberty Fest.

“I think there are a lot of people of all ages who are going to love this band,” Benjey said. “Somehow, his character has survived all this and he’s become a really beloved figure.”

In addition to Tessier and Benjey, the band feasutes an all-star lineup that included Alex Johnson on guitar, Richard Smith on bass and Tom Campbell on drums. The horn section is comprised if Bobby Streng and Martin Hegger on saxophones and Jimmy Smith on trumpet. Sue Gills, Hazelette Robinson and Dick Fidge are the backup singers.

“It’s a little daunting, because these guys are great players,” Tessier said. “We’ve been rehearsing and honing the act for about six months and we’re all excited about bringing this thing out of the shadows.”

For more information, check out the band's website, www.joecockertributeband.com