In basements, clubs, studios and record shops, Royal Oak’s Tino Gross has spent more than half a century living inside Detroit music.

Gross has built a career as a drummer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, singer, radio host, label founder and keeper of the city’s blues tradition. Gross has played with MC5’s Wayne Kramer, shared a stage at the Fox with Bob Dylan, fronted the Howling Diablos, backed dozens of blues legends, and hosted Tales From the D on PBS. He didn’t merely witness Detroit’s musical history, he helped make it.

“I knew at 7 years old I was going to be a musician,” Gross said. “Never thought of anything else.”

Born in Detroit on January 2, 1953, Gross grew up on Oakfield Street in northwest Detroit in a house shaped by art and music.

“My mom was a painter and there were lots of beatnik creative types at our house all the time,” he said. “They started giving me jazz albums. Then one person brought a snare drum, another a cymbal, suddenly I had a drum kit.”

He fell in love with drums early and listened to jazz and southern blues on the radio, then later the MC5.

“My brother, Neil Zussman, worked at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom,” he said. “In 1966-67, I was sneaking in underage to watch the MC5 live. When they were onstage, it felt like the whole place was in orbit. Nothing else like it.”

In 1971, Tino studied jazz drumming for a summer at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

“Then my very first gig in 1972 in Ann Arbor was with The Brooklyn Blues Busters,” he said. “We backed up Detroit blues legend, John Lee Hooker.”

That led to lots of calls from the Detroit blues scene.

“Baby Boy Warren, Doctor Ross, Bobo Jenkins, Little Junior, etc.,” he said. “Over the past 50 years, I’ve been fortunate to play thousands of live shows and be featured on over 200 albums.”

From 1980-98, Tino was also a radio DJ.

“I hosted the Big City Blues Cruise program as Martino DeLorenzo,” he said. “Every Sunday, I played obscure blues 45s on WEMU 89.1 FM.”

Tino was also drummer for The Urbations.

“John Sinclair was our manager,” he said. “We played road gigs everywhere, including CBGB’s in New York.”

In 1990, he co-founded the Howling Diablos with saxophonist Johnny Evans, initially for a Gary Grimshaw art show.

“The band was a blend of blues, funk, garage rock and Motor City attitude,” he said. “High energy stuff.”

Then in 1992, Tino was invited by Bob Dylan to join in onstage at the Fox Theatre.

“He gave me a red vintage Telecaster, and I played Elmore James’ ‘Dust My Broom’ in the key of E,” he said. “Unforgettable night.”

Gross later launched Funky D Records with his wife, Lexy Gross (DJ Linda Lexy) and continues producing Detroit music.

Today, Gross still calls Royal Oak home, where he’s lived since 1983.

“Great neighbors and we go for lots of walks around the neighborhoods and parks,” he said. “And I love UHF Records. Music has never been about nostalgia alone for me. It is a living thing that is always morphing.”

Tino Gross is a Detroit original who is still playing, still creating and still keeping the groove alive.