He’s toured the world as a musician, worked as a Canadian farmer, and served as a volunteer firefighter. Now, at 50 years old, Hammond native Kirk Pleasant has taken on his newest role: trombone player for Southeastern’s Spirit of the Southland marching band.

Pleasant’s roots in Hammond and at Southeastern run deep. He attended Southeastern Lab School until eighth grade, where he first picked up the trombone 40 years ago. He graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas in 1993. His father was an English professor at the university from 1965 to 1997.

But the Hammond he grew up in was a world away from the one now known as “Hammond, America.” In the 1980s and 1990s, the town felt suffocating. “Hammond was a very depressed town and [I] couldn’t wait to leave,” Pleasant recalled. He spent his time exploring the shuttered downtown, “breaking into the old Columbia and Ritz Theatres, long before they were reopened.”

And leave he did. After two years at Louisiana Tech studying biology, Pleasant quit to become an international traveling musician. His music became his passport, carrying him across Japan and Europe. He has published six albums and many singles that have become hits across the globe. In 2000, he and his wife moved to Canada to open an acupuncture clinic and study Chinese medicine in Vancouver.

Even after the whirlwind of his many careers, Pleasant’s journey was not over. He explained, “My wife and I built a farm on the Canadian west coast, where, in addition to farming, I was a volunteer firefighter for 10 years.”

When their youngest daughter graduated from high school, the couple sold the farm and decided to return home to Hammond after three decades away. Back in his hometown, a new inspiration took hold. Pleasant and his father attended a Southeastern football game against Nicholls State and noticed the Spirit of the Southland band was half the size of their opponent’s band. The sight reignited a “lifelong dream of playing with my university marching band.” Pleasant knew he could help make a difference. “I believe that when the band is tight and loud, it energizes the crowd, and that energy feeds right back to the team,” he said.

Motivated, Pleasant enrolled at Southeastern to finally finish the biology degree he started decades ago and officially join the band. Now a junior, he is twice the age of the next oldest member. The experience allows him to “keep my finger on the pulse of what’s happening musically,” which has helped broaden his taste in music genres.

His connection to his instrument runs deep. “The trombone has always felt like a magical instrument,” he stated, noting it is “the closest in frequency to the human voice.”

Kirk Pleasant has proved that a lifelong dream doesn’t have an expiration date. After thirty years, he has come home to march for the Green and Gold. In doing so, he has Lioned Up in a way unlike any other. You can see and hear him live and in action at every Southeastern football game.