Born November 26, 1954 in Bossier City, Louisiana. Kevin's first introduction to drums began with his father, Kamal Kathey, at the age of five while his father was completing his masters degree in music and performing at the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Louisiana.

After seeing and meeting Louis Armstrong and his band, and seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964, is when Kevin began to seriously consider a career in music. Kevin played in the usual array of garage bands while studying drums and trumpet from elementary through high school.

Kevin entered the Navy out of high school and played field snare in the Navy Drum & Bugle Corps. After an honorable discharge from the Navy in 1976, Kevin moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and began work as a sound reinforcement engineer for Capricorn / Capitol recording artist Potliqour until 1978. Having the desire to get behind a set of drums again Kevin began performing and recording with several regional touring acts opening shows for The Little River Band, Louisiana's LaRoux, Potliquor, Robert Gordon / Link Wray, The Killer Whales, The Georgia Satellites, The Producers, Mitch Ryder. Also during this time Kevin began music studies at Louisiana State University and private studies with Joey Farris co-author of Studio Funk Drumming with Roy Burns and one of the writers for Jazz Drummers' Workshop in Modern Drummer.

Moving to New Orleans in 1985, Kevin began performing with The Unlimited Jazz Group at the Famous Door on Bourbon Street. Over the next seven years a combination of performance and recording skills were developed in the areas of dixie-land jazz, gospel, r&b, big band, New Orleans rock & soul, rock, with artist Ernie K-Doe, Barbara "I Know" George, The LeBlanc Brothers, Dino Kruse Band, Bobby Lonero & New Orleans Express, The Hosanna Band, Famous Door Five, and The Gloryland Band a 21-piece big band under the direction of Oliver Felix, bassist with Pete Fountain.