Premise: "Leader of the Band" is a song written by Dan Fogelberg from his 1981 album "The Innocent Age". The song was written as a tribute to his father, Lawrence Fogelberg, a musician and the leader of a band, who was still alive at the time the song was released. Lawrence died in August 1982.
Hypothesis: Dan often related his memory of his father allowing him to "conduct" the school band when he was only four years old. At the time, Fogelberg senior may have been a band director at Bradley University in Peoria.