Thomas “Zeke” Zettner was born on 21 September 1948 to a middle-class family in Detroit, Michigan, and had two younger brothers named Randall and James, whom he was close to.
Zettner started his musical life as a roadie for SRC, having appeared in the inner sleeve of their 1970 album, Traveler’s Tale.
Zettner and Cheatham did not live in the ‘Fun House’ with the other band members, instead living in an apartment complex in Ann Arbor with James Williamson, who would go on to replace Cheatham by December 1970, due to, according to Williamson, a cited lack of technical prowess on guitar.
He moved back into his parents’ home on the eastern side of Detroit and left music for a career in the automotive industry.
Zettner died of a perforated peptic ulcer and a cerebral edema caused by a heroin overdose on 10 November 1973.