DJ Steve Henderson

For over 30 years, Steve Henderson has made a name for himself throughout several major cities

Beginning in Baltimore, Steve began running events in high school, building his own "nightclub" in an empty warehouse behind a pizza parlor. From there, he gained notoriety for every major under 21 club in the 80s. Graduating to such celebrated institutions like Cignel, The Depot, 1722, The Hippo, Allegro and then designing, developing and managing Grand Central nightclub in Baltimore with Don Davis.

Never wanting to put all of his eggs in one basket, through the 90s Steve began as a fill in DJ at Badlands, Tracks, Capital Ballroom, Lost and Found, and numerous other spots, before landing residencies at Badlands/Apex, Ziegfelds/Secrets, Cobalt and more. He worked celebrated resort The Renegade (Rehoboth) , Studio 6 (Atlantic City) , Limelight (NYC) branched over to Pittsburgh Eagle and Pegasus, and cultivated and was a leading role of the formation of the yearly "CLAW" fetish event in Cleveland. Steve was also the entertainment director, and stage manager/DJ of Washington DC's Capital Pride for 17 years.

In 2006, Steve moved to Chicago for a miltary position, thinking that more than likely his DJ career would be over in such a large city of which he had no contacts. Low and behold, within several months would meet with Chuck Renslow and Ron Ehemenn, the creators of Internation Mr. Leather, and would shortly have DJ residencies at Jackhammer, Cell Block, Manhole, and Hydrate. Steve's most celebrated event was the 2016 IML closing party "Black and Blue" with legendary producer Barry Harris, which, has been mentioned as one of "the greatest leather circuit events in history" according to IML founder Chuck Renslow. Steve also vacationed at the midwest's gay mecca of Saugatuck, where he performed at The Dunes Resort, until landing yet another DJ residency and event manager of Campit Resort. Where he remained for 5 years, until relocating back to Maryland in August 2024 to be closer to family after his fathers passing.

From Steve's own words....

"Of all of the hundreds of clubs and events I have played, the one that was the closest to my heart, Ziegfelds/Secrets was the one that meant the most to me. It was pure family. It was the one place I could just play what I wanted to play, and be who I wanted to be. Steve DJed at both "versions" of Ziegfelds/Secrets SE and SW, and always (except one time) played in the "Secrets side" . He helped owner Steve Dellerba with the rebuild and move of Z/S after the stadium project took over imminent domain, and the club was moved into the former Pier Nightclub location in SW. Both Steve's would cultivate a massive sound and lighting system for the building which dwarfed the previous locations, using speakers, parts and components collected from other former nightclub establishments that the two were able to cultivate over the decades. You had tweeters from Tracks, bass speakers from Nation, amps from Badlands, and lighting and equipment that sometimes would just purchase on their own just for the love of the world that was created.

In February of 2020 Steve Dellerba had gone out and purchased a massive amount of new lighting, and Steve Henderson spent months putting together the former EAW sound system purchased from a very infamous nightclub in NYC, and installing it in Secrets. The "final product" was revealed the first week of March 2020. Then covid hit.

Ziegfelds/Secrets was closed, the expenses too high to keep going for an infinate amount of time. So, both Steve's, along with a few brave staff members, spent two days clearing whatever they could from the building, in the height of the Covid crisis in April 2020. We were robbed of a closing party. Robbed of the hard sweat equity to share the hard work of improvements. Robbed of saying goodbye to the community that supported the club for 30 years.

On March 15th, 2025. We get to celebrate. At least one more time. We hope you join us.