|
Always the restless one in his family, Bill admits this once made him tempted to leave the group. Here, he tells about this trying time.
|
|
"Yes," Bill Cowsill slowly said, "I walked out on the group a couple of times. It was a case of professional jealousy. As silly as it souns, I felt I was competing with my brothers! And who like to feel they are being measured next to a thirteen-year-old?"
Bill, the oldest Cowsill and the acknowledged leader of the family group, was being perfectly candid. Most people would think that since the Cowsills are a family, they could never break up. But, what Bill is speaking about is a personal moment in his life. A time that has bassed into painful memory. He admits he's undergone a lot of changes in the two short years of the Cowsills' rise to fame. "I used to be inconsiderate. I was a dumb young kid who didn't think very much of myself or of others," he said, shaking his head. "But I have changed. I'm much more secure now, more grown-up. And I have more patience and understanding. There's a long way to go!" he laughed, "but, a lot of hurdles are gone."
|
|
A lot of people attribute some of Bill's maturation to the fact that he is by now, a married man. Lovely Karen Locke and he are now man and wife, and when Bill spoke of this upcoming event, his happiness was evident: "Now getting married is another motive to work harder with my family. I think it pulls us all closer together.."
Bill further explains the change he's undergone with an explanation of his basic nature, something Karen will have to understand. "I'm basically the one that's most restless in my family. I've managed to check it, as I said, and that inner check stopped me from going and kept the family together." Candidly he continued, "I was selfish. If I had decided not to pull along with the eight others in my family, all of whom were committed to success, I would have been making it that much harder for them to survive." The 'changed' Bill then referred to today: "I know that this is what I want, and I'll follow through on what we started, thinking of the good of all of us. After all, what 18 or 19-year-old doesn't want to fly off to try his own thing?" Laughing, even if a little ruefully, Bill can look back with balance at that rocky time in his life. "We've been lucky," he continued, "and I hope we'll continue to be lucky. But I think one of the secrets of our success is that we're a family. A real live family, as well as a pop group. And as long as we want to, we'll continue to grow within whatever direction we take. But," he added seriously, "we're changing, all of us."
A little tired from his combined program of studies as a sophomore in college and the recording dates, personal appearances and concerts that he is committed to as a member of the Cowsills, Bill understandably told of his future plans with muted enthusiasm: "Bob and I both want to teach someday, and we find we have to be very careful with schedules to leave time for studies. We're both very serious about it."
Bill isn't a 'drop-out' in any sense of the word. He won't leave the Cowsills unless all of them agree it just isn't their 'thing' anymore. He's committed and he plans to stay that way. After all, in his own words, "It's entirely up to us what we do. But once each of us decide what we want to do, we stick to it!"
Which, we're sure, is good news to all the Cowsills' many fans.
|
