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Spending any time at all with the Cowsill family is a frenetic experience! They're all wild, and when the nine of them start talking at once, you can't get a word in edgeways.
Susan, for instance, eight-year-old youngest member, is very outgoing, and old beyond her years. Talk to her on any subject, and you'll get intelligent answers. She's very eager to learn new things — in fact, she told us: "I'm going to learn to play the bass. Barry started a little, so I figured I could."
18-year-old Bob is just as talkative, and even though he's a performer, is still as excited as we are about meeting all the groovy pop people.
I can't tell the story of the Cowsills completely, without sharing with you what I think is a very poignant story. John, the 11-year-old drummer, fell from a swing when he was two years old, and hit his head. This accident caused him to become epileptic. At that time, the doctors told Bud and Barbara that John would outgrow the epilepsy eventually, but it would take a number of years.
Bud and Barbara were therefore left with a hard decision to make — they could either pamper John and treat him like a "special child," or they could throw him in the deep end, so to speak, and let him swim. They chose the latter. As soon as John was able to decide that he wanted to join his older brothers in the group, he was taught how to play various instruments. He was eight at this time.
Barry was the drummer, but Bud decided to give John a crack at the skins, and to everyone's delight and surprise, John went into the project with a fierceness and determination that was marvelous to see. Now at 11, he is one of the best drummers I know.
Some people, when they saw little John drumming,
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looked at Bud with horror, saying with their eyes: "Are you a madman, what kind of a nut are you to let an epileptic son play drums?" But these attitudes didn't bother Bud or Barbara. They loved their son, and they did what they knew was best for him. This episode in John's life came to an end just two weeks before the tour, when the doctor told his parents, there was no more need for pills, there was no longer any trace of epilepsy.
Some people might wonder if Dick and Paul aren't at times a little jealous of their brothers' success. Dick and Paul were given the same opportunity as the others to learn to play instruments, and join the group. They chose not to. Instead, they prefer working on the side lines, handling the vitals of the Cowsills' performance. Dick is an expert lighting technician. He had no formal training — it just came with practice. He and Paul are on hand at every performance to check out the nothing goes wrong. Without them, no production could be staged.
l-r: Bill, Bob, John. Barry's under the hay
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