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The latest celebrity child to go public with harrowing tales of his dysfunctional family is Richard Cowsill. Richard Who?
Cowsill. As in “The Cowsills,” the squeaky-clean teenyboppers-plus-mom singing group who made hit records (including a sunny cover of “Hair”) in the waning hours of the ‘60s.
If you’re having trouble remembering Richard, that’s because he’s the “lost” Cowsill, the only member of his family who didn’t get to sing and dance, sign autographs, endorse milk and be on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
Richard carried the luggage.
And now, at age 42, the New York real estate salesman hopes to launch the show-biz career that never was. But first he’s got a few old scores to settle.
That’s why he’s been talking to Howard Stern on the radio about how his dad Bud, a career military man, was no father of the year. And why the tabloid Star ran a story calling Bud the “Bubble-Gum Beast!”
Bud’s the one who wouldn’t let Richard perform: he’s also the one Richard says took out his anger on his kids: “Three times a week we were smacked around,” Richard told a reporter from New York Newsday. “There were seven kids. There were plenty of beatings to go around.”
Richard – whose only singing experience thus far has been in a karaoke bar – does have a manager for his budding show-biz career. Why doesn’t it surprise us to learn his manager is Jack Gordon – whose most famous client is his wife, LaToya Jackson?
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