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Welcome to Morgan / O’Hara Live
And now more of the best oldies in the world
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(Note: Sorry but I must have lost part of this interview, and parts are too muffled for me to understand. What I have begins with Susan talking about playing in Las Vegas.)
Susan: Back in those days you did two or more concerts with a little intermission and I can remember being dog tired. You know it usually started at eight and it … it … it varied and we traveled (can’t understand) I had a poodle, much to my brothers dismay.
Bob: Why did your brother not like the poodle?
Susan: They ALL didn’t like him because he was a POODLE.
Bob: Because it was spoiled.
Susan: That’s not a dog. I think the fact that I treated it like a baby and it ate in a high-chair and slept in a bassinet was part of it.
Bob: Whoa whoa whoa Stop right there. Hold it no no no
Susan: (laughs) And my mother and I bought it baby clothes.
Bob: It ate in a high-chair?
Susan: Yeah (laughs) That was great too. Anyway it would come on the road with me and we made a pit-stop somewhere and he got out and a while later I noticed he was gone and I was “Oh God” (can’t understand) and we launched this radio campaign to find him. We had gotten out and there was a steak house next to the gas station there (can’t understand) And when we got him back he was all clipped with a bow in his head.
Bob: In a new high-chair and a tutu I think it’s funny but
Susan: It was
Bob: I bet the dog was the catalyst for a few debates in the car or van or whatever
Susan: Oh God they couldn’t stand it.
Bob: What was your dog’s name?
Susan: His name was Sueba
Bob: What?
Susan: It was my mother’s – we’d always wanted a poodle, Mom and I, and (can’t understand) actually got me the poodle. For my mother, my mother’s name was Barbara and I’m Susan so it was Sueba
Bob: Sueba
Susan: Subar
Bob: The spoiled poodle, who wore baby clothes and ate off a high-chair OK Thank you for calling Susan, it’s been a pleasure - no I’m joking. That’s got to be a (can’t understand) story. Now we come to the point in your career when you guys are kindof going your own ways, right?
Susan: OK
Bob: You’re writing songs and the brothers and your Mom and your Dad. There comes a point when you realize The Cowsills are not doing what they – well they’re not as popular as they were two or three years ago. What do you do at that point?
Susan: Well at that point I was only – what twelve, eleven or twelve – twelve. Eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve – yeah. And what happen after that is (can’t understand) go there separate ways and Barry and John were almost old enough to be on their own and I, and my mother and father, moved back to Rhode Island. This must have been in ’72 and it was kind of – it became what I guess what was deemed as a normal life. They tried to put me in school until (can’t understand)
Bob: (chuckles) After you’ve been on tour most of your life
Susan: Yeah, and that just wasn’t working for me at all. We moved back to Rhode Island, like I said, and I had gotten pretty (can’t understand) become my own for those years and I wasn’t very happy about moving back to Rhode Island. So by the time I was in about the ninth grade I became pretty much became an emancipated minor and I moved in with my brother Paul and when I was sixteen I told my Mom if I finished ninth grade if she’d let me quit after that just to prove to her that I wasn’t a dumby and that, you know, I could make it in this world without an education. Because I did understand everything that I needed to know. And she kind of (can’t understand) “What are you planning to do? Are you going to sit around and watch TV or what?” And I just told her no and that I was going to go do really the only thing I knew how to do and I was going to get a record deal and make records, at sixteen. And I did. I got a single deal on Warner Brothers Records – singles you know – 45s – if people who are listening don’t know what I’m talking about. And it was pitiful. I mean, you know, my brother Bob is very kind and says - I did a cover of “It Might As Well Rain Until September” by Carole King. I did “Mohammad’s Radio” by Warren Zevon.
Bob: You know there’s probably eight people in the audience that knows that song
Susan: I know it. I know it. (can’t understand) I did I think cut four or five and didn’t get the (can’t understand) on time. I really was doing the only thing I knew how to do. And we got the band back together for first time I think it was in ’78. And we were together for maybe (can’t understand) for recording done at that time. I went on with my life. I got a boyfriend and did that for awhile and (can’t understand)
Bob: What does that mean?
Susan: (can’t understand) a long while that I had that boyfriend. I wasn’t doing very much with my music at that time so when I got un-girlfriended the I – that’s when I started coming into my own as a musician and an artist. And met up with a group of musicians in Los Angeles called The Continental Drifters. That was actually – we’re talking 1987, ’88, ’89 when I actually first started playing an instrument. I didn’t play anything until then. Except that God forsaken tambourine.
Bob: (chuckles) The tambourine didn’t do anything to ya.
Susan: No, no it didn’t.
Bob: (can’t understand) never said a word back to ya.
Susan: No So that’s when I started playing guitar and writing.
Bob: So now you’re on your own and (can’t understand) When you’re in the industry, it’s kind of a given, within the industry, that The Partridge Family was kind of based on The Cowsills pattern, the family traveling around and singing. And last week we had Marty Ingels and Shirley Jones on this show and I understand there was a benefit concert that you guys did where Shirley and Marty appeared.
Susan: That’s right
Bob: And she made some comments about The Partridge Family. Share those with us will you
Susan: Sure, I’d love to cuz that was quite wonderfully sweet. (can’t understand) We did a benefit for him in Los Angeles a couple of years ago to raise money because he wasn’t able to work so we had a benefit for him. And Shirley Jones and Marty - and Shirley came and did the benefit for us. Now we had never met Shirley Jones. Isn’t that so strange?
Bob: Isn’t she a doll
Susan: Oh my God. And what’s really strange is that the year my mother passed away (can’t understand) I’m not kidding, I had a dream that Shirley Jones adopted me.
Bob: Good Lord
Susan: She adopted me. It was so good and she was so sweet. I mean, you know, it’s not a far stretch, I mean she’s our virtual mother. And so she agreed to come do this thing for us and she was just amazing and she opened up the whole show with a lengthy speech about The Cowsills and how there wouldn’t have been any Partridges without and she wouldn’t have had her career rekindled and in such a modern and pop fashion. And (can’t understand) acknowledgement and it was great to be together and she’s such a sweetie pie and I tell you what, she called my brother Bob a couple weeks ago and she called, got a message from her and said, “Bob, this is Shirley and I was just calling to see how you kids are doing and I heard about ya’ll going through and I hope you’re doing OK.”
Bob: Isn’t that neat. That’s so cool
Susan: I know it. Now she’s our foster mother.
Bob: Now that’s great. You know – just kind of deviate from the subject at hand for a second. They got a park up in Big Bear, Fawn’s (can’t understand) called Fawn Park and it’s dedicated to the people who perished on 9/11. And so Marty and I and our manager are colaberating on putting together a benefit concert to raise money to complete this park. And it’s not a private park. It’s privately owned, but it’s open to the public. And it’s beautiful. It’s got picnic tables. It’s got statues of the fireman.
Susan: Ahhhh
Bob: It’s even got a piece of 9/11 about – some of the wreckage in the middle of the park.
Susan: That is so cool.
Bob: And we want to put together – we’re going to put together a concert, benefit concert to complete the park and
Susan: Call on us. We’re always available. You know The Cowsills are a functional band as well, as is ours. Either my band, or my other band, or both my bands a call, Bob.
Bob: I talked to your publicist this afternoon about it and she raised that issue and we certainly will.
Susan: I hope you will
Bob: And now, getting back to Susan Cowsill. We come to Susan’ Cowsill’s Just Believe It CD. This is so cool. I tell you. Is it on the stands now? Can we go to Best Buy and get it? Can we go to Virgin and Tower?
Susan: I’m pretty sure. (can’t understand) I do know that it was picked up nationally just recently and Tower Records and I believe Best Buy now so yes it is my first solo record . Debutante at 47 years old/
Bob: A debutant- tee Hey we got a debutante on the show. Anyway, I want to play a cut from this and I listened to the whole thing but this cut just really blew me away. It’s the title cut. It’s Susan Cowsill’s. It’s called "Just Believe It". And by the way, I like your pictures on it. I love the cowboy hat.
Susan: (can’t understand)
Bob: (can’t understand) I did. You look like you’re up to something in that picture.
Susan: That’s probably because I was. (can’t understand)
Bob: Well let’s listen to "Just Believe It", OK? This is a dynamite song from Susan Cowsill. It’s the title cut from her CD Just Believe It.
Song: Just Believe It
(Note: I lost the rest of this interview)
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