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You can hear this interview on Steve Ludwig's site, but here's the transcript for searching reasons.
Song: Love American Style
Steve: We are joined right now by a member of one of the most beloved, certainly one of the best music groups in popular music history. On October 24th , 25th, and 26th he will be with his siblings, Bob Cowsill and Susan Cowsill at the Chiller Theater Convention in Parsippany, New Jersey. Check out chillertheater.com for all the information. We have a lot to talk about. It’s such a pleasure to welcome, Mr. Paul Cowsill. Paul, welcome to the show.
Paul: Thank you Steve. It is great to be here.
Steve: It’s so great to be talking to you, really. We’re going to talk about music and The Cowsills in a second, but what I – I really love this about you is that and hard core Paul Cowsill fans know this, as I do, but the casual fans may not know that you play a very important part in the TV series Grimm, as you did the first Twilight movie. Could you tell us about that?
Paul: Yeah, I’ve been in the business for a while. I was down in Los Angeles and did a bunch of movies down there. I did a movie called Cabin Boy with Chris Elliott
Steve: That was a great movie
Paul: and David Letterman was in it. It’s almost like a cult movie
Steve: It is. A great movie
Paul: Pretty great, but really horrible for special effects and stuff like that. And so, the kids, I decided I was going to get out of it because it just takes your life away. Came up to Oregon and found a bunch of jobs doing stuff right by the farm. We bought a farm there. And then this production came to town. It was called Matinee and I was ready to go back into that kind of business, so I went up to the guy, the construction coordinator on the job, and I said, “Hey I want to get back into the business” and blah blah blah. And he goes, “Well can you paint this hotel?” and I went, “Yeah, I can paint this hotel.” And that’s how I got into it. And then my good friend comes up to me one day and he goes, “Hey this movie Twilight” – none of us knew what Twilight was going to be. It seemed kind of silly actually but we were always waiting for rain days so the vampire kids could play ball. I mean, it’s so funny Steve, so I’m out on this ball field with these kids from Twilight and we’re waiting for the weather to get bad as it always does up here in the northwest. And I call my brother Bob and I go “Bob, you’re not going to believe what I’m doing.” He goes, “What are you doing?” “I’m working as a greens man. He goes, “What’s a greens man?” I go, “It’s kind of like a landscape architect. We build sets in the forest.” And it’s kind of a cool thing. I was told it was a pretty easy job, by my best friend you know Steve. And it wasn’t an easy job. So I say to Bob, “But Bob here we are. We are out in this field and waitin’ on the rain so these kids can play ball because they’re vampires and they can’t come out in the sun.” And he goes, “What are you talking about?” Anyway, but God we know what happen to that movie but I did greens on that movie. And so then Grimm came along and I was working on a show called Leverage with Timothy Hutton that was shooting up here in the northwest in Portland, to be specific. And then Grimm started up and boy I saw the greens on that. And I love being outside and all that kind of thing so I jumped right over to that show and I’ve been on it since the first season. We’re doing our fourth season right now and it should start airing in October – end of October-November
Steve: And I’ll tell you Paul, especially with Grimm there are so many forest scene and things like that. Really you must be busy as heck on that show.
Paul: It’s a non-stop deal. We’re two days out harvesting different kinds of plants and different kind of trees that we need for all our location shots. You can see how much they are in the woods. So, construction goes in and they build those cabins, you know, and whatever these people are in out in the woods, the construction build and then we bring huge trees in on the set and we just kind of create the woods. Sometimes, Steve, we’re in a park, sometimes we’re in a park that has, you know, a few big trees and so we’ll anchor on them and we’ll start building a forest right inside this park. We like it when we’re in the forest. It helps us out a lot more. But you know, it’s been a great job. I love the job. It keeps you real healthy cuz you’re constantly loading and unloading trucks of gigantic trees. And it’s a lot of fun.
Steve: Now Paul, I have to ask - I’ve seen you maybe three times at BB King’s in New York – and I know a few years ago you had, you had had knee surgery. And how does your knee hold up with this kind of work that you do?
Paul: Well it seems to be doing great. I had that one knee surgery and that was three years ago. And I went right back to work because, you know, you can go through physical therapy and do all the work that needs to be done, but you really just need to get out and road test it. You need to get your mind off of your knee and just do your job. And that’s just what I was able to do. That knee just came back so great, the doctor was real happy. And, you know, it was funny because – having seen me, you know I like to jump around – and so after I got that knee LuAnn saw me in a couple of pictures jumping off of drum risers on “Rain, The Park” “Hair” or something. And so we saw my doctor just out in public one day and ran up to him and said, “Doctor Hall, Doctor Hall, Paul’s jumping off of drum risers and _____ and he’s doing all of this.” And Doctor turned to LuAnn and said, “Well LuAnn you only live once.”
Steve: Great answer to her for sure
Paul: Yeah it was perfect. So, I was off the hook. You know, listen Steve, I have to be careful. I’m going to be 63 in November and so these are supposed to be 30 year knees and I’m good with all that. But I have to protect them a little bit. You know I might have a couple more years in this greens world and stuff and that. Hopefully the music thing can just take over. Which it seems to be doing right now. Since that darn movie came out. I mean, last night I’m sitting at my own house. I get home, I leave Portland on Friday nights and get home Friday night to my house in central Oregon – we have a nice farm there – and then I spend Saturday there and then I come back Sunday. Until April that happens. And so it’s a pretty grueling schedule, that’s for sure.
Steve: I was going to say, as The Cowsills, how often do you perform? I see you around a lot, I mean.
Paul: Every weekend practically now. I mean, I’m telling you, five years ago it was maybe 4, 5 times a year. We were struggling. People weren’t putting the name together with the music. You know, because we all had our kids. We went on the down low so to speak, and just, uh, we recorded all those years and we would do pop-up concerts. We weren’t on the road, per say. And about 10 years ago we were approached by somebody. We went, “Oh yeah” Well it was kind of a struggle at the beginning, you know. And these guys all thought they were going to book the heck out of The Cowsills and it was all going to go groovy. And that was just hard to do. And we kind of knew it was going to be hard to do. So, then the movie comes out you know and we had been doing well. I mean when we played, we were the best. We are a darn good band, I must say. If we weren’t able to sing and play and do what we do, we wouldn’t get away with nearly the shenanigins that we pull. And all the stories, the jokes and the … You know, stopping songs in the middle. The other night this guy was saying – he thought – it was just me, Bob and Susan playing in Bath, Maine, I think and some guy in the audience after we did some – “We Can Fly” or something – he goes, “Yeah you guys are sampling(??). Where are all these other voices coming from?” I go, “This is it. This is what happens when three sibling vocals are so tight. You start getting 4 or 5 more voices off of when those harmonies collide.”
Steve: In addition to your hits, when you guys do your version of “Helplessly Hoping” Crosby, Stills, & Nash song, you talk about harmony. I get chills just thinking about it right now. You guys, if it’s possible, are even better harmonizing now then back in the ‘60s, if that makes any sense to you. But, I think you guys have – it’s almost like a reflex thing to you guys. Just flowing into place. Do you find that?
Paul: Yeah, I tell ya, we agree with you Steve. We think we’re singing better now than we ever have. All the songs are sang in the same keys than when we were little. I listen to the old concerts of us and the records were always spot on. Well that’s easy to do because you spend hours and hours making that happen. But out on the road, the stage act, can you reproduce these records? I mean, you know, that’s what people are really looking for. They’re not looking for you to come up and do your song, you know, in any other way then they thought the record that they wanted to hear back in the day. And we were pretty good at that, but when I hear old stuff I’m going, “Oh yeah well maybe not so great.” But we thought it was pretty good for a bunch of little kids. But in this day and age right now, we are singing our butts off and man, thank God for it. I don’t know why it’s happening but we are singing better than ever. Bob is singing better than every because, you know, he’d been working at a Pub for 25 years, 60 songs a night every Friday and then he packed the rest of the week with the same kind of venue. That’s how he put his kids through college. He’s done a lot with that work but he’s so happy. He had to quit that. He was dying out there. His hands were all messed up from going from chord to chord and doing long sets, so he’s really grateful that the concerts have been picking up. And we’re doing a lot of show, you know. We’re singing with a lot of people, but we’re also playing alone. We can handle our own show alone now. That’s interesting. That gets back to that movie. Because that movie is out. Last night I’m watching this show because I like to stay up and enjoy my time at home awake, instead of sleeping. So I was late at night watching TV and I went to HO – what did I go to – Showtime channel and the movie was on last night at like 1:30
Steve: We’re talking about the Family Band of course
Paul: Yes, Family Band, The Cowsills Story It’s a documentary that came out almost two years. In April it will have been out two years and it’s playing nine times in November. It’s playing nine time in October. It keep playing, playing and playing.
Steve: I bought the DVD, Paul, and the extras on there – the extra interviews – I men every
Paul: Bonus DVD
Steve: Every time I see it, I can’t help it Paul, my eyes tear up. It’s such a bitter sweet story. There’s ups, there’s downs. I don’t have to tell you your family history but it’s – there’s ups there’s downs, but I see it as a story of redemption. You guys made it through all that. That’s how I look at it. It’s an uplifting story.
Paul: It is an uplifting story, cuz you know what, I mean just last weekend and it’s so funny that now that we’ve been playing a lot, all this week that just went by, Monday thru Friday, I’m going “Wow when am I seeing those guys again?” And I’m seeing ‘em next weekend at the Chiller deal. But, ummm, what were we saying?
Steve: I was saying how it’s a bittersweet, melancholy look at the history of The Cowsills. In essences it’s an uplifting story that in all the stuff you guys …
Paul: It is, Steve. When we were talking last weekend, the thing is that if all that stuff – all the gullies, all the down parts of our life – if that wouldn’t have happen, then we – I mean we are so close. We Susan, Bob, John and myself – and Barry and Bill and Richard – all of us siblings, we’re down a few now of course, but all of us siblings were always closer than normal siblings. I mean, you know, there’s big families of kids and stuff but I would be hard pressed to find a set of kids that are any closer than we are and me, Bob, and Susan and John we are desperately close and then me, Bob and Susan – cuz we don’t see John a lot cuz he’s playing with The Beach Boys and stuff so me, Bob and Susan are seeing each other all the time and we are closer and closer. It’s just like – it feels so automatic even just being with each other. I mean the singing thing, yeah that is automatic. It took some gearing up because the first time youtube came out with us live I’m on keyboards, OK, and we’re not sounding good and I’m looking at these films and I’m studying them like Peyton Manning studies a football team. And I’m realizing that this keyboards thing is dogging me because I’m sluping up to my harmonies late. And I’m so busy with all the catching that these new synthesizers have on them that it was dogging the heck out of me. And Steve it would be funny, we would finish a show and I would and people would come up “Wow that was a great show” and I didn’t even remember the show because I couldn’t look up for half a second. Bob would be starting a song and I was patching in as soon as I said it. So, I felt that the vocal issue was MY issue. It was MY problem. And so I got rid of the keyboard telling Ryan, my brother Bob’s son, been doing a great job for us for many years now. To take over these keyboards and let me just sing and have some fun at this time of my life. You know, I’m not genius like Bob and Susan and John and Bill and Barry. No, I’m serious, I have to work like crazy to make it happen which is playing the instrument and singing at the same time. Man, that is a very hard thing to do. Now my brothers and sister can do that just like that, but I have to really work hard. So I rehearse every day of my life. I mean even as kids we had to do it three hours a day so I’ve never stopped it because it’s that kind of work and dedication for me to be able to go up on stage and do both of those things at the same time.
Steve:You’re in good company, Paul, because BB King he can’t play and sing at the same time. If you ever notice when he sings, he stops playing the guitar, then he does his guitar riffs, and then he sings.
Paul: I dind’t know that. Anyway I wanted to start opening my mouth and start saying things that are on my mind and also I just want to jump around and sing. I mean I don’t need people … I mean I played bass. I was one of the best bass players in the 1970’s actually. I mean I rocked the bass and then we needed a keyboard player. And so then I went to keyboards. I’m kind of like that. I’m the sixth man. I’m the guy who would come in and sub everybody out. So whatever we need, I’ve always done that. And so it’s been just a joy to do it with the direction of my brother Bob. Without Bob, dude, I’m nothing.
Steve:That’s sweet of you to say, but I think you’re …..
Paul: I liked it. Brother, it would have never happen for me. I was deaf from the time I was born until probably 5 or 6 years old. I couldn’t hear anything. Yeah, because I had three sets of adenoids growing in my head. And in ’51, ’52, ’53 they weren’t looking for adenoids or anything. So, I spent a stint in the Boston Children’s hospital and then they finally cleared it up by about 6. I was a mess
Steve: Silly question Paul, but did it affect your speech at an early age?
Paul: Yeah, I would talk like kids that are partially hearing and I’d have constant stuff running out of my nose and my ear aches were constant. I just thought there were all these people in my head building stuff cuz I never really heard anything. And one day I was with my brothers down at the jungle gym, at The Anchorage, you know I was probably 6, 5 or 6 and all of a sudden I must have been focused on something else because I always watched my brothers and went where ever they went. And they must have taken off and I was sittin’ there – and this is a story from my mother obviously – and she said, “We were coming up on you Paul and your Dad was about to wring your neck and I said, ‘Wait a minute Bud. Wait a minute. I don’t think he is hearing us.’” And they took me to doctor and the doctor said, “You have a 6 year old lip reader here.”
Steve: Oh gosh what a start to a childhood here. Wow!
Paul: Yeah, It was crazy. So yeah I went to kindergarten, 1st grade and kindergarten and 1st grade , but I caught up. I caught up with everything and now I’m singing better than ever.
Steve: Now ironic. The way you started out and now one of the most beautiful harmonic voices in the business.
Paul: I’m a lucky guy.
Steve: You mentioned basketball. That brings me to a mutual friend of ours, Ira Wolf.
Paul: Oh my God. I love Ira. He was my hero.
Steve: I don’t know if you want to tell our listeners briefly how you know Ira. I taught with Ira. That’s how I know Ira. In North Bergen.
Paul: Yeah, our first visit. It was North Bergen. It was Barry and Bill and John and Bob. It was just a foursome. They were The Beatles. They were wearing Beatle boots. And we went over to North Bergen because Ira was friends with a gentleman named Richard Korn. We called him Biggie. He was our road manager for a long time, but also Amelda Jockamo and all these guys were up and coming you men out of college, you know working at ABC and NBC and so Ira was friends with all these guys. Ira wanted us to play at the high school, North Bergen and boy we started playing North Bergen High and boy it went on for a lot of years in the early, early ‘60s, before the band was successful in any way, shape or form. They didn’t even have the right personnel to make that band successful. North Bergen was rockin’ and rollin’. Ira ….
Steve: Go ahead. I want to tell you something Ira said – I shouldn’t have stepped on your lines. I’m sorry.
Paul: I wanted to just mention. That my whole love about Ira because I wasn’t in the band. I was moving gear. I was not interested in being in the band. I was like 14 years old / 15. And Ira was like the football coach – no the trainer of the football team and then the track coach. Ira used to take me all the time, if you saw the movie, it was a pleasure to get out of that house. If there was someone willing to take you for any kind of time away from that house and those parents, and Ira was that guy. Ira and Biggie and they both lived over there in North Bergen in Jersey and Biggie had gone to Ruckger’s and I forget where Ira went. And so these guys were sports guys. They immediately fell in love with me because I wasn’t in the band because I was this crazed out sports guy. And I was really good.
Steve: Ira said you were one of the best basketball players he’d ever seen. They had to drag you out of the gym because you were a real gym rat. He said you were a great basketball player. The North Bergen basketball coach was hoping you live in North Bergen. He wanted you to play for the team. The Bruens.
Paul: It was crazy and that’s who I was. So I wasn’t. I realized that wasn’t who I was going to be.
Steve: Well here’s a funny story that Ira wanted to know if you remembered telling him. This is what you told him. There was a period of time where you guys went to the fame school in New York. Professional school. Ira said you told him that you were told when you guys were play sports, “Don’t throw the ball at the hands of the piano plays because you could injure their hands. Don’t throw it at the legs of the dancers, cuz they have to dance.” And you said, “There’s nobody to play with.”
Paul: There wasn’t. This was, this was call the Children’s Professional School. I remember that. I remember that because when I was in New York going to school with Barry, John and Susan at the New York Professional School like on 63rd and 12th I’m thinking. Just down from Power Memorial where Lew Alcindor was playing basketball. And I would stop into that gym and watch this guy place, you know, we were kids. And then the New York Professional School decided, “Hey we need to get a basketball team together.” And I was all about that. We were going to get to practice at Power Memorial. That was the only reason I was really interested in it because there was nobody to play and that was the toast because I was coming out of the 5th Ward. I mean I was angry. And man I was ready to pound some bodies. If it was basketball and not football, then so be it. And I remember complaining about “Man, these guys are holding me back.” But it was over by then though and I couldn’t let it go. And Ira kept it going for me. I got to tell ya. I used to go with Ira and watch him throw the hammer. The hammer all the time and I always remember that. And he would throw that hammer over and over and over again.
Steve: I’ll tell you. Well I don’t have to tell you this, but he loves you guys. He loves The Cowsills. I played football at North Bergen while Ira was the trainer, Paul. We used to be in the training room. He used to tape our ankles. And he used to always play “The Cowsills In Concert” album and everybody used to hang out in the training room and if a guy started talking too loud, Ira would say, “Shut up. The Cowsills are on.” If it were another album we could talk as loud as we wanted to, but we could never over-talk The Cowsills. That’s how much he loved you guys.
Paul: Oh God we loved Ira with all of our hearts and souls. Still love Ira with all …. Hey we went to BB King’s, our last time at BB King’s a couple years ago and I jumped off the drum riser and he about rang my neck. He came down into that dressing room and he to me, “You can’t be doing that.” And the thing that Ira didn’t know is that man they aren’t doing these knees like they used to. No pins or no needles. Man they drill a hole in your femur and your alner and they drive this peg in there with bone glue. And I’m a carpenter and that glue … You can have a break in your leg anywhere but where it’s glued.
Steve: You know what else is great? We were mentioning where you guys are doing more and more shows, I’m so happy you guys are going to be a part of the Happy Together 2015 Tour with Flo & Eddie and the Turtles.
Paul: Oh my God Steve, we are so happy and so excited about that. But, it’s got its drawbacks. One drawback is that it’s just going to be me, Bob and Susan. I mean a whole big percentage of ____ gosh we just love being together. We’re going to miss our band.
Steve: It’s just a backup band for all the performers?
Paul: This is a cavalcade of stars. This is Dick Clark’s road show. It’s the Happy Together Road Show. It’s The Grass Roots, The Association, The Buckinghams, Mark Lindsay, Flo & Eddie
Steve: The Cowsills I can’t wait to see you guys. That’s going to be a great tour, but like you said, you’re going to be away from your usual Cowsill band. It’s a family affair – The Cowsill band. You have – your son’s in it I believe as well?
Paul: Yeah, Brendon – Brendon plays guitar and Bob .. so I was talking … we had Ryan in the band before Brenden. And Ryan was covering my keyboard stuff because me and Ryan play the same kind of keyboards. And so then we were needing a guitar player. We needed a guitar player to round this band out, you know. And so Bob goes, “Well the only guy I can think of is” –and I’m thinking I’m going to hear something like Waddy Watchel or some gigantic ___ like right? And I go, “Who? Who?” And he goes, “Brendon.” I go, “Brendon who?” He goes, “Your Brendon.” And I go, “My Brendon?” Because you see Brendon plays guitar unlike all of the cousins and kids from all of us, Brendon plays guitar and sings the same way we do. He can actually double parts for me when I’m on stage, which he does. And he adds a great vocal to our stack, that only he seems able to do. He’s just in our register. And his guitar play, he plays just like Bob. And Bob says to me, and it’s funny because Brendon was a professional baseball player and he’s a big kid and Bob says it’s funny because he plays with such a soft wrist. You know and I go, “Is that good or bad?” and he goes, “Oh no, it’s good. You don’t expect it out of such a huge guy.” So yeah, it still is a family band and it’s a hoot. And see Russ, who is our drummer, been our drummer for 10 years. We love Russ. And that’s Susan’s husband.
Steve: I had Russ on the show with Susan, oh a month or so ago. Your brother-in-law seems like a great guy, Paul. He seems like a great guy.
Paul: Listen, Rusty is …. And I think I can say this. I’m not saying anything out of school here. Russ is the best frickin thing that ever happen to my sister Susan. She’ll tell you the same thing. But I’m telling you it’s bonafided. He’s a the sweetest guy you’re ever going to meet and if he’s ever aggressive, it’s passive aggressive. That’s not a good thing though. Russ is a sweetie. We love Russ with all our heart and I’m going to tell you something, that little guy, you know, he can drum the heck out of stuff. I mean he is just the best drummer. He adds a … Brother John when he’s with us, when he used to be with us was a great drummer. John is a great drummer. But Russ has this New Orleans thing that he brings with him and it’s kind of just inbreed in him and so we get a different flare from Russ as we would get from John, you know. Both great drummers, but we love Russ. We love Russ and he _____
Steve: If I’m out of line, forgive me, but may I ask you what your son Brendon think of the Family Band when he watched it. Does he share with you like “God you guys all went through that stuff.” He probably already knows.
Paul: You know what? We have a screening at the Paley Center in LA and that’s the first time that it was ever shown. OK Everybody’s there. All the kids are there. All the grandkids are there. And I say that now because at the end of it, there was a question and answer or ‘would you like to make a comment.’ And at the end of it, Brendon stood up and basically was kind of saying about his grandfather, what a great human being he was. And how much he loved THEM, the grandkids, and how much the grandkids loved him. So, that’s what Brendon had to say. Let me … I was just going to say that Brendon and Shane, my oldest son, when they were getting right into junior high school, all of a sudden – I had never talked to them about The band. Man, I was hunkering in. The band had happened, you know and it was just kind of something that wasn’t, needed to be discussed with my kids at that time. I just didn’t think they needed to be thinking about all that stuff, you know. It was all good in my house. I didn’t do anything that – I learned from my parents exactly what not to do. And so, but one day the kids came back from junior high and they said, “Hey Dad man we’re getting all this stuff. Now what the heck is happening? Who the heck was this? And Why are these people saying they know me? Why does that teacher know me? Why does the janitor guy know me?” So I said, “Well …” So I went into my room and I got all the records. And I put all the records down and it had been some years since those records cuz the kids are now thirteen/fourteen and I put the records down and said, “Well, here’s the story right here.” And you know we talked a little bit about the story and Shaney, my oldest goes, “Well what’s the big mystery?” I go, “No mystery Shane it’s just that we’re having such a fun time in life that and honestly when you look at all these records when you see all these smiley people, there’s not too many people smiling right now about all that.” And honestly at the time and we’re talking early uh mid ‘70s, you know we’re talking ‘70s into the early ‘80s you know people were going through their issues in my family. That is to say, my brothers, my sister, my everything. And so I just didn’t – it was just interference in my opinion I never - just going to have to be another thing I was going to have to explain. It really didn’t need explained just yet. It would come in its own time. And honestly the kids were taking piano lessons. I mean we were doing music. They just didn’t know the length of how big this band was at a certain time of a certain moment
Steve: Boy you guys were huge
Paul: Yeah, it was a hoot. It was a hoot. Now some of my brothers, they don’t think it was a hoot. I think it’s a hoot. I had the best time, I’m telling ya. I’m all about having fun. We had to pay the fiddler, and that was Dad but he never cut into my fun and happiness in life. He never made me sad. That was the last thing I was going to let that guy do. That would really make him win and he can hit you all you want – whatever, but if you give in and you become the person he’s trying to groom you to be, man, I wasn’t becoming that guy. (can’t understand the next couple sentences.)
Steve: More power to you Paul for your strength. Really, I don’t know if I could be as strong as you, but God Bless You.
Paul: Steve, I got to tell you something. Me and Susan Clair, that’s my sister, me and Susan, we decided long time ago. My Dad moved to Mexico. He called me one day and he goes, “Hey I’m thinking of moving to Portugal or Mexico.” I go, “What’s your attraction to Mexico?” “Well maybe I’ll get to see my grandkids.” And so right then and there I said, “Dad, you move to Mexico. You let me know where you’re at and I’ll get my kids down to see ya. I’m got an ogre here.” I’m not going to take people away from my kids because I think they’re assholes. You know, whatever and so then Susan started going down with me and this was our thing. And me and Susan decided to forgive this guy. To move on with our lives and you know get our stuff together. You know if you’re all worried about something that happen in the past, worried about a certain human being and what they did to you, you’re not taking care of your own business.
Steve: Well put, yeah.
Paul: Yeah, so we were into taking care of our own business. And that’s what we did and so Dad and the grandkids, they grew to love each other and know each other and that’s cool. You know he never really had much time for us, even as old people. He was – hey they were guilty. They felt guilty. I know this is what it was. My old man he picked some place down in the middle of Baja to live _____ On the Sea of Cortes side of Baja way way down. I mean you’re not just going to go “This is a Sunday trip to see Grandpa.” And so he was escaping. And my Mother dies at 52 of emphysema when she could have stopped smoking cigarettes and lived a long life and see Brendon get drafted by the Angels in high school, being the baseball freak she was. So they all had guilt issues going.
Steve: Well Paul, before I say goodbye, I have one more question for you. I think a lot of people thing if you – someone like you in the music business – you know everybody in the music business. Of course, that’s not so. But, did you know or every meet Paul Revere before of the Raiders.
Paul: Yeah, cuz we met him as little kids. But about 5 or 6 years ago, Paul – we were playing in Branson, Missouri, the band was, The Cowsills. And Paul was playing there at the Andy Williams Theatre, OK. And so Paul came to our show in Branson. It might be seven years. I don’t recall how long ago it was. He came to that show and he told us that he just fell in love with us that day. And he became our champion. And he’s the one guy out there that would tell people, “Well if you want to hire me, you got to hire The Cowsills.” And I heard since he passed away … I’ve heard from the promoters and buyers of people that have been on my Facebook or emailed me thing cuz I did say I thanked Paul for championing and loving us and we loved him. And people called me and said, “Yeah that cruise that you guys were on Paul? Yeah, well we weren’t going to hire you but Paul demanded that you guys get hired and it was the best thing that we ever did.
Steve: How great.
Paul: Yes and he was our true champion. And Susan, if fact, is in Boise, Idaho, right now at the memorial. Jamie, his son, is our dear friend. And we just – the whole Raider band is our dear friend. No, we all traveled in the … the last five years. Paul is a big, big miss, you know. Rock and Roll heaven is getting a good one when they get Paul Revere. He’s going to bring laughter and he’s going to bring funny to all those cats up there.
Steve: I cannot thank you enough. You’re such a great presence on stage. And it’s always to me to speak to some - I’m a child of the ‘60s. I just turned 60, so I grew up with The Cowsills. And to know someone that you have admired is such a great guy in real life, is extra special and that’s what you are. And I want to thank you so much for coming on the show. It’s a pleasure. I’m going to meet you at the Chiller. I’m in the area so I’ll see you in person. You and your siblings …
Paul: OK You come by. The first time you see Ira, you give him a big hug and kiss from me and tell him Paul says, “My knees are just rockin”
Steve: I will. He’ll be glad to hear it. Thank you so much. It’s been great talking to you, Paul.
Paul: Steve, man, thank you for giving me the opportunity to come on your show, man. I love it.
Steve: My pleasure. Thanks Paul
Paul: OK Bye
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