This is a transcript of John's interview from Vatar on YouTube. You can view Part 1 and Part 2 there.
Song: Cross That Line
John: My name is John Cowsill and I’ve been a Vater artist for, since 2000.
I’m going to give you a brief history. It will only take an hour.
I was once a child star. I was not born a child star, I worked for it. No, seriously, I was in a band called The Cowsills. It was formed in 1963. I used to sing around a table with my brothers and sang a lot of folk songs. We had hits. 1967 was our first hit, which was “The Rain, The Park, and Other Things.” We had a Top 40 hit with “We Can Fly.” Then we had a Top 20 hit with “Indian Lake” and then we had a – our biggest hit was a song called “Hair” from the Broadway musical. We wish we had written it, but I did not. We just performed it.
That was that, but before that – umm I think I was seven when I started playing drums. The Beatles came on Ed Sullivan and that’s started it for me. Ringo is my hero. And so we would go in the back room and pretend with air drums, oatmeal boxes and stuff, but I would be playing a piano, not a drum. My brother Barry was the first drummer. But soon The Beatles did come out and we needed a bass guitar at that point and I became the drummer. I did, I used to play in a dark room with an amplifier Fender red light on. I learned in the dark to play drums, so if I see the drums, I miss them. So I’m usually looking at you or my microphone. But, um, I started when I was seven, shortly after, probably about 6 months of playing in that band, we played a couple carnivals, um, we got a job in a bar playing four sets a night. That didn’t go over so well at seven-years-old. The very first night, the cops had raided the place. It was called the Muenchinger-King Discothèque and it was a wine cellar.
We talked to the mayor because it was a very small town. I come from Newport, Rhode Island and they said it was OK that a seven-year-old plays a bar as long as he’s not drinking and sitting in the bar area. Go figure. You can’t do that today, kids. We would play this bar all the time and people come to Newport, Rhode Island to vacation you know, rich people who live on the outside areas. They would come and they would come to the clubs in the summertime. And there was some people from The Today Show there. And they put us on TV. They ask us if we wanted to be on TV because they thought it was phenomenal that such little kids could play their instrument. I don’t know how good we were, but we were working.
And that kind of started it and a guy named Johnny Nash saw us on that show and I don’t know how they contacted him because I was wasn’t paying attention to the logistics of the business. We ended up on a – our first record label was Joda Records and we were a R&B band. Beatles – Stones but with this record company we were doing R&B because Johnny had all these songs he had written. And they had songs like (singing ?) “You can’t go half way, You got to go all the way to have my love.” And he was this chagachagachngachuga, That’s what he would say and I thought that was cool. And those were my first sessions that I played on. And just as of recently, I can’t say where I got them, but I just got the masters to that. I have the original 19 tracks we did in 1960 – late 4 early 5 – and I literally got them three days ago. I don’t know when this is going to play but anyway.
But then we went to Mercury from there and they thought we were a cute little band. Look at the little boys and their older brothers. It’s a family so “Let’s give them some cute music” So they gave us songs like - we went from R&B to this ridiculous kiddy thing. “I love my Siamese Cat, because she’s not very fat. (singing ->) She leaps through the air and lands in a chair, I know I couldn’t do that. So I hate my Siamese Cat” Anyway, cute I guess but “Don’t Put Your Feet in the LemonadeWe’re Running Out of Water Go soak your car in some ginger ale though it may be sticky-sorta” So that’s what they were giving us at Mercury.
We met a guy named Artie Kornfield there who was watching this horrific thing go down and he said “Do we want to get out of there?” and we said “Yeah” and he took us and financed the first recording we did for MGM as an independent producer. He wrote the first hit for us, “The Rain, The Park, and Other Things” with a guy Steve Duboff and took us to Lenny Stogel and we signed with a management company. That afternoon we had a MGM contract and we put a record out. We toured and it was a big hit and we rode it for a little while. But we wanted, they put, MGM put my mother and my sister in the band when we signed with them and that was – it was OK for me because I was little and it didn’t really affect me yet. But my older brothers who wanted to be The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, it put a damper on it, definitely, to have my Mom in the band. And my Dad managed it. He was like Joe Jackson, you know, all the bad Dads who managed family bands.
So we rode fame for awhile, until about 1972 and then we slowly rode down the hill. People were asking us on the way down, “Hey I got a great hit song for you kids to record. It’s call ‘Woo Weep Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’” Bye! Keep going. Not interested. So we were really done being The Cowsills, that family band and although I look back now and it was very endearing but, man, during that time, being the age we were. And then we disbanded. We actually called a – there were three of us left, my brother Bob, and Barry and myself and I remember we were in a hotel room and we were scared to death of my Dad. But we said if we band together we’ll be OK and so we – we called him into our hotel room. We were in Texas some where and we said we want it to end. We want to break up The Cowsills. And we thought he was going to just start throwing stuff, beating us up, but he didn’t do that. He got worried and he says, “Look guys, all I need is, all I need is two years and we’ll be back on top.” And we said, “No.” I mean we were wearing tuxedos. We weren’t even doing our own songs. We were still being a cover band live. Look at a Cowsill Live in Concert album. It’s “Good Vibrations,” “Monday, Monday,” “Walk Away, Renee,” “Paperback Writer,” “Act Naturally,” “Sunshine Of Your Love.” I mean that’s what’s on our Live In Concert album. And we put “Hair” on it to sell it, you know. And, you know, we were good. We did the songs good, but it was just a weird thing. And it ended up, Dad kept us in these tuxedos and it was just like, we didn’t want to be that. So, we broke up.
Then time went by. I never knew how to get a gig because I always had a gig. So, if my phone didn’t ring, I wasn’t working. I was not into starving so I capped shampoo bottles at Nature’s Gate Herbal Cosmetics for $2.50 an hour. That’s kind of cool. Met nice people. I’m never afraid of hard work, so, I was good to go. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t know how to get a gig.
I think I had one band after The Cowsills. After nine months and we broke up and I moved back east. I was living in California at the time. I’m from Newport, Rhode Island. So I moved back over here and I joined a band, must have been ’72-’73 called Grease The Cat. And you know another cover band. We played up and down the New England coast and it was kind of during the glitter rock thing so we were kind of decked out, kind of cool and – it was kind of cool for me because I’d never played with another band in my life. OK, I just played with my family, so – and there was a lot of sibling stuff and “Your time’s sh***y” and “Your this is that” “Hey, don’t do that” So I was in a band where they actually, people were saying, “Wow man this is cool. We have John Cowsill is in our band.” And you know. I don’t use that name often because it was almost embarrassing to use it and we were embarrassed. I’m OK now. But if you did use your name they’d say, “Uh, no, you’re from that family band, right? No, that’s OK. We got Ricky Fataar” But that was a cool band. We did a lot of Led Zeppelin stuff which I just love Led Zeppelin. And we’d did ZZ Top, old ZZ Top and we did Flash – which was pre-YES. So we’re doing some prog (??) back then. That was fun for me. I didn’t sing. I said, “No, I’m not singing,” cuz I sing all the time when I play which I’m glad I know how to do cuz that’s why I get hired now, but then it was the first band I could just play drums. And, what a difference to just be able to move away from the microphone, because they didn’t have headset microphones back then. So, it’s like you’re always like this or your like this and you’re doing this and if you sing background a lot then that’s where you are. So that was my first time I didn’t have that and it was strange. I prefer to sing and play now.
But after that I got a call from my brother Paul, who was working for Helen Reddy at the time. So this is 1973 or so and he called us up. He got a deal with Capital because Helen was on Capital. And my brother Bill and he were partners on this project. And I got a call from my Dad who had called me up and says, “Hey, I think your brother Paul needs you.” So I called my brother Paul up and he said, “Hey man why don’t you come back to California. I got this band called Bridey Murphy put together and I got a Capital deal.” I’m like, “Oh my God. Great. Big time again. Here we go. Yeah! Get me out of the bar.” So, I fly out to California, you know, God Bless my brother Bill, but man I show up there and he’s got the blue bottle Ice Smirnoff in his back pocket and everybody’s – it’s like if you’ve ever seen the movie Apocalypse Now and they get to the end of the trail and the guys asks, “Where’s the CEO?” And the place is like fireworks and everybody’s high and drunk and “Get me some more blow” and that’s what I walked into and you know I had an odd relationship with my oldest brother Bill who I always wanted his approval as a drummer because as I was growing up they had to put up with me. I don’t know how, if I was any good or not. But he says, “Come on man.” My meter wasn’t great as a kid. I’m going through puberty now and it’s even worse now because I’m thinking too much. And Waddy Wachtel, also a friend, who was always involved with us. I’ve known Waddy since I was seven. Everybody knows him. Anyway, he was in on this Bridey Murphy project as well and so I was already scared to play with them because last time I played with them it was a ***** mess. That’s what I heard. So, those guys I always wanted their approval. So, now I’m going into the studio with these guys and we’re rehearsing, trying to hire other people. We had Lindsay Buckingham was going to come and also be in Bridey Murphy. I think he was in for three days and Waddy whispered to him. He says, “Get out of here while you can.” It was a run away train. We had a release on Capital. No, no it didn’t get released. It got shelved. John Carter was the in-house producer there and it got shelved.
Anyway after that - that disbanded, I worked with Bob Crew on a couple of things trying to put a band together with just Paul, me and Susan. Bob was now out. And we just drifted. I drifted for a long time and I should have been playing drums in a band. And I didn’t. I was trying to coat-tail on everybody else. Hey you need me? Hey you need me? What do you need? Oh my God, the story goes on.
Then I was a regular worker. Did some stuff. Oh my God I can’t put this all together. Let’s skip my 13 year hiatus from playing on the road or anything. I was just in a marriage, had two wonderful kids. I’ve been married two times. I’m married now. Still have two beautiful kids, but a wife I really get along with. Her name is Vicki Peterson. She’s in The Bangles. You know that.
So then the late ‘70s Bob, Paul and Susan and I decided we wanted to get together again. I don’t know. We kept doing it. Bob wrote a batch of songs and said, “Hey man we need to record these things.” So, we do that. So we’re friends with Jackson Browne and Jackson took us to a guy named Chuck Plotkin who produced Bruce Springsteen’s “The River” “Darkness on the Edge of Town” Really started with Bruce as a mixer, but anyway he had a studio called Clover Studios. He took us on as his private project and we worked with Chuck Plotkin for about five years in Los Angeles at his studio called Clover Studios, where it was like my second home. And we recorded a lot of stuff. Chuck helped us out a lot. We sang on Harry Chapin’s last album there. I sang on Bette Midler’s No Frill album. I played and sang on Tommy Tutone’s 867-5309. Actually we don’t know the exact drummer because there were several who played on it and it’s got a lot of splices on it.
Part Two:
Song: Hair
I started getting calls from the Beach Boys guys to sub for their drummer. I subbed for their drummer for a week. I subbed for one of their guitar players for two weeks and then I was going to sub for their guitar player again, so I learned all the guitar parts and they called me up like a week before I was going out. I mean dude I cashed out my thing. I had no money. So, I paid my rent because I don’t play guitar well. Drummer first, piano player, guitar player, bass player. But they ask me to play guitar and I said, “OK no problem. I can play anything.” So, I paid my rent with a credit card for the whole month. I didn’t go to work. I just played the guitar every day and I learned the frickin songs. An a week before we go out, they say, “You ready to go?” I said, “Yeah as long as I don’t have to play leads.” Because there was another guitar player who plays the leads and he’s going to play them all. I said, “OK as long as the other guy plays lead guitar.” And he says, “Guitar?” and I said, “Yeah” and he says, “Didn’t anybody call you? You’re going to be playing piano.” So, I said, “Really …” I said, “OK” I said, “When was somebody going to tell me?” “Oh you do play piano. I know you do. That’s your second instrument.” I said, “Yeah” So, I hung up the phone. I don’t know any Beach Boys songs on piano, you know. So, I have to learn them and a lot of this stuff didn’t even have piano on it. So, I get a CD from the band and I’m trying to learn it off the CD. So finally I called their old piano player, who is my very good friend Billy Hinche, who played with them. Carl’s brother-in-law. And he came and met me and gave me charts to learn the stuff so I was good to go. So I was the Beach Boys piano player for seven years after that, after I got that call. So I was auditioning – not auditioning but I was just subbing for somebody, but he never came back, so I stayed in. And then a few years ago they wanted to change up the musicians in the band and I became the drummer. They ask me if I wanted to play drums and I said, “Yes I do. Thank you very much.” So I’ve been playing drums for The Beach Boys for almost four years now. But I’ve been their percussionist also, as I was their piano player. I played all the percussion parts also.
But when I joined The Beach Boys and was their percussionist, you know, I said, “Man, I called Vater sticks.” I had a friend who said, “Man, you should get some drum sticks and what kind do you use?” and I said, “I don’t know. What ever are sitting on the stand.” You know, I’m playing timbale sticks, timpani stick and stuff. And he said, “Man, I got a friend at Vater. Give him a call.” I said, “Can I get a signature stick?” He said, “Well you can get your signature on it, but you can’t have a signature stick. You’re not big enough yet.” So that was probably 2000/2001. I think 2000. I don’t know. I’m not sure. So, now when I play with The Beach Boys, I have a timpani set up so I use the sizzle stick because it works. I can flip it around really quick like that after I’m done with the timpani. I need to get back to the cymbals so I do that. And then for lighter rims I like the Manhattan 7A’s As you can see, can we get a close up with the other camera? Just kidding. I love the 7A’s. You know I was using 5A’s for a long time and Power 5B’s for certain rims, you know whenever I felt strong, and not as old as I am, I would use the heavier sticks. And then I’d go back to the flash sticks, as I call them. After using 5B’s you’d go to a 7A. If you’re a drummer you know what I’m talking about. But Dennis Diken from The Smithereens said, “Man” I said, “What do you use?” Big guy, he says, “Oh I use these 7A’s.” I said, “Really!” He says, “Yeah” I love them. One of my favorite. They don’t come in nude, but that’s OK. I just rub them on the side walk before I use them and scrape off some of the varnish. My hero, as drummers, Buddy Saltzman played on all the Four Seasons records. He, uh, very famous sessions drummer. A lot of people you say his name to, he was the east coast Hal Blaine, Buddy Saltzman. Actually Dennis Diken from The Smithereens and I did an article on him in Modern Drummer and that was kind of cool. He used a really light stick too. He gave me a pair of his sticks man. They were these Ro/Mojo Jazz sticks with red print on it. And they were bent and crooked and he always played with the, his back beat with the stick backwards. And even though he was an accomplished jazz drummer, he played with the traditional gripe. In the studio, when he played rock and roll, he played with the match gripe though. I thought it was cool too.
I would say too, there was a TV show that was based on my family, The Cowsills. It was called The Partridge Family. A lot of people don’t know that. I don’t know which one I was. I think I was Suzanne Crough, in the TV show probably. I definitely wasn’t the drummer, Brian Forster. He was too cute. No, but actually Screen Gems approached us to do this show. I think they already had Shirley Jones in mind and they were looking for this other entity. So Screen Gems spent some time with us. I don’t remember exactly how long. So we weren’t cute anymore for them. They needed younger kids for that stuff. You know what I’m saying. And plus the fact they wanted Shirley Jones. My Dad wanted my Mom, who would not have wanted to do it. My Mom didn’t even want to be on stage. She was knocked kneed. The whole time she’s shaking on stage. And she was really cute. She had absolutely a beautiful voice, but she had no timing. We’d start a song and she’d come in way off the mark and we were pros at turning the beat around to suit her needs. And she was just a house wife, man. She’d wash dishes and she sang around the sink. And they put her in the band. She never wanted to be there, but... So, she definitely wouldn’t have done the show, and they didn’t want her, so they made The Partridge Family which was fine. It was great. I laughed my ass off at the show. They let us see a preview of it. I met David Cassidy once. I was really, I had just finish puberty again. You know the height of my success was in puberty. Thank You God ! That was great, great. So I was going to meet David Cassidy. There was a lady named Gloria Stavers. For you guys my age you know that 16 Magazine and Tiger Beat. They had these teen magazines so we were always in it. So I always get nervous when I meet somebody famous. I just do. Still do to this day. You know, somebody’s famous, I feel like crying because I want them to be my best friend and I don’t know how to make that happen and they’re going to leave me. So, we get in her car to go to the Beverly Hills Hotel. She has to drop something off, get a picture of him. And I’m getting nervous as I’m approaching, you know, I want to be cool. And I get there, and I get out of the car, she comes down. He’s in the lobby. I see him “Oh my God, it’s him.” And I went up to him and I did this stupidest thing. I went “Mr. Cassidy” and I shook his hand and that was it. That’s all I had to say to the guy. God.
I’m actually involved with my companies that take care of me. Vater, I love you. You’re the best. You guys are man and I like those blue nylon brushes with black handles on them. I don’t know what they are. In-between a brush and they got rubber band and they go up there. What are they called? Monster brush. Those are my favorite thing. I have turned so many people on to those brushes because you know wire brushes are great are great and I’ll play with those. But just sometimes, they sound so much better.
I’m an old dog. I play a four piece kit. I’d have more cymbals if I didn’t have the timpani, so I could hide. I sit high in the seat, always have. Ringo sat high like that. So, it’s just how I sit. I don’t slouch. I sit up straight. When I joined The Beach Boys and became the drummer, when I first joined I was playing the piano. They had these artist rendition versions of The Beach Boys songs. They sounded like The Beach Boys songs, but they weren’t, they weren’t the right arrangement. And some of the drum stuff wasn’t the right stuff. That was on the record. And Carl was all good for the change, you know, let’s do a Latin beat and “Don’t Worry Baby” will sound really cool. And let’s slow everything down so where I can sing it and get to my amplifier and get a drink of water. So, when I became the drummer, I just, uh, it was a great seat to have because I had listened to all the records. I mean I sit there and I just have the tracks only. And I’d list to Hal Blaine’s drum parts. So basically I play most of the signature parts. You know sometimes I’ll get excited towards the end of the show and throw some s*** in. But I keep it pretty original because that’s what made it a hit. And I don’t have a problem playing simple. I’m not a big technical drummer. If it doesn’t, if I can’t do it with the right hand it won’t get done. So that muscle is this big and this one is just a back beater. I’m not a great reader. I can read. I learned later. But playing the classic songs with The Beach Boys, you know, another classic again. We fixed all the vocal parts so they’re the original ones on the record and it’s a great catalog for me. I sit back there and I’m a big Beach Boy fan. I have the best seat in the house is what it amounts to. And I wish they were all alive and they were all working together. But two are dead. Brian does his own thing. Al does his own thing. There’s a 50th anniversary coming up. I don’t see them getting together, but I’m just a side guy in the circus.
It’s a great catalog. It goes endless. In fact he does some cover tunes and you know a couple of us in the band go “Why is he doing a cover song when they have the catalog of doom.” But I guess I figured out that, you know, that’s his stuff. If I played my own stuff I’d want to do some of my hero’s music too in a show, I guess. He’s into doo-wop. That’s what he grew up singing. Four Freshman, so we do some of that stuff. Some of it they recorded and some of it he just loves and it’s his band.
People love it. People always come. The kids are singing the songs, the little grandkids. I laugh at that. I say, “It’s amazing.” It’s an amazing machine. It just keeps going cuz they never stopped touring. So, they’re talking about a 50th anniversary reunion tour. And that’s great. The big cities – New York, Chicago – things where they know who Brian Wilson is and they know the break-up. But most the people in the United States don’t know who they are personally. They just know The Beach Boys were in there town a week ago, not – ‘What’s this reunion thing?’ But I wish they would have one even though I probably – I wonder who the band would be, Brian’s band or our band. That’s what we think about. Their band or our band because we are all friends and we say, “God if they did that, who are they taking? Who are they taking?” You know, “I get dibs on percussion. I get to be the drummer.” It’s a funny bit.
You know, even people who say “Oh man I can’t believe you play with The Beach Boy guys. Man, it’s not the real Beach Boys.” And I just look at them and a couple of time I call them out I said, “Dude, you’re a drummer, right?” They said, “Yeah” I said, “What if they offered you the gig, would you do it? Or would you say ‘No, I’m not playing with that. That’s un-cool.’ It’s like would you take the gig? Would you, huh? Would ya? Would you take the gig? Yeah you would.” I put my kids through college. It’s all good. And, fortunately for me, I have a job doing what I love to do and I’m playing with a band that is legendary. So, it’s a good gig. Best gig I ever had outside of my family gig.
Guys this has been b****in. You know what? Vater has been good to me. My life is good. Drums are good. Keep rockin’. Talk to you later. John Cowsill signing off, for Vater.
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