5/16/2023 0 Comments B j thomas and billy joe royalI got a call from Dick Clark and it changed my life. 1 in Cincinnati overnight and then it just blew up across the country. And then Joe (South) called me and said he had a song for me called "Down in the Boondocks' so I flew back to Atlanta to cut it. President Kennedy was assassinated and he wanted to do a tribute show at Cincinnati Gardens but I had never worked in front of kids before.Īll of sudden, all the kids are following me around town. I was working at a club and met a disc jockey named Dusty Roads who came out to one of my shows. For some reason I wanted to leave Savannah and left for Cincinnati. 'It will be new to a lot of people and the kids are buying it.I did the craziest thing. 'It's ready to come back and that's what I do best,' he said. Royal's new album will probably be released in April and watch out for long forgotten hits by Clyde McFatter, Solomon Burke, Sam Cooke and Bobby Blue Bland among others. Royal thinks that there is a goldmine of material first recorded in the '50s that will find new audiences. But a lot of kids came up and said they had never heard of me but they liked me. Of course they all didn't come to see me. 'We did a show in Cincinnati with 45,000 people. Royal thinks his career in country music is only just starting. He said 'Burned Like A Rocket' was picked up by some stations and played anyway and that got his career back in the groove. Royal says he's an exception to the rule because many stations simply won't play records that are not on the charts or those from independent labels. Tina Turner is doing the same thing now she was doing 20 years ago,' Royal said. That's okay because I like country music, and I'm being accepted by country stations. 'Things started to turn around and I thought there would be a chance for me. Thomas and others for opening the doors of country music. There was just no slot for me.'īut he credits artists like Kenny Rogers and B.J. And pop - I don't know what the heck they were doing. 'What happened to me was that 15 years ago country stations were playing really traditional country. Most of the records I've cut would be country. 'Down In The Boondocks' was pop back then, but today it would be country. I was on the pop side in the '60s, but the music business got crazy. 'I think hopefully it's gotten back to good music. That's one of the reasons for country's broadening audience. 'Some of the people who are listening to country stations now are the people who listened to what was called rock 'n' roll back in the '60s - top 40 back then. How does he explain the resurgence of his career? Nobody wanted to get on the air and say, 'Here is Billy Joe Royal with 'Burned Like A Rocket.''īut Royal had a start and later landed a contract with Atlantic-America and is currently on the charts with 'I Miss You Already.' You couldn't play that record after what happened. At that time the only song that was outselling it was 'Bop.' We knew we had a No. On Tuesday the Shuttle went down and it dropped like a hot potato. 'We shipped it pop (to pop music stations) on Monday. The song had just entered into the top 10 country charts the week of the Shuttle Challenger tragedy. Royal, who says today's rock 'n' roll sounds like 'a bunch of chain saws,' also had a big hit last year with 'Burned Like A Rocket,' a song he recorded and sold on an independent label. 'I think the secret is to try to recapture that sound, not sing about it but sing something that has that sound.' Milsap rejuvenated interest in '50s music - sometimes called old rock 'n' roll - and not only is it helping Royal, it's also helping others, like Dan Seals who had a big hit in 1986 with 'Bop,' and Mickey Gilley who scored with 'Do Wah Days.' And I still think there's a market,' Royal said. 'When Milsap came out with it I stopped the car and beat the dash and said 'that's my idea.' Then I thought, 'You fool.' Thank goodness he did that or that somebody did it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |