TOMMY ROE: SINGER-SONGWRITER HIT DIZZYING HEIGHTS
When it came to creating catchy tunes in the 60s, singer-songwriter Tommy Roe could be counted on to deliver some of the most indelible. Hits like “Sheila,” “Everybody,” “Sweet Pea,” “Hooray For Hazel,” “Dizzy,” “Heather Honey,” “Jam Up and Jelly Tight” and “Stir It Up and Serve It” proved irresistible, making listeners bob their heads, sing along and grin. Roe could also serve up more complex, hauntingly beautiful numbers like “It’s Now Winter’s Day.” At 71, Roe looks and sounds remarkably youthful. He continues to write, record and perform. His latest album, “Devil’s Soul Pile,” brims with wonderful, finely crafted songs such as “Memphis Me,” “What If’s and Should Have’s,“ ”That’s When She Ran Out of Time,” “Remember” and the title track. On Tuesday, February 11th, Roe will return to Washington Coliseum to be part of the celebratory concert marking the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ first U.S. concert. [For tickets, $45-$100, go to www.beatlesyesterdayandtoday.com] The tribute band Beatlemania Now will create the Fab Four’s set. On that historic night in D.C., half a century ago, Roe opened for The Beatles. For the 2014 event, which includes an exhibition of Mike Mitchell’s original 1964 Beatle photographs, Roe will be playing an acoustic set. Pop Culture Classics enjoyed chatting with Roe about his Beatle memories, as well the rest of his impressive career. The Atlanta-born artist has been inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. POP CULTURE CLASSICS: It’s hard to believe it’s the 50th anniversary of that first U.S. Beatles concert. TOMMY ROE: [actress Yeah, I would say it seems like yesterday... but it really doesn’t [laughs]. PCC: You had toured with The Beatles in England before that? TOMMY ROE: Right, a year earlier, in 1963. That’s when I really met The Beatles. I went over to England to headline my first concert , along with Chris Montez. And The Beatles were a featured act on our tour. So I met them under those circumstances. Then, when they came to the States, they called my management and asked if I would open for them in Washington, D.C. on their first concert. PCC: During that tour in England, what were your first impressions of the four guys both in terms of personality and the music?
Oh, I mean, the writing was on the wall. You know, I knew after the first couple of dates that we did that Chris and I were in trouble [chuckles], because these guys were stealing the show. They did one tour prior to ours, with Helen Shapiro. And they developed this fan base. And they were following them from venue to venue. And Brian Epstein’s kind of Colonel Tom Parker-like management style took advantage of that and really made it pay off for them. I mean, it was impossible to follow them. They’d go on stage and just chaos broke out. If you remember the movie “Hard Day’s Night,” all of the action in that movie, where the kids were chasing them down the street and that whole thing, I mean, they got all that from our tour. [Laughs]. I mean, that’s the way it was. PCC: And how did they seem to be handling all that? Were they still relatively unaffected? TOMMY ROE: They really didn’t have a clue as to what was in store for them. They released their first album while we were on tour, in mid-tour, and it went right to the top of the British charts. So, the second half of our tour, they had the number one record in England. But still, they’d ask me questions about America. They thought, “Well, we’ll never get to go to America. We’d love to go over there and perform.” They’d talk about that. They had tons of questions about the States. They really wanted to come to the States. And it didn’t happen for them until a year later. I started writing “Everybody” on that tour. John used to let me borrow his Gibson guitar on the bus and I wrote songs. And I wrote this one on that tour. So I was kind of inspired by that rockabilly thing they were doing. So, when I came back, I recorded that, it went to number three for me. So by the time they came to Washington in ‘64, “Everybody” was in the charts, Top 10. So I had two songs, “Sheila” and “Everybody,” and I opened the show for them with those two songs. PCC: Is it true you tried to land The Beatles a record deal in the U.S.? TOMMY ROE: I did, yeah. Brian and I were talking about a management relationship. Even Brian didn’t really realize what fate had in store for them, because he was managing other acts, he was looking for other acts to manage. And so, we were discussing that. And he gave me a promo pack. He said, “Well, look, take this back to your label and see if they’re interested in signing the boys.” So he gave me a little package of Beatle stuff - an album and a bio and singles and little Beatle memorabilia, which I wish I still had. So I took the Queen Elizabeth back from England and it was a five-day journey over the Atlantic. And I got into New York City. And I’d already called ahead of time and hyped my producer and the record company that I’d found this act in England. So Felton Jarvis was my producer. He met me at the docks and we went right to office of ABC-Paramount Records with my Beatle promo kit. So we walk into the office and they’re all congratulating me on the tour - “We heard you had a great tour. We understand you found an act you’d like for us to hear.” And I said, “Yeah.” And I then I started describing The Beatles, what they were doing. I said, “It’s like Elvis Presley all over again, creating chaos at the venues.” So they said, “Well, let’s see what you’ve got.” So I pulled the album out of the bag and held it up and the office just got real quiet [chuckles], as they saw the picture of The Beatles on the front. They’d never seen anything like that. So Felton blurted out something to the effect, “Well, you’ve got to hear them.” So the guy from the label took the album out of the cover and put it on the turntable, dropped the needle on the first cut, played the first few bars, picked the needle up and looked at Felton and me and said, “Tell you what, kids, let us be the talent scouts. That’s got to be the worst piece of crap I’ve ever heard in my life!” Well, you know, I felt really ridiculous. I mean, I felt about an inch tall. I told Felton, “Never again will I try to do that.” And, of course, at that time, we didn’t know The Beatles were going to explode in America. So I just wrote it off, saying, “Well, maybe they know better than I know.” PCC: But it must have felt good later, when they did explode across the U.S. TOMMY ROE: About a year later, December, January, of that year, is when they took off and then they did “The Ed Sullivan Show” and that locked it in for them. And then they did that first concert in Washington, D.C. and that was it. They were off and running. PCC: And did you see those guys at the label after that? TOMMY ROE: Oh, they’d see coming into the office and they’re run for the exits [laughs] They never could face me after that. They used to have these record conventions in in Miami, Florida. And they used to always invite me to them. Well, after that, I never got invited to the conventions [laughs]. “The kid that brought us The Beatles and we turned them down.” PCC: What happened to the idea of Brian managing you?
Oh, after that, he didn’t need any other acts. He let all the other acts go. He had his hands full with The Beatles. He didn’t know what was in store for them. And once it started happening, it got so huge, he didn’t need any other acts. And even The Beatles didn’t know what to expect, when they did Washington, D.C. It was traditional, when you do a show, you’d have opening acts. You’d have two or three acts on before the headliner act. That was the way they did the shows in England. So that’s how they lined the show up in Washington, D.C. But, you know, they didn’t need any other acts. They’d have done fine with just The Beatles. PCC: How did the audience treat the openers - you and The Chiffons and Righteous Brothers and Jay and The Americans? TOMMY ROE: Oh, they were great. You know, we had our fans, our followers. I mean, it wasn’t chaotic, like when The Beatles hit the stage. But they treated us fine. We got a nice response. And, of course, you do two songs. The Beatles only did 30 minutes. So, I mean, it’s not a lot of show [laughs]. PCC: And the Beatlemania was already in full swing, with the screaming and the jelly babies? TOMMY ROE: Oh, yeah. We were getting pelted with these jelly beans. They would sting like the dickens. Even standing on the side of the stage, I got hit with them. Everybody was getting hit with these jelly beans. Some reporter asked them what their favorite American candy was and they said jelly beans. Well, the kids that came to the show brought bags full of jelly beans [chuckles]. They had to get rid of them somehow. They couldn’t eat them all. PCC: So was it craziness back at the hotel, too? TOMMY ROE: Oh, the hotel was a zoo. It was crazy everywhere. I went up briefly to thank them for having me on the show and the whole thing. But it was so chaotic, we didn’t get to talk or anything. Their press agent, Brian Sommerville, he was my press agent in England, so he was handling them at that time. So Brian and I just kind of hung out in the hall and talked. And he was stunned by the reaction to The Beatles. They thought it would go well, but they didn’t anticipate anything like what happened. PCC: Why do you think it was such an instant craze? TOMMY ROE: Well, it was Beatlemania. I mean, they had the energy and they had that effect on the audience. When they did “The Ed Sullivan Show,” that was it. If you just heard their music, without seeing them, it wouldn’t really register with you. Because, if you listen to those early songs, they’re not that great. I mean, technically, they’re not that good. They have a charm to them, but if you didn’t know who the artist was, you couldn’t visualize The Beatles singing these songs. They would just be like ordinary songs. But when you put the two together, the visual with the sound, with what they do on stage, energy-wise, with those songs, then that’s what made it all happen for them. PCC: For you, growing up in Atlanta, who were the artists that originally inspired you? TOMMY ROE: Oh, I loved songwriters. I started out just wanting to be a songwriter. I wrote “Sheila” when I was just 14 years old. So I enjoyed Chuck Berry. Of course, he wrote his own material. Carl Perkins. Buddy Holly, of course I was a huge fan of Buddy Holly, who wrote his own songs. So I was influenced by them a great deal. And then, I was kind of shy kid, so I never really thought about performing on stage. But when I recorded “Sheila,” all of a sudden, I was a performer [laughs]. Or I thought I had to learn to be a performer, because I’d played locally, around Atlanta, in a little band, for fraternity parties and things like that. But I’d never really performed on stage. So there I was with the number one record in the world and I was having to learn what to do. PCC: At such a young age, was songwriting a welcome form of self-expression for you? TOMMY ROE: Well, not really. I used to write all these little poems, about silly little things. I wrote this poem about Freda - “Sweet little Freda, you’ll know her if you see her. Blue eyes and a ponytail.” I had a crush on this little girl. And before I could give her the poem, she moved out of the neighborhood. So I never saw her again. So, about the same time, my Dad taught me three chords on the guitar and that’s when I started putting music to my poems. So that’s how “Sheila” came about. It was originally “Sweet Little Freda.” And then I got an audition to record in Atlanta. And the guy wanted to hear my songs, so I sang “Freda” for him. He said, “You know, I love that song, ‘Freda.’ That’s real catchy. But we’ve got to do something about the title. I’m not crazy about the name.” [Laughs] PCC: You had seen Elvis perform way back in the mid-50s? TOMMY ROE: Yeah, he came through Atlanta and I came to a show. I had like a third row seat. And it was a similar reaction to what I saw later, with The Beatles. I saw Elvis when I was very young and I saw what happened at that show. I thought, “I’ll really get to see and hear Elvis up close.” Well, when he hit the stage, chaos broke out. The audience was on the stage with him. And I never really got to hear him sing or really didn’t get to see him that well. I remember saying to myself, “Boy, I tell you what, I don’t want to be in the audience. I really like what he’s doing. He’s on stage. [Laughs]. That’s what I would like to do, is be on stage instead of in the audience.” So that was my first experience with that kind of thing and then, of course, when I toured with The Beatles, I saw it all over again. PCC: Elvis in the 50s, with the original trio - Scotty Moore, Bill Black and D.J. Fontana - must have been electrifying. TOMMY ROE: Oh, yeah. Scotty Moore. They came out and did a few numbers. I forget the theatre it was in. It was in a little theatre, like the Roxys and the Loewes, they would have shows, they would have matinee shows on the weekends between films and stuff. And that’s kind of what it was. It was one of those little theatres in Atlanta. PCC: In recording “Sheila,” that cool drum part in there, was that something you had heard in your head all along? TOMMY ROE: No, I recorded “Sheila” when I was still in high school, locally, my first version of it. And I recorded with my band that I had. And it just had regular two-four drums in it. When I got out of high school and I met Felton Jarvis, he wanted to produce me in Nashville. And he wanted to re-record “Sheila.” Buddy Holly had died and there was this vacuum left of Buddy Holly fans. And it was his idea to put the “Peggy Sue” kind of drums into “Sheila.” And so we did that and called it our tribute to Buddy Holly. And what happened, ”Sheila” was actually the B-side of the single, my first nationally released single on ABC-Paramount Records. “Save Your Kisses” was the A-side. And they played it a few places. It didn’t get any response. And then there was a deejay in Baltimore named Buddy Deane who remembered my first record. He even played that first record for a while, of “Sheila.” So he flipped the record over and started playing “Sheila.” In the old days, they’d say, “We played that record and the phones lit up.” So he called my manager and said, “’Sheila’ is a big hit. We played it and the phones lit up.” That meant people were calling and requesting it. So that’s how the record broke. It broke out of Baltimore. It was a flipped-over B-side. Of course, you can’t do that kind of stuff today, but in the old days, they used to do stuff liket hat. PCC: You mentioned Felton Jarvis. He later worked with Elvis. Did you get to know Elvis at all?
Oh, yeah. I met Elvis through Felton. Felton and I were old friends from Atlanta. Of course, he produced “Sheila,” produced “Everybody” and all my early stuff. “Carol,” he produced that. When I met Felton, he was just out of the Marines and when he was serving in the Marines, he used to mime Elvis records in the service clubs. He’d sing along with Elvis and do an Elvis act. [Chuckles] So he was a huge Elvis Presley fan and his whole point in producing me was to get to Nashville and meet Elvis. That was his objective. In fact, when we recorded “Sheila,” we did a split session with a guy named Vince Everett [named after the Elvis character in “Jailhouse Rock”]. Well, they used Vince Everett as the recording name. His real name was Marvin Benefield. And he was an Elvis sound-alike. And they released Vince Everett’s record, called “Such A Night.” And it didn’t do anything. So then they released my record. But anyway, Felton, he produced my early hits and he got a job with RCA Records. Chet Atkins hired him to be like an assistant producer there at RCA. So he finally met Elvis [laughs]. And turns out, Felton was the kind of guy you just wanted to be around. He was a fun guy. You had a great time with him. You wanted to be around him and listen to his stories and hang with him. So Elvis fell in love with Felton and hired him. It’s funny. His whole goal was met. He finally met Elvis and then got hired by Elvis to produce his records. So he was very happy. So he produced Elvis the last few years before he passed away. PCC: So what were your impressions of Elvis, when you finally got to meet him? TOMMY ROE: Oh, you know, Elvis was... Elvis. It was really cool to get to meet him. I went to that opening in Las Vegas, the midnight show of that first opening night, when he came back. And he introduced me in the audience. And it’s so funny, because I was on my way back from the bathroom, when he introduced me. Felton told me he was going to introduce me, but I had no idea he was going to do it right in the beginning of the show [laughs]. So I was on my way back to my table and I heard my name and the spotlight was moving all around, looking for me and finally he saw me walking towards the table and he said, “Oh, there he is.” He said, “Tommy, what’d they do? Put you in the kitchen?” [Laughs]. It was kind of cool. And then I went backstage and and met him for the first time and we hung out together. That night he was kind of not too talkative. And then the other times I met him, he was very talkative. Either he was really up or he was laid-back. But when I met him that first night, the incredible thing, when he was on, when he made his comeback, he looked like the Elvis of old, when he first started. He really looked great. He was thin and had a great look about him. And the thing that first impressed me, when I walked in the room, was just his magnetism. He had incredible magnetism. I remember, when I met Sinatra, it was the same thing. Some people have that magnetic pull. They just have it - the eyes or the look or the body language, whatever it is. They just have a great pull to them. That’s the way Elvis was. PCC: Being part of the rock ‘n’ roll world, how did you connect with Sinatra? TOMMY ROE: I met Sinatra in Palm Springs. Before I married my wife [actress Josette Banzet, who won a Golden Globe Award for the mini-series “Rich Man, Poor Man”], she was a good friend of Sinatra’s. She had a home next door to his in Palm Springs. And so we were dating. And I was down there in Palm Springs one time and we went to this restaurant and Sinatra and his crew, they were in this restaurant. And so, my wife said, “Oh, Frank, come here. I want you to meet somebody.” And so went over to his table. I had my road manager with me at the time. He was about 6’-5”, huge guy, probably weighed 280 pounds or something. And he was with me, along with my soon-to-be wife. She introduced me and she said, “And this is Ken. This is Tommy’s bodyguard.” And he wasn’t my bodyguard. But she liked saying that. And Frank says, ‘Honey, you don’t need a bodyguard.” He says, “I’m your bodyguard.” He thought she said, “He’s my bodyguard.” [Laughs] She introduced me to him and he was real nice. All of his guys were there. And we sat and talked for a while. He was a nice guy. PCC: When you first got your record deal, you hesitated to leave your job at GE? Was that because of the insecurity of the record business? TOMMY ROE: Yeah, I was only 19 years old. And I was married and had a little baby. I had a little girl. And my cousin landed this job for me at General Electric, there in Atlanta. We built turbines to generate electricity for when they built a dam. They’d run the water through these turbines and generate electricity. And that was what I did. I helped build these turbines. So “Sheila” was released and I knew that it was getting played locally in Atlanta. But that was really about all I knew about it. And then one day I got a call at work from Bill Lowery, who produced the record with Felton. And he said, “You know, Tommy, I need you to consider quitting your job at General Electric, because it looks like your record’s going to be a hit.” And I told him, “No way.” [Laughs] I’d only been there for a few months and I was making 80 bucks a week or something, which was fine for me at that time. I was just happy to have a job. And he laughed. He said, ”Well, you really need to think about it. I’ll tell you what, after work today, you come by the office and we’ll discuss it.” So I went by the office and he again asked me to quit the job. And I said, “Nah. I just can’t do it, Bill.” He said, “Well, listen. Maybe if I give you an advance against royalties that’ll help change your mind.” And he handed me a check for $10,000. And my Dad and I together didn’t make $10,000 a year [chuckles]. So I saw the check and I was kind of shocked by it. I didn’t know what to say. He said, “Go home, talk it over with your parents.” And mind you, I’m only 19, just a kid. “Talk it over with the parents and see what they say and get back to me.” So I went home and my parents said, “Go for it. You got nothin’ to lose. See what happens.” PCC: Did you have some Plan B in case the music career didn’t work out? TOMMY ROE: Well, I was hoping to get my job back at GE. I kept a good relationship with those people, because I just didn’t know. Really, I didn’t know what to expect. Like when I was in his office, he showed me the Billboard magazine with “Sheila” like 30-something with a bullet. He said, “Look! It’s 30-something with a bullet!” I said, “Well, What does that mean?” I didn’t know what a bullet meant in Billboard magazine. He said “It means it’s going up to like in the 20s. We think it’s going to be a Top 10 record.” I just didn’t have a clue to all that business side of the record business. PCC: Once it actually hit the top, what was that feeling like for you? TOMMY ROE: It was fantastic. I I can’t remember the exact time I heard it on the radio. But I pulled the car over. I remember I heard “Sheila” playing on the radio and I just couldn’t stand it. I pulled the car over. And we were all yelling and screaming in the car - “Listen to that! It’s on the radio!” But it was exciting. When you’re young like that, you’re trying to do something special, to be successful at it at a young age. It’s different today, because you have so much media. But back then, there weren’t so many media outlets. You were kind of restricted to your local outlets. It’s like Justin Bieber today, it’s the same kind of thing, young kid, very successful, but he has huge media exposure. We didn’t have that in those days. You really had to fight for every little bit of exposure you got. In fact, they kind of frowned on rock ‘n’ roll music, any kind of pop music. So, different time. PCC: It’s always difficult to come up with that second hit. There are so many one-hit wonders. Were you worried about that? How did “Everybody” come about? TOMMY ROE: Well, the follow-up to “Sheila” was a song “Piddle De Pat,” which I wrote. And it didn’t do anything. And then “Susie Darlin’” I released, which is a cover I did of the Robin Luke song. And it charted. I think it got in the 30s. So I was inspired to write “Everybody” when I was in England with the Beatle tour, because they were doing rockabilly in their show and it kind of inspired me to get back to that. That’s what I did when I first started, was rockabilly. And so, “Everybody,” I wrote, John Lennon used to let me borrow his guitar on the bus as we used to travel around England on our tour. And I would write songs. And they would do the same thing. They would write songs, as well. And I started writing “Everybody” on that bus tour. And I took the Queen Elizabeth back to New York from England. And it takes five days to cross the Atlantic and so I finished the song on the Queen Elizabeth. And then, when we got back to New York, I tried to get my record label to sign The Beatles. And they turned them down. PCC: But writing the song, did it start with a guitar riff, or the title, or a lyric phrase? TOMMY ROE: Well, the guitar riff came. And, “Everybody,” I was just looking to do a shout out kind of a song. And “Everybody” just fell into place. Sometimes I get a title first. And I don’t think the title came with that song. It was just a feel. I got a feel, I think from doing that tour over there, with that kind of music I was hearing in England. It gave me a feel for that song. So I just started playing the riff. And then got into the chord progression, which is very simple. And “Everybody” just kind of came along. PCC: With the hits happening for you, was there a feeling that it was going to last forever, or did you feel you’d better enjoy it now, who knows what the future will bring? TOMMY ROE: Oh, I never knew what the next day would bring. It was all guesswork with me. I didn’t know that much about the business. I was really green, when I started, and having to learn, really how to perform and the whole thing. Then after I opened for The Beatles in 1964, in Washington, D.C., that spring of the same year, I went into Army basic training. I joined the Army Reserve, hoping it would keep me out of Vietnam. And so I had to go into boot camp. So I was out for the whole of ‘64. I was in the Army, doing my basic training. And then, when I got out, in ‘65, I moved to New York. And while I was in the Army, it gave me time to think about this British Invasion thing that was happening, because I noticed The Rolling Stones started coming over, Gerry and the Pacemakers, all these British acts were coming over and they were pushing the American acts off the charts. And I was thinking, “I can’t continue doing what I’m doing, because it sounds too much like what they’re doing. I’ve got to figure out a new style for myself, so I can sustain myself through the 60s.” And so, I started writing what I called at the time, “soft rock.” “Sweet Pea” was the first attempt at that. And it turned out to be a big record for me. And then, after that, “Hooray For Hazel.” And the deejays gave me the “King of Bubblegum” title. So my bubblegum style and my being able to write those songs, I think is really how I managed to sustain myself through the 60s and continue having hits, because if I’d had to depend on other writers, it just wouldn’t have happened for me. That’s what happened to a lot of the American acts. PCC: The bubblegum label, that’s been applied to some of the hookiest songs ever recorded. Did that designation bother you? TOMMY ROE: Well, it was meant as a negative by the deejays. It was a putdown. And, at first, it kind of hurt my feelings. But after a while, I was doing so many shows, I even went over to England and lived there for a while, I was doing so many shows over there. And I would walk on stage and every time I would sing “Sweet Pea,” I would always notice that a big smile came on the face of the audience [laughs]. So I thought, “Well, it can’t be all bad. If it makes people happy, there’s got to be something good about it.” So I kind of took it in stride and rolled with it. If you think about it, Michael Jackson was bubblegum. Justin Bieber’s bubblegum. It’s not a negative. It’s real positive. That’s your audience that you’re catering to. You’re catering to teens and pre-teens and young adults. So nothing wrong with it at all. PCC: So when you were writing numbers like “Sweet Pea” and “Hazel, were you consciously trying to make those songs instantly grab the listener and stick with them? TOMMY ROE: Oh, yeah, especially in the 60s, I was what they call a formula writer. You try to write a song under three minutes and keep it simple lyrically and tell a little story, that kind of thing. So it was a conscious effort to really create a style for myself that would work for me, competing with the British acts that were coming over here. So it was definitely something that I worked at. PCC: What about “Dizzy”? What was the co-writing process with Freddy Weller? TOMMY ROE: I moved to California, because Dick Clark invited me to become a regular on “Where The Action Is,” a show that he produced and it preceded “Bandstand” in the afternoon. So I moved from New York to L.A. to do that show. And Dick said I would be out here for about six months to do the show. Well, I’m still out here in Los Angeles [Laughs] So, thanks to Dick Clark, I’ve made a home in Los Angeles. But I came out to do his show and I worked with Paul Revere and the Raiders a lot, through doing “Where The Action Is.” They were regulars on the show, as well. And we would do the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour around the country. And Paul would be on the show. And Paul lost his guitar player, so he asked me if I knew somebody. And my old friend Freddy Weller was in Atlanta. He was on the road with Billy Joe Royal, playing guitar with him. And so I suggested to Paul that he call Freddy and see if he’d be interested in the gig. So he did and Freddy took the job and moved to California. So here we are, my old buddy’s with Paul, and we’re traveling around on the bus together, and Freddy and I started writing songs on these tours and “Dizzy” was the first song we wrote on one of those tours. We wrote “Jam Up and Jelly Tight,” as well. Freddy and I fit together very well. I would come up with ideas and Freddy is a really good guitar player, so he would add things musically that I couldn’t have put into the songs. So he was very helpful in writing. We did very well together. PCC: Doing those Caravans of Stars, were those great adventures? TOMMY ROE: Well, we used to call them “The Death March.” They were tough. I mean, we would travel by bus, and not like the buses they have today, with the beds and all the conveniences, kitchens and everything. They were regular old Greyhound buses with seats in them. And the same thing in England, when I did the tour over there with The Beatles, and all the other tours I did over there. They were just buses with seats in them. And you’d travel all night in those things and try to sleep. It was very difficult. Some people would sleep in the luggage compartment above the seats [chuckles], manage to get in there somehow and sleep. Those tours were pretty tough, pretty hard to do. We’d do a show and then leave that night and drive all night and then try to sleep during the day, before we did our show the following night. It was not very pleasant, really. PCC: Did you get to fully enjoy the role of pop star back in those days? TOMMY ROE: Oh, yeah. It was fun. It was exciting. And when you’re young, you do a lot of stupid things, but all-in-all, it comes out okay. I really have no complaints. PCC: You’re still writing and performing. Are the satisfactions different now? TOMMY ROE: Yeah, it’s something now that I don’t have to do. So I’m doing concerts that I just want to do. It’s like the concert in Washington, D.C. on February 11th. It’s the anniversary of The Beatles concert, you know. It’s something I really wanted to be a part of. For one thing, the D.C. Preservation League is sponsoring it. They want to preserve that building, the Washington Coliseum, for historical reasons. It’s a good reason to be a part of it . And the concerts I’m doing are just things that I can have fun with and not kill myself traveling. And the songwriting is something that I’ve just always done. It comes in spurts with me. I don’t write all the time. When I do write, I turn out quite a few songs. A couple of years ago, I started writing a lot, and I decided to put it together and put out a CD. So I have a CD out called “Devil’s Soul Pile.” And it’s doing quite well on the internet and all. And I’m getting ready to do some more recording in Nashville this year. PCC: Where did the concept for the song “Devil’s Soul Pile” come from? TOMMY ROE: It’s a distinct departure from my normal and distinctive style of “Sweet Pea” and “Dizzy” and all this. The theme of the song is about inner city juvenile crime. It’s kind of an interesting story of how I came up with this title. When I was a kid, my parents used to take me, every Sunday, we were in church. I’d have a little suit and tie on and everything. And then, during the summertime, they’d have, in the South, what they called “camp meetings,” where you’d go for like a weekend, kind of a tailgating kind of thing. And they would have these tents put up and preachers would come from all around the area and they’d preach all weekend. I used to go to these things as a kid. I remember one particular time, I was in this tent, listening to this preacher, preaching hellfire and damnation [laughs]. He was talking about the devil as a collector of souls. And this stuck in my mind for some reason. In my mind, I said, “Well, if he’s a collector of souls, he must have them stored in a warehouse.” So I’m trout-fishing with this friend of mine some years ago. We’re out in the Sierras in Northern California. And we’re driving to our lake, where we’re going to fish and I see this road sign, saying, “Devil’s Postpile.” It’s this city called Devil’s Postpile. And it’s kind of a tourist city. The reason it’s called Devil’s Postpile is because there’s some rock formations there that are very interesting. They look like telephone poles, all stacked together. But it’s rocks. It just happened through nature. So I saw this sign, “Devil’s Postpile” and I said, “That’s it! That’s my title, ‘Devil’s Soul Pile.’” So here I had the title, then I had to come up with something to write about. Living in L.A., you’re just bombarded with inner city crime on TV and the radio and everything. So I thought I would try to make a little social statement about that. And that’s kind of what the song is about, with a little message of hope at the end. PCC: Have you found that age brings an experience that can be an advantage as a writer and performer? TOMMY ROE: Yeah, I think experience is good. You think differently as you get older. So I think my songwriting is different. It’s not real bubblegum. I mean, I might try to write some bubblegum stuff. I’ve thought about it. Just to revisit the genre and see what I can do with it. But I kind of have to write with what I’m feeling. Like I say, my writing comes in spurts. I might go two years and not write a song and then, when I get the urge to do it, it just comes to me and I’ll churn out a dozen or so songs real quick. So I never really know what’s coming. It probably just depends on my state of mind at the time of writing, I guess. PCC: Do you find that the music keeps you young? TOMMY ROE: As old as I am, I tell you, I’ve been around for a long time, 54 years, this year, I’ve been in the business, but I don’t feel like it. I feel great. I’m healthy. I play golf all the time. I’m back out on the road again. So I’m okay. I’ll do it as long as I can do it and have fun with it. PCC: Why do you think the music of the 60s continues to resonate so strongly, not only as nostalgia, but with younger audiences, as well? TOMMY ROE: Oh, I think they’re just great songs. The different genres were all played on one radio station. It wasn’t splintered like it is today. Today you have to go to different radio stations to hear different kinds of music. I mean, when I was having my hits, you’d have bubblegum, you’d have acid-rock, you’d have folk-rock, you’d have R&B. Everything was played on one radio station. And you had one chart, Billboard chart. And that was it. That was the chart that meant something. And today it’s all splintered. Who knows? I guess to the young kids, if you don’t have anything to compare it to, it doesn’t make any difference. PCC: With all that you’ve achieved, are there still goals that you’re hungering to reach? Or are you content? TOMMY ROE: Well, I’ve won a lot of awards through the years and gold records and this kind of thing. There are some awards I’d like to accomplish. I’d like to be considered for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, things like that. I think those are little things that have been left undone. It’s something, when I was really successful, I didn’t pursue too much. It wasn’t important to me at the time, but I think it’s important to kind of leave a legacy like that. PCC: But it must be gratifying to view your legacy in terms of the fans telling you how much your songs have meant to them. TOMMY ROE: Oh, yeah. It always feels good to hear that. Like I say, my songs always tend to bring people’s spirits up. And that’s a good feeling. You really feel like you’re giving something to humanity. Visit www.tommyroe.com. |
