The Cowsills Interview
From Riches to Rags and Back Again

Before the Partridge Family T.V. series, there existed a real family that played together. They were called the Cowsills and recorded some seven albums that yielded three gold singles — "The Rain, The Park and Other Things," Indian Lake," and "Hair." The Cowsills first sang their way into American households on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967. The group disbanded in 1970, and mother, Barbara Cowsill died of emphysema in 1985. But, the remaining members of the Cowsills are getting back together again. Plans are in the works for a new album, with a tour to follow. Bob Cowsill fills us in.

Q. When did you put the Cowsills back together?
A. Five months ago, although you know, with a family there's rumblings it's funny, 'cause my brother John, he's the drummer, he has been trying to do this for a long time He would call and wherever we were at personally, we would say no, don't even talk to me about it. Many of us would say that for a long time, because it's hard to coordinate so many brains to be in the same spot at the same time, especially with a family like ours and especially the way it ended when it ended, in the old days. Basically, I have always stayed in the business, and have had part¬ners, and worked with other people and continued writing and recording and learning how to do those things, along with sing. Susan had stayed in the business also. Barry and Bill have stayed in the business on an individual basis. I'll be honest about this, because I'm as guilty as the rest of them on this, we put ourselves and our own personal solo careers first, always. You gotta sense that toward the end, this is only gonna fly if we all combine, and do this together, like we did before. Ever since we made that decision, it's been like magic.

Q. Isn't that because the Cowsills have instant name recognition?
A. The name can get you indoors, and it got me indoors. But I find that isn't enough. And even the music can be great and that's not enough. I don't know, it just seems right, right now.

Q. What triggered the reunion? Did you hear a song on the radio and say, "Hey, we can do that."
A. As you listen to the radio, I'll admit that sometimes you sit there and go, "That's a piece of junk. How did that get on there?" But, then you have to say that little piece of junk sold something and has created some excitement, and you want to listen and find out what did that, and to learn from that.

Q. Once you're exposed to the kind of success the Cowsills had, and then one day it isn't there anymore, how do you adjust to that?
A. When it broke up, we went from literally having it all, to having nothing. Bankruptcy. All that goes along with that. The horrible Hollywood story. And then the business kind of messed up our family a bit and splintered it very much so. I was living in Los Angeles in 1969 with the Number One Song in the country, "Hair," and by 1970, I had a job sweeping a garage. Now, that was a real crash. We went down, and we sort of stayed down. (Laughs.) No one really knows our history from the time it ended 'till now. It's another whole interview given at a more appropriate time, but it's interesting I'll tell you. It took 20 years for it to come full circle, that's how big the explosion was.

Q. "Indian Lake" still sounds good.
A. At the time I hated it. I'm like 17, and I don't want to do that nerdy song. (Laughs.) Later on, I go, wow that was well done. I heard Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) liked it, so I said, well if he liked it, I liked it.

Q. What was it like to be on the Ed Sullivan Show?
A. At the time, it was "live" television. We were very excited because when Ed Sullivan was happening, when you hit that show on a Sunday night, you knew you made it. He was wonderful to us. He thought we were wonderful. I think we went on (his show) two or three times. We'd do our song, and he'd call us over and talk to us. He was a swell guy.

Q. Your father, he was the manager of the Cowsills, wasn't he?
A Yeah. He didn't do a real good job.

Q. What's he doing these days?
A. He's retired and lives in Mexico. He's kind of an old sailor who's retired, and living out the sunset of his life.

Q. Why didn't your father do a good job?
A. I will give him this, he knew what he wanted. He knew this was good and he was gonna get it out there, no matter what. In terms of that, he did a great job. I got a little of that from him and I appreciate that, what he wasn't good at, was handl¬ing it once it arrived. He was a great guy, but he only went to the seventh grade. You go from Newport, Rhode Island to New York City, and you go from nothing to millions. I feel you have to be ready for that kind of success. And, I don't feel he was.

Q. What did he know about management?
A. He was in the service for 20 years, that's what he knew about management, and he was raising seven children, that's what he knew about management. Dad managed it up to a certain point, then Lenny Stogel became our manager, when we got to New York and had record deals. Dad's a stubborn guy. He figured what you do with money is invest it, you buy land. It just didn't work out. Everything just failed.

Q. You were all living in Rhode Island, and in school, yet you would play the New York clubs on a regular basis. How did that work?
A. Well first, my Dad, if he thought it was worth the cause, would just take us out of school. No problem. I'd.be in Spanish.class, somebody would take me out, and I knew I'd be going to New York City. We played every weekend in Newport, Rhode Island, the clubs around Newport as well. That's all I remember doing during high school. Playing the colleges in New England, the clubs in Newport, and then going to New York whenever my Dad felt it was worth it. He was pursuing it, and we were right behind him. We wanted it.

Q. How did you get signed to M.G.M. records?
A. We were playing at a club in Newport, Rhode Island when somebody from the Today Show would put people on in the morning and asked us if we wanted to do a show, and we said yes. Somebody from Mercury Records saw us on the Today Show and signed us to Mercury, where we put out 2 or 3 singles that flopped. When Artic Kornfeld who wrote "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things" wanted to record that with us for Mercury, Mercury dropped us from the label. We went in and recorded it anyway Artie, Lenny Stogel, and my Dad all took it over to M.G.M. They just jumped on it. They thought it was great. I gotta tell you, M.G.M. in the good old fashion way, that good old labels did back then, really got behind the Cowsills.

Q. Did M.G.M. cheat you out of your royalties?
A. Oh, I'm sure, if I uncovered all the sawdust on the floor of what became of our career, that there's s some problems. Anytime you got a bankruptcy and something ends as bad, it ends. I don't think any of us want to dig up that mess. We only surround ourselves with real positive things right now. We're not your basic 60's comeback band. We're an adult version of what we were, which makes it different. We're not out to recycle what was done before, although we love to sing "Hair."