October 8, 2022 • 13 mins
Ian Punnett talks with The Cowsills about maintaining the drive to write and perform music while riding the fickle tide of fame.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on
iHeart Radio. It's such a pleasure to either refer to
them individually or in a set as my friends the
cow Sills, Uh, Bob, Susan and Paul back again on
Coast to Coast AM. Let's test out that mic on
the air and see how it sounds. Hey, y'all, Hey,
(00:22):
how are you doing the end? This is Paul Man.
We're glad to be back for someone. Hi, En, it's
me and and Bob's here with us too. Well, they're
lying about that they left me on the tour bus
and I still can't get off of you. Well, let's
make sure we're doing so well. I hope you heard.
(00:43):
I don't know whether you did. I passed it along
at some point. Um I did an edit to one
of your songs after tornado damage here. I know you
wrote the song originally about hurricane damage, but um I
I we had a big had a big summer storm
season in ends US, and so I used one of
your songs and it was just beautiful. Susan, thank you. Yes,
(01:05):
I saw that actually, Ian and it was really beautiful.
Did we anybody anybody shared it with her. Yeah he
did okay, good yeah, yeah, yeah, it was really nice.
It was really good. Did you know that that was
that that was written? Did you know where that song
(01:28):
had come from and that's why you used it? Or
was it I had a feeling it was for the
Hurricane um hitting New Orleans, but I was guessing, well,
you did good, you know. Ian. As an aside, just
to make you feel better, Paul and I are in
on the publishing of All Susan's Workshop. We're getting some
money to thank you so much. Well, we edited that,
(01:50):
we put the video up on the website. At the time,
I worked on it with a student and it was
it just was perfect. It's just just we did see
it is beautiful. Yeah. Uh. So, well, we didn't have
any I mean there really was. I mean we just
had damage damage. But that's what it's like in Kansas,
and you never know when the next big one's coming through.
But you know, this is something I thought. I think
(02:12):
about you all the time. Obviously, back in August, the
Happy Together tour was coming through uh Kansas City, and
as at least Bob knows, I made every effort to
get there. Literally came in the Kaufman center of the arena.
I came in just as you were strumming your last
notes because I was taking my niece to the airport
(02:34):
and I missed it. And I was so mad because
I want I wondered what the event was that caused this.
But that's a pretty good one. I mean, you gotta
take care of your kids. Yeah, she's wonderful. Yes, she
just got married. So in fact, I need to put
in a plug for um the Hattery, which is a
restaurant in Doyle's Town, and the a guy named Billy
(02:56):
who's the chief chef there, um and he I was
I went to I went to Doylestown to do her wedding.
I'm I'm you know, I'm ordained in the Episcopal Church
and ye and I went there to went there to
do the wedding. And I were staying in Doylestown and
I could not find a printer anywhere, and this guy
in the restaurant printed it out for me, so I
(03:16):
was able to do the service thanks to Billy. Oh yeah,
great food too, Yeah, exactly the restaurant the so so.
But this is where you know, I keep thinking about
you all because this new album that you have out
how long has it been out? A week? Okay? Yeah,
(03:41):
so we're gonna be playing cuts from it tonight and
oh no, my pleasure. It is so good. And of
course that wouldn't surprise anybody who's been following, like so
many other bands. And this is where I keep coming
back to this concept. I'm the Happy Together tour as
(04:01):
well as those that don't perform regularly or tour as
often as you all do, that are really talented, still
making great music, still performing and recording. Um, that must
I mean, that has to be very rewarding. But it's
a different experience than it was when y'all were teenagers.
(04:25):
Oh it's a different experience. I mean, well now, And
I just said that, and then it felt like the
same books. You know, well got it probably this round
ian Um, we didn't have a record company looking over
our shoulder, and we were all in there just with
our band and our engineer, Justin Dockett, and nobody bugged
us and we got to do exactly what we wanted
(04:47):
to do. And that was a lot that was It
was really different than earlier, I guess. So yeah, I mean,
you know what I was thinking was r innate musical
just to be doing music and and and creating it
and the need to you know, put it down somewhere
once it comes out of our bodies was the same kind.
I mean, we're just we're musical people, but it is
(05:08):
a very different experience, of course, because we're grown ups,
you know. And and I mean the way this came
about was was remarkable because I mean, I've been trying
to get a couco record out of these guys, so
I don't know how long decades, decades, decades, and uh,
you know, we started when we were all on the planet.
(05:29):
That's how long ago it's been. And and all agreed,
Bill and Barry, we're in and John was in, and
Paul was in, and Bob was in, and Susan was in,
and we were all gonna get together and make this record.
And uh, obviously we all know what happened. We lost
a couple along the way. John actually had a real
job with the Beach Boys. He you know, he wasn't
(05:50):
going to veer from that. I mean, Bob and Paul
started playing again and that led us to Happy Together,
which on that tour Ian is where it all started coming.
Because during the end of the show, Howard Calin would
be out there singing. You know, they're going to do
happy together, but he's telling our audience to get up, everybody,
get up. You've got to get up. And for a
(06:11):
long time, the three of us would just say to
each other, man, there's got to be a song there. Really,
we're just saying it like that. And then I think
another summer came and all of a sudden, You've got
to get Up happened. Then once You've got to Get
Up happened, and it happened in about ten minutes. Then
we started realizing, okay, we've started. Now we've got to
finish this, and and it really then it was just
(06:36):
kind of like a river that got unblocked and just
the artists flowing and my little dream was coming true.
You know what. I like it, So we're gonna play
you Gotta Get Up because that's a killer tune. But
more than that, I mean, it's a really good song,
great production. I'm now that I'm I have a little
bit more information too. I can appreciate the fact that
(06:58):
it came out note for note just the way you
all wanted it to. So that has to have its
own reward. But but there's a lot of other people,
and I this kind of where are wanted to start
a little bit, because I think the happy together to
our reflects that you've got people who are still sort
of they have the emotional intelligence to continue to perform
(07:18):
and to want to work with an audience and to
write new music and to get together with other people
from the sixties and seventies. But there are along the
way a few others that you've lost that we're not
in the family, but other people that you had to
have known who just couldn't keep their head, you know, straight,
(07:39):
when it came to when they were no longer famous.
You go through that period of trying to wonder like, well,
then who am I and what do I do if
I'm not that person that's being adored and I'm not
getting patted all the time for being, you know, a
wonderful performer. Well, then what you know? And so that's
the question. I'll start with Bob, because I know you
(07:59):
were older and okay, yeah, that was a moment where
I mean, at some point you had to know like
that part that chapter is closing for now at least,
and now what do I do? Right? So when that happened,
it was abrupt, it was acute. Okay, so even it
happened in that we know the day it finally did
(08:22):
happen and the collapses underweighing, the collapses complete. Okay. So
the first thing you do in your head is you've
got to get a job. But in terms of what
are you going to do, oh, we're not going to
miss I did not miss the business because the business
was such a roller coaster. It's probably so dizzy from
it all, but I knew. But I had two children.
(08:44):
Look the roles what am I going to do now?
Was the universe brought? What are you going to do now?
You're going to be a father, You're going to be
You're gonna raise children, You're gonna reconnect with your family.
Of course, you never disconnect with Paul, Susan and John
because we just we were tight within and burying Bill
was still around. That's true, but you know that's those
are other stories. So through the decades, you're just raising
(09:08):
a family and you know how long that takes. And
but you're being on artists. He's I'm a pub singer
for twenty eight years. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday hours
a night, fifty songs at night. Now, in the long run,
that's keeping my throat in shape and my muscles in shape.
So I found okay still at my age, and know
what I'm saying, I'm grateful for that. But right so
I never stressed about, oh my gosh, I'm not on
(09:30):
the charts anymore, I'm not famous anymore, or any of that,
because we were so busy trying to control the damage,
manage the damage and manage the collapse that you didn't
expect and you realize your core, you didn't get your money,
and look, it's a complex that that happened. How you
react to it is going to define like what happens
(09:53):
to you? You know, Okay, so you've got to get
strong at those times? Yeah you do. So what about you,
Susan that I mean you were younger, obviously you hadn't
you didn't have two children to tend after, you didn't
have How did you center yourself at a time when
you know you here you were, you'd you'd been on
(10:15):
TV shows at very like great fun video to go
back and look at with you and Dean Martin, you
when you after you and so many other like big names.
I won't say Buddy Epson because that's just still weird
to me. But um but I know, but it's just weird.
(10:35):
That whole thing is just strange. I can't get it.
But it was so classic CBS TV. It was just
But so anyway, uh you were so what how did
you do it, Susan? How did you keep from going nuts?
How did you keep from being you know, from losing yourself? No, well,
I mean, well I'm still working on that, and so
that's I doubt that journey. I mean it really kind
(10:58):
of isn't in a in a you know, a parted way.
But my situation, my journey was very different from Bob's,
that's for sure. And I mean I was the youngest
in the family and I everybody else was old enough
when the band broke up to not live at home.
I was not. John was barely, but they parents had
kind of lost the reins on b and John. We
(11:20):
were in their eighteens and seventeens, and so it was like, yeah,
whatever there, but I rolled, Yeah, I was twelve, and
so I kind of got hijacked into We're going to
go try and do what we're doing as mom and dad,
and you're just coming along in regular life is now here,
You're going to go to school and all that kind
of weird stuff that freaked me out pretty good. Was
(11:41):
the only one at home. So how did I ground myself?
I just didn't. I was in a fight or fight
or flight mode. So I did get grounded, but I
had to get out of Dodge for yeah. So I
really like my journey was very different. I kind of
became an emancipated minor. I went to live with Paul.
I left home in eighth grade because it was no bueno,
(12:03):
and then I've had a really interesting path. But the
grounding part, I can answer that because that's always been there.
And how I ground my part is that I've always
had a sense of knowing what is really right and wrong,
and so how we came up and whatever might have
been crazy about it, there was a lot of amazing
(12:24):
good stuff that came out of it that prevailed through
every part of my journey. Always had my brothers there.
They were whether it spoke or not. That year, there
was a nucleus of security of survival with this gang
of people. So whatever came I was just surviving another thing.
They were up in another part of town, surviving it,
and I think that's where I got my strength. Who's
(12:47):
knowing the guys were out there if I needed them,
you know, but I was on my own and it
was a wild ride. And that's another story for another day. Well,
you know, yeah, but I think this is yeah, And
I'm not trying it just so you know, I mean,
I'm not trying to like pick it pain because I
know there was a lot of stuff about like your
dad and your mom was really passive during that period,
(13:09):
and there was a lot of things. These are good questions,
you know, we understand these kind of questions good. I
think that's okay. We're not it's okay. Listen to more
Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at one am Eastern,
and go to Coast to Coast am dot com for
more
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on
iHeart Radio. It's such a pleasure to either refer to
them individually or in a set as my friends the
cow Sills, Uh, Bob, Susan and Paul back again on
Coast to Coast AM. Let's test out that mic on
the air and see how it sounds. Hey, y'all, Hey,
(00:22):
how are you doing the end? This is Paul Man.
We're glad to be back for someone. Hi, En, it's
me and and Bob's here with us too. Well, they're
lying about that they left me on the tour bus
and I still can't get off of you. Well, let's
make sure we're doing so well. I hope you heard.
(00:43):
I don't know whether you did. I passed it along
at some point. Um I did an edit to one
of your songs after tornado damage here. I know you
wrote the song originally about hurricane damage, but um I
I we had a big had a big summer storm
season in ends US, and so I used one of
your songs and it was just beautiful. Susan, thank you. Yes,
(01:05):
I saw that actually, Ian and it was really beautiful.
Did we anybody anybody shared it with her. Yeah he
did okay, good yeah, yeah, yeah, it was really nice.
It was really good. Did you know that that was
that that was written? Did you know where that song
(01:28):
had come from and that's why you used it? Or
was it I had a feeling it was for the
Hurricane um hitting New Orleans, but I was guessing, well,
you did good, you know. Ian. As an aside, just
to make you feel better, Paul and I are in
on the publishing of All Susan's Workshop. We're getting some
money to thank you so much. Well, we edited that,
(01:50):
we put the video up on the website. At the time,
I worked on it with a student and it was
it just was perfect. It's just just we did see
it is beautiful. Yeah. Uh. So, well, we didn't have
any I mean there really was. I mean we just
had damage damage. But that's what it's like in Kansas,
and you never know when the next big one's coming through.
But you know, this is something I thought. I think
(02:12):
about you all the time. Obviously, back in August, the
Happy Together tour was coming through uh Kansas City, and
as at least Bob knows, I made every effort to
get there. Literally came in the Kaufman center of the arena.
I came in just as you were strumming your last
notes because I was taking my niece to the airport
(02:34):
and I missed it. And I was so mad because
I want I wondered what the event was that caused this.
But that's a pretty good one. I mean, you gotta
take care of your kids. Yeah, she's wonderful. Yes, she
just got married. So in fact, I need to put
in a plug for um the Hattery, which is a
restaurant in Doyle's Town, and the a guy named Billy
(02:56):
who's the chief chef there, um and he I was
I went to I went to Doylestown to do her wedding.
I'm I'm you know, I'm ordained in the Episcopal Church
and ye and I went there to went there to
do the wedding. And I were staying in Doylestown and
I could not find a printer anywhere, and this guy
in the restaurant printed it out for me, so I
(03:16):
was able to do the service thanks to Billy. Oh yeah,
great food too, Yeah, exactly the restaurant the so so.
But this is where you know, I keep thinking about
you all because this new album that you have out
how long has it been out? A week? Okay? Yeah,
(03:41):
so we're gonna be playing cuts from it tonight and
oh no, my pleasure. It is so good. And of
course that wouldn't surprise anybody who's been following, like so
many other bands. And this is where I keep coming
back to this concept. I'm the Happy Together tour as
(04:01):
well as those that don't perform regularly or tour as
often as you all do, that are really talented, still
making great music, still performing and recording. Um, that must
I mean, that has to be very rewarding. But it's
a different experience than it was when y'all were teenagers.
(04:25):
Oh it's a different experience. I mean, well now, And
I just said that, and then it felt like the
same books. You know, well got it probably this round
ian Um, we didn't have a record company looking over
our shoulder, and we were all in there just with
our band and our engineer, Justin Dockett, and nobody bugged
us and we got to do exactly what we wanted
(04:47):
to do. And that was a lot that was It
was really different than earlier, I guess. So yeah, I mean,
you know what I was thinking was r innate musical
just to be doing music and and and creating it
and the need to you know, put it down somewhere
once it comes out of our bodies was the same kind.
I mean, we're just we're musical people, but it is
(05:08):
a very different experience, of course, because we're grown ups,
you know. And and I mean the way this came
about was was remarkable because I mean, I've been trying
to get a couco record out of these guys, so
I don't know how long decades, decades, decades, and uh,
you know, we started when we were all on the planet.
(05:29):
That's how long ago it's been. And and all agreed,
Bill and Barry, we're in and John was in, and
Paul was in, and Bob was in, and Susan was in,
and we were all gonna get together and make this record.
And uh, obviously we all know what happened. We lost
a couple along the way. John actually had a real
job with the Beach Boys. He you know, he wasn't
(05:50):
going to veer from that. I mean, Bob and Paul
started playing again and that led us to Happy Together,
which on that tour Ian is where it all started coming.
Because during the end of the show, Howard Calin would
be out there singing. You know, they're going to do
happy together, but he's telling our audience to get up, everybody,
get up. You've got to get up. And for a
(06:11):
long time, the three of us would just say to
each other, man, there's got to be a song there. Really,
we're just saying it like that. And then I think
another summer came and all of a sudden, You've got
to get Up happened. Then once You've got to Get
Up happened, and it happened in about ten minutes. Then
we started realizing, okay, we've started. Now we've got to
finish this, and and it really then it was just
(06:36):
kind of like a river that got unblocked and just
the artists flowing and my little dream was coming true.
You know what. I like it, So we're gonna play
you Gotta Get Up because that's a killer tune. But
more than that, I mean, it's a really good song,
great production. I'm now that I'm I have a little
bit more information too. I can appreciate the fact that
(06:58):
it came out note for note just the way you
all wanted it to. So that has to have its
own reward. But but there's a lot of other people,
and I this kind of where are wanted to start
a little bit, because I think the happy together to
our reflects that you've got people who are still sort
of they have the emotional intelligence to continue to perform
(07:18):
and to want to work with an audience and to
write new music and to get together with other people
from the sixties and seventies. But there are along the
way a few others that you've lost that we're not
in the family, but other people that you had to
have known who just couldn't keep their head, you know, straight,
(07:39):
when it came to when they were no longer famous.
You go through that period of trying to wonder like, well,
then who am I and what do I do if
I'm not that person that's being adored and I'm not
getting patted all the time for being, you know, a
wonderful performer. Well, then what you know? And so that's
the question. I'll start with Bob, because I know you
(07:59):
were older and okay, yeah, that was a moment where
I mean, at some point you had to know like
that part that chapter is closing for now at least,
and now what do I do? Right? So when that happened,
it was abrupt, it was acute. Okay, so even it
happened in that we know the day it finally did
(08:22):
happen and the collapses underweighing, the collapses complete. Okay. So
the first thing you do in your head is you've
got to get a job. But in terms of what
are you going to do, oh, we're not going to
miss I did not miss the business because the business
was such a roller coaster. It's probably so dizzy from
it all, but I knew. But I had two children.
(08:44):
Look the roles what am I going to do now?
Was the universe brought? What are you going to do now?
You're going to be a father, You're going to be
You're gonna raise children, You're gonna reconnect with your family.
Of course, you never disconnect with Paul, Susan and John
because we just we were tight within and burying Bill
was still around. That's true, but you know that's those
are other stories. So through the decades, you're just raising
(09:08):
a family and you know how long that takes. And
but you're being on artists. He's I'm a pub singer
for twenty eight years. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday hours
a night, fifty songs at night. Now, in the long run,
that's keeping my throat in shape and my muscles in shape.
So I found okay still at my age, and know
what I'm saying, I'm grateful for that. But right so
I never stressed about, oh my gosh, I'm not on
(09:30):
the charts anymore, I'm not famous anymore, or any of that,
because we were so busy trying to control the damage,
manage the damage and manage the collapse that you didn't
expect and you realize your core, you didn't get your money,
and look, it's a complex that that happened. How you
react to it is going to define like what happens
(09:53):
to you? You know, Okay, so you've got to get
strong at those times? Yeah you do. So what about you,
Susan that I mean you were younger, obviously you hadn't
you didn't have two children to tend after, you didn't
have How did you center yourself at a time when
you know you here you were, you'd you'd been on
(10:15):
TV shows at very like great fun video to go
back and look at with you and Dean Martin, you
when you after you and so many other like big names.
I won't say Buddy Epson because that's just still weird
to me. But um but I know, but it's just weird.
(10:35):
That whole thing is just strange. I can't get it.
But it was so classic CBS TV. It was just
But so anyway, uh you were so what how did
you do it, Susan? How did you keep from going nuts?
How did you keep from being you know, from losing yourself? No, well,
I mean, well I'm still working on that, and so
that's I doubt that journey. I mean it really kind
(10:58):
of isn't in a in a you know, a parted way.
But my situation, my journey was very different from Bob's,
that's for sure. And I mean I was the youngest
in the family and I everybody else was old enough
when the band broke up to not live at home.
I was not. John was barely, but they parents had
kind of lost the reins on b and John. We
(11:20):
were in their eighteens and seventeens, and so it was like, yeah,
whatever there, but I rolled, Yeah, I was twelve, and
so I kind of got hijacked into We're going to
go try and do what we're doing as mom and dad,
and you're just coming along in regular life is now here,
You're going to go to school and all that kind
of weird stuff that freaked me out pretty good. Was
(11:41):
the only one at home. So how did I ground myself?
I just didn't. I was in a fight or fight
or flight mode. So I did get grounded, but I
had to get out of Dodge for yeah. So I
really like my journey was very different. I kind of
became an emancipated minor. I went to live with Paul.
I left home in eighth grade because it was no bueno,
(12:03):
and then I've had a really interesting path. But the
grounding part, I can answer that because that's always been there.
And how I ground my part is that I've always
had a sense of knowing what is really right and wrong,
and so how we came up and whatever might have
been crazy about it, there was a lot of amazing
(12:24):
good stuff that came out of it that prevailed through
every part of my journey. Always had my brothers there.
They were whether it spoke or not. That year, there
was a nucleus of security of survival with this gang
of people. So whatever came I was just surviving another thing.
They were up in another part of town, surviving it,
and I think that's where I got my strength. Who's
(12:47):
knowing the guys were out there if I needed them,
you know, but I was on my own and it
was a wild ride. And that's another story for another day. Well,
you know, yeah, but I think this is yeah, And
I'm not trying it just so you know, I mean,
I'm not trying to like pick it pain because I
know there was a lot of stuff about like your
dad and your mom was really passive during that period,
(13:09):
and there was a lot of things. These are good questions,
you know, we understand these kind of questions good. I
think that's okay. We're not it's okay. Listen to more
Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at one am Eastern,
and go to Coast to Coast am dot com for
more
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