Well, about two months later "Lucille' came out and he took over the world and I was too embarrassed to go over and say anything else to him after that. I called a friend of mine and he discouraged me not to do it. Kenny came over one day and said he had this production deal from United Artists and asked if I wanted to do some songs he had and if I didn't like them, then he would just throw them out. ![]() He was doing a TV show at the time, back in 1977. Seriously though, I moved to California and lived in the same neighborhood as Kenny Rogers. Back in 1970 when "Cherry Hill Park' came out, nothing really charted after that. What do you consider your greatest accomplishment? A southern boy who made it big and became the king so we thought we had a shot at being something. And you know what? I never took a photo with him. In those days you played a month at a time at those casinos and about a year or so later, we both played at the Lake Tahoe and he was playing the main room and I was playing the lounge and our names were on the sign together in red and I would kill for a picture of that sign.Ī friend of mine that played on 'Down in the Boondocks', Henry Gordon Jr., left Neil Diamond's band and began playing bass for Elvis, and I was backstage every single night. I just thought he was being nice by inviting us back. I went to see one of his shows with Bill Lowry, who produced Joe South's "Walk a Mile in My Shoes,' and we got invited to his dressing room. I remember the date like it was yesterday (Jan. How did you meet the King of Rock-n-Roll? We are the same age, knew all the same people and basically had the same background. About two years ago, we had the same agent so we started touring together and called the show the Raindrops and Boondocks Tour. I played a show in Houston in 1965 with Roy Orbison, Marty Robbins and B.J. We met in your neck of the woods, in Houston. I 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. One of a kind.- BJ Thomas October 7, 2015ĬNN’s Sam Stringer contributed to this report.I did the craziest thing. My best friend Billy Joe Royal, died this morning. “My best friend, Billy Joe Royal, died this morning. Since then he has toured with other performers from his era, including B.J. ![]() His most recent project, “His First Gospel Album,” was released in 2009. He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1988. His final chart single was 1992’s “I’m Okay (And Gettin’ Better),” which peaked at number 51 on the Country Airplay chart. His career continued with 14 singles that hit the country charts, including “Tell It Like It Is,” which peaked at number two in 1989. He was poised for a comeback in 1985 with his first release for Atlantic Records, “Burned like a Rocket.” The track was climbing the country singles chart when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, and “radio dropped it like a hot potato,” Royal said in a 2010 interview, according to Billboard. Royal left Columbia to record music on smaller labels in the 1970s before releasing a self-titled album in 1980 with Mercury Records.
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