Northeast Michigan Oral History and Historic Photograph Archive

Bobby Rigg Interview

Description

Interview Part 1

Interview Part 1

Transcription

CK: The following interview features local rock and roll hero Bobby Rigg. It took place on November 17, 2015 and is conducted by Carole Cadarette and Cindy Kus. 
Rigg brought rock and roll to Alpena in the early 1960's with his band The Chevelles; then went on to form The Frost, one of Detroit's premier 60's rock bands. 

CC: Let's talk about how you got started.

BR: Well, my father was a drummer in, in the Big Band era, and, ah, he was from Ohio and he, they, ended up coming up here and playing at the Trianon Ballroom. The Trianon Ballroom was above what is now known as Alpena Furniture- it was upstairs, along with a bowling alley. And ah, so the Big Band came up here and my dad just fell in love with this area. Ah, ended up getting married to my mom, Rita, ah, and he owned the Midway, he owned the, ah, Dairy Bar on, on Chisholm Street, and ah, then Tubby's restaurant downtown. And ah, a very successful entrepreneur, him and my mom worked so hard and ah, but my dad was a drummer and a singer- had a wonderful voice, and ah, you know in, in the Big Band era and so the drums were always there. 
I remember at three years old, walking down the street with this little, it was a little snare drum, it only had one head on it, I still have it. And then the snares were right under that top head and there was no bottom head on it and I'd strap it to me with a belt and I'd walk up and down the street playing this…drum. (Laughs) This little snare drum that, that was my dad's.  And so, ah, so the drums were always there, and they were in the basement and ah, when we moved to ah, Washington Avenue, and I would go down there and practice and practice and practice. And my buddies would always say ah, "Come on" you know, "let's, let's go do something!" No, no I'm practicing, you know and they couldn't understand that and it didn't matter to me, but it was, it was the hardest part for me was getting that coordination down- of one hand doing one thing, one hand doing another, one foot doing that and the other foot doing another thing, you know. And so, I, I would get frustrated and angry, because there was something I was trying to do and just could not get it down.
And so I would ah, I'd, I'd get to a point where I'd just throw the sticks down, I'd say, "The heck with this," you know.  And, but they would call to me, " Bobby, come on downstairs…" you know, and I'd be and I'd go back down there and I tried to do what I'd been trying to, to learn, and it'd be there. And I think what happened is you, you work on something so hard, you get on top of it and then, you can't do it. You get away from it, and it's like I've been doing it all my life. So that's, you know I, and then I would play -I was in the Alpena Catholic Central Marching Band. Ah, and ah, in the sixth grade, and, because, they, I, they couldn't find drummers, so-

CK: They recruited you from-

BR: They recruited me from grade school, St. Bernard's. And ah, I ah, never learned to read because unfortunately the instructor, you know, being ah, in a Catholic School where the budget was not very big, ah, you weren't gonna get the best band instructor there was, and there was just no time for him to work on the drums, and I don't even know if he knew really -to teach us to read, although the one guy in, in the band that could read and I had a real good ear, so I'd listen to what he was doing a couple of times and I could play it then, and that's, you know, how I got.. And I, in the summer if there were parades and stuff, I'd be the only drummer, and poor Joe Randall, was the music instructor, he'd have to carry the bass drum, instead of leading the band. (Laughs) Cuz nobody else would show up, you know, cuz it was nice out and, and you had these wool uniforms that was soooo hot, you know, you'd suffocate in those things- you know, it's a hot July day or whatever, you know, and ah, but ah, at fifteen I started playing bars.
CK: OK.
BR: You were supposed to be sixteen; but I looked like I was about twelve- I was still getting into the theater for ah, a child's price at eighteen. And ah, but I played with a lot of, ah, local musicians: Don Deadman, ah Beryl Schuster, ah, Bob Moors, Jim LaCross-
CK: In bars-
BR: In bars.
CK: Which bars?
BR: Ah, every bar in this area, I've just about every bar in this area. Ah, and then outlaying areas. There was a bar that we used to play, hu, Hunter's Home, ah, that's on 33. And I, I, I'd gone by there because we were playing Lewiston, and I didn't imagine that it was still there; but it is. 
CC: Mmhuh. 
BR: After all these years.
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: And that was with Jay Thomas, and ah, and Joe Randall played ah, piano. The, the Alpena High, or Catholic Central band instructor-
CC: And the style of music at that point that you were playing?
BR: Standards.
CC: OK.
BR: Yeah, just good ol' standards. He had to read everything- keyboards, he couldn't , he couldn't play by ear, and ah, and ah, so that, that's how I got started playing in a band, you know- those kind of- but that's not what I wanted to do, obviously I wanted to play rock and roll. Well back then, rock and roll was more a, as opposed to being a band, it more like ah, Four Seasons, you know or ah, Bobby Vee, or Bobby Vinton. One of the first bands-
CK: Late 50's?
BR: It would've - Yeah, I, I graduated high school '63, so it would have been ah, late 50's-
CK: or early 60's.
BR: -early 60's, yah.  And, and the first, the first real band I saw was The Beach Boys. There was a place in Harbor Springs called, ah, what was it called now, can't remember the name, but it, anyway, it has, has since burned down and I think it was closed before it burnt; but, ah they, they would have acts like that over there, and we'd go, we'd drive over, ah, just to see the acts. And ah, the thing was back then, there was only one bar in Alpena that had a rock and roll band- and that was Twin Acres, 19th Hole. And Pete, the owner, ah Peterson, ah, was oh, how do I put this without, he wasn't the most, he wasn't the nicest guy in the world, let's leave it at that. And so, I, I would go in there, you know, he knew who I was, and he knew I wasn't old enough to be in there, but I'd say, "Pete, please," you know. He always sat down at one end of the bar, I said, "Please, just let me, I'll, I'll sit here, right here at this table, you can watch me, you know I'm not gonna drink anything. I'll drink Coke, I'll pay for whatever you want, you know I just want to see a band, I wanna see a rock and roll band." Because that's the only drummer I'd ever be able to see. And ah, and, sometimes he'd let me come in. And the next time he'd see me come through the door he'd say, "You get the hell out of here." And ah-
CC: Depending on the mood he was in, hey Bobby?
BR: Yeah, and, and he would not, ah, he was never in a good mood. (Laughs)
CC: OK.  It's the only bar I got kicked out of, but…
BR: My dad actually played there, you know. 
CC: OK.
BR His buddies would come up, ah, guys from the band, ah, the saxophone player, ah, and the keyboard player, ah, and the bass player. They would come up every year, and they'd meet at Al Ash's music store-
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: - and, and just jam. And talk about the old times. Well, I'd go over there, because I wanted to hear everything I could you know, I wanted to learn everything I could and I was like a fly on the wall. They didn't even- they totally ignored me. I was just in the room, they didn't, I don't even think they realized I was there. They were talking about past, you know, of, of what, what they were doing now and everything, and, but I heard some incredible stories, you know! What went, what went on back there, and it wasn't really that much unlike what was going on at that period of time, you know?
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: And ah, so, ah, I, I, you know I learned a lot from my father, I mean, if I had any questions about anything, he would be the one to go to, you know, because of what he had been through ah, as a musician, and then, ah, you know, he had to quit school at a very young age ah, and go to work. And then he went back and completed his high school, and got his high school diploma. And he was a, a, he was a letterman in three different sports-
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: - on the high school team. And ah-
CK: Was there a particular band that he played in, in Alpena?
BR: Ah, he, he, would play once in a while in Alpena ah once he, he started a business here. He played once in a while if somebody needed a drummer, but-
CK: OK. Kind of session, he didn't-
BR: Yeah, and when his buddies came up, he, they'd play.
CK: OK.
BR: And then they'd always have a Christmas party every year and my mom, the, the, the, employees there knew that I played drums, so they'd, they'd, you know, I'd, I was embarrassed, but they'd make me play, you know. So I'd play for them, you know and they'd all cheer for me and…but ah, it was about, it would have been '63, I put my first rock and roll band together, it was called The Chevelles. It ended up being Bobby Rigg and he Chevelles. And ah, we were playing out at Club 32, and ah, that's really where the first rock and roll band I was in got started. And, and we were all just young kids, it, ah, at first it was Ralph Pinkerton and I and then some other guys, ah, who really weren't that serious about it, and ah, so I heard about this guy Donny Hartman, that he played guitar and that he was really a good singer. So I went to see him, we, we weren't playing that night and I went to see him at ah, Alpena High School and he was in a band, I don't remember the name of that band any longer, and ah, the drummer introduced him, ah, "Donny Hartman is going to sing a song by Elvis Presley, he's gonna sing "Bossanova Baby". And if you shut your eyes, you would have swore it was Elvis up there singing. And, and he had all the moves down too. He knew every Elvis move there was back then, not the Elvis that we know of today, you know-
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: - before he passed away, cuz it was a lot different Elvis, and um, so, I ah, when they went on break, I said, "I have a band called The Chevelles," and I said, "I'd like you to join our band." And he immediately said, "Yes."
CC: Cuz he wasn't in a band at that point?
BR: He was in that band.
CC: Oh, that band. 
BR: but he'd heard of us-
CC: OK.
BR: - and wanted to play with me. 
CC: OK.
BR: And so, um, we were playing at 32, but I wanted us to get out of town. I knew we weren't going, you know-
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: -what are you going to do here, you know?	
CC: That's right.
BR: We pa-, we packed that bar every night because we had so much energy, ah, you know, we're young kids and just loving what we were doing and that energy alone coming off that stage was enough to move people, you know?
CK: It was you two and who else?
BR: Ah, and Ralph Pinkerton.
CK: And Ralph Pinkerton. 
BR: On guitar, yah, and then ah, I, I, heard about this place in Pontiac, the 300 ah, bowling alley. It was called The 300 Bowling Alley. And I don't know why I heard about it, maybe it was when some of those bands at Twin Acres, but, so I got the guy's, the number and I called and asked for the owner and told him that I was in a band from Alpena and we'd like to play your place, ah, and he said, "Well, I'd have to audition you first."
 I said, "That's no problem, we'll, we'll come and audition for you." So we scheduled a date, we went down, we auditioned, three piece, and he said, 
"I'll tell you right now, he said, "I'd hire you guys, but you got to have a bass player, you don't have a bass player, you, you know, you got to have a bass player."
So, we came back and said, "well, what are we, how we gonna find a bass player?" you know. And ah, Ralph says, "Well I know of a guy that works at Shalla's- gas station, I know he plays acoustical guitar, so we went over to the gas station, and it was Jack Smolinski, and we went over to the gas station, and ah, asked him if he would like to play bass in our band, The Chevelles. He quit his job on the spot, and joined our band, never knowing, never had played a bass before. Went to Al Ash's bought a Magnavox amplifier, bass amplifier, and a Danelectro ah, bass, six-string bass guitar. That guitar today, if he still has it, and it's in, and the neck's not warped, and if it's in good shape, which it was in good shape, ah, is worth probably about $25, 000.
CC: Six string at that, for that time of the year-
BR: Back then-
CC: For that, back then that's unusual
BR: Electric, electric six-string bass, yeah. And ah, and because of the design of the, ah, ah, the guitar itself, the way it was designed, ah, was really unusual. 
CC: What was the brand again?
BR: A Danelectro.
CC: Hmm.
CK: Where did the name "Chevelles" come from?
BR: Don't know.
CK: No? Just-
BR: It was just, ah, we were talkin' about names and that one, you know, just hit us right, so that's what we decided on. And we were still playing at Club 32 regularly, and ah, still trying to figure out how we were going to get out of Alpena, and ah, they were having, there was a, a station, an AM station that we used to listen to, up in Alpena, because we could get it up here, that played rock and roll. Ah, and, ah Bob Dyer was the program director and also on air personality, and ah, they, he was having what, what they call The Battle of the Bands in Bay City, at the Bay City Roller Rink, outside, roller rink. So he called me one day and said, "Will you guys come down and, and be part of ah, you know, the contest, The Battle of the Bands."
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: I went, "All right! Finally, we're gonna get out of Alpena," I told the guys, we're all excited. My mom, now The Beatles had come on the scene- 
CC: McHugh.
BR: -The Beatles had come on the scene and ah, when, I had heard of The Beatles, I had seen a picture of them in The Detroit Free Press, they were on a train, and they had, they were in their Beatle outfits, which were the Ne-, Nehru jackets like, with no collar-
CK: Gray?
BR: Yep, and ah, so ah, I had, I was driving down what we used to call Washington Park, on Washington Avenue headed on, on 32 West, and I heard this song come on the radio- on KNX. And ah, I knew immediately, that this had to be The Beatles. Because it was like nothing I had ever heard before. And sure enough when the song was over, the disc jockey said, "That's the new Beatle's single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," the first song that was played in America. Their first hit, number one hit, in America.  And, that changed my life. I mean, that totally changed my life. 
CK: You-
BR: I can tell you where I was when- cut you'd wait for the next Beatle album, you'd wait for the next Beatle single. And I can tell you where I was just about every hit single that came out, where, where I heard it first, you know? I remember "Hey Jude", we were travelling, this was, this was later on in my career, we were travelling, we were headed to Columbus, Ohio, and it, it came on, "Hey Jude" came on the air for the first time we'd heard it, we pulled over to the side of the road and we were singing along at the end you know…"Na, an, an, an, an, an an…" (Laughs) and ah, so it was like-heavily influenced by them and ah, we, we went down, going back in the story,  we went down to play in The Battle of the Bands- my mom made us Beatle jackets, sewed 'em for us, and then we had all matching pants and shoes.  And, ah, we had started growing our hair long, hair, our hair long at that point was not even touching your ear. It just was a different hairstyle, basically, and it was longer, you know. And ah, so we went down and we played The Battle of the Bands- a lot of people from Alpena followed us down and ah; but the, the band that had won ah, two weeks prior to us, had won two weeks in a row, were from Saginaw, so they had, had a pretty big following. 
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: Well, they put us on, there were several bands on the bill; but they put us on right before them, or they put them on right before us, I'm sorry, they put us on last. And ah, so it went by vote, you voted as you were leaving. Well, after they were done playing, a lot of people left, not knowing that there was gonna be another band. 
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: And a lot of their fans, and so ah, we didn't win, ah, cuz the next day, we're, we're back in Alpena listening to find out the results, listening to the radio, "when are they gonna announce it, when are they gonna announce it," and ah, they announced that this band had won again- third time in a row.  So then, ah, we were all bummed out, you know, cut what you got was, I think it was $300 for winning, and then you got a date at a place called "Daniel's Den" in Saginaw, Michigan which was a, a, a teenage nightclub. It was a, a, a theatre that, that this guy took and literally made it into what looked like a night club- a really nice night club with a sunken dance floor, where the seats had been, and then there was ah, seating all around the dance floor and then there was a bar at the end. And then a huge stage that you had, with a, there was a curtain that would come down, and ah, and he did a really good job of it and he made sure that, that, you know, you played the part when you went there or you didn't get in; if you messed up one time, you never got back into the place. And he served drinks that were non- alcoholic, but he called them by, like Pina Colada, or whatever it might have been, and ah, so you had that atmosphere, well that was part of the deal, if you won, you got to play Daniel's Den. And so, ah, we're, we're bummed out, and then the phone rings. And it's Bob Dyer and he said, "We want you to come down again next weekend, or, this coming weekend."
CK: This is the radio-
BR: The radio, yep-the program director, air-on, on-air personality, Bob Dyer. And he said ah, "We want you to come back down this Saturday, if you can.
 I said, yeah, of course we can." 
And he said, "What happened is, we had put that other band on before you, and that's why you lost and you only lost by three votes-you would have won easily. And so we went back down the next weekend, and we did win, and we got the date at Daniel's Den- and that changed everything for us because the disc jockeys from KNX all loved our band. And ah, they were all doing dances- in Midland, all over the thumb area, and so we not only got to play Daniel's Den, but we got to play all the other areas. So, it opened up a real audience for us and Pat Patrick was the guy's name that owned Daniel's Den and he loved our band, and ah, so, he proposed to become our manager and in doing so, got himself a much better deal when we would play there.
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: When we would headline, he would pay us. But when he would have like, we, we opened for the Byrds there, we opened for Joe Cocker and ah, the, the Grease Band there, we opened for Gary Lewis and the Playboys-
CC: Mmhuh.
CK: They all played at Daniel's Den? 
BR: Yeah. Yeah, ah, ah, Gary Lewis was Jerry Lewis's son, and ah, so we opened for all of these bands. David Cos-, David Crosby was in the Byrds-
CC: Mmhuh.
BR: -you know, along with Jim McGuinn and all, all these other guys, you know and, ah, had all these huge hits, records; we played with the Rascals there, ah, Dino DiNelli was the drummer and I, you know, I've seen these guys that could twirl their sticks, but I've never seen a guy twirl that could twirl the sticks like this guy. He'd throw 'em up in the air as high as he could, you know, in that theatre and then he'd, they'd come down and he'd grab them, and he'd be right on the beat. I mean, he was just, and twirlin' those sticks all over the place you know and I remember some kid ask me one time, "How come you don't twirl

Creators

Cindy Kus and Carole Cadarette, Interviewer

Bobby Rigg

, Interviewee

Media Type

Audio

Item Type

Interviews

Description

Bobby Rigg started playing drums under the tutelage of his dad Tubby Rigg, then played drums at St. Bernard's and in the City Band. Enamored by the sounds of rock and roll, he formed the band The Chevelles with Ralph Pinkerton, Donny Hartman and Jack Smolinski. Their success in the Saginaw area led to a regular spot at Daniel's Den, a popular teen night club, and to the formation of the band, Frost. Bobby shares stories from the early days when his mom sewed matching outfits for The Chevelles; the Frost's performances at Detroit's Grande Ballroom and performances around the country and Canada; and his present contribution to the music scene in Alpena.

Place of Publication

Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library

Date of Publication

17 Nov 2015

Playing Time

2:35

Subject(s)

Rock and roll music

Personal Name(s)

Rigg, Bobby ; Rigg, Tubby

Corporate Name(s)

Bobby Rigg and the Chevelles ; Frost ; Daniel's Den

Collection

Musicians of Northeast Michigan

Language of Item

English

Geographic Coverage

Alpena

Michigan, United States

Latitude: 45.06168 Longitude: -83.43275

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