Once more with feeling
Singer and OC resident Bill Medley opens up about duo’s farewell tour and retirement
After six decades as a Righteous Brother, Bill Medley says it’s time.
It’s time to leave the road he’s traveled as one of the Righteous Brothers, first with Bobby Hatfield (until his death in 2003) and since 2016 with replacement Bucky Heard.
Time to sit back and — well, Medley’s not quite sure what comes next.
“Boy, you know, that’s a great question, and obviously that’s the real thought,” Medley says from his longtime home of Newport Beach. “Because I don’t — I’ve been so busy in the business and traveling and going and doing I don’t know.
“My wife, Paula, passed away a little over three years ago, and I never realized until she was gone, you know, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” the 83-year-old Orange County native says. “And so I don’t know what I’m going to do.
“I’d like to keep writing and maybe produce,” he says. “I would love to find a younger artist that I could hopefully kind of groom a little bit. Show them some short cuts. Yeah, I’d love to do that.
“But other than that, man, I’ll tell you, I don’t know. You’ll probably see me walking up and down Santa Ana, saying, ‘You want to buy a record?’ ”
The Righteous Brothers, who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, are best known for such hits as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “Unchained Melody” and “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration.”
We first met Medley in 2007 to talk about the 20th anniversary of “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” his duet with Jennifer Warnes for the movie “Dirty Dancing,” which not only reached No. 1 on the charts but also won a Grammy, a Golden Globe and an Oscar. And we’ve checked in with him over the years as other news of his career as a solo artist and Righteous Brothers arose.
So when news of the Righteous Brothers’ Thank You, Farewell Tour arrived, and with a Southern California show tonight, we rang him up again to talk about why he’s leaving the road, the dreams he had as a young artist before stardom arrived, and what comes next.
Q I’ll start with the title of the tour — Thank You, Farewell — and ask if it means what it sounds like, and how you came to that decision.
A Yeah, we really haven’t figured it all out. There’s still some contracts and stuff that we have to fulfill. But it’s slowly but surely coming to an end.
Q Deciding that now is the time, what played into your thought process?
A Traveling. It’s that simple, man. I love to do the shows. I just love the shows. But the traveling is just getting worse and worse. You know, I’m 83 and when I was a kid, it was pretty exciting. But doing the job, doing the show, well, I’ve always said, ‘You’re paying me to travel. You don’t pay me to do the show. The show’s frosting on the cake.’ ”
Q I think the last time we talked was when you were about to team up with Bucky Heard and tour again as the Righteous Brothers. What’s that been like to have a duo partner again?
A It’s just been really exciting. It’s been wonderful. He’s a great singer, and more important, he’s a wonderful, wonderful guy. We have just become the best of friends, and I just love him. If I couldn’t have Bobby, Bucky certainly was the guy to fill in for Bob. It’s just been phenomenal.
Q Let me ask you a couple of questions about the early days, when you were a teenager or in your early 20s, just starting to write and perform and record. How big did you let yourself dream that music might be a career for you?
A I was raised in Santa Ana and a friend of mine asked me, he had written a song, and he wanted me to sing it because he heard that I could sing. And I never took my singing serious at all, except for when I was in choir I had to take it serious. But you know, I don’t think I allowed myself to think about being successful as a songwriter or singer.
I was just doing what I loved to. I’d sit in the house there and play the piano for 12 hours. Drive my mom nuts. But yeah, you know I don’t ever remember thinking, boy, this is what I want to do. The dream was just so far away.
You know, when you’re talking about success in this business, it’s just, well, it’s magical. I’ve always said I wish you could just go to college for four years. You graduate and they say, “Here’s your first hit record,” and you’re in. But it ain’t that way.
Q Did you have a backup plan as a young man? Like, OK, I’m going to write songs until can’t anymore and then go do this or that?
A I got to tell you, I was one of those 15-, 16-, 17-year-old punks, you know. Santa Ana was “Happy Days” back then. And I, unfortunately, quit school when I was 16, which was stupid. A lot of times I would get four Fs and one A, because I’m with the choir.
But no, I never had a backup plan. I just was headed into a mountain. I was going nowhere, nowhere fast, and God just took me by the hand and said, “Listen, man, I think you’d better try singing.”
And then, thank God, John Wimber from Orange County, he was working in Vegas a lot, and he came home and wanted to start a group that could get a lot of work. So he took Bobby and Bobby’s drummer, and myself and my guitar player, and put us all together. And boy, when I started singing with Bobby, first off, it was just so much fun because Bobby and I were absolutely raised on the same music.
It just felt so right, and we felt like we were stealing money. Even though at John’s Black Derby in Santa Ana we were making $100 a week, we thought we had died and went to heaven. Then a good friend of mine, Mike Patterson here from Orange County, was working at the Rendezvous Ballroom down in Balboa, and convinced Bobby and I to go down there. And that was the start of the Righteous Brothers.
Q In ’62, the Righteous Brothers released “Little Latin Lupe Lu,” which was a hit at least regionally. But it was still a few years until “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” What was that period like, and what was it like when “Lovin’ Feeling” hit No. 1?
A With “Lovin’ Feeling,” Phil Spector produced “Lovin’ Feeling.” He called our company, Moonglow Records, which was from Garden Grove, and we were signed to them. But Phil wanted to buy the remainder of our contract or lease it. And so we recorded it.
But at the same time, we were doing a TV show, “Shindig,” and it was huge. It was like doing Ed Sullivan every week. So it was like the perfect storm, a song, “Lovin’ Feeling” coming out, and we were starting to become nationally known through the television.
You’re right, “Little Latin Lupe Lu” was like a West Coast hit, and it did fine and kind of got us moving. But the truth is when we did “Lupe Lu” and that stuff, we used to have conversations about what we were gonna do when the fad fades. Because everybody thought, well, rock ’n’ roll, you know, rock ’n’ roll is gonna go away.
So our lives really changed. I mean, I can remember we were going to do a show in Chicago, and we were driving from the airport to the hotel. We stopped for gas, and we went into the office of the gas station and the guy said, “Jesus, you’re the Righteous Brothers!” And we went, “How the hell did you know that?” That was the first time we said, “Oh, well, maybe this is something.”
Q When I was prepping for this call, I realized that in November it had been 20 years since Bobby died. How did you feel when that anniversary came up?
A My daughter (McKenna Medley) called me right away. I knew, anyway. A lot of people called me and I think I put something on the website.
And I went to the grave, the grave site (in Corona del Mar) just to tell him I missed him. We were together quite awhile, and you become real brothers, you know. I know that sounds stupid, and everybody says it, but you really do become brothers, the good, bad and the ugly. Brothers.
But yeah, I miss him a lot. I thought about him for about a month after that.
A I don’t know. I mean, I would like to think I would enjoy a normal life until I’m out of here. Like just maybe go to the show, have some dinners. You know, I’ve met a lady. I have a lady and that’s gonna help a great deal. But I don’t really have any flatout plans.
Q I saw on McKenna’s Instagram that you’ve got a new grandchild, so you can be a grandpa for a while, too.
A I’m a grandpa and I’m a great-grandpa. My son made me a great-grandpa. So yeah, that’s another thing. I would really love to spend more time with the kids, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
I didn’t get much of a chance to do that. When we were young, my first wife, Karen, if there was a birthday or an anniversary or something but we were booked to do “The Ed Sullivan Show,” I would say, “Honey, I can’t be here for the birthday. I have to go — or actually, I get to go to Ed Sullivan.” I said, “But the minute it’s more important than that, I will be here.”
She passed away in ’76, and my son was 10 years old and there was nobody but me. So I took time off to go raise my son, because I promised Karen that’s what I would do. It was important to do that. Instead of being Bill Righteous, I was Darrin’s dad. It was very cool.
Q What’s a Righteous Brothers show like on these final dates?
A The Righteous Brothers were always, well, certainly old-school now, but we were a little old-school even when we started, because we were a couple of years older than, say, the Beach Boys and the Beatles. So we would do a lot of humor. And the reason is because the songs that we had hits with were such dramatic ballads that we tried to lighten it up.
So the show is pretty much the same thing. We do all the hits and a couple of surprises. The thing I love to hear the most is when we go out and sign autographs and they say, “Boy, I didn’t expect that.” I hope they mean it in a good way.
Q So when do you wrap up the farewell tour?
Q I’m sure they mean it in a good way.
A I think so. Well, they were smiling.