A Few Moments with Gary Puckett
Gary Puckett
We remember the hits … “Woman, Woman,” “Young Girl,” “Lady Willpower,” “Over You,” “That Girl Is a Woman Now” and many more … and we remember the matching Union Army outfits. But let’s not forget that Gary Puckett is one of the best pure singers from that, or any, era. Still active and still singing as well as ever, Gary is looking forward to meeting fans and fellow artists on the Flower Power Cruise.
Gary, you were born in Hibbing, Minnesota. Did you ever know the OTHER guy from Hibbing, the one who became Bob Dylan?
(Laughs) No, I didn’t. He was actually born in Duluth and moved to Hibbing. I was born in Hibbing and we moved away when I was young. No “me and Bob” story there!
Where’s home these days?
Tampa Bay, Florida. My wife and I were bi-coastal for a while. My family was in San Diego and hers was in Florida, but we were living in San Diego. The taxes and the politics of Southern California were getting to me, and one day we were driving around the Tampa Bay area, and I turned to my wife and said, “You know, things are way less expensive here.” So for that and other reasons we moved, and we’ve never regretted it.
What was the first record you bought that you played over and over?
The first LP I remember obsessing over was Elvis’s second LP. I think it was just called Elvis. It had all those great songs, “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again,” “Old Shep,” “Long Tall Sally.” He was a cool looking guy and I loved his voice. Loved that sound—what I guess you’d call the rockabilly sound now.
You actually met Elvis. How did it happen?
We worked the same hotel in Vegas. It was called the International back then, then it was the Hilton, and I think it’s called the Westgate now. I remember photos of Elvis in a hard hat when they were breaking ground. I was there in one of the small rooms with Red Foxx and Ike & Tina Turner. Elvis, of course, was working the big room. I’d heard he was very protected, but one day I just met him in the hallway. The guys around him recognized me, and I introduced myself. We spoke about ten minutes. I’m not a starstruck guy, but Elvis had the charisma that hit you in a very emotional way. He said he would come see my show, and he did. It was an awesome feeling having him in the room. Priscilla later told me that he had some of my records.
You were in San Diego in 1967. Did the scene in San Francisco impact you?
Oh, it affected many of us. There were no real signs of it in San Diego, but all of us who were young then were tuned in to what was happening in San Francisco. I went there in ’68 and saw what was going on. Everyone was taking acid, and I’ve got say I took a couple of hits of Stanley Owsley’s acid. Powerful stuff. I have friends that took three hundred or more trips and lost their minds. I’ve kept in touch with one of them. He says, “If I just drink a cup of coffee now, I’m on another planet.” Me, I didn’t go that far. I loved a lot of the music, like Big Brother and the Holding Company, but I was a rock ‘n’ roller at heart.
You came along just as rock ‘n’ roll was transitioning to rock. Groups wrote their own songs, played their own instruments on sessions, took in the spirit of the time. You guys were in matching uniforms like the early ‘60s. How did the AM to FM transition impact the Union Gap?
It really didn’t. Our records were pop. We weren’t on FM that much. On AM, you’d hear Paul Revere. Sammy Davis, Jr., and then Gary Puckett. FM was into extended jams. Bands like Cream. Our records were short and hooky.
When “Woman, Woman” became a hit, can you remember first hearing it on the radio?
Yeah! It broke out of Columbus, Ohio, on WCOL. Columbia’s promo guy was Steve Popovich, who later started a label and signed Meatloaf. There was a dee-jay on WCOL who was a Civil War buff and he’d seen our photos. He knew the uniforms were well done and authentic and he loved the record. He jumped on it and we went to Number One in Columbus. Steve had us playing Otto’s Grotto in Cleveland and he took us around shaking hands at radio stations during the day. He was a button-pusher on the radio, and we picked up WCOL, and there was my record on the radio. Wow, wow! Awesome moment. I’ll never forget it.
Did you form any friendships from that era with other artists that endure until today?
Funny thing is that I became friends with many artists from that era … but not until later. Mark Lindsay, Paul Revere, Mike Love and Al Jardine of the Beach Boys, Peter Noone, and so on. I met most of them back then, in fact I was in the studio when Paul recorded “Indian Reservation,” but we didn’t become friends until later.
When the hits grew fewer in the early ‘70s, did you think, “Well, it’s over. Time to figure out what’s next?”
I never lost faith that I’d come back some way in music. After the Union Gap broke up, my brother, David, and I wrote songs. I worked at it from eight in the morning ‘til eight at night. A studio in San Diego gave me time to produce an album, and it has actually just come out as The Lost Tapes on my own label, GP Music. Record labels weren’t into what I was doing then. I worked in theater and so on, but, like I said, I never lost faith that I’d keep on singing.
These days, you see 20-something kids walking around in hippie attire and carrying vinyl. What is it from that era that they respond to or identify with, do you think?
I guess everything old is new again. My generation made a lot of great music. I see young people daily at my concerts. Kids are looking around for great music. They see through a lot of the stuff that only has entertainment value. You listen to songs like the Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville.” Great song! That’s why shows like The Voice are so popular. You have to make it on talent, not fireworks.
If there’s one thing the 70 year-old Gary Puckett could tell the 20 year-old Gary Puckett, what would it be?
Believe in yourself. Believe in a power beyond us all. Learn your craft as best you can. Utilize it the best you can. Don’t rest on your laurels.
Have you worked on cruises before?
Sure. There was a time when I did too many of them, but then I scaled right back and now I only do a few. Now I love it again. I’m really looking forward to meeting the fans on the Flower Power Cruise—in fact, that’s the great thing about cruises. And I’m looking forward to spending time with the other artists. It’ll be like Old Home Week!