Gary James' Interview With Rick Stevers Of
Frijid Pink



Out of Detroit, Michigan came a band that took a re-worked version of an Animals' song to the top of the charts. That song was "House Of The Rising Sun" and the band was Frijid Pink. Frijid Pink's recording reached the Top Ten on the Billboard charts. It sold over a million copies. These guys were so popular that Led Zeppelin opened for them at Detroit's Grand Ballroom! In 2013 the group was inducted into Michigan's Rock And Roll Legends Hall Of Fame. Frijid Pink's drummer Rick Stevers talked with us about the group.

Q - Rick, Frijit Pink was formed in 1967? What a great start to a band!

A - Well, the band had actually been together called The Detroit Vibrations. We had a couple of years of that and decided the name was stale and decided to change the name. We were playing at a theatre turned into a Rock 'n' Roll hall and we came out with our first set dressed up in our green satins and our fur mink vests and we did our Motown show. And then for the second set we came out and the fog machine started and the big light show started and we walked out on stage one by one and started the song "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Vanilla Fudge, and we were all dressed in our pink satins and velvets and that's what changed the band.

Q - When did The Detroit Vibrations start?

A - Oh, my God, '64, late '64. Then it was October of '67 we changed it to Frijid Pink.

Q - Was there a lot going on in Detroit with the club scene?

A - Oh, everywhere, '64 all the way through the time we went on the road and got back home before we noticed any big changes. But yeah, there were a ton of clubs to play. There were backyard parties, graduation parties, high schools, colleges. There was no lack of jobs to play anywhere, believe me.

Q - Were you primarily playing cover material? Would you try to sneak some original material in?

A - We didn't really start on the original material 'til I'd say '66. Before that it was all cover stuff. Then after that it just started turning into more original than cover. If I remember correctly we always played one or two original songs.

Q - Did you have to sneak 'em in so bar owners wouldn't know what they are?

A - It didn't matter back then. You'd just get up there. Well, '64 or '65 you'd start at 8 PM, do five 45-minute sets with 15 minute breaks in-between and that was it. You played anything you wanted to play as long as you're up there making music.

Q - How long after changing the group's name from The Detroit Vibrations to Frijid Pink did you sign to Parrot Records?

A - Oh, God. It wasn't long at all. I'd say a year and a half, two years tops.

Q - What can you tell me about that label? Who else was on Parrot Records?

A - Oh, my God, The Zombies, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Mantovani. There were a couple of other Rock bands I just can't think of right now.

Q - Did Parrot Records catch your act somewhere?

A - Well, no. We played an ALFAC show at Cobo Hall. It was a day long thing. There were probably twenty bands. There was a guy that showed up, Jerry Jay, and he had a couple of tunes out. They were Country tunes, "Let The Four Winds Blow" and "Old Josephine". He was there to perform those two songs. Well, his band didn't show up and he was signed with London Records at the time and a guy named Al Mitnik approached us and asked us if we would go in the back room and learn these two songs and go in and play 'em for him. So we did that and after we got done he asked us to go on the road with Jerry Jay and back him up. Hell, we were still in high school. So we said no, we can't do that. Al Mitnik said, "When you guys do some recording make sure you get a hold of me. So, we did some recording, got a hold of him and he released I think "Tell Me Why" in two markets, Buffalo, New York and Detroit. Then he released "God Gave Me You" in Buffalo and Detroit and New York City. When that started to go there was a radio station manager in Dearborn, Michigan, an AM station, and I let him hear the tape and he heard "House Of The Rising Sun". He said, "You need to tell your manager to call New York and drop "God Gave Me You" and put this out right now." I was dating the guy's daughter, sitting in the driveway, kissing her goodbye and he came out and knocked on the window. Scared the hell out of us. He said, "I need to talk to you." I'm thinking I'm in big trouble now. What did I do? Get in the house, sit down on the sofa. Soon as I sat down on the sofa he had a radio on his fireplace mantel and "House Of The Rising Sun" came on. That was it.

Q - Didn't you find it rather strange that your version of "House Of The Rising Sun" became so popular when it was popular in...

A - '64. It's funny because when we went into the studio we kind of wrapped everything up pretty quickly. We had practiced our songs like crazy, so a lot of 'em were done in one or two takes. We used to buy blocks of time and we had some time left over. He looks at us and says, "What do you want to do?" The guitar player and myself had probably worked on "House" a total of ten minutes maybe, and we did that before the two other guys got to practice. So they hadn't worked on it at all. We got the bass player and said, "Here's the bass part," and we played it, did it in one take, and the rest is history.

Q - That was a hit in the U.S.?

A - All over the world. It sold seven and a half million copies. The Animals sold about 750,000, even though they're the ones that got the most air play. We outsold them seven and a half million to 750,000. Big difference.

Q - What would account for that?

A - So many countries.

Q - And promotion! Somebody really got behind it, didn't they?

A - Yes, London Records did a really good job with posters. There's posters out there even today that we haven't seen that were up in record store windows. They pushed it everywhere. Every place that record was released they pushed it and they did a great job! But then when our music went overseas to the U.K. they got a law over there that they can't use proper names. They couldn't use Parrot (Records), so they put us on London (Records). The Moody Blues were on London. They put us on the same label as The Moody Blues when the stuff was released overseas.

Q - When "House" became so popular I take it you toured all over the world.

A - Non-stop.

Q - You toured as a support act or as a headliner?

A - Both. A lot of the jobs, there were no less than ten hit groups doing this. The Guess Who. Paul Revere And The Raiders. You name it. We all did the same shows. A lot of these shows really didn't have headliners. It was just a show you went to see with ten major groups at.

Q - Did you ever cross paths with Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix or Jim Morrison?

A - We shared the stage with a lot of people. Everybody you can think of. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Billy Joel, Iron Butterfly, Zeppelin, Steppenwolf, The Osmonds, Bobby Sherman, Grass Roots, Savoy Brown. They were on London (Records) also. Nugent, Seger, Don Costas Orchestra, B.B. King, Neil Diamond, Crystal Gayle, The Dynamics, Lesley Gore, Falcons, Parliament, Four Tops, Junior Walker And The All-Stars, Grand Funk, Alice Cooper, Country Joe And The Fish, The Rascals, Cactus, Ides Of March, Mitch Ryder, Dennis Yost And The Classics IV, Sly And The Family Stone, Glen Campbell, Temptations, Bobby Vinton, Santana, Kenny Rogers And The First Edition, Jay And The Americans, Tony Orlando And Dawn, Al Green, Lou Rawls, Rare Earth, Mountain, Doors, KISS, The Romantics, Suzi Quatro. There's more.

Q - Did you get to meet Janis, Jimi or Jim?

A - We met most of them, but not Hendrix or Joplin.

Q - Morrison?

A - No. When we did Clearwater he was there for a week before us. We did Miami, he was there the week after us. But all these people I mentioned, we talked to and had conversations with.

Q - Then, Led Zeppelin opened for Frijid Pink. What do you remember about that gig?

A - Absolutely nothing. I don't even remember them being there. It was a little dance room, so they had a dressing rooms that lined the walls going upstairs. I basically stayed in the dressing room. I didn't know who was playing or who wasn't playing. Then later on I heard that Zeppelin played. I didn't see it happen, but that's what everybody says.

Q - Everybody was playing their own gig and waiting to move on to the next gig.

A - Well, it was a fledgling band. It was just getting started. Never heard of 'em before. No reason to leave the dressing room to see a band we never heard of before that didn't sound good.

Q - When you say "Didn't sound good," you mean what? The name or the music?

A - The name didn't sound appealing, at least to me. It makes no difference. I love the band. I played and played and played and wore their albums out.

Q - At one point your father was managing Frijid Pink?

A - Most of it, yes.

Q - What did he know about managing a band?

A - Absolutely nothing. He was a crook, thief and a liar.

Q - Wow! I don't think you could put him down anymore than that.

A - He was a real ass hole. He was the one that actually put the demise to the band. He used to use the band to go out and get laid. That was about it. He didn't know anything about music. Anything he knew about music was a record company telling him.

Q - I would guess the hot shot manager at the time would have been Terry Knight (Grand Funk). Did he ever approach the band?

A - Well, who knows with management? We had four managers. They could have been approached. If they didn't tell us we wouldn't know.

Q - All the business then was put in the hands of those four guys?

A - Two ladies and two guys.

Q - Your father was one of the four managers?

A - Right.

Q - Who were the other people?

A - My mother and then the bass player's sister and husband.

Q - Your father was the main manager?

A - Right.

Q - Why isn't Frijid Pink in Cleveland's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? Any idea?

A - Good question. I don't know. Maybe we weren't around long enough. We were the first Progressive Rock band in the state of Michigan to get a Gold Record. You know what? I really don't know. It wasn't the group of people we hung out with and I know that's got a lot to do with it. If you hang with these people your name gets thrown around and you get nominated. It's just the way it is. It would've been nice to be there, but we didn't make it.

Q - There's still time. There's still hope wouldn't you say?

A - You know what? I don't know. I've had this band back together now for eleven years, which is three times longer than the original group was together. We've got some incredible music. If we could get some air play, we'd be back on top again. How do you get air play? The name doesn't work anymore. It's too old. My old man screwed it up. He didn't keep it out on the market and people don't know who it is.

Official Website: FrijidPink.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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