Gary James' Interview With Bobby Fuller's Friend
Howard Steele



Howard steele gained fame and recognition as both an engineer and producer, recording the biggest names in the music business. But it was his friendship with Bobby Fuller that we'll be focusing on in this interview. Howard Steele knew Bobby from the earliest of days. We talked with Howard Steele about those days.

Q - Howard, before I talk about Bobby Fuller, tell me a little about your own background.

A - I was partners with Richard Perry in Studio 55 in Los Angeles.

Q - Which means you worked with everybody.

A - Well, I've done Gold and Platinum records with Leo Sayer, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Manhattan Transfer, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Dusty Springfield, Rod Stewart.

Q - What a resume!

A - I've had a wonderful career.

Q - When did you meet Bobby Fuller?

A - Mike Ciccareli and I put together a band. We were playing for awhile and we needed a drummer. Somebody told me that Bobby Fuller was a drummer. So, I called Bobby and he auditioned with us and we hired him as the drummer. We're playing the high school I was at, playing whatever the big Senior event of the year was. I forget what it was called, Homecoming. We did the first set and we took a break and there was the piano in the auditorium and Bobby went over to the piano. I went over and said, "Bobby, I didn't know you played the piano." He said, "Yeah, I play the guitar and sing too." It didn't take much to rearrange the band. We let him sing a couple of songs. At that time it was Bobby, myself, Jim Reese and Dalton Powell. There was a band called Bobby Taylor And The Counts. They had a record that's been rated by Guitar Player magazine as one of the greatest instrumental hits called "Thunder". So, Bobby Fuller actually did his version of that later on when he had his deal with Bob Keane. So, when I moved to El Paso there was this band playing at the school which was a junior high, and Jim Reese was there and I was there, a guy named Sonny Fletcher was in the band. Oh, no. It was Googy Durmayer and Jerry Bright were in the band. One of 'em owned a set of drums, but didn't sing as well as the singer, so you can see the match there. Both of 'em were in the band and they'd trade off playing drums and singing and they had a bass player who worked on the railroad who couldn't be there all the time, so Jim Reese said, "Howard, if you buy a bass, I'll teach you how to play it." So, that was an early incarnation of Jim and myself.

Q - The time you called Bobby Fuller to audition for your band was the first time you met him and heard him play?

A - Yeah. That's correct.

Q - What was your first impression of of him as a person? You liked him right away, didn't you?

A - Oh, yeah. Very likeable.

Q - As well as his singing and musicianship?

A - Absolutely. Well, as a drummer he wasn't singing. We let him sing a couple of songs and then we changed the band around so Bobby was the front guy and I believe it was Dalton who was the drummer. Jim Reese was the guitar player and I was the bass player. We cut some of the early Bobby Fuller stuff at his house. I helped him put together the studio there.

Q - That was in what city?

A - In El Paso at his folk's house.

Q - How unique was Bobby Fuller' sound in El Paso? Were there other groups that had that same sound?

A - Well, let me tell you what it was. You know that Buddy Holly was from basically that same area of the country, right?

Q - Lubbock, Texas.

A - Yeah. I would have to say Bobby was looking like another Buddy Holly. And, he liked that stuff. A couple of the records we made were Buddy Holly cover songs like "Not Fade Away" and "Maybe Baby". At that time we were taking 'em up to Calvin Boles in Alamagordo who had Yucca Records. Calvin was putting out those songs. I think after that, Bobby kind of had his own label, Eastwood Records. But he was extremely talented. Very unique. A voice that just pulled you into what he was singing. I've had the opportunity to work with the best singers in the world and part of my judgment for that is they all seem to emotionally attract you, to make you feel certain things that other singers might not do. And Bobby is in that class. He was a great singer.

Q - Just to clarify things, there were no other groups in El Paso with that Bobby Fuller Four sound?

A - This was before The Bobby Fuller Four. I'm trying to remember what we were called. Here's how that played: We got a gig at a club we'd played in with other bands and Bobby had some notoriety. He was happening. So, at this particular club the owner said, "Here's the deal. You guys can have $300 or half the take, half the door." I didn't understand. I said, "We'll take half the door." At the end of the night the guy said, "I'm never going to offer you that again." We did real well. We had a great following and then things shifted around. For me, I was getting ready to go to college. When Bobby was successful my parents said, "You're going to college. You're not going to continue doing that." Of course, Randall (Fuller) was a great bass player and a great vocalist as well. Randall sounds very much like Bobby. So, that change was made and The Bobby Fuller Four became Dalton Powell, Jim Reese and Randall and Bobby. As a side note, Dalton, who was the piano player in our previous bands; the first band I was telling you about in high school was called The Royal Lancers. But, Dalton was married to my sister when Bobby had his fame.

Q - Would Dalton come home and tell your sister what was going on in the band?

A - Unfortunately, my sister passed away.

Q - Back to that bar for just a second. As good of a deal was you guys got, half the door, there was a group I know of that played a club that got a guarantee against half the door, whichever was higher, plus 10% of the bar action.

A - In El Paso that wouldn't have happened because in those days there weren't open bars. You couldn't buy hard liquor. It was all like beer. You couldn't even bring your own bottle then. So, it a little bit different. It was more of a teen club, this particular event. Let me digress here. You could buy drinks. But at some point in that transition you could bring you own bottle to the clubs. But anyway, that's not an important factor.

Q - After "I Fought The Law" became such a hit for Bobby, there was talk that The Bobby Fuller Four was being groomed to be America's answer to The Beatles. Do you believe The Bobby Fuller Four could've competed with The Beatles?

A - No. I know a whole other story about that.

Q - Okay, what's the story?

A - My story is: I know Bob Keane. Bob wanted to groom Bobby to be a White, Motown artist to the extent that, they cut the record "Magic Touch". I don't know if you've heard that record or know about it.

Q - I've never heard it.

A - Okay, So the story is Bobby didn't want to do that. He went ahead and cut it with the band and I think he decided it wasn't a direction he wanted to go (in), which me putting my business hat on, I think it would've been good for him because the Buddy Holly thing couldn't have survived much longer. The other story is, Bob Keane had a big life insurance policy on Bobby. There was some talk that Bobby was chasing Paul Raffles' girlfriend and Paul Raffles had a big nightclub in L.A. they were playing at. So, we've got this conjecture. There was something going on that Bob Keane wasn't in charge of exactly what was happening. I think the thing was to make records that could be sold by the rack jobbers in the stores. Dalton told me one time they went to New York. They were met by these guys who said, "We're taking you to a club. You play two sets. We're picking you up. We're taking you to the hotel and then from there we're taking you to the airport." It was said very matter of factly, this is how you're going to do this.

Q - Over the years I've been told it wasn't unusual for Bobby to go out late at night to conduct band business. I don't believe it. He had a business team in place. So, what was Bobby Fuller doing? Of course rumors persist about him seeing a nightclub owner's girlfriend.

A - Yeah, that's what I was telling.

Q - It's never been proven.

A - They were all kind of living in the same apartment. Jim Reese told me like the next night after Bobby passed away, two guys came into the apartment and they grabbed us and said, "You guys need to get out of town if you want to live." Once again, I don't know. Unfortunately, Jim's passed away. So, my recollection of that is when I went out there with the band, Mike Curb gave us a deal. Bob Keane was letting us rehearse at the studio there. Mike Curb bought that studio from Bob. But Bob was in deep trouble when we were there rehearsing. He said, "Make sure you lock the door when you go in and out. So, I think he went out to his car to get something and the sheriffs came in and said, "We're here for a bad debt. Everything stays here. The studio is closed. Anybody that comes in, we're collecting." So, I know Bob was kind of at the end of his rope.

Q - Do you personally believe that Bobby Fuller was murdered or do you think he committed suicide?

A - Well, here's what I know from all the reports: This goes right back to after it happened. Apparently, the police report was that Bobby drank gasoline and committed suicide. In case you don't know it, if you drink gasoline you throw it right back up.

Q - I know that.

A - So, they (the murderers) were dumping gas in the car, going to light it on fire and I think if Mike Ciccareli hadn't walked up on 'em they probably would have. Mike didn't know what was going on. He looked around. The band I was in went out to California in 1967. Mike Ciccareli, who was playing with us, was out in California playing with Bobby Sherman before that. He went over the morning that Bobby died. He knocked on the door and Mrs. Fuller (Bobby's mother) said, "Bobby left with two guys that came in the night." Mike walked back out and his car was there. He walked up and of course Bobby was in the car. And he thought they were trying to set the car on fire. Bobby didn't commit suicide.

Q - Bobby's fame lasted all of what, six months. "I Fought The Law" was on top of the charts and then it was over.

A - "I Fought The Law" was an outstanding tune. It was a little bit different than everything else he had done. I know that because I was playing on the early versions that we cut in El Paso. It always ran a different chord when Bobby did that song. I think it slipped him out of the Buddy Holly place and starting to find his own niche.

Q - Even though he didn't write the song, Sonny Curtis did.

A - Yeah, but a lot of songs we had done he didn't write any of them up to that point. That's another interesting thing. I think he was still finding his way as a writer. I know he was writing with Rick Stone's (Bobby Fuller's road manager) mom. She was a co-writer. Bobby was doing the music.

Q - Howard, I know people that say that the Mob had involvement in Bobby's death, but it makes no sense.

A - Did you know Ritchie Valens was on the same label?

Q - I knew that. Did you know Sam Cooke was too?

A - Yes, I did.

Q - So therefore if you were looking for a record deal and Bob Keane comes calling, run!

A - Exactly. I think that's kind of the focus here. I think they wanted Bobby seriously to make a change in direction. With The Beatles, now think about this, and this whole new genre of music The Beatles had introduced, what Bobby was doing was going to fall by the wayside. He needed to modernise. I loved all that, so don't get me wrong what I'm saying. Strictly from a business standpoint he needed to modernise and he didn't want to do it.

Q - What do guys in the Mob know about the music business?

A - You know Larry Noones (Bob Keane's partner) was a rack jobber. You know what a rack jobber was in the day?

Q - He's the guy responsible for placing the records in stores.

A - Yeah. He rents space in the stores to sell records. He not only gets paid for the records, but a cut of the action. There was a time when the Mob was very much part of the record business. They're there to make money. How do they make money? If Bobby sells records, they make money. They saw the writing on the wall, or Bob Keane was directing him. If you still want to make money with this guy, you've got this great looking guy, great singer, and it's time to move out of the Surf, Buddy Holly kind of stuff and into a new place. I don't know how much longer Bobby would have had success with the genre of music he was doing with The Beatles there.

Q - When I interviewed Bob Keane a number of years ago, he told me he had no knowledge of what happened to Bobby.

A - For awhile in different incarnations of bands we were in, just to play gigs, Randy (Fuller) was playing with us for awhile. We went up to Bob's studio and Bob was just letting us use the room. Randy and I wrote a song, "Captain Zig Zag". Bob liked it so much we recorded it. He put it out. I don't know what it did. It was way ahead of it's time, but there was no problem with that. It went out. I don't know what it sold or what he did with it. To me, he was an honorable guy. I think in the thick of what was going on with Bobby and the other artists that he had at the time, they weren't paying royalties, which wasn't Bob's fault. Mustang Records (the label The Bobby Fuller Four were on) was being distributed by who knows what. Larry Noones was the rack jobber for all the records. That's the business. Unfortunately when you have to do business with people, it's respect and sorting things out, negotiation and fixing things. If you don't do that, sometimes it turns ugly, whether it's physically ugly or business wise disaster or whatever it might be. You just need to avoid that confrontation. Bobby was ready to pack it up and go back to El Paso.

Q - You're saying on the night of July 18th, 1966, two men knocked on Bobby's apartment door and he went with them?

A - Yeah. His mother said he left in his pajamas.

Q - I've never heard that one before. Did you read online that Bobby went down to the beach, overdosed on something and the other people in attendance panicked and placed his body in his car and drove his car back to the apartment. Does that sound logical to you?

A - No. Let me tell you this story which sort of runs parallel to that. Elvis Presley passes away be it of drug overdose. He was sitting on the toilet. Not a happy ending, right? So, we're working with the band from Long Island and I take 'em to Memphis to do the final vocal and to mix the single because the lead singer said, "Can we do that?" And I said, "Sure." So, he goes to Graceland. "You know how Elvis died?" I said, "How?" He said, "He had been working on some songs, writing songs and he went out to play some racquetball and he came back inside, sat down, had a heart attack and died." Now that's history, if anyone asks you. How he died has been changed to a happy ending. Just like (Bobby) on the beach and they brought him back. It didn't happen that way.

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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