Gary James' Interview With Johnnie Bolin Of
Black Oak Arkansas



Johnnie Bolin traveled the world with Black Oak Arkansas for over thirty years as their drummer. And of course his brother was Tommy Bolin, who played guitar for both The James Gang and Deep Purple until his untimely death at the age of 25 in 1976. We spoke with Johnnie Bolin about his career with Black Oak Arkansas, his brother Tommy, and the business of Rock.

Q - Johnnie, I may be one of the few writers who can tell you I saw your brother in concert with The James Gang at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, N.Y. in February, 1974.

A - Wow!

Q - Black Oak made their mark in Rock in the mid-'70s, but after that hit, "Jim Dandy", how much work was there for the band?

A - It's kind of like Tommy (Bolin). If you're interested in the band, you kind of follow 'em. This is me too. This is anybody in the music industry, if you're not really interested in 'em, and I really wasn't, (laughs) since playing with the band for thirty years I know quite a bit of history on 'em and they were popular in '69. Their first album came out and was played all over the place, saturated. They did the California Jam with the Eagles, Deep Purple.

Q - But, that was later on.

A - Yeah, but they had a record deal up until 1976. They got 'em in '69. So they were popular the whole time. Maybe you just weren't following 'em. I wasn't either. "Jim Dandy" was the only AM hit they ever had, but their albums had a lot of air play. Since Black Oak was such a really good, live band, they had 'em working like three hundred shows a year. Plus, they had to do two albums. If you're obligated to do three hundred shows and two albums, good luck writing the material.

Q - Doing all that road work kept the money flowing in.

A - They were a really good, working band. That's really the first concert I'd ever seen. I mean, I saw Gary Lewis And The Playboys and Dick Clark's Caravan Of Stars. I went to hear bands like The Turtles play. But a real band, I saw Leslie West and Black Oak in the Civic Auditorium. That was in '72. That's when they had their first drummer, Wayne Evans, before Tommy Aldridge. They just kicked butt. I get some good stories out of Jim every once in a while. When they did the Grand Funk tour they were on the billing and they got to be so explosive they just took 'em off the bill. They still played, but they weren't on the billing anymore. (laughs) There were other front men. Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger. But Jim (Dandy) was the first one that pranced around. It's a David Lee Roth syndrome what I gather from people I've talked to. They remain popular. We were supposed to play with 'em in '76, me and Tommy, in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Q - And what happened?

A - Tommy, too many nights in a row of singing. So, we had to cancel the date. Then you really never heard of them for awhile. Once you've got a name like that it's never forgotten. We do these cruises, we've been on three cruises, the Legends one with Edgar (Winter) and 38 Special, Paul Rogers. We went on an Outlaw cruise with Shooter Jennings and Emmylou Harris. It's like, "How did we get on this one now?" (laughs) It's really weird. The fans from yesterday, like the ones that love Country now, and they're older, they grew up with Black Oak. No, we don't play stadiums anymore. They remain really popular. We went to Brazil. We went to Mexico. We went to other countries. We were with Iron Butterfly and bands like that.

Q - Did you take over the drumming duties from Tommy Aldridge?

A - No. He left. The band actually disbanded. Jim stayed with 'em and they got an all new band. So, Tommy left in '77 I suppose, and I didn't join until '88. So, Jim had quite a few drummers after Tommy.

Q - How did you get the offer to be the drummer for Black Oak?

A - I played with a band out of Minneapolis. After the Tommy thing I went to L.A. and met a guitar player who ended up being with The Outlaws, Freddie Salem. I played with his band for awhile in Ohio. I told him, "Freddie, I left California to play with you. Now you're leaving to go to The Outlaws! (laughs) I don't blame you." I asked him, "What do you want to do with me?" He said, "I'll get you a gig." So, he got me a gig down in Miami. I was with this Cuban band. We had a club we played in right down in Coconut Grove. When I first moved down there we played like eleven weeks. It was good money. It's the middle of January and I'm in Iowa and I'll do anything to get out of here. It was a really good band. I met this keyboard player who just put a record out called "Red, Hot And Blue" on RCA, but he didn't have a band. He had all session players like Les Dudek and the list goes on forever. So, that's how I had to go on tour with him. From '78 to '80 I lived in New York. Then John Bartle was a guitar player playing with a band out of New York. They had a record deal on CBS. That was kind of ironic. So, the keyboard player lost his contract with RCA and John left CBS. So, we're back in Iowa again. He moved to Des Moines and said, "Do you want to play with the guys I've been playing with?" I was in New York and Iowa didn't sound too good. Anyway, we went there and stayed there for eight months. We got a manager that took us up to Minneapolis. We had a record deal with Alfa.

Q - Who? I've never heard of that label.,

A - It was Japanese money, but it was based out of Japan and the United States. They had like Lulu, Burton Cummings, Billy Vera, and us. They had about ten bands. They had a lot of money. (laughs) They had a couple of Jazz bands in Japan they promoted. But when everybody merged in '83, Elektra went with Warner Brothers and Warner went with Asylum. Alfa had nobody to merge with, so we lost our record deal. We had two record albums out with them. To make a long story short about Black Oak, we went back to Minneapolis to get another deal. So, I lived there twelve years. I got with this band, Dareforce. They were a really popular band up there. It was like Rock/Metal. It was a heavier band for me to play with, but it was fun and it kept me in shape and all that Jazz. So, we did a bunch of records up there independently. We did like five or six, but we never got the big deal. We'd back up Black Oak whenever they'd come once in awhile. So, I got to know Jim pretty well. One of the last gigs they played in Minneapolis, Dareforce opens up. He said their drummer was quitting, did I have any interest in going on the road? I said, "Oh, yeah." We were disbanding anyway. We were going different directions. One guy bought a gas station. One guy went back to school. But I just played drums my whole life. (laughs) I said, "Where you going, Jim?" "We got twelve dates up the West Coast." Another friend of mine was a roadie with them. He said Jim never paid anybody. So, I got the bass player on the phone. He was kind of the boss man. I said, "If you'll pay me, I'll leave. There's nothing to keep me in Minneapolis." My lease was up on my apartment. So that's when I met Jim and started playing with the band, in '88.

Q - You got the opening slot for Black Oak in Minneapolis because maybe you knew the promoter?

A - Yeah, but they played there quite a bit.

Q - How did you get the gig to open for them?

A - Oh well, we were a big band. We were just playing nightclubs, big clubs.

Q - The promoter thought you would help the bill then?

A - Yeah. We played every night of the week in Minneapolis. I'd never seen so many Rock 'n' Roll clubs. It's all the towns right around there. They all support whatever club they got in their little community. We played like Black Oak did when they were playing nightclubs. Sometimes we'd play venues and open up for Ted Nugent. We were a concert band.

Q - Did being on the road for thirty years with Black Oak ever get to you? I'm talking about the monotony.

A - No. (laughs) We weren't corporate. They were very organized. That had nothing do to with me. We had a truck. But I was ready to go on the road again. Jim had picked up another agent that was really booking us quite a bit more when I first joined.

Q - Frank Barsalona?

A - Well, it wasn't Frank Barsalona back then, Barbara Skydel. It was a West Coast promoter guy.

Q - Did your brother drop out of school?

A - He didn't drop out. They threw him out.

Q - Why?

A - His hair was too long. He went back twice and cut it. It wasn't even long. By the time I got to his grade... He left in the first part of 11^th grade. People had beards. People had hair in the middle of their back. His couldn't be over his collar. It couldn't be over his ears.

Q - What year was that?

A - '67, '68.

Q - I would've thought schools would've been over that a long time before.

A - No. No mustaches or anything, which he never had. He didn't quit. They wouldn't let him come back.

Q - Why not wait 'til he was out of school to grow his hair long?

A - (laughs) You know the way it worked out. The band he had said he played too loud, so they fired him. And this thing happened with school. He was going way ahead in music around here. In his mind he thought New York or L.A.. Well, that's too far to go. So he had a friend who lived in Denver. He played in a band with him. So he just said, "He can just come here and live with me." He couldn't really stand it for very long, but he did it. (laughs)

Q - You joined Tommy's band in 1976. You played Mile High Stadium in Denver. That must've been an outdoor festival?

A - Yeah. It was at the football field.

Q - Do you remember who else was on the bill?

A - Yeah. Peter Frampton. Steve Miller. Gary Wright. There was a band, Natural Gas that opened up the show. I played with their bass player later on in life.

Q - When you're not on the road you're working on your brother's catalog?

A - Well, I've always been on the road 'til recently. Yeah.

Q - Was there some controversy surrounding your brother's death? Maybe medical help wasn't called as soon as it could've been? It would've been bad publicity for Deep Purple?

A - No. Deep Purple had nothing to do with it. It would have been bad publicity for anybody. You know, it happens all the time.

Q - They thought he would recover?

A - Yeah. It was just a bad night for him. He just partied too much. He was going through a lot of stuff with his girlfriend and relationships. Barry Fey was a horrible manager. He never managed anybody in his entire life. He was an amazing promoter, but a horrible manager. Tommy liked Barry at times. Barry was ruthless. He was trying to keep up with the Peter Grants and Bill Grahams.

Q - In a hundred years from how, 2120, historians will ask what the attraction of drugs was to Rock musicians of the 1960s and 1970s. Maybe you can answer that question before historians get the opportunity to write about it.

A - Well, it's a release. It's something to do at the end of the day, not even putting a time schedule on it. You put your heart and soul in the music. It's life to some people. It's all part of life.

Q - Your brother knew the risks more than anybody else. He saw what happened before he came along in music.

A - Well, look at these Jazz heroin addicts, John Coltrane. I mean that was 1940. It doesn't mean any difference what year. It's still a problem. Prince knows. Tom Petty knows. They all know. A better question is why are you committing suicide? When you're taking these drugs you're not committing suicide. You're doing something you've been doing for awhile that seems to work with what else you're trying to do.

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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