Introducing: The True Story of the Fake Zombies

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Back in nineteen sixty nine, this was the hottest song around.
It's so hot that some guys from Michigan tried to
steal it overseas and futher. My name is Daniel Ralston.

(00:26):
For ten years, I've been obsessed with one of the
most bizarre and audacious cons in rock and roll history.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
A group would have a hit record and quickly they
would hire a bunch of guys to go out and
be the group.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
I think it was a terrible deal.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
People were being cheated on several levels.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
That year, four hot shot young musicians from Texas were
hired to impersonate the British psychedelic rock band The Zombies.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
I was like blowing away.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
I said, you know, these guys are not going to
get away with it The Zombies who popular.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Two of those Texas guys went on to play in
another legendary band, zz Top. Meanwhile, back in England, the
real Zombies were breaking up.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
The manager sister Chris Well, Yes, we've started up as
Zombies in honor of Colin Blunstone, the lead singer from
the band, who was tragic killed in a car crash.
I mean they knew I hadn't been killed in a
car crash.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
The real Zombies ended up in the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. The fake Zombies brought them closer together.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
There were impostors out there using their hard earned, well established,
well respected names and making money off of them.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
We talked to family members.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
They learned Zombies songs. The lead singer tried to pull
off an English accent, and they went on the road
distal Zombies opening acts.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
We were all facing twenty years, all that good stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Girlfriends, are you telling secrets? And a few music legends
along the way.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
My name is Mike Campbell from Tom Kitty and the Heartbreakers.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
This is Ben pon Torres, former senior editor at Rolling
Stone Magazine in San Francisco.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
I'm Suzannah Hoffs.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
I'm a Zombies super.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Fan, and we talked to the band that started it,
all the real Zombies, to find out how it feels
to be the band that inspired this outrageous scheme.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
I had no money, I had no idea of what I.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Was going to do. After years of searching, we bring
you the true story of the Fake Zombies. Listen to
the True Story of the Fake Zombies on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts