July 11, 2024 • 38 mins
Welcome to The True Story of The Fake Zombies. In the debut episode, host and writer Daniel Ralston introduces you to one of the strangest stories in rock and roll history.
We meet British psychedelic rock legends, THE ZOMBIES, and uncover the origins of the young men from Texas who pretended to be them 55 years ago, including two future rock and roll icons. Then, legendary reporter, Ben Fong-Torres, tells us about his time covering The Fake Zombies. We just had to remind him that the whole thing happened first.
Got a Fake Zombies story to share? Get in touch with The True Story of The Fake Zombies at Fakezombiespod@gmail.com or @thefakezombies on TikTok.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The True Story of the Fake Zombies is a production
of iHeart Podcasts, Talk House and never Mind Media. If
you could start out just by introducing yourself and your
role in the band.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Okay, my name is Colin Blondstone. I'm the lead singer
in the Zombies.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
The Zombies have made a lot of great music in
the sixty three years they've been a band. This song
time of the Season is their colling Carry, one of
those perfect songs. Back in nineteen sixty nine, when that
song topped the charts in America, there was a rumor
going around about their lead singer, Colin Blondstone, And at
(00:49):
some point in the process, a journalist from Rolling Stone
gets in touch with the band and tells you a
piece of news about yourself. Do you remember what he
told you?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yes, I remember very well. Chris White was in New
York and he'd gone to the offices of Rolling Stone
and they said that there were at least two bands
touring as the Zombies. The Rolling Stone people in the
office got Chris White, original base payer, to ring the
manager of one of these bands to engagement in conversation
(01:22):
and see what he had to say. And the manager
said to Chris well, yes, we've started up the Zombies
in honor of Colin Blanstone, the lead singer from the
band who was tragically killed in a car crash yesterday
Rolling Stone.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And the man said I.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Did this was reported in Stone. I mean they knew
I hadn't been killed in a car crash. For years,
I carried that clipping around with me. I've lost it now.
I'm not sure it's really healthy to carry around chery
around with you.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Colin Blunstone isn't dead, obviously, But back in nineteen seventy
when his bandmate Chris relayed that call from Rolling Stone,
his career and his band were While Colin's band was
falling apart back in England, new zombies would rise in
their place. They came from Texas, and they came from Michigan.
(02:27):
But before I tell you about the fake zombies, you
need to hear about the genuine article, the real zombies,
and how a fifty five year old footnote in the
career of one of the best bands ever let us
hear to a story that could never in a million
years happen today. It doesn't take much to set my
(03:14):
mind reeling. In the case of the fake Zombies, a
fake version of a very real British rock band. It
was a single sentence I read in a used book
that was ten years ago. The book was small, a
flimsy paperback with a glossy white cover. The price, about
(03:35):
eight bucks, was written in pencil on the inside cover.
I don't remember where I saw it, just that it
was one of those bookstores in New York where there
are no defined sections and nothing is alphabetized, just wall
to wall books. I stopped on this particular book on
(04:00):
that particular day because the subject was and remains very
dear to me, and I've never seen an entire book
devoted to what I believe is the most criminally underrated
band of all time, The Zombies. I'm not the only
(04:22):
one who feels that way. So did Tom Petty.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
We wounded up Salute one of our favorite groups. That
meant a lots of us. They weren't the biggest group
in the world, as back in the sixties there was
a hoop called the Zombies.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Tom Petty loved the Zombies, so do his bandmates. Later
in this podcast, you'll hear from Mike Campbell, lead guitarist,
and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. That's coming up. Now,
back to that book, there are pictures the band in
their schoolboy days at Saint Albans just outside London, recording
an Abbey Road, performing on TV shows in the nineties
(05:00):
in sixties with names like Hullabaloo and Shindig.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
What is Your Name?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Bud, Hugh but Grundy, Paul Ashley, Warren Atkinson, Christopher Taylor, White,
Clint Edward Michael Dunstein.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
You probably know them better as the zombie.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
In the photos. The zombies are thin and pale, and
they look impossibly cool. The definition of British Invasion chic.
Their music you've probably heard it oc and Food. If
you know that song, you know part of the story.
(05:42):
The book went a little deeper. It covered the band's
early hits too, which you also might know if you've
ever flipped through an FM radio dial or listen to
a British Invasion playlist.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
No no no no no no no no no no
no no no no no no no no no no,
these don't bother find them.
Speaker 8 (06:09):
She's not that.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
And The book talked about their seminal album Odyssey and Oracle,
a record which is now accepted as a modern classic.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Part of the appeal is that it's just as good
as Sergeant Pepper's.
Speaker 9 (06:31):
It's extremely sophisticated and like it's very intellectual, but yet
its beauty is unparalleled.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
They just stood up from a lot of the other bands,
and their songs were so catchy, you know, instantly memorable.
They just had the whole package of singing, the writing,
to playing that vocal sound. It just jumped out of
the radio. I fell in love with them right away.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So that's the Zombies' official story as the book laid
it out. They had some hits, they made a classic album,
They remained darlings of the record collector set, never fully
appreciated in their time. They weren't destined to become the Beatles,
although Paul McCartney loves the Zombies. Here's Lucy Atkinson, her
dad Paul is the only original Zombie no longer with us.
Speaker 10 (07:16):
My dad Paul was working at CBS in New York.
He was in charge of his band Wings. They were
recording in London. McCartney greeted my dad with a Zombie
song the first day he walked in the studio. I
think it might have been tell her No, but I
can't I can't remember exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Lucy's story is a pretty good microcosm for the Zombies career.
They have a lot of famous fans and huge hits,
but they remain a little underground, the best kept secret.
Everybody knows.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
The Zombies are like the Connoisseur's British Invasion band.
Speaker 9 (07:49):
Everybody should know about the Zombies and they will fall
in love and they will think, why did I not know?
Why did I not know this music?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Once you you're in the Zombies world, you don't want
to leave. The deeper you go into the band's catalog,
the better the songs get. Their songs mean a lot
to people like these Zombies super fans. So carosel forty four.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
My daughter, I remember her being very young, like three
or four, and I was dancing around the house of
that song all the time.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So it's a very important song to me and my kid. Wow,
I'm smart.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Smart I chose this will be our year for our
wedding song, and that obviously has connected with me the most.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
This will be our years Yeah, I'd say my favorite.
And the way, that's the kind of Zombies fan I
was when I picked up that paperback ten years ago
(09:01):
and read a sentence that would take me on the
wildest ride of my life. It was these words and
the end of a chapter without any further explanation, that
would set this whole thing off. While the Zombies were disbanded,
a group of Americans toured the United States pretending to
be the Zombies. As it turns out, that sentence that
(09:25):
got my mind reeling all those years ago wasn't even accurate.
There wasn't one group of young guys going around America
faking British accents and playing time of the season. There
were two, and one of those bands featured a couple
of guys from zz Top. I'm Daniel Ralston and this
(09:55):
is the true story of the fake Zombies. What's your name?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Daddy is rich like me?
Speaker 11 (10:19):
Who's your daddy is rich?
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Is he rich?
Speaker 11 (10:25):
Like?
Speaker 1 (10:26):
What's your name? Who's your daddy? Is he rich like me?
As far as iconic lyrics, it's hard to do better
than that one. Its appeal is kind of obvious. It's
more self assured than cocky. Equal parts let me take
you to dinner and let me take you to bed.
It's a hotline, and there's a reason it's been sampled
(10:48):
to death, and it's a damn good entry point to
appreciate what's great about the Zombies. They're a British invasion
band by definition, but the sound is more American R
and B than blues. The Zombies, back in the sixties
(11:13):
and today are built around two guys. One is Rod Argent,
world class keyboardist and songwriter, and as you're learn in
this podcast, Rod still plays those outrageous keyboard solos note
perfect as he approaches eighty years old.
Speaker 8 (11:35):
Of the season.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
The other key to the Zombies sound is that voice
you're hearing, the singer Colin Blunstone, and my god, what
a singer me drymus pleasure. Here's the legendary Susannah Hoffs
of the Bengals.
Speaker 9 (11:54):
I was instantly seduced by Colin's voice. He has a
singular voice for some reason, even as a very little girl,
I was very moved by the emotion in songs.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Susannah had the honor of inducting the Zombies into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 9 (12:14):
He's the one channeling that same passion. He's in the
pantheon of emotive singers.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Argent and Blunstone met in nineteen sixty one, by the way,
making them one of the longest running duos in rock history.
Some bands can make great songs, but it's another thing
entirely to make a great album. While the Zombies have
made a lot of incredible music over the past sixty years,
they're best known for their nineteen sixty seven album Odyssey
an Oracle. It has the big hit song on it,
(12:48):
but to quote Bob Dylan, it contains multitudes. Every song
is great. Here's Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Of course, time and the season.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Brilliant song that is Hung Up on a Dream is
probably my favorite.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
That's drummer and composer Joe Walk.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Because there's the rod part and there's the Colin part.
I just think it's my favorite of all their melodies too,
and they've written lots of great melodies.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Let's hear from Susannah Hawk's I.
Speaker 9 (13:18):
Mean a Rose for Emily by the way. This is
like a story. It's connecting to all sorts of interesting
traditions and literature.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Is at least this guy is overcast and brings a rose.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
They just had that quality X that just connects with
people and you remember it when you hear the song
you instantly remember it, you know, and that's a gift.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Odyssey and Oracle is now considered a classic, but I
wasn't always the case. In fact, when it was released
in nineteen six, it was kind of an afterthought. Here's
Zombies co founder, keyboardist and chief songwriter Ride Argent and
(14:16):
singer Colin Blunstone.
Speaker 12 (14:18):
The main reason that I think that we recorded odscen
Oracle was because it was in the air that we
might break up, and so we made the record because
we felt that we went in with some wonderful ideas
and in our heads we had how we wanted them
to sound, and they weren't coming out that way. And
so we thought, if we are going to break up,
we've got to try and produce an album ourselves. So
(14:40):
if it works or if it doesn't, we don't know
if it's going to work, but Lisa, we'll have given
it a shot.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
We had a really small advance, are we a thousand
pounds from CBS, which, you know, to record an album
even then is a very small amount of money. We
managed to get into Abby Road and we recorded very
very quickly.
Speaker 12 (15:00):
So we thought, if the first single comes out and
it's a hit, would stay together. I mean all of
us thought that because we were great friends and we
thought it would be exciting, but it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
They issued a first single, which was care of Self
forty four, and I would have thought that's a sure
fire hit myself, but nothing happened. By this point, we
weren't managed, we didn't have an agent, we weren't getting
any enthusiasm from the record company the single would come out.
We'd had several big disappointments before that.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
If you need more evidence that the Zombies and their
now classic album weren't exactly a priority for their record label,
the word Odyssey is misspelled on the cover. Nobody noticed
the mistake until after the record was pressed. The mistake
was left in and called a psychedelic inspired choice. The
album bombed when it was released in the UK. The
(15:53):
band released two singles, both great songs, but they didn't
hit and the Zombies broke up.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I think there was a disc since in the band
at that time, the band were going through a difficult time,
and when the single didn't happen, we got together for
you know, the meeting. I think we all knew that
something was going to happen, but Paul Atkinson, Hugh Grandie
(16:18):
and myself from the live work. We had never made
any I don't mean any money at all. We were
having trouble just eating, you know, existing, and Paul said, guys,
you know I've just got married. I've been offered a
really great job. You know I'm going to have to
take it. And Rod said, well, if Paul's leaving, I
(16:41):
think the band should finish. And I remember I wish
I had said something, but I didn't say anything at
all and left this meeting. I had no money and
no idea of what.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I was going to do.
Speaker 12 (16:59):
It wasn't a acrimonious split up. It was for other reasons.
It was very sad because I thought this is breaking
into pieces. We're all friends, We've just done an album
which we think is the best that we can do,
but no one was listening to it at all.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Keyboardist Rod Argent, along with Zombies' bassist Chris White, wrote
the band's early hits that man Rod had the money
and resources to continue his life as a musician.
Speaker 12 (17:26):
Chris and I had already managed to negotiate a great
deal for production with Clive Davis. We had all our
plans in place and we were just about to launch them.
It felt great, but.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
It wasn't so easy for Colin Blunstone. He was the
front man, the face of the band, but he didn't
write the songs. You can almost picture it. Rod Argent
shows up to the artist scene Oracle sessions at Abbey
Road and a rolls Royce Colin rode up on a bicycle.
That disparity, that reality would lead to the breakup of
(18:01):
the band. You see, the band's dissolution back in England
happened just as Time of the Season was taking off
in the US. The only problem was the band didn't
know it was a void was created. People in America
(18:22):
wanted to see the Zombies, but there was no band,
and this would lead to the creation of the fake zombies.
Speaker 8 (18:33):
So your own rab.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
As you may have figured out, this is a scheme
that would be impossible to pull off today. A band,
not just any band, but one with the massive hit
record breaks up just as their song is climbing the charts.
The Zombies could have disappeared right then and there. But
there were these two guys in a small town in
(19:06):
Michigan who had a dream, a fucked up, twisted so
crazy it just might work. Dream Enter Bill Kehoe and
Jim Atherton, founders and co proprietors of Delta Promotions, the
pre eminent concert promoters of Bay City, Michigan. They are
(19:27):
also the management company who would assemble and manage both
versions of the Fake Zombies. If you dig deep enough
into the history of American music before giant corporations got
involved with controlling everything, you didn't have to look far
to find a shady character with connections to organized crime.
(19:47):
Think Colonel Tom Parker's control over Elvis's life, or Hesh
Tony's financial advisor and the sopranos who got rich exploiting
black artists and taking their royalties. Tom Parker and the
guy's hash is based on operated on a big stage
and exploited the naivety of their young performers without any
(20:09):
fear of repercussion. The music industry was built on this
kind of arrangement. It's the wild West.
Speaker 13 (20:17):
Well, it was an unregular industry. There was a lot
of pash, there was a lot of leeway, there was
a lot of opportunity to operate beyond the you know,
outside the lines. So a circumstance like that, it's just
going to attract those people, and as the record business grew,
(20:41):
as the money got bigger, it just attracted more of it.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
That's Joel Selvin, longtime San Francisco Chronicle columnists and rock
writer emeritus. Joel literally wrote the book on the criminal
underpinnings of the early days of rock and roll. He's
actually written a few books on the subject. I wanted
to talk to Joel because I knew that an operation
like Delta Promotions wasn't the first to try a fake
band scheme.
Speaker 13 (21:05):
This also goes back to the early days of rock
and roll, when a group would have a hit record
and quickly they would hire a bunch of guys to
go out and be the group, and sometimes they would
send two or three of the groups out at the
same time. Eventually, the Coasters had three different groups working.
Two of them had split the country west of the Mississippi,
(21:26):
east of the Mississippi, and the third one just rampaged
across the country and they were all the Coasters.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
When the Fake Zombies were formed, Bill Kehoe and Jim
Atherton were running a teen nightclub in Bay City called
Band Canyon. These teen nightclubs popped up in the years
after the British invasion. Teenage kids wanted to dance to
rock music, and there's no way in hell parents in
Bay City were sending their kids to an adult nightclub.
(21:52):
Because nightclubs were run by the mob.
Speaker 13 (21:55):
Nightclubs were the province of you know, shady types. It
wasn't a high end business. Jack Ruby in Dallas had
a nightclub that a lot of these bands played at.
And of course, you know, the classic story is the
Peppermint Lounge, right That was a gangster hold out. That
(22:17):
was a place where they had this bar off Times
Square just as a place to hang out. And the
manager decided to start booking rock and roll bands and
attractor the crowd sort of unexpectedly and all of a
sudden bingo.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Our story might be a little darker if Kehow and
Atherton were hooked up with the tough guys and killers
Joel writes about her. But they weren't. They just ran
a teen nightclub and they saw a new way to
make some money by asking the young performers who played
band Canyon to pretend to be the zombies. Keijo and
(23:02):
Atherton attempted their scheme in nineteen sixty eight and at
least According to them, they saw their teenage fake zombies
as perfectly legal. My god, they felt comfortable enough to
start a second fake Zombies. But that time somebody was watching.
A writer named Ben Fong Torres, who back in sixty
eight was one of the first editors of a new
(23:23):
music newspaper called Rolling Stone after the Break the legendary
Ben Fong Torres. Before Rolling Stone Magazine, if you wanted
(23:49):
to know about your favorite band, you pretty much had
to rely on what the band gave you. There was,
of course, the music, the album cover and liner notes,
and if you were lucky, a few photos, maybe a
fan club. Once guys like Ben Fong Torres and Cameron
Crowe started writing lengthy profiles of new bands like led Zeppelin,
things started to change. Suddenly, things like the Beatles breaking
(24:13):
up or Mick Jagger hating Keith Richards became news and
Rolling Stone made it legend. Speaking of legends, if the
name Ben Fong Torres sounds familiar, he was a key
figure in the movie Almost Famous, portrayed by actor Terry Chen.
That movie, written and directed by Cameron Crowe, one of
Ben's old co workers at Rolling Stone, takes place around
(24:34):
the same time as the fake Zombies. If you're looking
to get a picture of the era, I mean, go
watch Almost Famous. It's a classic, William.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
This is Ben Fong Torres and the music editor at
Rolling Stone Magazine. We got a couple copies of your stories.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
From back in nineteen seventy, at the beginning of rock journalism.
Ben Fong Torres wrote about Delta Promotions and their fake
zombies scheme. When I stumbled upon the story forty five
years after it happened, I had no idea Ben already
covered it. Unfortunately he did not remember it.
Speaker 8 (25:08):
This would be had a short conversation because I remember nothing,
but I'll do my best.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
But we send him the original story, and luckily it
jogged his memory. I asked Ben how a story like
Delta Promotions and their fake zombies might have ended up
in Rolling Stone back in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
I think we heard about this from probably an artist
like Triss White, or from management who felt rooped, cheated
because there were impostors out there using their hard earned,
well established, well respected names and making money off of them.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Even now, Ben is fiercely defensive of the artists he's covered.
Rereading his fake Zombie story is reminding him why he
wrote it in the first place.
Speaker 8 (25:52):
And of course the real people who founded these groups,
who might have split up or might have gone off
to other bands like about argent Wood, are being deprived
of income. And further than that, it could amount to
a defamation of character because you have these frauds up
on stage, playing their music poorly, if at all, and
(26:15):
be smirching their names.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
And Ben was right, as you'll hear later in the series,
there were in fact reviews for the fake groups.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
Wait a minute, now, we saw that group a few
weeks ago, and they were terrible. We were ripped off.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Artists getting ripped off by a company like Delta was
exactly the kind of news Ben wanted to cover in
Rolling Stone. He wanted to see artists win.
Speaker 8 (26:37):
You know, it just fouls the air around these artists.
And I think that's the nature of the story as
I recall it vaguely, And that's why we do stories
like that. You can't all be celebrity profiles and the
latest drug busts. It had to be all the news
that I think it says on the front page here
all the news that fits, and this one did.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
And now over fifty years later, he's happy he had
a hand in bringing the fake Zombies to an end.
Speaker 8 (27:08):
Clearly, we felt that it was the wrong thing to
be doing, and that's why we put it on the
front page of Rolling Stone.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Thanks Ben, We're glad you did.
Speaker 11 (27:19):
Really bad.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Because the zombies were on Ben's radar. The Delta Promotions
operation made it into the pages of Rolling Stone. The
Fake Zombies only went on as long as it did
because of geography. Delta operated out of Bay City, Michigan,
two hours north of Detroit, and as you'll hear in
the next episode, I have come to love this weird
(27:52):
little town that Bill Keyhoe and Jim Atherton called home.
And surprisingly, Bay City has an entire museum dedicated to
the town's rock and roll past. Gary Johnson is a
music historian who lives in Bay City, the home of
(28:13):
Delta Promotions.
Speaker 11 (28:14):
Kejo was the guy who started Delta Promotions, and.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
I'd soon learn it's home to a whole lot more,
including one of the most important songs in rock music history,
ninety six Tiers by question Mark and the Mysterians.
Speaker 11 (28:33):
Jim Atherton was well known in Michigan as a band
manager and in the late sixties, he partnered up with
Keho in Delta Promotions. Delta Promotions signed question Mark in
the Mysterians. You know, they started going out and playing
(28:55):
concerts that were promoted by Delta Promotions.
Speaker 8 (29:01):
And j.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Question Mark and the Mysterians are fronted by a guy
who legally changed his name to punctuation. His name is
literally a question mark, and he and the Mysterians were
light years ahead of their time. Question Mark, in his
band all Mexican American, were the children of migrant farm workers.
They wrote ninety six tiers when they were teenagers in Michigan,
(29:34):
and you could make a case they helped invent punk
rock with ninety six tiers. Question Mark shared a manager
with the fake Zombies. Keyho and Atherton made a name
for themselves through their connection to question Mark and the Mysterians.
They had a real band on their roster, so they
had to be legit right And now they were out
there looking for impressionable young men to pretend to be
(29:57):
the Zombies. And here's where the story gets a little hazy.
We don't know exactly when or exactly where Jim Atherton
from Delta Promotions cross paths with the four guys from Texas.
Who you're about to meet. The chances are you already
(30:19):
know a couple of them. Here's music historian Gary Johnson.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
Again.
Speaker 11 (30:39):
Kehoe was a well known businessman, and you know his
early days. He ran for office in Bay City as
commissioner and he had a restaurant in the southern part
of Bay City called Steak and Big.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Bill. Kehoe is in charge of Delta's operation out of
Band Canyon in Bay City. He was older a city
councilman and a pillar of the Bay City community. The
consummate straight man. The other half of Delta, Jim Atherton
didn't stay so close to home. In addition to co
running Delta and Band Canyon, Jim also worked for Sun Amplifiers.
(31:26):
Sun Amplifiers was and still is known for making the
loudest amps in the world. Jimmy Hendrix played Sun amps.
Speaker 11 (31:32):
If you're looking for bona fides, Atherton went out east.
He had a job with Sun Amplifiers and apparently eight
was Sun for quite a few years.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
This meant Atherton was out on the road meeting young
bands and supplying them with the heaviest music equipment in
the world. Now, this is the hazy part At some
point in some city, probably in Florida, a twenty year
old drummer from the Dallas Fort Worth area cross paths
with Jim Atherton. It's hard to know exactly what happened
(32:08):
during that conversation, but that young man with a thick
Texas draw and three of his friends would soon find
themselves in Bay City, Michigan, getting ready to go on
tour as the Zombies. That twenty year old would go
on to tour the world in his next band, zz Top.
His name is Frank Beard, and yes, in zz Top,
(32:29):
he's the guy without the beard. So Frank Beard from
Texas meets Jim Atherton from Michigan. Beard returned to Texas
and recruited a bass player, his friend and eventual Zzy
Top bandmate, Dusty Hill.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
In music News, Dusty Hill, the bass player of the
legendary Texas rock trio Zz Top, has passed away age
seventy two. In a statement, the band's remaining members, Billy
Gibbons and Frank Beard, said, we are saddened by the
news today that our compadre Dusty Hill has passed away
in his sleep at home in Houston, Texas. You will
(33:08):
be missed greatly Amigo.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
The rhythm section of the Fake Zombies was locked in
Frank Beard and Dusty Hill. Next up lead guitar. Beard
and Hill know how to pick a guitarist. Their band
Maiden Zz top Billy Gibbons is one of the best
of all time. For the Fake Zombies, they chose another
hotshot guitarist, Seed Meta. Seed Meta would go on to
(33:35):
play in a band called The Werewolves. They released a
few albums that are beloved among Texas blues fans. Sadly,
Seed passed away in nineteen eighty, a decade after he
toured with the Fake Zombies. Seb was the hottest league
guitar player in all of Dallas. He got a mythical
figure with his Keith Richard's hair and his Gibson flying V.
(33:57):
There's no question that Seb's good looks must have gone
a long way in selling the Fake Zombies. He looks
like the coolest motherfucker on the planet. We know for
a fact it was see who recruited the last and
most important member of the Fake Zombies. He's the one
you never heard of, the one nobody in Texas remembers,
the one who didn't make it big. Frank Beard and
(34:29):
Dusty Hill would remain rock stars for life. Even see
Meta had his time as the fastest hand in Texas Blues.
But there was one more fake zombie, someone whose dreams
never made it past that single tour, pretending to be
another band. His name is Mark Ramsey. In the few
(34:52):
photos that exist from the Fake Zombies tour over fifty
years ago, Mark is the cute one. The baby fit
Race McCartney deceives John Lennon. He was nineteen years old,
blonde haired and blue eyed, next to his bandmates, already
touring Bluesman before they were twenty. Mark looks even younger,
(35:14):
more innocent than the rest. But Mark loved to play guitar,
and he loved playing with his new hotshot musician friends,
and he was looking for a reason to get the
fuck out of Texas. The story of the Fake Zombies
very easily could have been a footnote in rock history,
(35:36):
nothing more than a Ben Fong Torres article in a
lost copy of Rolling Stone Full disclosure. Before he passed away,
Dusty Hill did answer one of my emails about the
Fake Zombies. When I asked him what he remembered about it,
he simply said it was the sixties man, and we're
still working to get Frank Beard to tell us this
(35:58):
story himself. We'll keep you updated instead. Thanks to Mark
Ramsey and the people that remained from this once in
a lifetime rock and roll caper, we are here and
we have the true story of the Fake Zombies. Mark
passed away in twenty twenty one at the age of
seventy one. I was lucky enough to talk to him
(36:20):
before he passed, and he told me the real story
of the Fake Zombies. This podcast is dedicated to Mark
and Dusty, two boys from Texas who changed my life.
This season on the true story of the Fake Zone.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
They learned some Zombies songs. The lead singer tried to
pull off an English accent, and they went on.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
The road just the zombies.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I think it was a terrible deal.
Speaker 6 (36:47):
We were off facing twenty years and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I said, you know, these guys are not gonna get
away with it and fought.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yesterday Rolling Stone, I rang, the man said I I'm dead.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
This guy is said a note on the song you're hearing.
In nineteen seventy one, with the Zombies temporarily broken up,
Colin Blunstone released his debut solo album One Year. In
twenty twenty one, the record was reissued and some of
the demo recordings were unearthed. Colin, working in an insurance
(37:37):
company at the time, wrote a song about the Fake Zombies,
Sing your Own Songs. He poured his heart out singing
about his phony obituary and rolling stones and having his
voice and his money taken. Then he forgot about it
for about fifty years. It's called Sing Your Own Song,
and it's available on vinyl and digitally as a bonus
(37:58):
track on his album One Year.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
You Get that.
Speaker 9 (38:05):
Man.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
If you want to get in touch about the Fake Zombies,
we've set up an email address fake zombiespod at gmail
dot com. This podcast was written by Daniel Ralston. Executive
produced by Ian Wheeler, Melissa Locker and Daniel Ralston. Produced
by Anna McClain and Nick Dawson. Score, original music and
additional audio engineering by Robin Hatch. Additional production support from
(38:31):
Cooper Mall in Los Angeles. The True Story of the
Fake Zombies is a production of iHeart Podcasts, Talk House
and never Mind Media. For more podcasts from iHeart Podcasts,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts
The True Story of the Fake Zombies is a production
of iHeart Podcasts, Talk House and never Mind Media. If
you could start out just by introducing yourself and your
role in the band.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Okay, my name is Colin Blondstone. I'm the lead singer
in the Zombies.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
The Zombies have made a lot of great music in
the sixty three years they've been a band. This song
time of the Season is their colling Carry, one of
those perfect songs. Back in nineteen sixty nine, when that
song topped the charts in America, there was a rumor
going around about their lead singer, Colin Blondstone, And at
(00:49):
some point in the process, a journalist from Rolling Stone
gets in touch with the band and tells you a
piece of news about yourself. Do you remember what he
told you?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yes, I remember very well. Chris White was in New
York and he'd gone to the offices of Rolling Stone
and they said that there were at least two bands
touring as the Zombies. The Rolling Stone people in the
office got Chris White, original base payer, to ring the
manager of one of these bands to engagement in conversation
(01:22):
and see what he had to say. And the manager
said to Chris well, yes, we've started up the Zombies
in honor of Colin Blanstone, the lead singer from the
band who was tragically killed in a car crash yesterday
Rolling Stone.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And the man said I.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Did this was reported in Stone. I mean they knew
I hadn't been killed in a car crash. For years,
I carried that clipping around with me. I've lost it now.
I'm not sure it's really healthy to carry around chery
around with you.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Colin Blunstone isn't dead, obviously, But back in nineteen seventy
when his bandmate Chris relayed that call from Rolling Stone,
his career and his band were While Colin's band was
falling apart back in England, new zombies would rise in
their place. They came from Texas, and they came from Michigan.
(02:27):
But before I tell you about the fake zombies, you
need to hear about the genuine article, the real zombies,
and how a fifty five year old footnote in the
career of one of the best bands ever let us
hear to a story that could never in a million
years happen today. It doesn't take much to set my
(03:14):
mind reeling. In the case of the fake Zombies, a
fake version of a very real British rock band. It
was a single sentence I read in a used book
that was ten years ago. The book was small, a
flimsy paperback with a glossy white cover. The price, about
(03:35):
eight bucks, was written in pencil on the inside cover.
I don't remember where I saw it, just that it
was one of those bookstores in New York where there
are no defined sections and nothing is alphabetized, just wall
to wall books. I stopped on this particular book on
(04:00):
that particular day because the subject was and remains very
dear to me, and I've never seen an entire book
devoted to what I believe is the most criminally underrated
band of all time, The Zombies. I'm not the only
(04:22):
one who feels that way. So did Tom Petty.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
We wounded up Salute one of our favorite groups. That
meant a lots of us. They weren't the biggest group
in the world, as back in the sixties there was
a hoop called the Zombies.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Tom Petty loved the Zombies, so do his bandmates. Later
in this podcast, you'll hear from Mike Campbell, lead guitarist,
and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. That's coming up. Now,
back to that book, there are pictures the band in
their schoolboy days at Saint Albans just outside London, recording
an Abbey Road, performing on TV shows in the nineties
(05:00):
in sixties with names like Hullabaloo and Shindig.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
What is Your Name?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Bud, Hugh but Grundy, Paul Ashley, Warren Atkinson, Christopher Taylor, White,
Clint Edward Michael Dunstein.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
You probably know them better as the zombie.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
In the photos. The zombies are thin and pale, and
they look impossibly cool. The definition of British Invasion chic.
Their music you've probably heard it oc and Food. If
you know that song, you know part of the story.
(05:42):
The book went a little deeper. It covered the band's
early hits too, which you also might know if you've
ever flipped through an FM radio dial or listen to
a British Invasion playlist.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
No no no no no no no no no no
no no no no no no no no no no,
these don't bother find them.
Speaker 8 (06:09):
She's not that.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
And The book talked about their seminal album Odyssey and Oracle,
a record which is now accepted as a modern classic.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Part of the appeal is that it's just as good
as Sergeant Pepper's.
Speaker 9 (06:31):
It's extremely sophisticated and like it's very intellectual, but yet
its beauty is unparalleled.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
They just stood up from a lot of the other bands,
and their songs were so catchy, you know, instantly memorable.
They just had the whole package of singing, the writing,
to playing that vocal sound. It just jumped out of
the radio. I fell in love with them right away.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So that's the Zombies' official story as the book laid
it out. They had some hits, they made a classic album,
They remained darlings of the record collector set, never fully
appreciated in their time. They weren't destined to become the Beatles,
although Paul McCartney loves the Zombies. Here's Lucy Atkinson, her
dad Paul is the only original Zombie no longer with us.
Speaker 10 (07:16):
My dad Paul was working at CBS in New York.
He was in charge of his band Wings. They were
recording in London. McCartney greeted my dad with a Zombie
song the first day he walked in the studio. I
think it might have been tell her No, but I
can't I can't remember exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Lucy's story is a pretty good microcosm for the Zombies career.
They have a lot of famous fans and huge hits,
but they remain a little underground, the best kept secret.
Everybody knows.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
The Zombies are like the Connoisseur's British Invasion band.
Speaker 9 (07:49):
Everybody should know about the Zombies and they will fall
in love and they will think, why did I not know?
Why did I not know this music?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Once you you're in the Zombies world, you don't want
to leave. The deeper you go into the band's catalog,
the better the songs get. Their songs mean a lot
to people like these Zombies super fans. So carosel forty four.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
My daughter, I remember her being very young, like three
or four, and I was dancing around the house of
that song all the time.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So it's a very important song to me and my kid. Wow,
I'm smart.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Smart I chose this will be our year for our
wedding song, and that obviously has connected with me the most.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
This will be our years Yeah, I'd say my favorite.
And the way, that's the kind of Zombies fan I
was when I picked up that paperback ten years ago
(09:01):
and read a sentence that would take me on the
wildest ride of my life. It was these words and
the end of a chapter without any further explanation, that
would set this whole thing off. While the Zombies were disbanded,
a group of Americans toured the United States pretending to
be the Zombies. As it turns out, that sentence that
(09:25):
got my mind reeling all those years ago wasn't even accurate.
There wasn't one group of young guys going around America
faking British accents and playing time of the season. There
were two, and one of those bands featured a couple
of guys from zz Top. I'm Daniel Ralston and this
(09:55):
is the true story of the fake Zombies. What's your name?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Daddy is rich like me?
Speaker 11 (10:19):
Who's your daddy is rich?
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Is he rich?
Speaker 11 (10:25):
Like?
Speaker 1 (10:26):
What's your name? Who's your daddy? Is he rich like me?
As far as iconic lyrics, it's hard to do better
than that one. Its appeal is kind of obvious. It's
more self assured than cocky. Equal parts let me take
you to dinner and let me take you to bed.
It's a hotline, and there's a reason it's been sampled
(10:48):
to death, and it's a damn good entry point to
appreciate what's great about the Zombies. They're a British invasion
band by definition, but the sound is more American R
and B than blues. The Zombies, back in the sixties
(11:13):
and today are built around two guys. One is Rod Argent,
world class keyboardist and songwriter, and as you're learn in
this podcast, Rod still plays those outrageous keyboard solos note
perfect as he approaches eighty years old.
Speaker 8 (11:35):
Of the season.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
The other key to the Zombies sound is that voice
you're hearing, the singer Colin Blunstone, and my god, what
a singer me drymus pleasure. Here's the legendary Susannah Hoffs
of the Bengals.
Speaker 9 (11:54):
I was instantly seduced by Colin's voice. He has a
singular voice for some reason, even as a very little girl,
I was very moved by the emotion in songs.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Susannah had the honor of inducting the Zombies into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 9 (12:14):
He's the one channeling that same passion. He's in the
pantheon of emotive singers.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Argent and Blunstone met in nineteen sixty one, by the way,
making them one of the longest running duos in rock history.
Some bands can make great songs, but it's another thing
entirely to make a great album. While the Zombies have
made a lot of incredible music over the past sixty years,
they're best known for their nineteen sixty seven album Odyssey
an Oracle. It has the big hit song on it,
(12:48):
but to quote Bob Dylan, it contains multitudes. Every song
is great. Here's Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Of course, time and the season.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Brilliant song that is Hung Up on a Dream is
probably my favorite.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
That's drummer and composer Joe Walk.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Because there's the rod part and there's the Colin part.
I just think it's my favorite of all their melodies too,
and they've written lots of great melodies.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Let's hear from Susannah Hawk's I.
Speaker 9 (13:18):
Mean a Rose for Emily by the way. This is
like a story. It's connecting to all sorts of interesting
traditions and literature.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Is at least this guy is overcast and brings a rose.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
They just had that quality X that just connects with
people and you remember it when you hear the song
you instantly remember it, you know, and that's a gift.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Odyssey and Oracle is now considered a classic, but I
wasn't always the case. In fact, when it was released
in nineteen six, it was kind of an afterthought. Here's
Zombies co founder, keyboardist and chief songwriter Ride Argent and
(14:16):
singer Colin Blunstone.
Speaker 12 (14:18):
The main reason that I think that we recorded odscen
Oracle was because it was in the air that we
might break up, and so we made the record because
we felt that we went in with some wonderful ideas
and in our heads we had how we wanted them
to sound, and they weren't coming out that way. And
so we thought, if we are going to break up,
we've got to try and produce an album ourselves. So
(14:40):
if it works or if it doesn't, we don't know
if it's going to work, but Lisa, we'll have given
it a shot.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
We had a really small advance, are we a thousand
pounds from CBS, which, you know, to record an album
even then is a very small amount of money. We
managed to get into Abby Road and we recorded very
very quickly.
Speaker 12 (15:00):
So we thought, if the first single comes out and
it's a hit, would stay together. I mean all of
us thought that because we were great friends and we
thought it would be exciting, but it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
They issued a first single, which was care of Self
forty four, and I would have thought that's a sure
fire hit myself, but nothing happened. By this point, we
weren't managed, we didn't have an agent, we weren't getting
any enthusiasm from the record company the single would come out.
We'd had several big disappointments before that.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
If you need more evidence that the Zombies and their
now classic album weren't exactly a priority for their record label,
the word Odyssey is misspelled on the cover. Nobody noticed
the mistake until after the record was pressed. The mistake
was left in and called a psychedelic inspired choice. The
album bombed when it was released in the UK. The
(15:53):
band released two singles, both great songs, but they didn't
hit and the Zombies broke up.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I think there was a disc since in the band
at that time, the band were going through a difficult time,
and when the single didn't happen, we got together for
you know, the meeting. I think we all knew that
something was going to happen, but Paul Atkinson, Hugh Grandie
(16:18):
and myself from the live work. We had never made
any I don't mean any money at all. We were
having trouble just eating, you know, existing, and Paul said, guys,
you know I've just got married. I've been offered a
really great job. You know I'm going to have to
take it. And Rod said, well, if Paul's leaving, I
(16:41):
think the band should finish. And I remember I wish
I had said something, but I didn't say anything at
all and left this meeting. I had no money and
no idea of what.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I was going to do.
Speaker 12 (16:59):
It wasn't a acrimonious split up. It was for other reasons.
It was very sad because I thought this is breaking
into pieces. We're all friends, We've just done an album
which we think is the best that we can do,
but no one was listening to it at all.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Keyboardist Rod Argent, along with Zombies' bassist Chris White, wrote
the band's early hits that man Rod had the money
and resources to continue his life as a musician.
Speaker 12 (17:26):
Chris and I had already managed to negotiate a great
deal for production with Clive Davis. We had all our
plans in place and we were just about to launch them.
It felt great, but.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
It wasn't so easy for Colin Blunstone. He was the
front man, the face of the band, but he didn't
write the songs. You can almost picture it. Rod Argent
shows up to the artist scene Oracle sessions at Abbey
Road and a rolls Royce Colin rode up on a bicycle.
That disparity, that reality would lead to the breakup of
(18:01):
the band. You see, the band's dissolution back in England
happened just as Time of the Season was taking off
in the US. The only problem was the band didn't
know it was a void was created. People in America
(18:22):
wanted to see the Zombies, but there was no band,
and this would lead to the creation of the fake zombies.
Speaker 8 (18:33):
So your own rab.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
As you may have figured out, this is a scheme
that would be impossible to pull off today. A band,
not just any band, but one with the massive hit
record breaks up just as their song is climbing the charts.
The Zombies could have disappeared right then and there. But
there were these two guys in a small town in
(19:06):
Michigan who had a dream, a fucked up, twisted so
crazy it just might work. Dream Enter Bill Kehoe and
Jim Atherton, founders and co proprietors of Delta Promotions, the
pre eminent concert promoters of Bay City, Michigan. They are
(19:27):
also the management company who would assemble and manage both
versions of the Fake Zombies. If you dig deep enough
into the history of American music before giant corporations got
involved with controlling everything, you didn't have to look far
to find a shady character with connections to organized crime.
(19:47):
Think Colonel Tom Parker's control over Elvis's life, or Hesh
Tony's financial advisor and the sopranos who got rich exploiting
black artists and taking their royalties. Tom Parker and the
guy's hash is based on operated on a big stage
and exploited the naivety of their young performers without any
(20:09):
fear of repercussion. The music industry was built on this
kind of arrangement. It's the wild West.
Speaker 13 (20:17):
Well, it was an unregular industry. There was a lot
of pash, there was a lot of leeway, there was
a lot of opportunity to operate beyond the you know,
outside the lines. So a circumstance like that, it's just
going to attract those people, and as the record business grew,
(20:41):
as the money got bigger, it just attracted more of it.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
That's Joel Selvin, longtime San Francisco Chronicle columnists and rock
writer emeritus. Joel literally wrote the book on the criminal
underpinnings of the early days of rock and roll. He's
actually written a few books on the subject. I wanted
to talk to Joel because I knew that an operation
like Delta Promotions wasn't the first to try a fake
band scheme.
Speaker 13 (21:05):
This also goes back to the early days of rock
and roll, when a group would have a hit record
and quickly they would hire a bunch of guys to
go out and be the group, and sometimes they would
send two or three of the groups out at the
same time. Eventually, the Coasters had three different groups working.
Two of them had split the country west of the Mississippi,
(21:26):
east of the Mississippi, and the third one just rampaged
across the country and they were all the Coasters.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
When the Fake Zombies were formed, Bill Kehoe and Jim
Atherton were running a teen nightclub in Bay City called
Band Canyon. These teen nightclubs popped up in the years
after the British invasion. Teenage kids wanted to dance to
rock music, and there's no way in hell parents in
Bay City were sending their kids to an adult nightclub.
(21:52):
Because nightclubs were run by the mob.
Speaker 13 (21:55):
Nightclubs were the province of you know, shady types. It
wasn't a high end business. Jack Ruby in Dallas had
a nightclub that a lot of these bands played at.
And of course, you know, the classic story is the
Peppermint Lounge, right That was a gangster hold out. That
(22:17):
was a place where they had this bar off Times
Square just as a place to hang out. And the
manager decided to start booking rock and roll bands and
attractor the crowd sort of unexpectedly and all of a
sudden bingo.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Our story might be a little darker if Kehow and
Atherton were hooked up with the tough guys and killers
Joel writes about her. But they weren't. They just ran
a teen nightclub and they saw a new way to
make some money by asking the young performers who played
band Canyon to pretend to be the zombies. Keijo and
(23:02):
Atherton attempted their scheme in nineteen sixty eight and at
least According to them, they saw their teenage fake zombies
as perfectly legal. My god, they felt comfortable enough to
start a second fake Zombies. But that time somebody was watching.
A writer named Ben Fong Torres, who back in sixty
eight was one of the first editors of a new
(23:23):
music newspaper called Rolling Stone after the Break the legendary
Ben Fong Torres. Before Rolling Stone Magazine, if you wanted
(23:49):
to know about your favorite band, you pretty much had
to rely on what the band gave you. There was,
of course, the music, the album cover and liner notes,
and if you were lucky, a few photos, maybe a
fan club. Once guys like Ben Fong Torres and Cameron
Crowe started writing lengthy profiles of new bands like led Zeppelin,
things started to change. Suddenly, things like the Beatles breaking
(24:13):
up or Mick Jagger hating Keith Richards became news and
Rolling Stone made it legend. Speaking of legends, if the
name Ben Fong Torres sounds familiar, he was a key
figure in the movie Almost Famous, portrayed by actor Terry Chen.
That movie, written and directed by Cameron Crowe, one of
Ben's old co workers at Rolling Stone, takes place around
(24:34):
the same time as the fake Zombies. If you're looking
to get a picture of the era, I mean, go
watch Almost Famous. It's a classic, William.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
This is Ben Fong Torres and the music editor at
Rolling Stone Magazine. We got a couple copies of your stories.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
From back in nineteen seventy, at the beginning of rock journalism.
Ben Fong Torres wrote about Delta Promotions and their fake
zombies scheme. When I stumbled upon the story forty five
years after it happened, I had no idea Ben already
covered it. Unfortunately he did not remember it.
Speaker 8 (25:08):
This would be had a short conversation because I remember nothing,
but I'll do my best.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
But we send him the original story, and luckily it
jogged his memory. I asked Ben how a story like
Delta Promotions and their fake zombies might have ended up
in Rolling Stone back in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
I think we heard about this from probably an artist
like Triss White, or from management who felt rooped, cheated
because there were impostors out there using their hard earned,
well established, well respected names and making money off of them.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Even now, Ben is fiercely defensive of the artists he's covered.
Rereading his fake Zombie story is reminding him why he
wrote it in the first place.
Speaker 8 (25:52):
And of course the real people who founded these groups,
who might have split up or might have gone off
to other bands like about argent Wood, are being deprived
of income. And further than that, it could amount to
a defamation of character because you have these frauds up
on stage, playing their music poorly, if at all, and
(26:15):
be smirching their names.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
And Ben was right, as you'll hear later in the series,
there were in fact reviews for the fake groups.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
Wait a minute, now, we saw that group a few
weeks ago, and they were terrible. We were ripped off.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Artists getting ripped off by a company like Delta was
exactly the kind of news Ben wanted to cover in
Rolling Stone. He wanted to see artists win.
Speaker 8 (26:37):
You know, it just fouls the air around these artists.
And I think that's the nature of the story as
I recall it vaguely, And that's why we do stories
like that. You can't all be celebrity profiles and the
latest drug busts. It had to be all the news
that I think it says on the front page here
all the news that fits, and this one did.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
And now over fifty years later, he's happy he had
a hand in bringing the fake Zombies to an end.
Speaker 8 (27:08):
Clearly, we felt that it was the wrong thing to
be doing, and that's why we put it on the
front page of Rolling Stone.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Thanks Ben, We're glad you did.
Speaker 11 (27:19):
Really bad.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Because the zombies were on Ben's radar. The Delta Promotions
operation made it into the pages of Rolling Stone. The
Fake Zombies only went on as long as it did
because of geography. Delta operated out of Bay City, Michigan,
two hours north of Detroit, and as you'll hear in
the next episode, I have come to love this weird
(27:52):
little town that Bill Keyhoe and Jim Atherton called home.
And surprisingly, Bay City has an entire museum dedicated to
the town's rock and roll past. Gary Johnson is a
music historian who lives in Bay City, the home of
(28:13):
Delta Promotions.
Speaker 11 (28:14):
Kejo was the guy who started Delta Promotions, and.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
I'd soon learn it's home to a whole lot more,
including one of the most important songs in rock music history,
ninety six Tiers by question Mark and the Mysterians.
Speaker 11 (28:33):
Jim Atherton was well known in Michigan as a band
manager and in the late sixties, he partnered up with
Keho in Delta Promotions. Delta Promotions signed question Mark in
the Mysterians. You know, they started going out and playing
(28:55):
concerts that were promoted by Delta Promotions.
Speaker 8 (29:01):
And j.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Question Mark and the Mysterians are fronted by a guy
who legally changed his name to punctuation. His name is
literally a question mark, and he and the Mysterians were
light years ahead of their time. Question Mark, in his
band all Mexican American, were the children of migrant farm workers.
They wrote ninety six tiers when they were teenagers in Michigan,
(29:34):
and you could make a case they helped invent punk
rock with ninety six tiers. Question Mark shared a manager
with the fake Zombies. Keyho and Atherton made a name
for themselves through their connection to question Mark and the Mysterians.
They had a real band on their roster, so they
had to be legit right And now they were out
there looking for impressionable young men to pretend to be
(29:57):
the Zombies. And here's where the story gets a little hazy.
We don't know exactly when or exactly where Jim Atherton
from Delta Promotions cross paths with the four guys from Texas.
Who you're about to meet. The chances are you already
(30:19):
know a couple of them. Here's music historian Gary Johnson.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
Again.
Speaker 11 (30:39):
Kehoe was a well known businessman, and you know his
early days. He ran for office in Bay City as
commissioner and he had a restaurant in the southern part
of Bay City called Steak and Big.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Bill. Kehoe is in charge of Delta's operation out of
Band Canyon in Bay City. He was older a city
councilman and a pillar of the Bay City community. The
consummate straight man. The other half of Delta, Jim Atherton
didn't stay so close to home. In addition to co
running Delta and Band Canyon, Jim also worked for Sun Amplifiers.
(31:26):
Sun Amplifiers was and still is known for making the
loudest amps in the world. Jimmy Hendrix played Sun amps.
Speaker 11 (31:32):
If you're looking for bona fides, Atherton went out east.
He had a job with Sun Amplifiers and apparently eight
was Sun for quite a few years.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
This meant Atherton was out on the road meeting young
bands and supplying them with the heaviest music equipment in
the world. Now, this is the hazy part At some
point in some city, probably in Florida, a twenty year
old drummer from the Dallas Fort Worth area cross paths
with Jim Atherton. It's hard to know exactly what happened
(32:08):
during that conversation, but that young man with a thick
Texas draw and three of his friends would soon find
themselves in Bay City, Michigan, getting ready to go on
tour as the Zombies. That twenty year old would go
on to tour the world in his next band, zz Top.
His name is Frank Beard, and yes, in zz Top,
(32:29):
he's the guy without the beard. So Frank Beard from
Texas meets Jim Atherton from Michigan. Beard returned to Texas
and recruited a bass player, his friend and eventual Zzy
Top bandmate, Dusty Hill.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
In music News, Dusty Hill, the bass player of the
legendary Texas rock trio Zz Top, has passed away age
seventy two. In a statement, the band's remaining members, Billy
Gibbons and Frank Beard, said, we are saddened by the
news today that our compadre Dusty Hill has passed away
in his sleep at home in Houston, Texas. You will
(33:08):
be missed greatly Amigo.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
The rhythm section of the Fake Zombies was locked in
Frank Beard and Dusty Hill. Next up lead guitar. Beard
and Hill know how to pick a guitarist. Their band
Maiden Zz top Billy Gibbons is one of the best
of all time. For the Fake Zombies, they chose another
hotshot guitarist, Seed Meta. Seed Meta would go on to
(33:35):
play in a band called The Werewolves. They released a
few albums that are beloved among Texas blues fans. Sadly,
Seed passed away in nineteen eighty, a decade after he
toured with the Fake Zombies. Seb was the hottest league
guitar player in all of Dallas. He got a mythical
figure with his Keith Richard's hair and his Gibson flying V.
(33:57):
There's no question that Seb's good looks must have gone
a long way in selling the Fake Zombies. He looks
like the coolest motherfucker on the planet. We know for
a fact it was see who recruited the last and
most important member of the Fake Zombies. He's the one
you never heard of, the one nobody in Texas remembers,
the one who didn't make it big. Frank Beard and
(34:29):
Dusty Hill would remain rock stars for life. Even see
Meta had his time as the fastest hand in Texas Blues.
But there was one more fake zombie, someone whose dreams
never made it past that single tour, pretending to be
another band. His name is Mark Ramsey. In the few
(34:52):
photos that exist from the Fake Zombies tour over fifty
years ago, Mark is the cute one. The baby fit
Race McCartney deceives John Lennon. He was nineteen years old,
blonde haired and blue eyed, next to his bandmates, already
touring Bluesman before they were twenty. Mark looks even younger,
(35:14):
more innocent than the rest. But Mark loved to play guitar,
and he loved playing with his new hotshot musician friends,
and he was looking for a reason to get the
fuck out of Texas. The story of the Fake Zombies
very easily could have been a footnote in rock history,
(35:36):
nothing more than a Ben Fong Torres article in a
lost copy of Rolling Stone Full disclosure. Before he passed away,
Dusty Hill did answer one of my emails about the
Fake Zombies. When I asked him what he remembered about it,
he simply said it was the sixties man, and we're
still working to get Frank Beard to tell us this
(35:58):
story himself. We'll keep you updated instead. Thanks to Mark
Ramsey and the people that remained from this once in
a lifetime rock and roll caper, we are here and
we have the true story of the Fake Zombies. Mark
passed away in twenty twenty one at the age of
seventy one. I was lucky enough to talk to him
(36:20):
before he passed, and he told me the real story
of the Fake Zombies. This podcast is dedicated to Mark
and Dusty, two boys from Texas who changed my life.
This season on the true story of the Fake Zone.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
They learned some Zombies songs. The lead singer tried to
pull off an English accent, and they went on.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
The road just the zombies.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I think it was a terrible deal.
Speaker 6 (36:47):
We were off facing twenty years and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I said, you know, these guys are not gonna get
away with it and fought.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yesterday Rolling Stone, I rang, the man said I I'm dead.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
This guy is said a note on the song you're hearing.
In nineteen seventy one, with the Zombies temporarily broken up,
Colin Blunstone released his debut solo album One Year. In
twenty twenty one, the record was reissued and some of
the demo recordings were unearthed. Colin, working in an insurance
(37:37):
company at the time, wrote a song about the Fake Zombies,
Sing your Own Songs. He poured his heart out singing
about his phony obituary and rolling stones and having his
voice and his money taken. Then he forgot about it
for about fifty years. It's called Sing Your Own Song,
and it's available on vinyl and digitally as a bonus
(37:58):
track on his album One Year.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
You Get that.
Speaker 9 (38:05):
Man.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
If you want to get in touch about the Fake Zombies,
we've set up an email address fake zombiespod at gmail
dot com. This podcast was written by Daniel Ralston. Executive
produced by Ian Wheeler, Melissa Locker and Daniel Ralston. Produced
by Anna McClain and Nick Dawson. Score, original music and
additional audio engineering by Robin Hatch. Additional production support from
(38:31):
Cooper Mall in Los Angeles. The True Story of the
Fake Zombies is a production of iHeart Podcasts, Talk House
and never Mind Media. For more podcasts from iHeart Podcasts,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts
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