Gary James' Interview With
Dewey Pope of
Action Unlimited





Dewey Pope is the author of Action Unlimited: The Band of Gold, A Kentucky Band's Musical Journey To The Edge Of Stardom. He was the drummer of a 1960s band out of Kentucky called Action Unlimited. He's written a book that can only be called a story of what might have been, but wasn't, or in the words of Dewey himself, "I went from being a kid with a dream, playing with a band that touched on the very brink of national success."

Yes indeed.

Q - Dewey, your story is probably true for a lot of 60s bands that dreamed of getting out of their hometown and playing nationally, but it never happened. Your band was different. You got out of your hometown, which makes your story different. How many bands do you think get to do that? Maybe 1%?

A - Yeah. At that time we were the only Kentucky band that I know of that did that. There were a lot of good bands out of central Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky. I think a few of the local bands had a handful of record releases. I hope I'm saying this correctly. I think we were the only ones that went out there (California).

Q - Before leaving for California did you go to college for a year? And what did you study?

A - I went for a semester and I was an Art major. I'd been in Art from the time I was a little boy. Art and music run a close parallel. So, I was very blessed to be talented as an artist and of course I started playing the drums. I was with a local group called the Monzzas. It was my first actual group. We became very popular in the Central Kentucky area. So, I devoted all my time to that. I played with them all the way up until I joined Action Unlimited. The bass player in the Monzzas was my best friend. We started out together a few years before I got with Action. Dick Clark had, back in those days, a Caravan Of Stars. They came through Richmond, Kentucky and did a show on Eastern Kentucky University's campus and used the Maroons, which was formed at EKU. They used them as the opening band for that particular Caravan that came through in the Spring of '65. On that Caravan was Brian Hyland, Herman's Hermits, Little Anthony And The Imperials, and a whole slew of artists. The lady that was Dick Clark's Southeastern representative was Peggy Rogers. So, she liked the Maroons. She started a relationship with them. That was the transition from the Maroons to Action Unlimited.

Q - Where did Action Unlimited come up with that name?

A - There was a show on every afternoon that Dick Clark had called Where The Action Is. Peggy liked the group so well that she talked them into changing their name to Action Unlimited. They opened all the summer of '65 Caravan of Stars throughout Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. I wasn't with them at that time. Paul Revere And The Raiders, who were the host band on that show, were gonna leave in late summer of '65. I'm not exactly sure what the deal was . She wanted us to go out and audition and become the host band for that show. So, that's how this all happened. This went on up until the fall of '65. Then the drummer who was with the group at the time, Action Unlimited, was going to college in Lexington, Kentucky. He didn't want to go out. He didn't want to leave school. So in the process, I started sitting in with 'em. The original bass player in the Monzzas, left the Monzzas and went with the Maroons, which became Action Unlimited. So, I started sitting in and in the process I learned all the arrangements. I knew all the guys anyway. And in the fall of '65 this became a reality of going to California to audition for this show. So, I was hired because their drummer didn't want to go. We left here in February '66. So, that's the reason we went out there.

Q - After you arrived in California you were told another band got that gig. Who was that band?

A - To my understanding it was The Knickerbockers. When we got there, Riley Kincaid, who worked with Peggy Rogers said, "OI've got good news and bad news."We said, "Okay. What's the bad news first?" "Well, they've already hired somebody for Where The Action Is, so that's not gonna happen." We said, "What's the good news?" She said, "I've got you an audition at the Trip Club on Sunset Strip for the Red Velvet," which is one of the top clubs on the Sunset Strip. We did the audition and got the job. The first gig we played in Hollywood was at the Red Velvet. We were there for two weeks. The Red Velvet was sort of a watering hole for all the bigger bands. They would call show up at the Red Velvet.

Q - Many from the Shindig! TV show.

A - Yeah. Shindig! was just down the street from the Red Velvet.

Q - You met Richard Davis at the Trip Club, who was one of Elvis's bodyguards.

A - He would come in every night. The guy who owned the club was a guy named Tony Ferrara, and his daughter Christine was going with Elvis at the time. Every night we played from 9 P.M. to 2 A.M. and every night at 2 A.M. there was no hanging around. He would always hustle us out. Richard told me when he would come in and listen to the band, that the reason for that is, Elvis would come in with his entourage shortly after 2 A.M. when the band quit and they would party up until the morning, and that's why it happened. He was from the Memphis area and he liked us because we were a Kentucky band and he felt like he had a connection with us. Him being from Tennessee and us being from Kentucky.

Q - You performed at this club in Las Vegas called the Thunderbird and all these beautiful, topless show girls were onstage with you. After the show ended did you guys ever end up pairing off with these show girls? You never did say in your book.

A - Oh, no. We didn't. When the show was over I don't ever remember seeing ‘em again. They were off in their own space. We didn't pair off with any of them at all. It was a big surprise when we first got there. Raleigh said, "I got a big surprise for you tonight." So when we auditioned, the girls came out but they were fully clothed. We thought they were just like go-go dancers, and then when we did the very first show the big surprise that Raleigh had for us is that they were topless. We didn't know that. I think I mentioned in the book I was missing beats. I'm like 19 years old and I'd never seen anything like that. These girls I should say were women, very classy, top-notch. They didn't mingle with us at all. We saw ‘em during the show and that was it. We would never see ‘em again until the next night during the show.

Q - Action Unlimited opened for The Beach Boys and Billy Joe Royal.

A - Yes.

Q - That must have been an eye-opening experience for you guys to see two national acts so close up.

A - Yes, it was. We opened for a lot of people after I got with 'em (Action Unlimited). That particular Summer of '65 I wasn't with ‘em. They also did another Caravan of Stars tour in Lexington that Tom Jones was on. I was there that night, but not as a member of the group. I would get to go backstage. Tom Jones was probably the biggest thrill for everybody because he was just a mega star at that time. But, Action Unlimited spoke very well of The Beach Boys and Billy Joe Royal. They also backed Billy Joe Royal in Cincinnati at The Moonlight Gardens. I don't know if that's in the book. That particular summer they worked a lot with the Caravans.

Q - Irene James took you to Frank Sinatra's Palm Springs home where you met Sinatra's personal valet, George Jones. I take it you never did meet Frank Sinatra.

A - No, I didn't. Kent, our bass player, started a relationship with Irene and they eventually got married. After our group broke up he did get to meet Sinatra playing for several of Sinatra's private events. She was a former actress and had a lot of connections. She ran the club, IJ's, which is for Irene James. We met a lot of stars there. Bruce Johnston from The Beach Boys came up and sat in with us one night. We got to know him. Really nice guy. Dennis Wilson would come in quite often and hear the band. When we were at the Red Velvet, Roy Head sat in one night and did "Treat Her Right". There were a whole entourage of stars, especially at the Red Velvet, that would come in. We were just a young bunch of kids out of Kentucky. It was amazing that we were seeing all these people and we're right in the middle of it. (laughs) We didn't know quite how to act. But it turned out well.

Q - Did Bobby Fuller ever come in?

A - Not that I know of. Johnny Rivers came in. Paul Peterson came in several times. The Knickerbockers.

Q - - The Righteous Brothers?

A - I never did see The Righteous Brothers, if they were there. The Coasters came in and did an afternoon show. We did six nights a week. They did a Saturday afternoon show. Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs came in and did one of those afternoon type shows. As a matter of fact, I think I mentioned in the book Chuk, our lead guitar player, something happened to his guitar right before we were to go on and the lead guitar player for Sam The Sham let him use his guitar. There was just an onslaught of both Rock stars and actors that came in. I never got to meet Elvis, but getting to meet Richard Davis was almost like getting to meet him. I was always kind of hoping that he would work out a deal where we could stay over and meet Elvis, but he never did bring that up.

Q - You should've brought it up!

A - I know. That's true.

Q - Who got you this record deal on Cameo-Parkway Records?

A - It was Riley Kincaid. She left the Dick Clark organization and believed in us so much that she took over management of our group full-time. I will say in the two years we were out there, there was no down time. She kept is working constantly. All the time. She got us an in by the name of Steve Clark. He was an agent and he had in his stable The Association, Tommy Roe, a group called Summer's Children, and us. He had several more, but I don't know all of 'em. He had a young producer by the name of Curt Boettcher. Curt was one of the key people for all The Association's records and Tommy Roe. When Raleigh got us in with Steve Clark, that started the ball rolling on the record. We went into Columbia Studios in Hollywood and cut all the vocal tracks. We didn't cut the music tracks because back then, and they still do it to my knowledge, the most famous group that did all this was called the Wrecking Crew. Steve Clark had a stable of musicians called Our Gang. I think some of those guys were maybe even part of the Wrecking Crew. If you wrote a song and had charts on it, you would give it to say Steve and then he would give it to those guys and they would cut the music in like a day's time or half a day's time, where it would probably take us a week or more. Everybody was on a time thing back then and money. These were studio musicians so Steve could pay them a certain salary. They would cut these tracks and we went in and put the vocals on top of them. Then they would farm 'em out. Mercury almost bought it. Steve would have the representatives from each of the record companies come in. Mercury was almost gonna take it, but I think Cameo out bid 'em. Cameo bought the master. We cut it in the Summer of '66. It was supposed to have an October '66 release, but Cameo had a group called ? and the Mysterians that put out a record called "96 Tears", and for some reason they pushed that before us and moved us back to December. "96 Tears" did quite well. Our music track was done by Our Gang, and that upset us 'cause we wanted to do the music ourselves. But they said, "No. This is the way we do it!" This happened to a lot of the major groups in those days. They used studio musicians. It was kind of cost effective. We had the same background singers as The Association. We did it in Columbia Studios in Hollywood. It was all professionally, well done. And we heard "96 Tears" was done in a guy's living room and we didn't think the quality was near as good as ours, but I can't knock that. I'm glad they did as well and went on.

Q - What strikes me about your single, " My Heart Cries Out", is it's such a slow start. It doesn't grab the listener from the get go. That's why "96 Tears" became such a hit, it grabs you right away. It gets your attention.

A - There's a reason for that. When Chuk Tristo wrote that he wrote both sides. We were a Pop-Soul type group. We had the two horns. We were a very hard moving, Soul type group and Chuk wrote it that way. When Curt got a hold of it, and I used Chuk's quotes in the book, he wanted to turn it into a psychedelic type of feel, which was just coming onto the scene. He changed the whole record around, the whole thing. That's why that was that way. It did get "Pick Hit of The Week" in several cities. It never broke the Top 100, but they didn't get behind it like they did for "96 Tears". In February of '67 Cameo put us back in the studio, back in Columbia and did two more sides and that was us. We had a real Chicago type of feel. The A-side was going to be called "Take My Hand". It was upbeat. Everything about it was different and it was us. Curt didn't mess with it like he did the other one. I think that particular feel wasn't us. I really believe if they had gotten behind it as much as they did for "96 Tears" it might've done a lot better, but our's kind of fell by the wayside. But the second did do much better.

Q - When you say Cameo should've gotten behind it, you mean they should have had promo. Guys knocking on radio station doors saying to Radio Programmers, "Listen to this!"

A - Yes. 100%

Q - You used the traditional grip I guess they call it, the jazz grip, to hold your drumsticks. Ringo used the overhand grip. Did you try Ringo's way? His way looks better, but how did it feel to you? And do you still use that grip today?

A - I stayed with the traditional grip the whole time I was out there. I never went with the match grip or the overhand grip until several years later. And I stayed in music my whole life by the way. I went back to college and got my degree in Art. I went into the military and played drums in the Army Orchestra. I didn't go to the match grip like Ringo until several years later.

Q - Looking at the photos in your book you certainly looked like you were having fun onstage. You guys certainly liked mugging for the camera.

A - Yes, we did. We did crazy stuff. A lot of that came from Paul Revere And The Raiders. They did a lot onstage too. We looked up to them a lot. I think I took my mugging from Smitty the original drummer for Paul Revere. He was always mugging it up back there, or even Ringo to a point. He was always shaking his head and his hair was flying. But yes, we had a good time.

Q - The biggest mystery in your book is what happened to Action Unlimited's leader, Dave Osborn. He was drafted but never served. He spent something like six weeks in a hospital. He never told you what happened and you never asked. Do you know what happened to Dave?

A - I do know what happened, but I can't talk about it. It wouldn't be fair to the family. I know the family very well. I still keep up with his daughter. Let me put it this way, he convinced them he wasn't mentally stable to be in the military. If you go back and look at this: the record is about to come out, this is late November early December. Everything is going great. We're at the top. We're right out of Vegas. We had just gone from Palm Springs to Portland, Oregon. Steve Clark was keeping up with us and telling us all the things they were gonna do. So, everything was at the top of the game. And all of a sudden this happens. Dave was the leader of the group. He was our mentor. He was one of the oldest guys in the group. We were anywhere from 18 to 20 years old. Dave and Jon were 23 and 22. Dave was a music major out of Eastern Kentucky University. Everything that happened with that group was a result of him and Riley. They worked very closely together. When they (the government) took him down, we stayed at the Draft Board all day. We didn't see him. They had him at the back. That afternoon they came out with him and they told him, "You are to report back here tomorrow morning for induction into the military." Basically they said, "You're going. Tomorrow you're U.S. property." We sat up all night in total disbelief. If we lost Dave we knew this would be devastating. We were good. Everybody was a great musician. You had to be good to do as well as we did out there. You just couldn't go into all these major clubs and play and audition and pass if you weren't good. We were good, but Dave was the leader. He was the man. This was the point I tried to make in the book. Truthfully I'm not sure what happened that day. They came out and said, "He is not mentally fit, so we're sending him to a facility to evaluate his mental capacity." So, they did. We got word a few days later that they had sent him to a mental facility right outside of Portland, Oregon. I don't think I mentioned this in the book, but where they sent him was where they filmed One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. Every day we would go in and we would see Dave regressing. He wasn't the same Dave. He wasn't the guy everybody looked up to, our go-to guy. He was almost like the father of the group. Any problems, we went to Dave. After six weeks they finally decided to let him go and gave him a 4F. He came back to the group and he was not the same onstage. Dave was a tremendous trumpet player. His notes were not the same. He didn't have the charisma. He didn't have the showmanship. He was in a shell. We all started noticing this and in the process Steve Clark noticed this and Raleigh noticed this. Raleigh didn't tell us, but Steve did. When Steve dropped us because of Dave being in this particular situation, Cameo dropped us. And Dave was with us when we went to L.A. and cut the second record. It was Raleigh who was running the show 100% then, but Dave changed. Then Jon left the group. He said "I'm going back to Cincinnati'" Chuk left the group eventually. He met a go-go dancer up in Portland, Oregon and married her. Then it was down to the four of us and we replaced both Jon and Chuk with great players. Back then in L.A. the talent pool was unbelievable. That was the Mecca for all the groups all over the U.S. All kinds of groups went there to make it and so many of 'em didn't. The line going into the union hall, and I personally saw it, would be blocks long. Guys out of work, trying to get work with bands. We found a couple of musicians that were awesome, but they didn't have that charisma. They didn't have that charisma onstage. We were a unit that just worked so well together. When one left it affected it. When two left it affected it even more. When Kent left, that really affected me. That was devastating to me. We literally started out together back in Kentucky. So, we're down to three originals now. So, I decided after a period of time to leave. Dave eventually found his way back to sanity I guess you might say, and played with several groups, but not ever to the extent of Action Unlimited, nowhere near the success we had. The whole thing boils down to when they pulled Dave out and sent him to the institution. It was very sad. It was devastating. Gary, we were so close. I don't even know how to equate it. We were right in the middle of it. We had good people behind us. We had everything, but losing one person... A guy asked me after I wrote the book, "Why would you write a book about a group that didn't make it?" I said, "You know, we did make it. We made it all the way to California, which no Kentucky group had done at that time. We made it to a national label. We made it to the top clubs in Las Vegas. Basically we did make it. We just didn't get that final little push with the record. If that record would have gone, things would have been a lot different." Gary James

Buy Dewey Pope's book at www.AcclaimPress.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

The views and opinions expressed by individuals interviewed for this web site are the sole responsibility of the individual making the comment and / or appearing in interviews and do not necessarily represent the opinions of anyone associated with the website ClassicBands.com.