Gary James' Interview With Bobby Fuller's Road Manager
Rick Stone



The Strange Death of Bobby Fuller

While not a one-hit wonder, Bobby Fuller's claim to fame is one song that continues to get airplay to this day. That song is "I Fought The Law". It was a Top Ten hit for Bobby and his group The Bobby Fuller Four in the Spring of 1966. A few months later, July 18th, 1966 to be exact, Bobby Fuller was found dead in his car, a car that was parked in front of his Hollywood apartment. He was only 23 years old. The LAPD ruled Bobby's death an apparent suicide, but lingering questions remain nearly 30 years after Bobby's death. Those closest to Bobby, including his Road Manager, Rick Stone, do not believe Bobby committed suicide. They believe he was murdered. In this Exclusive Interview, we talked to Rick Stone about his days as Road Manager for The Bobby Fuller Four and the mysterious circumstances of Bobby Fuller's death.

Q - In the mid-'60s when you were road managing, what did your duties include?

A - I'd been working for Western Electric and Bobby called me and wanted me to go on the road as Road Manager. It was either me or Boyd Elder. Boyd Elder by now you know is a pretty famous artist. He's the one who did The Eagles album cover with the skull and the feathers. Bobby wanted me. I was a little more adapt at doing that. I'd make hotel arrangements, schedule the stops where we'd go to, you know, radio stations to promote records, record stores to have autograph signings, just do everything outside of booking him literally. Take care of all expenses, pay all the bills, set up all the equipment. I was a one man roadie.

Q - That's a lot of work.

A - You better believe it. Bobby had more equipment on the road than other groups. He had by far the best P.A. sound system. We had The Young Rascals come in one time and they were just blown away by our sound system.

Q - Did you have to drive the truck too?

A - Yeah, I drove the truck. We had a Chevy Step Van. The air conditioner was always going out in it. It never did work. It cost a fortune, but never did work. The engine compartment leaked hot air. In the summertime that sucker was like being in an oven, hotter than blazes! One time Randall (Bobby's brother) had a hammock. Randall thought he'll get some hammocks and try to sleep that way. Well, the roads are too bumpy and you're jiggling all over the place. A couple of times he even managed to doze off. One time we were down South, around Mobile, Alabama and the hammock broke and he fell from about 5 feet down to the truck, and hurt his back, scratched up his arm, and said, "The heck with that idea. That's not working." (laughs) And so anyway, that's pretty much it.

Q - A Road Manager was kind of a new position back then, wasn't it?

A - Yeah It was. There were very few groups that had somebody handle the stuff, setup all the equipment for them and what have you. But there were several gigs where we would get to the town that day, I'd check them into the hotel and I'd take all the equipment over and unload it and have everything ready to go. They'd keep their guitars with 'em and tune 'em up in their rooms and then just plug in and go play.

Q - Where did you first meet Bobby Fuller?

A - Bobby and I went to high school together. We were in a band together. I played trumpet. Randall played trombone and Bobby was a drummer. It was in Burges High School in El Paso somewhere around 1958.

Q - How did you land the job as Road Manager? Why did Bobby think of you?

A - Well, my mother had been writing a lot of music for years. Most of her stuff was more of the '40s style. Her lyrics were great but her melodies were somewhat dated. Some of the lyrics were a little dated too. She had gotten a contract from Capitol Records on two songs she'd written. She came back home kind of depressed that they didn't take more. I said, "Mom, you gotta write some Rock 'n' Roll. You've just got to." "Oh, I don't want to. I hate it." I said, "I know a guy, he just moved, but I don't know his name and address, I mean his address and phone number, but Booth Fowler knows him. Let me go over to Booth's place." This was on a Sunday morning. So, I drove over to Booth's apartment. He called Bobby and Bobby came by that afternoon. He came by and they worked 'til midnight. Mom liked Bobby a lot. The next evening Bobby came by, about two or three days later and had rewritten her songs. It was "You're In Love". He re-did the melody line and that was the first song they ever wrote. The second song they ever did was "So Much In Love", and I had a tape recording of it for years. Bobby never did press it 'cause he didn't like the recording of it. He just never did it again. It was a good song too, a real good ballad.

Q - Who has the tape of that song?

A - I don't think anybody got it. I've never found it in all of his old stuff. It's just gone. I know the song and I've got the lyrics, but that's it.

Q - What was your first impression of Bobby?

A - Oh, he was a hell of a drummer. He was ten times the drummer of anyone else in this area. He had to audition for us, you know, what chair he was gonna be, as everybody in band had to. Everybody kind of looked over at him, like, "Gee, what's this guy gonna do?" Burges High School Band was a Top Ten Texas High School Band. It was one of the best bands in the state of Texas. We had a great band D\director, Joe Booth. So everybody's sittin' there saying, "Let's see what this guy can do." And everybody's going, "Oh my Gosh, this guy's good!" (Laughs).

Q - He didn't stick with drums though.

A - No. Yeah well, the first group he was in was Gerry Bright's old group, The Embers. It was kind of funny, 'cause if I'm not mistaken, Dalton Powll was the drummer. I know Jim Reese (Bobby Fuller Four guitarist) was in the group. I remember the first time I ever saw them play was the first time that Bobby ever played with 'em. It was about six months later, and they were playing at the grand opening of North Gate Shopping Center. They had a Battle Of The Bands thing going on. Bobby went up and sat in with 'em and they just blew all the other bands away. I think he was about 17 at the time. Bobby was two years older then me. Randall and I are the same age, about two weeks apart.

Q - Do you keep in contact with Randall?

A - Yeah. I talk to Randall. He'll come to El Paso once in awhile. He lives out in Colton, California.

Q - What does he do there?

A - Since his parents passed away and he inherited a little bit of money, he's been buying some houses and renovating them. Dwayne Quirico, who was the other drummer, lives in the Malibu area, or used to, and he and Randall still have a group, The Randy Fuller Four and play around from time to time. They released a CD and cassette on Del-Fi in 1992.

Q - There was serious talk some time ago of making a movie about Bobby's life called I Fought The Law> with River Phoenix as the lead. Are there still plans in the works to make that movie?

A - Yes. Lee Solters, who is one of the major publicity agents in California, put out an announcement last October or November (1994) stating that Bob Keene (Bobby Fuller's manager) had formed Del-Fi Pictures with some kind of a deal worked out between Randy and Dwayne.

Q - Bob Keene's involved. Now, that's interesting.

A - Yeah. Bob Keane was also Ritchie Valens, Viola Mills, Johnny Crawford, Barry White and Sam Cooke's manager.

Q - Now, with Bob Keane's track record, if he approached you with a management deal - run!

A - I don't know. Bob Keane was an awfully good manager at times. He and Bobby just didn't get along. I know that!

Q - How did the success of "I Fought The Law" affect the group? Did more gigs and money pour in because of the song?

A - Oh, yeah. Well, Bobby was already very popular. Let me back up a second. Bobby put out a series of singles from his own home. Come to think of it, the first two songs were recorded at Yucca, no, I take it back, they were recorded at his house and they were put on the Yucca Label. Then Bobby started doing his own label called Eastwood and Exeter. He went to L.A. and at that time, A&M Records talked heavily to him, but the only one that was really interested was Bob Keane. He said "Go back, practice, and get better." Well heck, Bobby didn't need to practice and get better. They were good then. They were better than most groups. Live they were just far better. So Bobby came back to El Paso and worked another year making the group tighter and really getting the group strong and put some more material together. Then Bob Keane signed him up, against Bobby's Dad's approval, and off he went. But, every single Bobby had ever released had done very well, within the Top 10, usually number one locally and regionally. Regionally, I'm talking all of New Mexico, parts of Colorado, Arizona, into Utah, and over into West Texas. In fact, he recorded "I Fought The Law" in 1964, released it, and it was number one in El Paso. I know there's some reports where Bobby had said it didn't do very well, but, it was number one regionally. Then when they re-recorded it, all they did was add a little more vocal to it. In fact, it's difficult to tell the two apart at times.

Q - Wasn't Bobby on Mustang Records?

A - Yeah well, Mustang was a part of Del-Fi. See, Bobby had this thing about High School sounds because Burges, their motto was The Burges Mustangs. The residential area he lived in was called Eastwood and Scotsdale. So, he had Eastwood Records and then he had Exeter. I don't know where that came from. Eastwood was also the name of a High School.

Q - Bobby's girlfriend, Charlene Nowak, told me if I remember correctly, that it was quite normal for Bobby to go out at night, and stay out all night, taking care of business. What business?

A - Bobby did a lot of his own p.r. stuff. He'd go to radio stations himself. He always had. He liked the business. As for being a partier, if you're referring to drugs, Bobby was not into drugs. Once in a rare while he'd drink a couple of beers and that was it. He was a pretty straight individual.

Q - So Bobby wasn't involved in any monkey business as far as you're concerned, like drugs?

A - No! See that was pre-drugs in those days. Haight-Asbury was the following year. When we were on the road you didn't hear anything about drugs at all. You just didn't. Of course I was pretty naive, just the opposite of Randall. Randall was not that naive. It was before drugs. I was on the road with him. I was 22, 23 years old. Once in awhile we'd get a fifth of rum and mix it with Cola. I never had been a big drinker and I never did drink beer much.

Q - The innocent days.

A - Yeah, it really was. You know, you waved to somebody, they waved back. They didn't flip you off or shoot at you. That was also before long hair. I mean The Beatles'- hair was long. My hair is the same length today as it was then. Kind of a Country Western look, but not long. Of course, you get in the mid-west in the Winter and they're all looking at you like, "Where'd these guys come from?" 'cause everybody was shaved on the sides of their heads.

Q - Where were you when you heard about Bobby's death?

A - I was there. Let me back your questions up a little bit. The night before we had sat around and of course this contradicts what I just said, but, we'd been on the road for six months, and were tired. We came in the evening before, I was sitting there with Bobby's mother watching TV and three girls came by. Two of 'em were from El Paso and they wanted to visit. I didn't know 'em. His mother knew 'em from years ago. They visited for a couple of hours. Bobby talked to 'em and Bobby had me go down and get a six pack of beer. Bob had a couple of beers and the girls had a beer each and then they left. I fell asleep on the couch watching TV. Mrs. Fuller had a little day-bed in there, and that's what she slept on. It was a big two-bedroom apartment. Bobby was back in the back bedroom writing a song after they left, a song called "Bitter Sweet." The next thing I knew, it was around two thirty or three in the morning. I was real thirsty and I got up and fixed a glass of tea and I heard the door open. See, back then it wasn't anything unusual for us to be up that late. When you play 'til 2 o'clock in the morning and you don't tear down 'til three, you don't even have dinner 'til four. You get home at five and you try to go to sleep. So, it's not unusual to be up that late. He went in and went out of the living room door, and I saw him just for a second. I didn't say anything to him. He just went on out. I went back and went to sleep. Next thing I knew his mother was sitting there, staring at me when I woke up. She said, "Bobby didn't come in all night." I went "Ooh." I can't tell her he's probably shacking up with some gal, but I didn't know what the deal was. She said, "Will you go out and see if the car is here?" So, I went down to the basement garage. In the basement there was a huge parking lot and the car was not there. So, then I went out to the side lot where the van was and I got some fresh clothes out of it for myself and got ready to go 'cause we had a meeting at the record studio at either 9 or 10 a.m. I didn't want to drive the van 'cause it's too damn big and there was no place to park it, so I walked to the studio. It was two blocks South, right off the corner of Vine, between Hollywood and Sunset. Everybody showed up but Bobby. My Volkswagon was in the shop having a valve job. Jim Reese (Bobby Fuller Four guitarist) went out and we sat around eating hamburgers, and Bobby didn't ever show up. Around three-thirty or four, it was evident he wasn't gonna show up, and so I told Jim, "Give me a ride to the garage so I can get my VW and go home." He said "Fine." I picked up my Bug and then as I was driving down... I can't remember that street, well, it's the same street Janis Joplin's apartment was, I had a real bad feeling about Bobby all that afternoon. See, the day before he told me he was gonna break-up the group and go on his own and try to get away from Bob Keene. I had a bad feeling about it. As I drove down that street, a police car with flashing lights passed me. As I turned the corner, of course I'm right on the corner as I come up to the apartment house. It's a vacant lot. I make a left turn onto Sycamore Street and about another fifty feet there was an entrance driveway into a dirt lot. I just went in and pulled in behind the cops. They said, "Hey, get out of here. You can't come in there." I just parked the car where I always parked it. I walked over and there's Bobby laying on the front seat of the car. The police had just gotten there.

Q - Who called the Police?

A - Well, Ty Grimes and Mike Ciccarelli had gone by his apartment several times 'cause they wanted to put something together with Bob. Ty was a drummer and Cicc was a real fine guitar player. They wanted to be in the group. Either that or studio musicians with Bob. So, they'd gone by a couple of times earlier in the day, an hour or two before they went by, and the car was not there. Then, they came by, and that's when they found the car and Bobby in it. They'd gone up to the apartment to look for Mrs. Fuller and to call the police. They found her wandering down the hallway. Meanwhile she had found Bobby. She had just found him before they did. They called the police and they came on up.

Q - In the past, I've written that when Bobby was found there was a gas can on the front seat.

A - No. It was on the front floor board.

Q - He had a broken left arm with scratches on it?

A - Don' know about that.

Q - He had a gasoline soaked rag stuffed in his mouth?

A - No. My vision was that, from what I remember, okay? It was hotter than blazes. It was in the middle of July. It was a four door, light metallic blue, '62 Oldsmobile. Bobby was laying across the seat with his face between the back of the seat and the bottom of the back of the seat. In other words, he had his face where your left hip would be sitting, okay? His back was just under the steering wheel. His body was laying across the seat at a 45 degree angle. In other words his body was actually laying on the seat and the other side was leaning against the back seat. It looked like he'd been pulled into the car, cause his shoulders were kind of pulled forward a little bit. Bobby always washed his hair everyday, and a lot of times he'd just comb it straight, kind of like a Beatle thing, it just looked like someone had poured gasoline on the top back of his head and his shirt. Later, it was found out from an investigator, there was no gas in his mouth. So, he did not try to drink gasoline as reported by some other people. His left elbow was at the edge of the seat, in the middle of the seat, and then his right hand was in the back of his arm, wrists were laying across the console, above the transmission and his hand was kind of like in front of the gas pedal. He had one of those red rubber nipple type things. It looked like it had been placed in his hand. Number one, it was upside down. Number two, the way it was just sitting there, it looked like it had been placed in his hand. It looked like his hand was there and somebody just stuck it in there. The gas can was on the right floor board, underneath the glove box, and it was empty. One leg, his right leg, the knee was off the edge of the seat and then his other foot came back up to the back of the left knee. And then his left ankle was kind of vertical, you know, against the door. But it looked like to me, when I first saw it, it looked like he had been pulled in there, 'cause his shoulders were really hunched up. You couldn't see too much of the back of his head. When they pulled him out of the car, full rigor mortis had pretty well set in. His face was distended on one side, extremely bad, and it was just totally purple, like a real bad swollen birthmark. Then, what skin wasn't deep purple was real reddish, violet color. His left elbow was between him and the seat and I could see it had about the size of a silver dollar abrasion burn on it, maybe two of 'em. He always wore a little diamond ring on his left pinky finger. That finger appeared broken. It looked like it was broken. It was real twisted. At the funeral home, when they gave us his clothes back, he had kind of like a polo shirt with no collar on it, a three button type, and it had been twisted real bad right where the first button would be on his chest. There were chest hairs, matted in with blood on it, which really surprised us. Then of course, the autopsy report, I didn't see it until ten or twelve years ago. I kept trying for years to get copies of it. They would never send me one. Through a friend, I was able to obtain one. It shows a puncture wound right above his right pelvis. It showed some other marks, and cuts and stuff, that I was totally unaware of around his upper neck and shoulders. Bobby's bladder had over 2,200 CCs in it, which meant it was at the point of bursting, which meant he had been unconscious for a longtime before he died.

Q - What did the Police report say?

A - Well, the last time I tried (to get the police report) and somebody else tried, they came back and said, "Well the records were destroyed in a fire." Another comment was, "It's been twenty-five years and we don't save things past twenty-five years." Every time you talk to 'em you get some kind of run around.

Q - Let me see if I have this right, Bobby's car was not in front of the apartment building where it was usually parked, on the morning of July 18th, 1966 at 9 a.m. Eight hours later the car mysteriously appeared with Bobby in it?

A - Well, it wouldn't have been parked in front. There was a side lot that they had never built an apartment house on, and now it's been turned into a grassy little park with trees. The car was usually kept in the basement because of wear and tear on it and so forth. Besides, it was nice to have a basement parking lot. Nice and cool. Private. But, the car was not in the basement. It was that morning. It was not in the side parking lot that afternoon, earlier. Apparently, the car drove itself around town, kind of like, a la "My Mother The Car", for probably eight to ten, to twelve to fifteen hours, who knows?, with a dead man in it laying on the front seat.

Q - No one saw anybody park the car and get out?

A - No. Not that I am aware of.

Q - Now that is very strange, isn't it?

A - Yeah. Well, that's a very busy section of town. People don't know people. They don't pay attention to what people do, not if they don't hear a cry or something.

Q - Why were the police so sure that Bobby had taken his own life?

A - Somebody had gone up; a lot of reporters were around and there's one word that can be misconstrued so badly and that word is despondent. Had he been despondent at all? Despondent is a big word. It can be a little word. He'd been upset. Some people said yeah, a little bit and give the reason. Of course the police said he'd been despondent. Their theory was that he tried to drink a can of gasoline. I think the final ruling was something like accidental suicide with asphyxiation of gasoline fumes. It was something like that. It's not the exact wording, but it's close. Accidental suicide? You're gonna kill yourself on purpose over gasoline fumes? C'mon, give me a break. It's totally looney. You can't swallow gas. You'd regurgitate. At that time, there was no reported case of anyone in the United States swallowing gasoline on purpose or whatever, and dying from it, 'cause you regurgitate it.

Q - I read one article where Dalton Powell (Bobby Fuller's drummer) was quoted as saying someone called the L,A. Police and said there's going to be a suicide at such and such a place. Pick it up, and report it that way. And, the police did just that What do you know about that?

A - You know, I've never heard Dalton say that.

Q - Does Bob Keane know what really happened to Bobby Fuller?

A - I don't know. I just flat don't know.

Q - You were never able to pick up anything from him?

A - No. We don't talk.

Q - Weren't there some investigators looking into Bobby's death?

A - I know Mr. Webster was the last investigator, and he was a sharp guy, a real nice guy. He came by to see me one afternoon about eight months or a year later, and I wasn't home. One of my roommates told me that he been shot at and told to get off the case. He was scared. He was concerned for his life. He just said the heck with it. It's not worth it. He'd gone on his own, over time, his own curiosity. He didn't want his own curiosity to kill him.

Q - Did he ever report to anyone what he'd found out?

A - Other than these friends that I knew.

Q - And they didn't tell you?

A - That's about all he told 'em. He didn't know if he was on the right track or not. But, he had been warned to get off and leave it alone.

Q - Did Bobby's family pursue it any further after the detective left the case?

A - No. See, Bobby had an older brother, his name was Jack and seven year earlier he was murdered, in 1959. And, they did catch the guy about six months later. Before Mrs. Fuller died in 1992, he had gotten out of jail. This was four to five years ago. So he was in jail for about twenty-five years. Apparently he was rehabilitated. (laughs)

Q - Was Bobby shown at the wake? Was it an open or closed casket?

A - It was open. This thing that really ticked me off, and a lot of other people off was, one of the very first people to walk down to the casket at the ceremony was Phil Spector. He was the first one and he was laughing. He thought it was real funny and the person he was with was laughing. They were laughing together. Very strange. Sally Field was there. Barry White was there. Barry White was just a studio musician at that time. In fact Barry White arranged "The Magic Touch".

Q - Where is Bobby buried?

A - In Forest Lawn Cemetery, which is right behind the N.B.C. Studios in Burbank.

Q - What happened to the car Bobby was found dead in?

A - His dad had it cleaned up and sold it to a used car dealer.

Q - Didn't Bobby have a girlfriend named Melanie who was the mistress of an underworld club owner? Wasn't Bobby warned to stay away from her?

A - It was either Melanie or Melody. She lived up in Laurel Canyon. Bobby took me by her house one time and showed me where she lived. She had a white Cadillac convertible. Supposedly she was the lady that the record company would hire to go around and visit disc jockeys and try to get 'em to play records that were sitting idle.

Q - She wasn't a mistress of a club owner?

A - I'd heard that, just rumors and stuff you can't really trust. Bobby took me by there one afternoon and she wasn't there. I know that the night before he died, he had been trying to get hold of her. They were just good friends. They used to go out to the beach and sit and talk. Supposedly they were not romantically linked. They were just good friends.

Q - Bobby Fuller's death has to be the number one Hollywood mystery.

A - It is. Bobby and his brother had had a fight the week before. That's public knowledge. There's no secret. But, it was a brother fight. They threw a few punches in a motel room in San Francisco. Bobby had been booked several places by management that he didn't like to play at, bars with no advertising, no crowd, nobody there. Maybe he got the Chinese Mafia mad because he'd walked out of the Chinese Dragon bar gig. Maybe he got his manager mad because he wanted to get away from his manager. But, I don't think Bob Keane is that type of person. Bob Keene has had some bad luck fall into his lap. Ritchie Valens' airplane crash. But, in Bill Griggs' book, he wrote there was also a .22 pistol that had been fired that was found in the airplane! So It makes you wonder about that. But, I am ticked that the LAPD did not do a very good investigation. They didn't even dust the car for fingerprints.

Q - People will be surprised to learn that in 1970, Janis Joplin died in an apartment building right across the street from where Bobby died in 1966.

A - It's spooky that two big Rock 'n' Rollers, who incidentally were born the same year, one in Baytown, which was Janis, and the other was Bobby who was born in Goose Creek. Well, if you look on a map, you'd think that Goose Creek was out in the middle of nowhere. It's not. It's right next to Baytown, Texas. And to die five years apart from each other within two hundred feet, it's such a coincidence, or is it?

Q - Somebody must know what happened to Bobby.

A - Oh somebody sure does, but who? And you don't know if they're still on the Earth or not.

Q - Is there a chance that some new information will surface?

A - After all these years, I doubt it. It would be interesting to see or hear something. Black '47 just released a CD with a cut, "Who Killed Bobby Fuller?" That is interesting. It's kind of like the never ending story. But, on the other hand, maybe you don't want to hear it end. Truth is stranger than fiction. It makes for a good discussion. You'd almost hate to see the thing end, to know who did it. I've had a couple of people tell me there was a bar owner in California that used to go around a few years bragging that he had done Bobby in cause he was messing around with Bobby's girlfriend. But, I don't know if that's true or not. You don't know where that rumor started.

Q - What do you think happened to Bobby? Do you think he was murdered? And why?

A - I know he was murdered. Why, I don't know. You start tossing all these possibilities around, which my wife and other people have done. Rob Crosby and I have talked for hours on end. Why? It doesn't make sense, if there wasn't a purpose of it, it was somebody walking by who was a killer. Who knows?

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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