Gary James' Interview With Tommy Hunt Of
The Flamingos
Tommy Hunt is one of the original pioneers of Rock 'n' Roll. And why not, he's been in the business over sixty-five years! In the late 1950s he was a member of the Doo Wop group, The Flamingos. Then in 1960 he decided to go solo. He's worked with all the greats in the business. We're talking Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, The Shirelles, Dionne Warwick, Chuck Berry and Sam And Dave, to name just a few. In the 1970s he became a household name within the U.K. Northern Soul Scene, appearing regularly, 'live' at the The Wigan Casino. Tommy Hunt has been inducted into the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame in 2000 and the Doo Wop Hall Of Fame in 2001 and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2001. The man is now in his 80s and is still performing in the U.K. and Europe! And he's also recording! It's an honor to present an interview with a Rock 'n' Roll legend and a nice guy as well!
Q - Tommy, your name is Charles James Hunt.
A - That's right.
Q - So, where did Tommy come from?
A - In school. It happened when I was living in Chicago. I was going to high school and some of my friends, my buddies said, "You don't look like a Charles to us. Why don't you change your name?" I said, "Why change it? I see nothing wrong with Charles." And they said, "It's not cool enough." I said, "What do think it should be?" And they said, "Something like Sammy or Eddie or maybe Tommy." I said, "Call me what you want to call me, but don't call me late for dinner."
Q - You were a funny guy!
A - That's right. (laughs)
Q - You maybe could've gone into stand-up comedy.
A - I think I still got a little bit in me. (laughs) I said, "I'll take Tommy. That's nice. That's a nice name. It's got a little bit of class to it. It's an easy name. I like that." So, they started calling me Tommy and it just stuck to me all these years.
Q - Nothing wrong with that.
A - No.
Q - I guess it's fair to say that you were in on the ground floor of Rock 'n' Roll. You were pretty much there at the beginning.
A - Yes, I was one of the stagecoach boys. (laughs) That's some of the early, early times.
Q - When you started singing, did you think I'll just sing for a year or two? How long did you think you would sing?
A - Well, let me tell you, it's been all my life, ever since I was a kid about seven or eight years old I started humming and playing around wit songs and listening to music on the radio. It just stuck with me and I just said to my mother, "I'm gonna be a singer one day," and she laughed 'cause I was only a kid and she thought I didn't know what I was talking about. I said, "I'm gonna be a singer," and my three sisters said, "Yeah, yeah. Okay Mr. Singer." That's how it happened and it stuck with me. I used to buy records and sing up and down the streets and sing for my friends and sing in school and sing in church. I was always singing whenever you saw me. There was a song coming out of my mouth.
Q - The reason your mother and sisters laughed when you announced you wanted to be a singer is because so many kids say that, but don't follow through.
A - That's right. I did. All the way through to now where I'm eighty-something years old. And I'm still doing it. I love it!
Q - I like to hear that. That enthusiasm. That passion.
A - Yeah. I still have that same passion I had when I was in my twenties when I got with The Flamingos. That passion was there and it's still there. I still love it like always.
Q - How much success did your first group, The Five Echoes have?
A - The Echoes.
Q - How much success did they have?
A - None. When I was with them we had one record called "Lonely, Lonely Mood". It was nice locally, but it didn't go nationally. That was the only record I did with them because right after that I joined The Flamingos. So, I really didn't follow through with their careers. Then went on to keep singing as far as I know of. We always talked on the phone. In fact, I tried to stay in touch with them to find out how they were doing. I was trying to help them by me being with The Flamingos. I was meeting more important people, but I don't know what happened to 'em. I don't know if they went further. I know they didn't go further 'cause I would've heard about it through the grapevine.
Q - Maybe one of 'em will read this interview and get in touch with you!
A - Well, I don't think any of 'em are still around. I with they were. Even The Flamingos are gone and I wish they were still here.
Q - You must've been doing something right because you're still here.
A - I'm still here and still on the stage. That's what I wanted to do and that's what I'm still doing. A lot of people keep asking me, "When are you going to get old, Tommy?" I say, "I don't know." They say, "Don't ever change."
Q - They think maybe you should be out on the golf course.
A - I think it's how you take care of yourself as you come through life. This business can either ruin you or make you successful, according to what you want.
Q - In the time you were coming up, I don't think drugs were common place. Maybe drinking was.
A - I got to admit, I was involved in it (drugs) too. I was one of those kids that never thought I was better than anybody else. I always thought I was something clever. I thought I was doing something that made me belong to the gang by doing it. It accidentally happened to me through a couple of friends of mine which you know, Sam and Dave.
Q - Oh, yeah.
A - Well, Sam was the one that turned me on to it. I wasn't doing it until he dropped some cocaine into my drink when I was going onstage at the Apollo Theatre. I didn't know that he dropped some cocaine into my glass. I went onstage and the show was great that night 'cause I felt different from what he had put in the glass. I went back to the dressing room where he was sitting. I said, "Why did you do that?" He said, "Do what?" I said, "You know what you did. You put some cocaine or something in my glass." He said, "No, I didn't. No, I didn't." I said, "Yes, you did because I know that I felt different on the stage. I still feel different," 'cause I was talking so fast. My mind was going in a circle. He said, "Well, I just let you try it out just to see if you liked it." I said, "Well, I don't like it." But, what did happen is it did affect me because I started taking it. I didn't want to take it, but I went to Germany and I was doing a show there and the guy there, the agent said, "If you ever want to come over to Europe to work, I'll handle you. I'll handle your business," and I came to Germany and he was gone from where he was. I was living in a hotel and I cold-turkeyed myself. I locked myself in a room and got rid of the habit.
Q - Good for you!
A - I got sick of it because all it was doing was tearing me down and I knew it. My senses were all there. It was just putting min in another type of mental, funny, strange feeling that I didn't like really.
Q - When did all of that happen?
A - That was in the sixties, around '63, '64. So, once I got through that ordeal other things happened, but not as bad as that.
Q - I thought cocaine didn't gain popularity until sometime in the 1970s.
A - It was the '60s for me because I left there in 1969 for good. That's when I moved over here. (England) So, it had to be in the '60s that I was looking for this guy to be my manager and I couldn't find him and then I went back home again and stayed around for a few months and came back here (England) and stayed. Things really happened nice for me here. Really nice. Nice people. Nice place. Nice country.
Q - Your first big break came when you were performing in a club.
A - Yeah.
Q - Zeke Carey of The Flamingos came into the club to hear you.
A - That's right.
Q - Had you not been performing in that club, your story might have been different.
A - It might've been. If I hadn't been with The Echoes. The club was in the Persian Hotel in Chicago. I saw them when they came through the door when I was onstage. I knew that they were The Flamingos, a couple of The Flamingos. After I got off the stage I went over to the table to say hello to them and tell 'em I saw them singing and they were great and I wished I could be with a fantastic group like them. They said, "Funny enough you saying that Tommy. We came in to talk to you about that." "About what?" They said, "How would you feel about working with The Flamingos>" I thought they were pulling my leg. I said, "C'mon fellas. You know I'm not ready for guys like you. You guys are tops." They said, "No, we've been hearing about you. People have been talking about the way you dance and how you're singing. We're interested in having you in the group." I said, "That is the most fantastic thing in the world," but I didn't want to hurt my group. So, I went back and told the fellas about it. I said, "I don't want to leave you guys if you don't want me to go." They said, "No, no Tommy, go. If you get an important job like that then you can help us because you'll be meeting people and telling them about us." So, I thought that made sense. I said, "Okay. I'll try it." And that's how I got with The Flamingos.
Q - Was it just one guy from The Flamingos who saw you?
A - It was two, Zeke Carey and Jacob Carey. You know basically all of The Flamingos were family, cousins. They were a big, Jewish, Black family.
Q - Did you do the Dick Clark Caravan Of Stars tours with The Flamingos?
A - Yes, I did. Well, I did The Hop in Philadelphia I think it was, the record hop he had. I did this movie, Go Johnny Go. I don't know if it was his or not. I think he might've had something to do with it because he had his hands into everything in those days, him and Alan Freed. They were big, big disc jockeys.
Q - When you were at The Apollo you'd be sharing the bill with Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Berry. Did you guys sit around and talk business or anything else?
A - Well, to be honest with you, when I was with the group I was very quiet. I think I was more or less the loner of the group. The reason I didn't talk that much is the fact I didn't want to lose my job. I didn't want to say anything that might upset the group, so I just kind of stayed to myself. But we did every once in awhile, after the show at The Apollo, we'd go down to Small's Bar and have a drink, but the fellas all had their own personal lives and we went our separate ways. But we were together as a group. As a public person we were all in our own bags.
Q - You left The Flamingos.
A - I was the first to leave.
Q - To go solo.
A - Yeah.
Q - When did you realize you didn't need the rest of the group to be a singer?
A - I'll tell you the truth, I didn't know. I was just wandering around in a daze after I left. I didn't want to leave, but there were things that were beyond my reach I can say because the fellas being Jewish, I was the Gentile of the group, me and Nate Nelson, the lead singer of the group. We were the Gentiles of the group. They were always trying to convert us to the Jewish religion. I didn't want to convert, not because I didn't like it, but because I didn't know what it was all about. I was only a young boy. I didn't know nothing about the Jewish faith. So I always backed away from it and so did Nate. In a way it kind of insulted Zeke and Jake because they'd always kind of picked on me for something, something that I didn't do. They always found something wrong and I just felt to the point where whatever I was trying to add to the group to help the group become more successful, I wasn't getting any thanks for it. So, I just felt left out and I left. It wasn't the whole group. It was just those two, Zeke and Jake, becuase they were running the whole group. They were the discoverers of the group. They were the bosses of the group. I was just a little turkey with the group. I wasn't big enough to say anything. If I said something I was wrong. If I did something I was wrong. So, I just told the fellas, "One of these days I'm gonna get up and walk out on you," and they go, "Who are you gonna sing with?" I said, "Well, I'll sing somewhere, but I'm going to sing." They didn't believe it and one day I just walked away and never said goodbye and that was it. The strange thing happened, as soon as I left them, about two or three weeks later, I had a hit single called "Human" from Luther Dixon at Scepter One. That's when I met Chuck Jackson and The Shirelles and all of them, and Dionne Warwick. I met The Isley Brothers, Maxine Brown. I still stay in touch with the ones that are still alive. I still talk to them now. In fact, Maxine has been over to England and she stayed at my house with
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