Billy joe royal movie#

King, the Drifters, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison and George Jones. Royal and South roomed together and performed with rock and roll, rhythm and blues and country stars, including the likes of Fats Domino, B.B. He spent two years there, working six days a week and playing five sets a night, with his friend, songwriter, producer and guitarist, Joe South. In the late ’50s, Royal was making $75 a week singing at the Anchorage Club in the Clermont Hotel in Atlanta, when he was offered a job at the Bamboo Ranch in Savannah.

Royal’s family moved to Marietta when he was in grade school, and as a teenager he joined the Georgia Jubilee musical revue in East Point, which included Ray Stevens and Jerry Reed. “And for some reason, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. “They had a radio show in Valdosta and they let me sing,” Royal recalled. I can sing and ride a horse, and that’s about it.”īorn in Valdosta in 1942, Royal began singing at a young age, first appearing with his uncles’ country-western band. “My agent told me they wanted me because I look good riding a horse,” Royal said.

Royal, who admitted he’d always been afraid to fly, laughed as he described the unlikely nine-hour journey.

Billy joe royal movie#

Recently, he called on his way to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., where he was driving to a meet a movie director to discuss a part in an upcoming western. I actually didn’t change what I did stylistically at all.After more than 20 years in Nashville, and stints in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Los Angeles before that, Royal now lives in coastal North Carolina, to be near his teenage daughter. “Burned like a Rocket’ was something like I would have cut back in the 1960s,” he said. Some stated that Royal had “gone Country,” but the singer said he really didn’t feel as if his music had changed at all. I was on Atlantic Records, and they were really behind me, as was everyone at radio. “Nelson was such a great producer, and we had great musicians. The singer credited great songs – and his producer for his career renaissance. Royal’s 1987 album The Royal Treatment earned him a Gold certification, as well. His next fourteen single releases hit the country charts, with the biggest being his cover of “Tell It Like It Is,” which hit No. “By that time, it was in the top ten, so the song really led to a great period for me.” For some reason, it didn’t dawn on me that it would affect my record, but radio dropped it like a hot potato.” But, it wasn’t the end of his country career. “I remember that I was in (producer) Nelson Larkin’s office watching TV, and we saw the shuttle go down. Then, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, and due to the title of the song, the release began to fall quickly back down the chart. The track was rapidly climbing the country singles chart, and had just entered the top ten in January 1986.

His first release for the label, “Burned like a Rocket,” was sent to radio in the latter part of 1985. However, it was another five years until Royal tasted career success again, signing with Atlantic Records in Nashville. Royal would leave Columbia for stints on smaller labels in the 1970s, eventually landing on Mercury Records, for whom he released a self-titled album in 1980. The singer’s subsequent hits included “I Knew You When” and “Cherry Hill Park,” which became his final Top-40 on the pop charts in 1969. It was an amazing feeling, and led to a great career.” “I was living in Cincinnati, Ohio at the time, and a radio friend of mine named Dusty Rhodes played the record. In a 2010 interview, Royal recalled the first time he heard the song on the radio. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the Joe South composition helped him to become a star. Royal’s career path took him to Columbia Records, where he released “Down in the Boondocks” in 1965. Roy Orbison’s Top Hot 100 Hits: A Playlist Linda Lewis, British Singer Who Landed a Global Hit With 'It's In His Kiss,' Dies at 72