Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals is not only a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame but also the Songwriters Hall of Fame and pretty much every other music-related Hall. He is about to release his long-awaited autobiography, Memoir of a Rascal and hit the road for a tour with Mickey Dolenz. He recently took some time to talk about his book, the tour, and his amazing career.
Please press the PLAY icon for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with Felix Cavaliere –
On why he decided to write the book now – Well, I’ll tell you what happened in a brief summation. In 2012 and 13, the original group, the original Rascals, we did a Broadway show called “Once Upon a Dream”, which was based on one of our album titles. During that publicity period, we did press conferences, and four of us would be on stage and they would ask questions, everybody had a different answer. I said, “Wait a minute, hold on. Slow down here a minute. You sure Custer or lost that battle?” I guess the last person standing tells the story, so I said, “I think it’s important for me and my family and my fans and my brain and my sanity to just write down what I remember”. That’s how it started. :50
On his friendship with Jimi Hendrix – Well, I knew Jimi, prior to everyone else knowing Jimi, because of the fact that he was a sideman in groups, like for example, he was with Joey D, he was with Isley Brothers, he was with a few bands. He was very shy in those days, and again, I highlight this in my book, but the Jimi Hendrix Experience was almost like a different human. His story, which I’m sure has been documented, he had a tough childhood, he had a tough life. I think that when he went over to England and “they”, “they” meaning the guitarists of the day out there, the Jeff Becks and Eric Claptons and Jimmy Pages, and of course Chas Chandler from the Animals who kind of nurtured him and discovered him, they gave him an identity. That is what the public knows, which is the Jimi Hendrix Experience. But prior to that, Jimi was a very, very quiet guy. But what people may not know is that Jimi was a really wonderful guy, he was a great guy, he was a sweet man. He was really sweet, too sweet actually because like most musicians and artists, you wanna be liked. He wanted to be liked to the point of where he made some decisions probably he shouldn’t have made, hung around with some people who shouldn’t have been around, but in a nutshell. I was just happy to know him, he was a nice man. 2:12
On if it was the pressure of success or outside sources that tore the Rascals apart – I think all of the above. Besides outside sources, I came to find out years later that inside sources also caused that. Sometimes families can be detrimental to your health. For example, if you’re on TV, if your group’s on TV and the camera focuses on the person who sings the song, and then one of your relatives says, “Well, how come they don’t show you, how come it’s always him?” Those things, they cause problems that really shouldn’t be there because it really was such a joy having the wonderful career that we had, and seriously it was wonderful. 4:23
On switching from covers to originals – You have to go back to that time period. Prior to Beatles, Stones, Dylan, people did not write their own songs, they went to publishers and got songs. So when that started, it was a revolution, Lovin’ Spoonful another example, John Sebastian. Prior to that, nobody wrote their own songs also, in the years that we played clubs, which was not really years, in our case, we were on it together six months before we had a record deal, I’m proud to say. The clubs demanded covers. It was not a choice. You didn’t go there and say, “Well, I just wrote this son”g. They wanted basically to put liquor into people’s glasses and sell tickets, and I understand it was a 21 and over audience. So when we were signed, all the Atlantic people, and the record companies who were interested, heard were covers, they didn’t hear any originals. As a result of that, our first record was written by two Motown writers, it was called “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore”, the second record, which we also did not write, which was “Good Lovin'” was a number one million-seller. Well, now the kind of power map changes from these bunch of kids. Now you got number one record behind you, so we wanna write our own songs. Sure, the record company must have freaked out because I tell you what, “Are you sure? Can you do this?” Well, thank God we could do it because you know it’s not easy. It’s not easy following a million-seller in any case, and especially when you’re gonna just try and start writing, I already had some songs written prior to that that I did on my own. It was a dare. It was a chance and we were very fortunate. 5:35
On evolving from singles to full albums – The way that the Beatles influenced all of us is astounding. When they came out with Sergeant Pepper, that opened a whole new world of albums. Unfortunately, I don’t really think that was ever really, really fundamentally taken care of the way it should be, The Who came out with Tommy, which became a Broadway show. The whole concept of having a theme from top to bottom in an album really, really sang to me. I think we, the American public and the rock world, really lost something when the record companies didn’t embrace that. It was like mini-operas instead of it being a three-minute song, it was now an hour song, or however long your album took. The reason the record companies didn’t embrace it is because they were looking for hits, that’s what they wanted, they could care less about a theme. But think about that Sergeant Pepper, besides the fact that, yes, they did have hits, what a great idea. What a wonderful concept, and I really wanted to be part of that. I did it with Once Upon a Dream, I did it to a degree with Freedom Suite, I also wanted to do it elsewhere, like for example, there was a movie, it was a science fiction book, I really wanted to put to music, which is called Dune. Well, Dune has become a movie twice, the (Frank) Herbert estate would not allow me to do it, but I saw that as a real, real, real musical opportunity. 8:18
On having a band with future KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent – Well, I’ll tell you what happened. It’s an interesting little story. I was living in Connecticut, and I was doing an album in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which is where he’s from. I was doing an album with one of the Blood, Sweat & Tears musicians, Fred Lipsius was his name, and what we were doing was mostly instrumental and I needed a guitarist. Here I am in Bridgeport, Connecticut, not many connections that I have, but there was this studio owner, his name was Paul Leka, I think he had some records, I can’t remember the titles of them, but if you look it up, you’ll find it. He recommended this kid, and this kid came into the studio, and I was very impressed because to find a gem like that at any time. It doesn’t matter where it was. As I say, I had just signed with Epic Records, and I just felt like, “Look, why don’t I try something?” Boston was out, and I said, I’d like to try a guitar-oriented record, of course, I don’t know if that was the best career move. I loved it. I mean, I had a young drummer by the name of Jack Scarangella, and I had a bass player, I think he was a former Blood, Sweat & Tears member as well, and it was just fascinating, and I still, to this day, some of the cuts on that album, I think were unique. He really was good and from us, he went on to KISS. Very interesting story. Talking about writing a book, he should write a book…Well, (all the stories are) true, that’s the problem. He was a good guy. He lives down here in Nashville now, and we finally kinda gotten back together to a degree, although I was pretty angry with him for a while. 11:08
On working with Steven Van Zandt and reuniting the Rascals – Well, again, I study with a guru for many years now, which I hope I’ll come up in this conversation because that’s really the major part of my book. He told me, “If you don’t have anything good to say, you don’t say anything”. So it was an experience. It was an experience. I don’t know, you try to understand people and human nature, and sometimes you just can’t understand it. Yes, the interesting thing, part about it, was the kind of reunification of the four of us. That was to me, the part that I would concentrate on from a musical point of view. Prior to us getting together like that we hadn’t seen one another in many years, certainly had played together in many years and at least two of the guys that really hadn’t been playing much at all. So when we first started, which was in Port Chester (NY), it was a little rough. We did a lot of rehearsing and I didn’t really like the way we sounded at all. Then after a while, the magic came back and we sounded really good, and that was fun, man, because there’s something that when a group is successful, it’s kind of like an All-Star basketball team, that doesn’t mean they’re gonna win the championship just because they got all-stars, you gotta pass the ball to one another. Well, when that happens and it gels, it’s really cool. So if I have to say anything about that experience, it was the fact that for a short period of time, the Rascals were back. In terms of music, it was great, and you could feel that, that there was this wonderful, wonderful, symbiotic type of relationship that was really, really special. The rest of it, like I say, it was… I’m glad I got a chance. For example, we worked in the same theatre where “South Pacific” and “Oklahoma” was. That was fun. It was interesting, I mean, hey, I’m trotting on the same stage where all this great music happened and that was good. It was interesting. 13:58
On what he learned working with a guru – Well, a lot of things on a personal level. Basically, a lot of questions. Questions about my mom’s passing when I was a young kid, questions about this crazy career that I had embarked on. I tell the story in the book also, but my father, my family was medical people, and he kind of told me, “Yeah, you go out and give it a shot being a musician, but let me tell you something. You see, I put the sign in front of my office, DDS, I’m a dentist until I don’t wanna be a dentist, you better keep making hit records dude. But otherwise, you’re gone”. I have a lot of friends that are what they call one-hit wonders, and it’s kind of sad in a way because like you’re there and then you’re gone, your 20s, now you got a lot of years. What am I gonna do now? Well, I hate to see really people going through the trauma of trying to get back to where they were because chances are you’re not. That’s another reason I went to see him. I had many reasons to go see somebody to find out what was going on. We used to go to priests, we used to go to rabbis, this man was brought into my life. So I really took advantage of the wisdom to change the rest of my years…I tell you it, just on a single level, a physical level, I mean, I’m gonna be 8-0. I’m still rocking and rolling man, my body works. Because of the yoga, not only the physical yoga, the mental yoga, because of the kind of tranquility that he taught us I’m doing great. I mean, knock on wood, I can’t say that about my ex guys in the group, they’re not so great healthwise, which is kind of sad. So I highly recommend this way of life, it’s a way of life, it’s not a religion, people don’t have to worry about it, they’re not gonna lose any of their balance. As a matter of fact, if you’re a Catholic, you’re gonna be a better Catholic. What he teaches is metaphysical health, and of course, the old connection to the spirit above. Whatever you wanna do, it doesn’t matter which way you go. I highly recommend it to anybody who wants to have a nice healthy life. 16:40
On touring with Mickey Dolenz – Well, we crossed paths with the Monkeys a number of times in the past, we did a lot of shows together. The other guys, Peter Tork used to live in Connecticut. I think you know that he was a Westport resident and Davy Jones, I’ve said it many times, he was one of the funniest guys you ever wanna meet in your life. He could do all those wonderful accents from Scotland and Ireland, and he was a jockey as well, you know, he was a really small rider kind of guy, a great guy. I did not know Mike (Nesmith) as much as I would have liked to know him because as you know, we just lost him. If people would take a look and see what he accomplished besides being a performer with the Monkeys, he was responsible for what we call MTV. In some great ways, he contributed to the video world. That’s pretty cool. It’s pretty astounding. Then we have Mickey, who is a really funny guy. We’ve met many times, and we’ve done cruises together and things like that, and our people, our management, and our agencies decided, “Why don’t we pair these people up and see what happens?” My idea, seriously, is that look, I think it’s time. I think their music and our music, pretty happy, happy music, positive music. I think after what we’re going through now and what we’ve been through with the Covid, I think people need to really smile and reminisce on positive things, and I think that’s what’s good about this tour. 20:03
On if the Rascals will reunite one last time – Well, I tried in 2019, and I was not able to do it as a matter of fact. What happened is, I approached all of them to see if you guys wanted to go out, just do three or four cities, just say goodbye to our friends in Hawaii, Los Angeles, and New York, Chicago. I couldn’t do it. What I did do was hook up with Gene Cornish, who was the only one that really wanted to do it, and unfortunately, he had a heart attack on the stage. That was pretty eerie because we almost lost him at that time, so, unfortunately, I don’t think it’s gonna be able to happen again, that was our last shot, so to speak. That was three years ago already. The reason that I did that is that in Hawaii, where the Rascals were huge, a lot of the people who are now grown up remember and they said, “Can you do it one more time, man? Because we would love to feel that again”, I couldn’t do it. 22:12
