.....The Rebel Star is Shining............ James "Rebel" O'Leary Videos & Interview ............(York, PA)

Bask in the glory of the late James "Rebel" O'Leary & his Texas Rebelettes.

Rebel Star

Highway 81

All The Way From Texas

...and an interview with the Rebel and Jammie Ann at the 1987 Fan Fair in Nashville.

A thousand thanks to Rustle Noonetwisting for rescuing the definitive Rebel video collection and to the O'Leary family for creating the music and footage!

If you're hankerin' for more of the Reb, head on over to these earlier Tapewrecks salvage sites:

• James "Rebel" O'Leary.... ......The Man... The Legend (c1930-1994) 
• Leave My Grandpa Alone!... .....James "Rebel" O'Leary & Family... York, PA's Finest Country Band and my Vinyl Salvage Operation......

James "Rebel" O'Leary............... ......The Man... The Legend (c1930-1994)

 We wish to take this time to welcome you to our world, 

OUR BRAND of COUNTRY.... 

Come travel with us, share our thoughts, 

memories, our past, our future, our DREAMS, 

until we meet again....

I met the Rebel at his annual 39th birthday celebration in 1986. He had stopped at aged "39" some years back; no one really knows how many. This was an event not to be missed, not just for the Reb... and his family backing band... and his 30 pounds of jewelry... and his wig, but also to see their regular opening act, the Yahoos, play Sister Ray and destroy their instruments on stage to the uneasy amusement of the Rebel, family, and friends. It was such an odd match-up, but one that everyone seemed to enjoy. Then again, The Rebel was just a little out of place just about anywhere he went.

Gus Aguirre: They would walk around the York Mall Friday night... .. a lot of kids would make fun of them.. but looking back.. this guy had a great attitude and always had a smile... he did what he wanted to do...and didn't give a hoot about what anyone thought!! Pretty punk rock if you ask me!! Rock on Rebel!!!  

The only studio recording that I know of was the Southbound 81 single sold at the annual Fan Fair in Nashville, right down that lonesome highway, along with this VHS tape of a special aired on Cable TV of York:

The Man - The Legend (1986)

Darling I No Longer Love You / Interview Part 1

Walkin the Floor Over You

Cable TV of York

Interview Part 2

Cable TV of York

Southbound 81 / Interview Part 3

Rebel Star

Cable TV of York

Interview Part 4

The following interviews feature the Rebel excerpted from the 1986 video interspersed with 2014 recollections from Bob Campbell of the Rebel's opening band, the Yahoos.

Rebel: Well I originally got in music when I was about approximately between 5 or 6 years old. My brother and I, we was on a ranch; I was born in El Paso, Texas, and there we have two things: They give ya a guitar and they give ya a gun; learn ya how to shoot it....

Bob Campbell: I had been following Rebel and the family band for quite a while before they started having the regular birthday parties.  I was always into different music from my friends and could appreciate the Rebel as sort of a local version of the Shaggs. See, while others talk about how bad they were, I didn't really see it that way. One thing I got to understand about them is that they were very consistent in their quirkiness. One listen to a song like 'Ring of Fire' and you think about how they got it wrong with misplaced riffs and odd fills, but after I saw them several different times I realized that this was their "style." They played those same riffs and fills each and every time. Rosettia's steel guitar riffs were consistent in their wide, sweeping spaceship like tones for example. 

Rebel: I'm called a rebel because I broke from a part there of music. These days when I go back, and I'm speaking twenty years back, I ___ different upbeat country. Them days it was more or less a personality in music more-in-less the music itself. Now you call it "easy listening" and so forth. Them days it was "upbeat" country, which they almost considered you "rock." It isn't rock, but they considered you on a ___. And I enjoyed myself very much in my new style, and I was called "Rebel" because I broke from part of standard positions in music.

Bob: Because the Rebel and the Rebelettes were consistent, us regulars could really get into it. For example, during the chorus of "Your Cheating Heart" the great Hank Williams song, the band would launch into almost a march feel. Our group of fans would pound the table, buddababumb, buddababump', building up with volume and intensity until the climax where the last line of the chorus was sang and they went back into a more traditional country feel.   

Rebel: I do like original country music, and I write quite a bit myself, but I think everything should be alive and have feeling in it.... I have to get in the mood, in other words, it's like you do anything else. I gotta feel the music in my body and soul. When the[re are] musicians around me, you can feel em. It's like walkin in church; you know it's there or it isn't. So that's the way I feel about a musician; either he has it or he doesn't have it. It takes a special kind of breed of people to be a musician.

Bob:  I got invited to the birthday parties and eventually asked to put something together and play a set. So, in 1984 the Yahoos made their first appearance. We were a loose collection of musicians who patched together songs like White Light/White Heat, Folsom Prison Blues and the Mr. Ed theme song. We all dressed up a little weird (or a lot weird for some of us) but played a fairly normal set of tunes. And our instruments were pretty standard except for the electric banjo made out of a piece of plywood and played through an envelope filter. So, the Rebel crew invited us back.

Rebel: It gives you a great feelin inside, and it still does when I go out into the full house.... If you can give yourself to people; if they can enjoy you; you got it made. ...I sing from within. I don't sing for money. You have to have money. It's a real rugged life; it ain't easy.

Bob: The following year, 1985, the birthday show moved to the local firehall, possibly in part because our tuxedo wearing guitarist accidentally smashed a light at the last place. Fueled on by our success the year before, several of us formed the Lost Yahoos and dressed a little crazier, played a little more weird stuff and used a drum machine. During this show, the three core members proceeded to destroy our instruments by hatchet and drill during Folsom Prison Blues.  First we donned masks of some sort, launched into the intro riff and immediately began the mutilation process. I had a power drill behind my amp for this part. Part way into this I had arranged for 2 friends who had played with us in the Yahoos, come up on stage and tie me up. This was our big finale.

Rebel: There used to be in the older days where I can remember when I first started you'd grab a guitar and strapped it on your back, and a few guys'd jump in the car and you went to the Wheeling Jamboree, even Nashville. You also went into a club or something, and you had a few drinks now and then... maybe it got a little rough in the olden days, little more than it is now. ...You was wilder maybe.

I've been in a few fights in my life, sometimes in self-defense. Never went out of my way to pick one. I guess I've had to 'fend myself in my life; even playin musicians sometimes your own musicians 'll get a little 'tight or somethin, or a little jealous....  

Bob: We played two more years for the Rebel and then the shows stopped. You could always count on a big set from the Rebel featuring the other band members singing a few tunes. Certain songs I always looked forward to especially the Rebel Boogie, which had every Rebelism in it, the chromatic downward riff, the Keith Moon like drum fills, the higher warbly riffs and of course the sweeping pedal steel guitar, drenched in reverb and sounding like a rocket taking off! Hamilton had that driving beat and odd sense of fills that made the song so much more exciting.

Well whenever I come in town

All them girls stop and look around

Some'll shiver, some they'll shake

Say "Good Lord! The Rebel ___

Hubba hubba hubba

Rebel: I think if I had to say anything [that] caused most of my scenes -- I'm not an addict, or I'm not a man to go out an, what you say, get drunk or something like this. I take a drink; there's nothing wrong with that, and I don't buy anything else -- I guess my weakness would be women I imagine. But I also have an answer to this: I say, if God made anything better'n ladies he kept it to his self. So that's the way I part on this question.

Bob: The Rebel was always showing pictures of him with famous celebrities.  Anywhere from genuine, to cardboard cutouts (Dolly Parton, Elvis) and a couple where he saddled up to a performer and got a shot of him with them as they were rushing out the back door photo bomb style. Ray Eicher, the teacher here [at Campbell's Music] who worked with the Rebelettes (guitar lessons), asked for a picture of Rebel with Isaac Hayes. Now Ray did this tongue in cheek and never expected Rebel to be able to pull it off, but damned if he didn't. It was genuine too. Rebel must have caught up with him in a back lot and got the picture!!

Rebel: ...They say, "Hey Reb, Do me another number, will ya?"  That's what you live for.

Oh tonight the Rebel Star is shinin. 

Oh the snow and rain is coming down.

I can smell those hamburgers fryin

And them dishes rattlin all around

They call me country

But Rebel is my name!

I jumped out of teen years a couple years ago. When I say you come nineteen,  then you become twenty-teen ____ they all say. But after that you become umpteen. See I'm getting around that line where you're umpteen like Jack Benny see. I'm gonna drop at thirty-nine and I'm gonna stay there, see! If anything I'm going backwards; I ain't going forwards, ya know. But I consider myself a teenager, like umpteen.... If you feel old, you can be nineteen year old and be old. Me I'm alive; I only live once. And I am gonna try and enjoy it. And I think I'm going to make my mark. People know I was here anyway.

The Rebel passed away in 1994 (at aged 39 of course).

Thanks to the Yahoos' Bob Campbell who also recorded under the names Ben Wah, Donovan's Brain, and Scattered Limbs for Bona Fide Records. He is currently the second generation owner of Campbell's Music Service in York, PA and their online store CMusicShop.com.

Thanks also to Tory O'Leary for inspiring my earlier post on the Rebel: "Leave My Grandpa Alone!"

Thanks to Yahoos sit-in drummer Rustle Noonetwisting for providing the Rebel video and postcards, and for inviting me to the Rebel's birthday party.

Stay tuned for more of the Rebel. I'm hoping to hear more from the O'Leary family!

Aug 2016: Hear more now here! The Rebel Star is Shining....... James "Rebel" O'Leary Videos & Interview

Billy Synth & the Janitors... ........ ...Punk Rock Janitors (Harrisburg 1978-80)

The great central Pennsylvania musical oddball Billy Synth sent me this 1978 EP after posting the last tapewrecks retrospective of his music. The Janitors were started by Billy and Bernie, the Capital City Mall custodian, who apparently lost his job for wearing spandex pants to work, or so the story goes.... Billy seems to have been the singer early on, with Bernie taking over as they turned into the Punk Rock Janitors. Please correct me if I'm wrong and send me details if you have them.

Everytime You Give Me a Call
Rock & Roll Casualty
Captain Groovy
Misty Lane Fadeout

Billy Synth: When I bought my Arp Odyssey synthesizer.  We first had a group called Blue Ice, and we recorded one 45....

I eventually left Blue Ice because I liked the new wave scene and wanted a strictly punk-oriented band.  I hooked up with Bernie, the original "punk rock janitor" (yes, he was in another punk group AND a janitor!), another friend, Mikearama, and Dave Tritt on drums.... [Attacking the Beat]

At some point the Janitors got together with Half Japanese and played a set of outright insanity that was released as an EP:

Hartzdale Drive Destruction

Billy: I can't remember how we first connected, but Bernie & I from the Janitors went down to see Half Japanese with our instruments, and when we got there, we just started playing.  I mean, it was 1, 2, 3, 4, and we all started playing ANYTHING.  No rehearsal, no NOTHING!  That's how it came out.  Sooo strange!  [Attacking the Beat]

After Billy moved on to play with the Turn-Ups, Bernie took over on vocals and they re-dubbed themselves The Punk Rock Janitors. Harrisburg's Tina Peel (later known as The Fuzztones) had them as an opening act for many shows.

Work to Live
Just Once

Rob Doorack (Fuzztones roadie): The zenith of the Janitors' career came when the Fuzztones secured the audition gig at CBGB for them and a couple of hours of time in a small recording studio the same day....

That night the Janitors played to a nearly empty CBGB. The audience consisted of a half dozen Japanese tourists, the Fuzztones, their crew, and a few friends. The Janitors didn't care, they were completely awestruck by standing on the same stage where their heroes the Ramones had played. You'd have thought they were playing before 50,000 people. Danny was so nervous that he threw up before going on.

...The band played like they were possessed, careening around the stage madly, jumping in the air, completely uninhibited. At one point Bernie leaped off the front of the stage and crashed down onto the club's concrete floor on his knees without missing a note. Danny played a solo lying on his back with his head in a kick drum. When the Janitors had blasted through every song they knew they just stopped. Those of us in the audience were too stunned by what we'd seen to even applaud. For a moment we just stood there like sheep, mouths agape in astonishment and wonder.

The Janitors went back to Harrisburg the next day and broke up shortly after.... [Audio Asylum]

The complete Punk Rock Janitors CD is available on Sin Records.
Thanks to Pat Phos Martin and the Bands of Central PA page for the links and info.

Sept 2015 ADDENDUM: Mind Cure Records just released a mindcuring compilation of Billy Synth recordings 1977 to 1982 and the 1980 "Off the Deep End" LP that are beyond description. If you like what's on this post, you won't be disappointed.

The Dead Milkmen - The Fictitious Years (Coatesville/Philly 1979-83)

Pope Garth O'Neil

I first heard the Dead Milkmen from some tapes lent to me by Rustle Noonetwisting: Millersville Delivery from the early "Bitchin' Camaro" era, and the Summertime Sampler of earlier home taped curiosities recorded over "Agriculture in the South," stolen from Coatesville High School where they all had attended school.

These were a few of the custom tapes they gave out to friends and college DJs. Some of the songs were from recordings made during what became known as the "Fictitious Years," before the Dead Milkmen became a real band, kind of like the formative Hardcore Devo tapes. Full of pre-PC unhinged adolescent girl songs, grating topical silliness, and fantastic pop ditties... Core members included Jack Talcum, Pope Garth O'Neil, and Jake Jiles (later known as Rodney Anonymous).

Rodney: ...Supposedly this whole thing sort of started from this board game that Joe created, that him and his friend Garth, and his family would play, where you would make songs, and then you would roll dice and spin things, and you would try to get your song up the chart. So at one point in the game, all of Joe’s songs are about “Joe is so wonderful.” And Garth’s songs are like “I hate Joe – Joe is the scum of the Earth.” And they would race up and down the charts.

Jack Talcum

Joe: At one point I came up with the concept of Jack Talcum and the Dead Milkmen, and I made a fake fan club newsletter about this band called The Dead Milkmen.  Jack Talcum was kind of like this folk guy, obnoxious folk singer, character, sort of based on Bob Dylan, but not really, and he met the Dead Milkmen band which is this punk band, and he integrated himself into that band and sort of took the band over and formed what I was calling folk punk, or punk folk, or whatever… which I thought was a hilarious combination. I would never have guessed it would be un-hilarious…. 

Rodney: The fictitious concept started off as this sort of family band. I think they were called the Deeks Brothers or something. And over the years, they start in the late 50’s, almost like a folk--like the Kingston Trio. And then, as the 60’s go on, they go through all these changes. So they basically become this huge group called the Sunflower Children of God, which is almost like the Manson Family with instruments…. And somehow they become the Milkmen, and then one of them dies…. This guy by the name of Richard Nixon, in the story…. 

What happened to Rickard Nixon was, this guy had taken a lot of drugs. He was in the Sunflower Children of God, and he woke up, and he couldn’t remember his name, so he picked up the newspaper, and Nixon was president at the time, so “Richard Nixon, that’s who I am.” So he’s playing organ on something, and he dies, and his head hits the organ. And Joe would actually make these songs, so you would hear this “euuuuuh” in the background, and that would be Richard Nixon’s dead head on this organ. So this is the beginning of the breaking of punk now in the story, and so it’s like ’75 or so in the story, and he dies and they become the Dead Milkmen, and that’s where I came into it, but there’s this incredible backstory….

Joe: To go with it I decided to make a tape, so I invited Garth, my neighbor, and a friend of his, and my brothers and sisters, and whoever was around, and we recorded a tape, I think it was around the end of 1979…. And called it So Long Seventies…. I made a few copies of it, and Garth gave it to Rodney in high school. And he heard the tape and approached me waiting for the bus after school one day and said, "Hey I like that tape you made, the Dead Milkmen. When's your next recording session? I would love to be in it. I play banjo." …And he came over with his banjo and we recorded some songs and that became "Folk Songs for the 80's." That's how Rodney became part of "the act." so to speak. 

Rodney: I became aware of punk, I was about 13 my parents called me downstairs because the Sex Pistols were on TV and they were fascinated, they loved them, they were like, “Look at this! You gotta see this! This is great!” because they were spitting and they were telling the interviewer they wouldn’t talk to him unless they gave them 10 bucks. And my parents, being working class people, saw what they were doing. They were monkey wrenching this horrible system that was so fake anyway… So I was really interested in that, and I was kind of branching out finding music. 

...One day [Joe] hands me this tape, this would have been right after New Years of 1980, and it’s So Long Seventies, ...this weird homemade punk tape…. Supposedly one of the guys that collaborated, his great grandfather had written that song, “Jesus loves the little children” so Joe had this song about "Reach Out and kick that child,” it was so great! ...Just weird! Something done in their basement, so I asked if I could kind of get in on it, and I started working with him.

And just to kind of step into all of this, it was a great world to live in because you didn’t have to strive for fame. In one way you already had succeeded. We would take pictures of ourselves, and crop them out, and we would pretend we play the big Reggae Sunsplash festival. And we’d write these newsletters. It was great practice for being in a band.

Joe: ...I'd compile songs I'd recorded. I must've made 5 or 6 cassette albums of the band before it was an actual band using like overdubs.... -Rodney and Joe from audio interviews by Joseph A. Gervasi on LOUD! FAST! PHILLY!

Joe has posted some of the original tapes with the commentary excerpted below on Joe Jack Talcum's Bootleg of the Month Archives. Most of the rest can be found on the Short Bus Degenerates Milkhouse. I've collected my own bootleg's worth of my favorites from each tape, and included tapes that I haven't found yet, or that are lost somewhere in the analog abyss. Even the band members no longer have them, but Rustle's Summertime Sampler has a few songs that were originally from these missing tapes! So maybe we can bring these back to life like reviving the woolly mammoth with DNA and live elephants.

One ... Two ... Three ... Seven....!

So Long Seventies (December 1979)

Please Don't Touch Me

Get Up On Your Knees

When You Are Dead

Rodney: Here's a thought that'll keep you up at night: I listened to this tape and said "Yes, I would, indeed, like to commit several decades of my life to this project."

Folk Songs for the 80s (1980)
Mr. Radioman
Kill Him Quick!

Sour Milk (April 1980)

Time

Kiss My Lips

Idiot

Sour Milk

Music for the Mindless (1980)
(Lost in the analog abyss, but this version from the Summertime Sampler might be originally from this tape. In fact, side B of the Sampler was originally labeled Music for the Mindless.)
Cerobectocismio

For Die Hard Fans Only (1980)

(Also lost in the abyss)

Doctor Talcum's Studio of Fear (December 1980-January 1981)
She's a Bomb
Spit on Me
Girl Hunt
Johnny Keys (Mystery Eyes)
On Bandstand

Cows and Gals (1981)
(Lost, but these 2 tracks from Summertime Sampler might have been from this tape)
Stuffed Animal
Plum Dumb

Raging Cow (June 1981)

Get Happy

Paradise Lagoon (August 1981)
D.H.
Confusion
Curl With the Curly Hair

The Salamander Sessions (Summer 1981)
(The original album The Last Known Address of Jonathan Salamander is lost, but Joe found some of the recordings.)
Toilet Stall Song
She's So Gay
Mellow Fellow
A Minute Closer to Death The band's sendoff to Garth after he joined the Air Force.
Nuwav

Joe: During the summer between my freshman and sophomore years at college I lived with my folks in Wagontown and got a job as busboy in a Ramada Inn restaurant in nearby Downingtown. I recently stumbled across some cassette source tapes from this period, labeled "Studio Tape 2" and "Studio Tape 3". 

My method of "multi-track" recording back then involved playing back the original base recording from one cassette deck into another deck which had a line-in and a microphone-in which could be mixed. That mixed signal would be recorded as the overdubbed track. If I wanted more overdubs, I repeated the process. I had to be careful to get the right levels during the overdub recording because that would be the final mix. Usually I would keep the original take of a song, and the final overdubbed version. Most of the in-between takes would be dubbed over to save tape. This is how I recorded all of the early fictional Dead Milkmen albums.

Anyway, after reviewing these "Studio Tapes" I realized that many of these songs were ones that were released on the long lost "The Last Known Address of Jonathan Salamander" album.

Living Death in the Cellar of Sin (November 1981)
Milkmen Moo

This psuedo-live recording came to me by way of a posting on the Dead Milkmen's Free-for-All message board. It was recorded in one afternoon in the basement of my parent's house while I was home from college on thanksgiving break, and 'released' the next month with a quickly drawn cover. 

In their fictitious world, this 'show' was the first of the Dead Milkmen's tour of the Congo (where they were curiously famous) and was recorded for release as their next album. This recording is not exactly a live recording, however, because an overdub was made to enhance instrumentation on a couple of the songs (believe it or not). But, both the original take and the overdub were done in one take (discounting stopping the tape recorder to change instruments).

Nine New Sins (Winter 1981-82)

Have You Slugged Your Kids Today?
Screaming in the Library

This extremely limited edition, hand-packaged e.p. was recorded sometime during my winter break from college (1981-82). Rodney was my songwriting collaborator for about half of these songs. He also performed on the recordings he helped write. (Some of these songs were later recorded and performed by the real Dead Milkmen.) These recordings precede my first meeting of Dave Blood by about a month. I would meet him after returning to college from my break. Also, Rodney and I were soon to see Dean perform in the band Narthex at the famous Landmark Tavern in Philadelphia, though we would not know at the time that he would eventually become the real Dead Milkmen's drummer.

Purgatory Beat (1982)
Taking Retards to the Zoo
Stupid Maryanne
Runaround
Dance With Me

Wisconsin (1982)
Wisconsin

A Date with The Dead Milkmen (March 1983)
(This might be crossing into the non-fictitious era, but still before the band was fully assembled.)
Filet of Sole
Right Wing Pigeons from Outer Space

Dean: This was recorded in Manayunk on Baker Street where Joe and Dave (plus others) shared an apartment, and released to friends in 1983 – before I joined the band. I believe that Rodney is playing drums on these recordings. Maybe Joe or Rodney can provide some details about this tape in the comments.

Joe: Rodney did play drums on some of these tracks (Filet of Sole is one) and, through the magic overdubbing, Dave Blood played both bass and drums on others (Ask Me to Dance is one). There were no other drummers. It’s still hard for me to believe that Dean was willing to join the band even after hearing this tape. 

I’m also amazed now that we had the audacity to sell copies of this tape to a local indy record shop. AND we sent to it to a local ‘zine which reviewed it (our first press!). Each copy of the tape (we made 10) was packaged with hand-colored xeroxed art covered in clear contact paper plus Scotch tape over a hand-cut cardbaord case. The very bad art is mine. -From The Dead Milkmen Archives 

Millersville Delivery (1983)
Bitchin' Camaro

Rodney: Alone in rock and roll history, Joe Jack Talcum took a fake band and actually made it a real band. And I can’t think of anybody else that said, “Alright I’m gonna write stories about this band. Now I’m gonna have people populate it.” Maybe, we talk about stuff like the Monkees, the Banana Splits, the Archies, which were made to be synthetic. Joe just figured this needed to be. If we didn’t exist, somebody had to fill that niche. It was an actual band, which was kind of odd…. Every now and then, when I’m on stage, I think “wow this all kind of started with Joe writing short stories. I’m kind of maybe playing a part, or caught up. Maybe we’re all part of the short story.” -From LOUD! FAST! PHILLY!

The Official Dead Milkmen Website
Dead Milkmen Free for All
Joe Jack Talcum
Rodney Anonymous Tells You How to Live
LOUD! FAST! PHILLY!
Short Bus Degenerates
The Dead Milkmen Archives
Dead Milkmen discography

Boy With A Dream (and some scissors and glue) .... The Real Joey Welz (Baltimore 1950s-70s / Lancaster 1980s-present)

Lititz, Pennsylvania, 5 minutes up the road from where I grew up in Lancaster County, home to the Victor mousetrap factory and a leading contender for World's Oldest Teenager......  Joey Welz.

So... this Joey Welz character, back in the 80s, played a regular boogie-woogie piano gig he called "Retro-Rock" at a hotel out on Route 30 amidst the Amish Country tourist traps. He released modern "hits" like Rockin' in America and a rap version of Rock Around the Clock. Joey self-released cassette box sets of his music and claimed to be an original member of "Bill Haley's Comets," Uh-huh... sure he is. And like, he was "the first rock'n'roll piano player"... and he "played with the Beatles in Hamburg." This guy can't be for real. Or can he?


For years, Joey has promoted his act out of his house and has his own rock'n'roll museum. He cuts and pastes his face into photos of famous musicians including the Comets and the Beatles for his press kits. Many of his original songs from the 50s and 60s have his more recent Roland keyboard and drum machine inexplicably overdubbed, so it's really hard to know what to make of the "Joey Welz Legend."

But then I found his name on the back of a Link Wray record. Link Wray!!! Could it all be true? So I wrote Joey and asked which records I should buy to learn about the "real" Joey Welz and how he got his start back on Baltimore.

He made me a deal on 4 CDs and I've been digging through them and a few other downloads ever since trying to make sense of it all. I wrote down some "tough questions" for The Welz and sent them off by email.  He responded (in all-caps) without any hesitation at all. I've included here the parts of Joey's story that have at least some concrete, if sometimes tampered with*, photo or audio evidence. I left out some claims, that while they could be true, are too vague or have only circumstantial evidence to back them. You be the judge.

Welcome to WELZ WORLD:

............................................

HERE YOU GO PAL.....ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.....

THE REAL JOEY WELZ,,, THEY DON'T COME ANY MORE REAL THAN THE WELZZZZZZZ

You claim to be the inventor of your piano style, before Jerry Lee. What do you base that claim on?

IN THE JAY ROCKERS, WE HAD NO BASS PLAYER, SO I BECAME VERY GOOD AT INVENTING BASS RUNS ON MY LEFT HAND AND LEARNED HOW TO CUT THE BOOGIE WOOGIE PIE UPWARDS, BACKWARDS AND HALF UP AND HALF BACK, AND FULL LEFT HANDED OCTIVE RUNS. THIS WAS BEFORE LITTLE RICHARD AND JERRY LEE LEWIS.

The Jay Rockers - Jitterbug Rock 1955

WHEN I STARTED DOING SESSIONS IN 1955, I ALWAYS USED THIS BOOGIE STYLE AND IT WAS JUST RIGHT FOR BILL HALEY'S MUSIC BECAUSE THE BULL FIDDLE BASS DIDN'T MAKE THE NOTES AUDIBLE, ONLY THE SLAPPING. THAT'S WHY I GOT THE JOB AS BILL'S SECOND PIANO MAN, AND WHY THEY CALL ME THE BOOGIE WOOGIE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL.

I LAID DOWN THE BLUEPRINT FOR PIANO PLAYERS IN THE 50S.... IN 1954 I RECORDED THE JITTERBUG ROCK B/W BLUE ROCK, WRITTEN BY JOEY WELZ, ON BERMAN RECORDS. ONLY 10 ACETATES WERE MADE IN 1955. THE JAY ROCKERS WERE JIMMY STAGGS ON GUITAR AND SAM CATALDIE ON DRUMS AND JOEY WELZ ON PIANO. THIS WAS MY FIRST RECORD AND IT WAS ON 78....

The Rockabillies - Twangy 1957
The Rockabillies - Come On Baby 1957
The Rockabillies - Shore Party 1959
The Hi Lees - All Nite Party 1959

The Cold War is another interest of mine. What was it like for you at AFN Berlin (a US military radio station) at that time?

I WAS THE RECORDING ENGINEER FOR AMERICAN FORCES NETWORK IN BERLIN, AND RECORDED AND CO-PRODUCED RADIO PROGRAMS LIKE FROLIC AT FIVE (TOP 40/POP HITS), AND STICK BUDDY JAMBOREE (Country Music).

AT THIS TIME-1960-1963, I WROTE AND RECORDED MANY SONGS LATE AT NIGHT WHEN THE STUDIO WAS FREE. THAT'S WHEN MANY TRACKS WERE RECORDED ON MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS ALBUM AND THE YOUNG JOEY WELZ CD. I ALSO RECORDED GROUPS FOR AIRING AND TWO OF THEM WERE THE BATS AND THE NITE RYDERS FROM ENGLAND ON WHICH I PLAYED PIANO.

Santo & Johnny - A Soldier's Story 1960
The Jokers - Boy With a Dream 1961
The Nite Ryders - Moment Baby 1961
The Nite Ryders - Whistlin' Man's Boogie 1961
The Shimmer Trio - Telestar Tell My Love 1962

I ALSO CO-PRODUCED AND RECORDED BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS LIVE SHOW ON AFN FRANKFURT. DURING THAT TIME,I LAID THE GROUNDWORK OF JOINING THE COMETS AS FEATURED PIANIST WHEN I GOT OUT OF THE ARMY, (replacing Johnny Grande. Johnny and I were the only pianists in the history of the Comets).

I ALSO FIRST RECORDED WITH THE COMETS AT THAT SESSION PLAYING ON HONKY TONK AND SINGING BACK-UP ON SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL. YEARS LATER, I LICENSED THE AFN MASTER TAPES TO HYDRA RECORDS IN GERMANY AND THEY RELEASED BILL HALEY LIVE ON AFN CD.

Bill Haley & his Comets on AFN Frankfurt 1962 

Rock Around the Clock
Honky Tonk (featuring Joey Welz on Piano)
See You Later Alligator (listen for Joe Welzant in the credits)

AT THE FRIAR'S CLUB IN TORONTO: RUDY POMPELLI ON THE SIDE (HE WAS OUR SAX),AND AL RAPPA ON BASS, AND JOHNNY KEY ON GUITAR AND BILL HALEY IN THE BACK MIDDLE

WE WERE SOLDIERS FIRST. ONE NIGHT I WAS ON THE AIR ALONE AND GOT THE CALL THAT THE WALL WAS GOING UP. I WAS THE FIRST TO CALL EVERYBODY IN. WE GOT OUR HELMETS ON AND ALL WENT DOWN TO THE BRANDENBURG GATE AND STOOD AT PARADE REST FACING THE EAST GERMANS AND RUSSIANS WHO BROUGHT THEIR TANKS DOWN. WE WERE ALL WAITING FOR WHO WAS GOING TO FIRE THE FIRST SHOT. NO ONE DID, THANK GOD, BUT THE WALL WENT UP. 

I WAS ALSO AT THE RADIO STATION WHEN WE BROKE THE NEWS ABOUT THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, BUT KENNEDY HANDLED IT WELL AND THEY BACKED DOWN. PRETTY EXCITING TIMES FOR A PIANO MAN LIKE ME....

On some of the recordings of you with famous artists, you overdubbed your electric piano much later. This seems misleading and maybe even fraudulent to many people.  Can you explain why you do that?

I SOMETIMES OVERDUBBED MY PIANO FOR RE-RELEASING SOME OF MY CLASSIC SONGS BECAUSE, ON THE ORIGINAL RECORDING, THE PIANO WAS BURIED IN THE MIX. I ALSO OVERDUBBED DRUMS IF THEY WERE NOT LOUD ENOUGH WHEN I ORIGINALLY RECORDED IT. I ALWAYS WANTED TO IMPROVE THE SOUND WHEN I REISSUED THEM AND WANTED THE DRUMS TO BE MORE POWERFUL TO DRIVE THE BAND....

ON THE LEGENDARY FRIENDS ALBUM, IT'S A COLLECTION OF ALL THE RECORDINGS I DID WITH MY MUSICIAN FRIENDS IN ROCK AND ROLL. MOST OF THE SESSIONS I PLAYED ON WITH THE EXCEPTION OF FLOYD CRAMER/DUANE EDDY/THE VENTURES, IN WHICH CASE I ADDED MY PIANO TO THE ORIGINAL TRACKS. I WROTE ALL THE SONGS AND STILL FEEL THIS IS MY MOST HISTORIC ALBUM.

The Ventures - Save Your Love, Save Your Kisses 1963*
The Cruisinaires - I Ain't Got a Thing 1963

The Comets - You Changed 1964*

PHOTO TAKEN AT A RADIO STATION IN TEXAS TO PROMOTE OUR NEW SINGLE IN 65 ENTITLED TOUNGE-TIED TONY

The Upsetters - Maybe You're the Girl 1964
The Kidd Brothers - Wooly Bully Rides Again 1966

Joey & the Time Machine - Big City 1967
Joey & the Time Machine - Caught By Love 1967
Joey & the Time Machine - Psychedelic Happening 1967


I'll Do Anything For You WAS A HIT IN NORFOLK, VA. IN 1969 AND THAT'S ME ON DISCOTEN TV RUN BY GENE LOVING FROM WGH RADIO WHO JUST CAME OFF MY LAST HIT OF I WILL SING A RHAPSODY FOR A SUMMER NIGHT.  DICK LAMB WAS THE HOST ON THAT TV SHOW WHERE I LIP SYNCED MY VOCALS


I was excited to find your name on the back of my Link Wray album!

Link Wray and I became good friends in the early 60s and I was a silent WRAY MAN on some of his records playing piano and organ. He and I made a few albums together where he backed me up, as well as did Roy Buchannan.



Link Wray & the Wray Men - Week End 1963
Link Wray & the Wray Men - Run Chicken Run 1963
Link Wray & the Wray Men - Blue Eyes Don't Run Away 1968*
Link Wray & the Wray Men - Turn You On to Sunshine 1968
LinkWray & the Wray Men - I'm a Wheel 1969
Link Wray & Joey Welz - Rippin' "Em Off in the Name of Love 1970*
Link Wray & Joey Welz - Jesus, Be My Friend 1970*
Link Wray & Joey Welz - Rumble '69 1970

*Keyboards and/or drums overdubbed later

Were you really a Yo-Yo Champion? 

I practiced yo yo from the 7th grade in grammar school to the last year in high school. I was really gone on the yo yo. I worked for the Filipino Champions, holding contests and demonstrating in dept. stores on the weekends in downtown Baltimore.

In 1957, after winning many contests, I entered into a contest between the 3 company champions; ROYAL, CHEEREO AND DUNCAN. The best man was BOB ROLA from DUNCAN YO YOS and I finally beat him in the last contest for world champion. I RECEIVED THE HIGHEST AWARD, THE DUNCAN SILVER EAGLE PATCH WHICH I STILL HAVE IN MY YO YO COLLECTION.

How did you come to settle in Pennsylvania?

I came to Lancaster in the 80s to play gigs and liked it, I opened CAPRICE RECORDING STUDIOS in Lititz in 1990 and became the owner of CAPRICE INTERNATIONAL AND CANADIAN AMERICAN RECORDS and produced many other national and local acts including JIMMY JONES, DANNY AND THE JUNIORS, FREDDY CANNON AND THE 4 TOPS....

My new album is DANCING WITH THE STARS featuring TEN YEARS LATER a memorial for the 10th anniversary of 9-11. THERE WERE 2 RELEASES OF JAY ROCKER RECORDS. AND 4 OF THE ROCKABILLIES WITH ME BACK IN THE 50S on Bat Records.

FANS AND MUSICIANS WHO REALIZED WHO I REALLY WAS WERE STARTING TO CALL ME THE LEGEND AND THE BOOGIE WOOGIE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL. WHEN I STARTED MY ROCK AND ROLL DANCE SHOW I CALLED RETRO ROCK, I CAME OUT FROM BEHIND MY EQUIPMENT AND SANG LIVE OVER MY RECORDS AND ALSO PLAYED LIVE KEYBOARDS OVER THE CLASSIC ROCK RECORDS OF MY FAVORITE BANDS. THIS WAS BEFORE KARAOKE SO I GUESS YOU COULD SAY I INVENTED IT. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE WAS, WHEN I WAS SINGING TO MY RECORDS, THEY WERE REALLY MY RECORDS AND SONGS. I WAS NOT SINGING OTHER PEOPLE'S SONGS WITH THE EXCEPTION OF WHEN I DID THE HALEY NUMBERS, WHICH I ALSO PLAYED ON....

You must have had a day job, right? What career(s) have you had outside of music (and yo-yo)?

MY OTHER JOBS WERE ALL IN MUSIC WITH THE EXCEPTION OF 6 MONTHS WHEN I WAS A PRISON GUARD IN BALTIMORE AT THE STATE PENN. I WORKED IN SALES AND DISTRIBUTION AND HAD THE TERRITORY OF DEL. MARYLAND, WASHINGTON, VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA FOR THE HANDLEMAN COMPANY, JOSEPH ZAMOISKI CO AND D&H DISTRIBUTORS. I ALSO WAS A JUKE BOX MAN FOR JACHAM MUSIC IN BALTIMORE, AND A RECORDING ENGINEER FOR MONUMENT STUDIOS IN BALTIMORE, AND A&R DIRECTOR FOR WEDGE, DOME, MONUMENTAL, MUSIC CITY, AND PALMER RECORDS IN DETROIT.

I WAS THE PRESIDENT AND OWNER OF BAT RECORDS, CAPRICE INTERNATIONAL AND CANADIAN AMERICAN RECORDS.... I RAN MY BUSINESS OUT OF MY HOME IN LITITZ UNTIL IT GREW OUT OF THE HOME AND NEEDED MORE SPACE IN THE 80S. SO I OPENED CAPRICE INTERNATIONAL RECORDS AND STUDIO AND MY MUSEUM IN THE LITTLE RED BRICK BUILDING BEHIND THE GENERAL SUTTER INN IN THE ALLEY.

You've been on the edges of stardom your entire career and recorded great music with great people, but you never quite made it to the Big-Time yourself (yet). How do you feel about that? 

Bill Haley's Comets - Shake Rattle and Roll 1981

MY MUSIC, LIKE ALL ARTISTS HAVE HAD ITS GOOD RECORDS AND ITS BAD. WHEN I HAD A COUPLE OF GREAT POP RECORDS, HEY LITTLE MOONBEAM, RHAPSODY FOR A SUMMER NIGHT. HEY RATTLE SNAKE, IN MY CAR, ROCKIN'IN AMERICA, I NEVER HAD THE DISTRIBUTION OR PUSH FROM A MAJOR LABEL. AS YOU KNOW THEY HAD THE MONEY AND POWER TO BUY A RADIO HIT. I WAS NEVER PUT THROUGH THE MAJOR PUBLICITY MACHINE. I HAD TO RECORD, MANUFACTURE AND PROMOTE MY OWN RECORDS. ACTUALLY, WHEN YOU STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT, THAT MEANT I WAS MORE TALENTED THAN MANY OF THE POP STARS LIKE FABIAN AND FRANKIE AVALON WHO DIDN'T EVEN WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS.

ANYWAY, I AM THE ONLY ARTIST LIVING TODAY, THAT HAS MADE NEW MUSIC AND RELEASED NEW RECORDS EVEY YEAR SINCE 1955 TO 2013. I HAVE OVER 90 ALBUMS, MADE 75 45s AND WRITTEN OVER 1000 SONGS AND STILL ROCKIN' AROUND THE CLOCK TODAY AND SINGING ALL OF BILL HALEY'S HITS TODAY WHEN I PLAY WITH MY LONG TIME COMET FRIEND, AL RAPPA. THATS MY LEGACY AND I'LL STAND ON IT.

I GUESS IT'S BETTER TO BECOME A LIVING LEGEND THAN A DEAD POP STAR. I WILL NEVER STOP MAKING MUSIC. IT'S MY REASON FOR LIVING, AND LIVING IS THE KEY TO BECOMING A LIVING ROCK AND ROLL LEGEND.

WHEN THE ROLLING STONES DIE, I'LL BE THE ONLY ONE LEFT. OF THE 5 STAND UP 50s PIANO/SINGERS, I AM NOW THE ONLY ONE STILL PERFORMING....JERRY LEE LEWIS, AND LITTLE RICHARD AND FATS DOMINO HAVE ALL RETIRED AND RAY CHARLES UNFORTUNATELY PASSED AWAY, SO THAT LEAVES ONLY JOEY WELZ STILL DOING CONCERTS....THAT'S MY LEGACY.

BY THE GRACE OF GOD, I'M STILL ROCKIN' AROUND THE CLOCK. I STILL CAN HAVE THAT ONE BIG HIT BEFORE I DROP.......

ROCK ON---- the welz man

Joey Welz - The Ballad of Link Wray 2009


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The songs in this post represent a small fraction of the musical genres and albums that Joey has put out over the years. You can purchase them all directly from Joey Welz's expansive CD Baby site:
First Impressions
Top 12 Radio Hits of the 50s
Top 15 Radio Hits of the 60s
Legendary Rock & Roll Friends
Brothers and Legends: Link Wray and Joey Welz

A Joey Welz and the Time Machine 45 was reissued by Frog and Rabbit Records by Billy Synth who also did his own versions of You Changed and Rockin' in America.

More about Joey Welz:
JoeyWelz.com
Canadian American / Caprice International Records
The Bill Haley Who's Who