| Bob lives in Southern California
with his second wife and their 3 children. He and his wife, Mary Jo, write songs
together. In fact, all of the songs on Global were written by Bob and Mary Jo.
Bob's older 2 children are both
grown and married these days and having children of their own so yes
Bob's a grandfather too.
Back in the 1980's, Bob and Peter Bunch, sang, wrote and recorded
songs together as Channel Nine. Today, Bob still sings regularly at
venues in and around the San Fernando Valley in California. Check the Appearances
calendar for dates, locations & times.
Bob currently works in
the medical industry helping to train Emergency Departments on a software package that he
helped to develop. How did he get into this field? In his own words:
When the band and family dispersed I needed a job and found one at a hospital in
Glendale where I worked in Central Supply ... but the action was in the ER so I would hang
around up there until finally they offered me a job and I became an ER Tech ... just
assisting the docs and nurses. Today I'm involved with a company that leases a charge/data
capture program specific to emergency departments ... we're in over 50 hospitals
nationwide ... I train the trainers at these places usually spending a couple of days
there. Our program is called EDITS (Emergency Department Information Tracking
System) and it's purpose is to alleviate the problem of lost charges and data capture in
an emergency department ... we receive a demographic download into EDITS from the
hospital's main computer, recreate the ER visit in EDITS and then upload charges and data
back to the hospital and/or the physicians billing company. We're an excellent company
with an excellent product ... it's recession-proof ... and we present a win-win situation
for all parties involved (the hospital, the ER staff, the physicians).
What is your favorite Cowsill song?:
I’d have to say that my favorite "vocal arrangement" song is a tie
between "Grey Sunny Day" and "Hair." But in terms of my favorite
recording and song I’d have to pick "In Need of a Friend." The violin
arrangement on that one is very sad and beautiful even when I hear it today. I like the
low vocal "ah" part in the intro (very BeeGeeish). Other thoughts: John’s
lead vocal on "The Path of Love" was really quite remarkable for a kid that age
... Mom’s "ah" part at the end of "Meet Me At The Wishing Well"
reminds me of "Snow White" and I think probably the most beautiful song we
recorded was "A Time For Remembrance". I also liked "Newspaper
Blanket" ... thought it rather baroque. The best recorded album, in my opinion, was
the "We Can Fly" album (I still think "We Can Fly" would be a great
song for an airlines commercial). II x II and the "On My Side" album for London
sound good but I was still learning how to write a song and these particular songs sound
like they’re out of Songwriting 101 to me. I still had a ways to go in that arena. I
like the words to "Beautiful Beige" and I love the melody to "Father."
I have fond memories of II X II. Even though it wasn’t a national blockbuster big
hit, it was number 1 in Las Vegas at the time we were headlining at the Flamingo Hotel and
it was a good time in my life. I thought "Hair" was a great record of a pretty
good song. The sessions were a little rough because that was the first song we actually
played all the instruments on. It took us forever to get it right but the vocal sound was
real good by the time we were done. I remember MGM Records turning it down and refusing to
release it at first. They said it wasn’t "The Cowsills" (remember we were
coming off "Indian Lake" here). Well we were on tour and in Chicago and we had
an interview at one of the bit radio stations there and we told the DJ our
"Hair" story and he said to give him the tape and we did and he played it right
then and there on the air and he also got fired for doing that because it was unreleased
material. However, the request lines lit up and that was the beginning of the whole
"Hair" thing. I still enjoy the video of the "Hair" performance on the
NBC special "The Wonderful World of Pizzaz" ... a real riot. Well the DJ in
Chicago was hired back of course and "Hair" went on to be the biggest hit we
ever had. It was a good time - 1969.
"Covered Wagon" was my favorite single by us and I have the Japanese
release photo cover permaplaqued and hanging on a wall in the back room. We recorded that
song at the Sound Factory in Hollywood with an engineer named Val Garay who had been
working with Ronstadt and James Taylor and that clan and this was where they did their
records. "Covered Wagon" was recorded by Bill, me, Barry and John ... the
original four that started it all ... and it represented to us a chance to show people the
direction we would have gone had it not been altered with mom and Susan coming in at the
time they did.
Now, having said all this, my real favorite piece of work by our band had never
been released until GLOBAL ... actually two ... "Some Good Years" and
"She Said To Me." I especially love the lyrics to "She Said To Me" and
I love everything about "Some Good Years" ... It’s just so nostalgic.
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