Singer’s Story

By: David Divers
(© 2008-2009 by the author)
Edited by: Madison Cole

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 3
A Star is Conceived

One of Daddy’s songs was entitled, “A Sheltered Life.” It is a song about how hard it is to resist temptation and how wonderful it would be if we could live a life sheltered from all that. It was recorded as a Stone Family song and Daddy and Mamma sang the lead parts on that one. The label sent out sample CDs with only that one song on them to radio stations. I would like to say the song was an overnight hit. It wasn’t.

Although breaking into radio was slightly different when we started out, many stations today use pre-recorded shows that are recorded elsewhere and are just re-broadcast locally—especially at night when there are fewer listeners. They might use the same tape over and over for weeks. The states have live DJs and news during the drive-time hours when they charge the most for advertising, but otherwise they use these “canned” programs. Even the live DJs are required to use play lists. They don’t simply sit around with stacks of CDs and select the songs they want to play. The station managers provide a program of songs that are authorized. Because of this, it is often difficult for newcomers to break into the business. But our success eventually happened in just the opposite way. There was enough demand and our label and management company had enough influence that some of our songs were picked by the company that produced the prerecorded programs. We got enough exposure outside of the “drive-time hours” that the station managers had to put us on the drive-time play lists. (Drive-time hours are those particular daytime hours when most people are driving to or from work. That is when they listen to the radio the most and are most receptive to advertising.)

Starting out, “A Sheltered Life” got air play on the smaller local gospel stations in the area where we were known because we could personally promote it through friends, relatives, and the churches we regularly visited. We were considered to be a local group by our supporters in a three state area—Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia. The local fans made sure that the stations had a copy and they created demand by calling and asking them to play it. Meanwhile, our family was sent to any station that would let us in the door to promote it.

The first promotional tour scheduled our stops where the promoters felt it would do the most good. We visited many stations in Alabama, Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Naturally we also did some revivals and play dates along the way to help defray the costs, but the main purpose was promotion. Sometimes we would hit three or four stations per day. While we were at the radio stations, we also were able to promote the other songs on the album as well. We probably gave away as many CDs as we sold in the stores. Many stations would have call-in question and answer interviews and we would donate prizes and pictures to the callers. While we were still small timers at that point, county folks didn’t care about that. To them we were celebrities. And, off the air, we would try to get their addresses for future promotions. The group also recorded promotional advertisements for the stations while we were in town-things like, “We’re the Stone Family and when we are in [city], we listen to ...” Promotions always included that type of thing.

When we returned to the hollow, we began to get mail and phone calls from the people that we had met along the way requesting more information about us. Not only that, but the radio stations began getting requests for other songs that were on the full CD. Most stations only had the demo and didn’t know about the other songs.

The song that did make a big splash was a song that Daddy had written titled, “Ripples.” I sang the lead part on that one. The song was about how one act of Christian kindness can spread to other people like ripples in a pond. As soon as the song began getting air play, we began another promotional tour of the Deep South. We hit southern Alabama, northern Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana. We did more appearances at churches and gospel sings and other package shows. (Package shows are where a promoter puts together a package of acts and sends them from town to town like a traveling circus). But now, we were getting noticed by the more popular groups who were on the shows and they actually began taking us seriously. Although we still were the opening act of the shows and not the headliners, we were no longer treated as outsiders.

Most well known groups have “homecomings.” Once or twice a year the big name groups put together a show in their hometowns and promote them as a homecoming. They invite other groups to play. During that tour we were invited to two different homecomings but Daddy had to refer them to our management company because by then, we had no control over where we went or who we were packaged on those shows with.

When the label realized the potential that “Ripples” had to become a hit, they also began promoting me personally as an age thing—a fifteen year old boy in a family group with a hit song on his hands. My family made sure that it didn’t go to my head.

We were being realistic. Our real strength was as a family. We might have a big future in Southern Gospel music as individuals, but we would all prosper as a family unit. Since I was a minor I had no personal contract with the label and I was bound to the contract that my Daddy had signed on my behalf. I had no quarrel with that because up to that point there was no rivalry within the family itself.

As soon as the song broke into the top 100, the management company began to market both the Stone Family and Billy Joe Stone as two separate entities. Where just a few weeks earlier we were the opening act, the promoters began to give us second or third billing in order to take advantage of the song’s growing popularity.

We always started playing our part of the show as the Stone Family. We would do our half hour show as usual and then I would do another fifteen minutes as the lead singer. At the conclusion of my set, we would join together to sing that old song, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” The first time we did it, the show’s star complained to the promoter because the song brought down the house. The crowd loved it, but they began leaving the building at the conclusion of our part of the show. As a result, the star had to play to an almost empty house. He was a famous young tenor named Chris Baker who had been one of the first generation artists from our own recording label. Before we knew it, he forced the promoter to put us on last.

One night after a show in Baton Rouge I was walking around out behind the auditorium cooling off after the show, and Chris cornered me behind the buses. He seemed to want to chat. Chris was a slim, handsome guy in his early twenties and despite the fact that we were performing in a gospel show, he always performed in form-fitting black stage clothes. Whenever I watched him I felt that same familiar rush that I had first experienced with Bobby. But that couldn’t be ... after all, he was a Christian singer. I was a Christian singer, too ... It just couldn’t be happening again ... certainly not with an adult. But that tingling in my groin and the tightness in my chest said otherwise.

I knew nothing about “gaydar’—that would come later—but I thought I recognized something in him. A kindred spirit, perhaps. So we talked about the business awhile and just wandered around. But then, when we got into the shadows, Chris put a hand on my shoulder causing me to pause in mid-stride. He said, “We seem to be surrounded by old folks on this tour. Most of these guys are in their forties or fifties. Even your Dad and Mom must be pushing forty. It’s hard to find somebody as young as us to talk to.”

Even though I was only fifteen, Chris looked almost as young as me. He said, “You know, it sure does get lonesome out here on the road.”

I told him truthfully, “I wouldn’t know, because my whole family is with me.”

He said, “You must really miss your girlfriends back home.”

I answered, “We’re on the road so much that there is not much chance of having a girlfriend. And when were home we live so far out in the sticks that girls can’t hardly find me. You know how out in the country, some folks live where the paved road ends? We live even father out—where the gravel road ends.”

As he rubbed my shoulder, Chris said, “You are so young and innocent that it hurts. It is that part that sometimes gets us in trouble.”

I seemed to know what he was trying to get at but I just kept silent. This was an adult. I didn’t want to mistake his meaning. What Bobby and I did was just boy-to-boy stuff. This was more serious than that. But I really was lonely. I was also mature far beyond my years. As I said, I did not have a normal childhood. I had grown up working in an adult business and was treated as sort of an extension of my Daddy’s ministry. In music I was comfortable expressing my emotions in public with music. So, Chris and I really were contemporaries despite an eight- year difference in our ages.

He said, “With all the attention you are getting, I know that this is probably old hat. You probably hear it all the time. But you are beautiful boy and I have never heard a more talented kid than you. You have a great future ahead of you.”

I was still relatively innocent but I knew exactly what he was getting at. He said, “I would really like to spend more time with you. After the show in Hattiesburg tomorrow night we are all scheduled to play the convention center in Biloxi. I am sure that we may be able to spend some time together down there. I tow my SUV behind the bus and I have to do a promotional interview with a radio station in Ocean Springs, so maybe I can talk your Dad into letting you do it with me. It will be good for the show and we might get some time to be just guys. Would you like to do that, Billy Joe?”

Chris added, “Don’t you mention it to your Dad. Just let me bring it up to him tomorrow night and act surprised if he says anything about it. He might not let you, but I’ll do my best.”

Red faced, I still didn’t know what to say, I stammered a few time and finally said, “I would love to spend some time with you ... doing guy things ...”

Chris looked me up and down and I am sure he eyed the bulge in my crotch. With that he walked back towards his bus. I waited for awhile and then went back to our bus and messed around outside for awhile until my hard-on deflated. Later after everybody went to bed I spent some time in the bathroom. Alone.

To be continued...

Posted:

06/26/09