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Backstage with Susan Cowsill: Happy Together Tour · Backstage at The EPC's Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to Backstage at the EPC.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Today we are welcoming Susan Cowsill.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much, Haley.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to be here.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you are with the Cowsills, which is part of the Happy Together Tour.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I am in the Cowsills, and we are coming to your performance center.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a lot of great acts with us.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have new acts this year, three of them.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: The Trogs, the Fortunes, and Jason Chef of Chicago.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're really excited.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is a show that we bring back year after year.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Our patrons absolutely love it.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: And they, you know, come in their attire and all dressed up.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: They're hippie garb.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I was I was checking out your guys' tour schedule, and it looks like you're in Michigan right now.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm coming you from Interlock in Michigan.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'm on a lake.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, that sounds nice.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: I bet it's nice and warm.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's nice and warm, and uh, there's cabins.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's really beautiful.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: We don't usually play these kind of places, really.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: So uh this is kind of exciting.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you guys are gonna be at the Effingham Performance Center um on August 26th.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that's right.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Where where is that like in your guys' schedule?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're let's see, the tour is over on September the 5th, so we're coming into the closing the closing uh end of it.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we love playing Effingham.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: We we as you said we play every year.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh we'll we should be pretty great.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, look, we're good to go till this thing's over.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: We get revved up every single night.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's no there's not a bad time to come see Happy Together, that's for sure.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: So what's your ready to roll at all times?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: What's your favorite um like part about touring with like such a big group?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's all kinds of things.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a challenge on some levels, and then on other levels, it's just a blast.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's a traveling summer camp with a bunch of adults, uh allegedly.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we all have name tags on the back of our shirt so we don't get lost.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, someone's gotta keep track of you.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you ask our assistant tour manager, she says it's like herding cats, and I believe that's true.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's I think 26 people to move around out here to get to hotels, to get to venues, to get in and out of shuttles and buses, and it's wild.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: But tonight I hear we have firewood.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that'd be really nice.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um what's it, it is.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: How how long do you guys tour throughout the year?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, we usually start in May.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we go from May to September.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's you know, three and we have a couple of breaks in there, so it's split up a bit.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: But um, we did 67 dates this year.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're in we have 26 more to go.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we're like right about halfway.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: We are right about halfway, and uh everybody's hanging tough.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we are a slightly older group of folks out here, so there's a lot of boost being passed around as opposed to beer.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, isn't that cute?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: But uh it's it's uh it's it's uh like we're a rolling village.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we really are.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Once you're out with a group of people for that long, you become a community.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about that.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: How long have you guys been touring together?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the happy together, um, my brothers at the cows have been on happy together for 12 years straight.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that's a goodly amount of time.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's amazing.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Since I was and I think you guys have came to the Effingham Performance Center for twelve 12 years straight.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think we have as well.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean I'm almost a hundred percent sure.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the first time we came to Effingham because you don't forget that, do you?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: You don't forget Effingham.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: What's your favorite part of our venue?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like our venue is different than a lot of the ones you play at?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: We we have a we have a warm spot for Effingham.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody likes to say it, number one.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And number two, you're you know, the center is amazing.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: The center is is awesome, it's just awesome.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and we've never had a bad show there.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, good.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for real.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you talk about um, so you're you know, part of the cows, and um a lot of a lot of the folks that already have tickets to the happy together tour obviously know who the cowsils are and know what the happy together tour is.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um but there's some of us, you know, possibly me, that might not be as familiar.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: I possibly you.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: I I can pick up the songs, I know the songs.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm terrible about relating those to who the artist is.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um so the cows.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it's you and your brothers.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's my brothers and I.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And our mother used to be in the band also.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh back in 1967, we had hit records from 67 to 671, I think.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we um were a family band, the first rock family band.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the TV show, The Partridge Family, was created after us for in our it was like a TV version of real life, us.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been, yeah, we've been at it for a million years.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: We had four hit records, and most of the people coming to the show know what they are.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Haley, let's be honest, you're decades younger.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's literally, if your grandparents were into classic rock, you might know who we are.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's okay that you don't.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, my mom's my mom's a fan.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: She she likes this stuff for sure.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: You were pretty young when the cowsells started.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was eight years old when I got in the band, and I'm 67 now, so I've been at it quite a while.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have an eight-year-old.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't imagine um him being picture that yeah on Ed Sullivan.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: So like when you when you did those things at that age, did you like, I mean, did you understand like the gravity of it?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Completely.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: But sure, I did.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Eight, you're pretty savvy at eight.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, you had your family.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and we always had music around us.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, a child, whatever a kid's brought up with, is what is normal to that child.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think anything was different about my upbringing than anybody else.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's on Ed Sullivan, I guess.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: It was just a normal day for sure.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a normal day for me.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was very exciting and it was actually quite wonder-filled.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was amazing.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the other act, huh?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have like a favorite memory from doing some of those shows?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was able to be um Dean Martin had his own TV show back in 69, and I was able to separate from the Calso family band and have and go by myself and be on the Dean Martin show and sing with him.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a very special thing for me.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because I love Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movies, and yeah, it was cool.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's just those are the moments in your life where you're really blessed to be where you are because you get special stuff like that.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: One of the questions that I want to kind of close um the podcast with is like, what's what music is on your playlist?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, that's so cool.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this week it's the association, the tribe, the fortunes, the vogues, Jason Shef from Chicago, the Cowsles and the Turtles.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: But other than that, because that's who's coming to effing, yeah.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I tend to listen to the music of my youth.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I tend to listen to what I listened to when I was a kid.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that can be anywhere from Glenn Campbell, Wichita lineman, to the monkeys, uh, I want to buy me a dog, to Carol King, to James Taylor, to Carl Ibanoff.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not really a contemporary music person.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I at the risk of sounding like my parents, I'm not gonna describe why, because I will just sound like an old person defining Elvis Presley, and I have no, you know, though those folks, the older people didn't understand Elvis.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't understand the new music either, and I think that's just generationally the way it's supposed to be.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is a sociological level.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah, yeah, we're all supposed to get there.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: You'll get there.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's hard to believe, but you will.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate you uh taking the time to to talk with us today.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: I know, like I said, Effingham is super excited to see you guys again.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: And um if they haven't yet, they should go buy tickets.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: There's limited tickets left for Wednesday, August 26th at the EPC.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you this, y'all, and this is sincerely from my heart.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have the best two and a half hours.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh getting there is you know, none of us want to get up and off the couch anymore.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Jeopardy, pajamas, meds, bed.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: But this is a different day, and you will be totally transported back to a beautiful time and place for a couple of few hours, and I think we all can use that um in our lives.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: So please come out and hang out with us.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have the best time.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Susan.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Haley.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the transmission works.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, have a have a good uh show tonight, and we'll see you in a couple weeks.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: All right, girl.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks a lot.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Bye-bye.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Before we go, on deck at the EPC is Who's Live Anyway on September 13th, Jamie Johnson on September 19th, and Taylorville, an unofficial live tribute ban on October 3rd.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: For a full list of upcoming shows, visit us on our website at theepc.org.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: As always, you can purchase tickets through our box office Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: to 2 p.m.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: or on showdays from 10 a.m.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: to show time.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: You can also purchase tickets online through ticketmaster.com slash EPC.