After 45 years in the music business veteran crooner John Rowles is about to embark on his last tour. In a candid interview he spoke to Niels Reinsborg about his tangle with the Mafia, bullying at school, and his love of the Hawaiian sun.
WHEN John Rowles clashed with the American mafia it might have put an end to his international singing career.
It was the early 70s and Rowles was the opening act in hotels throughout the United States from Vegas to Hollywood. But his success was not appreciated by all, especially some of the main acts who thought he was getting too much of the applause. He was soon given the hard word by mafia bosses who at the time controlled much of the hotel entertainment circuit in the U.S. and Hawaii.
“If these guys liked you your show was full every night,” Rowles says. “If they didn’t you wouldn’t be working. One day in Vegas this Mafia guy came up to me and said I’d have to cut my show, take out some of the big songs, as they were getting such applause. I said, ‘but I’m only doing half an hour and I love singing the big songs’.”
When Rowles said no, his three year contract was cancelled the next day. But Rowles is a battler. He went to Marcus Lipsky, “Al Capone’s right hand man” and before long he was back on the hotel circuit.
Perhaps it’s this tenacity which has allowed Rowles to maintain a successful career in the music business for more than 45 years. Along with his talent, commitment and persistence he credits his Maori tikanga for much of his longevity.
“It’s very important to me spiritually, very unique and very special. Having that blood in me has kept my feet on the ground and kept me strong.”
Born in Whakatane in 1947, Rowles was one of nine children born to his Maori father Eddie and Pakeha mother Phyllis. The family moved to Kawerau where at the age of 10 Rowles gave his first performance. He entered a talent quest singing All Shook Up and took out the first prize. At school he organised a group called the Shadows, named after the original group, John playing lead guitar. But his school days were not always happy ones. At school he was bullied.
“I was the singer in the class, and the best looking, so I got all the girls. Some of the other guys didn’t like it and yes I was bullied and I was often afraid to go to school. There were some big guys there. One was aged 22 in the sixth form.”
At the age of 15 Rowles left high school for a job in a forestry camp. A year later he moved to Auckland. It was there that he met Eddie Low and in 1964 the pair went to Melbourne. From there Rowles moved to Sydney, joining a group called the Dingdongers. But it was when he decided to go solo in 1966 that his career really took off. After appearances on Australia television’s New Faces, and the release of his first single The End of the Rainbow, Rowles was ready to hit the big time.
“I got my first real break in 1967 when Cliff Richard’s manager spotted me in Sydney. He saw me as an ambitious young kid and asked me if I wanted to go to London. In three months I was on a plane and two months later, in February 1968, If I Only Had Time hit the top of the charts, my first international hit.”
Other hits followed in quick succession, among them Hush Not a Word to Mary in 1968 and Cheryl Moana Marie the following year. Cheryl went on to become his best selling single with millions of copies sold worldwide.
“I wrote the song after Cheryl, one of my sisters. It reached number one in New Zealand and hit the charts in Australia and the U.S.”
Soon after he bumped into legendary musician Jose Feliciano in the lobby of a Sydney hotel.
“Jose yelled at me, ‘Share all your marijuana with me’. I was bloody embarrassed.”
On the back of the success of Cheryl Rowles went to the United States, appearing on television and singing in hotels all over America. Then in 1972 he signed a contract with the Royal Hawaiian Hotel to sing in their Monarch Room. It was the start of a love affair with Hawaii. He stayed there until 1990.
“I fell for Hawaii. I hate the cold and it was the perfect base for me, half way between the U.S. and New Zealand. I liked the Hawaiian sun too much and was just happy singing and having a good time. I never had a good business sense.”
Rowles admits he stayed in Hawaii too long and it is one of the regrets of his career, that and never going into the movies when he was young.
“I should have gone back to London when I was on a roll,” he says. “I stayed in Hawaii. I liked the sun too much.”
It wasn’t until 1978 that Rowles produced new material. Another sister was the inspiration for a new single Tania, another hit in New Zealand and Australia, and Island in the Sun reached number four on the New Zealand charts in 1982. A number of albums followed through the 90s and in 2000 a collection of six volumes called Voice of a Legend – The Millennium Collection.
Now at 64 Rowles says it’s time to wrap up the touring game.
“My mind tells me, get out of touring. It’s lonely and hard after 45 years and I’m getting old and I’m getting weary,” he says.
But he’s giving himself plenty of time to bow out. His Final Bow Farewell tour will include New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii and Britain, and will take two years. He’ll then spend the New Zealand summers at his home in Auckland escaping back to Hawaii during the winter. Frequent visits to Sydney to visit his two young sons Dane, aged 12 and eight year old Blake are also planned.
“I live for those boys. They’re my future now. I want to make sure if they have any innate talent that they don’t make the same mistakes I made.”
Rowles hasn’t completely given up on his career. He’s writing his autobiography which he hopes will be turned into a movie, and he also wants to write some more songs.
“And I’ll never stop singing. My bones grow weaker but my voice becomes more powerful. I’ll always be participating in music. I’m hopeless at anything else,” Rowles says.
John Rowles Final Bow Farewell Tour, Southward Theatre, Paraparaumu, June 23; Wellington Opera House, June 24.