Bobby's Hobby
Music
Bobby was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas and grew up in the neighbouring town of Van Buren. At the age of 10 his family moved to Kansas City, Kansas. At age 16 he started singing lead vocals for a local Rhythm & Blues band called "The Chontels". Bobby attributes his early musical influence to another KC based group.
"When I first started playing lead guitar, I frequented a teen hot-spot called "The Soc Hop" and listened to the "Fabulous Silver Tones". During the early 60's they were the #1 Rhythm & Blues band in KC. The lead guitarist, Frank Plas, was exceptionally good. I like so many other aspiring guitar players in KC, I watched Frank perform and I'd steal guitar licks from him." (In 2007 the Silver Tones were inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame).
When Bobby turned twenty-one he took his musical talents on the road. For the next thirteen years he traveled all over the United States, playing lounges, concerts, even Military Bases. In 1969, Bobby's band went overseas on a three-week USO Tour at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland, during the Xmas season (when it was dark 24-hours a day and 68 degrees below zero).
In 1971 Bobby wrote and recorded a ballad called "Softly" that was a regional top-10 hit.
In 1977 Bobby took a break from performing. For the next three years he worked as an FM radio DJ.
In 1980 Bobby was invite to play bass guitar and sing with a Pop rock group called "Liberty", in Modesto, California. During his four-year stint with Liberty, the band members built their own nightclub; playing there six nights a week.
By 1984 Bobby had begun to burn out on performing. He decided to do something different. He chose to cut hair. Playing music at night and going to school eight-hours a day, five days a week, was gruelling, but after 1600 hours of training Bobby completed his course. He then retired from music and moved back to Fort Smith. In 1985 Bobby went to work at The HairStyle Shop (where he still works).
Bobby's music became his hobby. He built a home recording studio, in order to produce his own original material. One such project was a Music/Comedy album titled "The Old Stoned Hippie" (hear the title song). The CD features 15-tracks of hilarious and off the wall party songs, most of which are politically incorrect and mixed with adult comedy skits. (Over 2000 copies have been sold at the HairStyle Shop alone.)
One controversial song
(Bobby almost got himself into hot water)
The very first track that I wrote and recorded for The Old Stoned Hippie album was a parody song called "DIS EBONICS BLUES", which is about the black language known as ‘Ebonics'.
That outrageous song caused quite a stir among schoolteachers in Ft. Smith and ended up as the top story on the six-o'clock News! The song - which is heavily laced with Ebonics words such as ‘dis', ‘dem', ‘sho', ‘hoe', ‘dat', ‘dem', etc. – starts out with a two-minute monologue about the Ebonics language. The person doing the monologue appears to sound like an African-American, calling himself "Dwight Bowie" (Ebonically pronounced as "de white boy"). Actually, it was Bobby G doing the character voice of Dwight Bowie.
Dis Ebonics Blues tells the musical story of a white man who falls asleep one night listening to Rap music, with headphones on. All night long those Rap songs played over and over in his ears. When Dwight Bowie woke up the next morning, he had been Ebonically programmed! Bobby explains what happened next:
"At the time I recorded Dis Ebonics Blues, Ebonics had just became a controversial issue among schoolteachers nation wide; many of them feared they might have to start teaching Ebonics to their black students as a second language. After I recorded the song, I gave a cassette demo copy of it to my brother, John. He shared it with his schoolteacher friend who thought it was hilarious, and asked to borrow it. Two weeks later I'm at work cutting hair and my customers are telling me that my Ebonics song was causing some kind of controversy within the school system, and Channel 40/29 would be reporting about it on the 6-o'clock News. (See video clip) Apparently, the teacher who borrowed the tape from my brother had shared it with other teachers, resulting in bootleg copies being passed around within the school system." (Hear song)
Bobby is also a published writer of fiction. Recently the Times Record Newspaper ran a Front Page story about his writing and musical talents and latest project.
