Those Guys

Along with cousin Jimmy Owens, David Owens formed Those Guys in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. Realizing a good thing when one came along, the cousins (and drummer Bob Dabbs) hooked up with Bob Barnes and Eddie Deaton shortly after their rock band – the legendary Elite - broke up. This line-up of Those Guys would soon become of the most popular groups in the DFW area.

An Interview with David Owens

60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?

David Owens (DO): Actually my grandmother played piano very well and I and my cousin, Jimmy Owens, also part of Those Guys, used to listen to her when we were very young. I discovered in elementary school that I had very good pitch recognition and as a youngster was totally captured by the sound of Buddy Holly. When The Beatles came along I was in high school and the excitement of all the attention led to getting more involved in pop music. My Sunday school teacher in high school was Ray Hildebrand, Paul of Paul and Paula (“Hey Paula").

60s: Was Those Guys your first band?

DO: Those Guys was the first band though not in the exact form that had the most success. Jimmy Owens and I started the band after high school with some friends that we had gone to school with. We picked the name and went at it. That first collection played some 'a-go-go's and learned. We had for a time a bass player named Teddy Neely (not the famous one) who was the only member who had a real job and when he could not make a gig we had a favorite stand in, T-Bone Burnett (the famous one!) He had a violin-style bass and could really play the intro to "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place." We played a gig with B.J. Thomas once and he was the first to call our sound psychedelic.

60s: Where and when was Those Guys formed?

DO: In late 1966, after a stream of personnel changes, we had finally gotten pretty good and when one of the other top bands in Ft. Worth, The Elite, broke up Jimmy and I and our drummer, Bob Dabbs, teamed up with Bob Barnes and Eddie Deaton from The Elite and kept the name Those Guys. The previous version of Those Guys had been into doing Paul Revere and The Raiders; The Elite was a British sound. We became known as a psychedelic band after merging. We were together until late in 1967.

I played lead guitar and keyboards. Eddie Deaton also played lead guitar and keyboards. We alternated as we felt would give us the best sound for the song at hand. Bob Barnes played the bass and harmonica. Jimmy Owens played rhythm guitar. Bob (“have drums will travel”) Dabbs was the drummer. We all did vocals.

60s: Where did the band typically play?

DO: We played at teen clubs, college parties, private parties, and as many public gatherings as we could.

60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you?

DO: Naturally considering the time period we evolved into an acid band best known for a kind of San Francisco sound though that was not a target sound as such. We all loved the Beatle stuff, Stones, Raiders, most of the English bands, as well as The Raiders, Lovin' Spoonful, and others.

60s: What was the Ft. Worth rock and roll scene like in the '60's?

DO: It was hot. Three radio stations in the mid sixties dominated the area: KFJZ and KXOL in Ft. Worth, and KLIF in Dallas. Ft. Worth was home to legendary disk jockeys Ron Chapman and Mark E. Baby Stevens (both are in the hall of fame). Ron Chapman hosted the amazingly successful Sump 'N' Else show on WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas and Mark had the Mark E. Baby show on Channel 21 in Ft. Worth. We appeared many times on both of the shows working with so many big acts: The Association, Roy Orbison, Dick Clark, Vickie Carr, Anita Bryant, Paul Revere and The Raiders and Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention (he called us weird once!). Other Dallas/Ft. Worth local musicians - such as The Five Americans, Marc Beno, Leon Russell, Jimmie Vaughn, Bugs Henderson - and others on the way up in entertainment, such as Ralph Baker and Morgan Fairchild, also did that the local TV scene. One group that we played gigs with called The American Blues evolved into ZZ Top.

Big name acts came into the Dallas/Ft. Worth area all the time. Probably the peak of action was the KFJZ sponsored pop music festival in August of 1967. In one big party we had multiple stages with nearly constant music featuring as best as I can recall in no particular order: The McCoys, The Standells, Every Mother's Son, The Seeds, The Grass Roots, The Doors, The Boxtops…and Those Guys.

60s: Did you play any of the local teen clubs?

DO: We did about all of them. There were many going on at time: The Box, Teen A-Go-Go, Jolly Time A-Go-Go and The Bookstore and venues in Weatherford, Mineral Wells and other smaller towns around the area.

60s: How far was the band's "touring" territory?

DO: We went to Weatherford and Mineral Wells to the west and to New Orleans to the east, San Antonio and Corpus Christi to the south.

60s: Did Those Guys participate in any battle of the bands?

DO: We did quite a few battles of the band things. We lost the first one we were ever in vs. The Rocks - featuring Bill Ham, quite possibly the world's greatest guitarist. We never did lose another. We won all the rest of them that we were ever a live entry in. We faced off with such groups as The Restless Set, The Crowd Plus One, Sundown Collection and Raving Mad.

We won the regional Vox Teen Beat competition and were beaten out (in second place) by a group called A Bit Much from somewhere in Kansas, I think. I never heard them and I am not sure how that contest went after the live part, which we did in Ft. Worth at The Box.

60s: What other local groups of the era do you especially recall?

DO: The Five Americans, The Rocks, The Sundown Collection, The Jades, Larry and The Blue Notes, Kenny and The Kasuals and The Restless Set.

60s: How popular locally did Those Guys become?

DO: During the magical year of 1967 we were right at the top locally. We had a national fan club headed by Ms. Toni Pearce, a very successful model from Dallas.

60s: Did Those Guys have a manager?

DO: We did not have a manager. We probably should have but we did not trust anybody to make decisions for us. The closest we probably came was to accept as an advisor a deejay at KFJZ named Eddie Gayle. He was the station program director and very popular and became involved in our recording production.

60s: What were the circumstances leading to the Black Sheep 45s?

DO: The earlier Those Guys and The Elite had both recorded with Major Bill Smith before we merged to form the band. Eddie Gayle was advising us and when we went to do new records. He and Major Bill formed Black Sheep as a partnership label.

60s: Where did Those Guys record?

DO: We recorded in two studios in Ft. Worth. One was Sound City in the basement under the old KXOL radio building, and then we later work was done at Delta Sound Studio. I remember Major Bill Smith was always in a hurry. He would say, "You don't need to listen to a playback on that. It's Okay."

60s: How many 45s did the band release?

DO: I am not sure how to answer that accurately. In that group of people we had one (the first one) that I honestly don't remember, then came "Stereopsis Of A Floret" - the beginning of the psychedelic sound. I still see it listed on play lists of stations around the country today! Next was "Lookin At You Behind The Glasses,” and lastly came "The People Say". I am not sure what came out in England and Europe.

NOTE: According to Fuzz Acid & Flowers, Those Guys 45s include: “I Want To Hold Your Hand” (instrumental) / “Teresa” (Charay 57)
This would be prior to The Elite merger
“Stereopsis Of A Floret” / “Cool” (non Those Guys song?) (Jenko 14)
“The People Say” / “Three Days Gone” (Black Sheep 103)
“Lookin’ At You Behind The Glasses” / “Stereopsis Of A Floret” (Black Sheep 104)

60s: Did Those Guys write many original songs?

DO: Everything that we did except "The People Say" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" for release was original music. Bob Barnes and I wrote the songs.

60s: Do any other '60's Those Guys recordings exist? Are there any vintage live recordings, or unreleased tracks?

DO: There were several recordings made. There are some recordings that were not released. These include “Sad Smiling Faces,” “The Fix-It Man,” “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” “Sunshine Go Lighly,” “Wonderin’” and “Working Girl.”

When T-Bone Burnett owned the Sound City Studio we did a series of cover songs to use on TV for lip-sync performances. These include “Kentucky Woman”, “Never My Love,” “Come Home” and “When I’m Alone.”

60s: Why did the band break up?

DO: The fall of 1967 marked the end of Those Guys. Jim Morrison had told us that we were crazy to stay in Ft. Worth doing local gigs. We wanted to get bigger but were too cautious and were all like, “Wow! Thank you man.” Bob Barnes heard the call to go after a bigger field to play in and took off with The Yellow Payges. We tried a few gigs with Jimmy moving to bass but it just was not the same.

60s: Did you join or form any bands after Those Guys?

DO: Jimmy (was drafted for a) couple of years in the army and after he got out he and I put together some demo recordings and got a deal with Atlantic Records and moved to Los Angeles for a time to work on that. I signed with a big west coast company and did some recording sessions there before coming back to Texas to go to school. In college we formed a group called Rock Bottom. We later changed the name to Plymouth Rock to try to get a deal like The Yellow Payges had with AT&T.

60s: What about today. How often, and where, do you perform? If not, what keeps you busy?

DO: I still try to stay busy making music. I really have not done any live performances of pop music in years. I have spent the past 20 years playing and singing in my style in churches. Who knows what some tomorrow may bring though? I still write music and have a very good home recording studio to work with. It is amazing what today's digital workstations can produce compared to the old days of feeling like big dogs using an eight track in Nashville. Bill Ham and I get together pretty regularly; we may do some more recording projects.

I am working on some new songs with an eye on seeing what we can do at this point in life. I am working with Uncle Micky Moody and we re-did a song a few weeks ago that we first recorded back in 1971. It sounds good today! Moody has produced something like 28 gold records in his career.

I have been in recent contact with Huey P. Meaux about doing some stuff. He has produced something like 55 gold records and about six or seven Grammy Awards. Maybe there is some gas left in the tanks for us all to burn. Who knows?

60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with Those Guys?

DO: We had the time of our lives. The friendships, for the most part, still endure today. Bob Barnes and I email each other now and then and it’s the same for Eddie Deaton. Jimmy and I still get together when we can. I have lost touch with Bob Dabbs. We had a great time during a great time to be young and foolish. We met dozens of famous people and had good times with them all. We just didn't realize that we had really reached the edge of what we were looking for that summer. We had a big time sound and small time ideas at the same time.

Special thanks to Max Waller for providing the discography... For more on David Owens and Those Guys - and to sample several of their songs, visit http://www.freewebs.com/davidowens/thesixties.htm.

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