Tom Kirby, drummer for Tonto & The Renegades, was recently contact by the son of Bill Ford, the group's guitarist. It had been 40 years since Tom and Bill last spoke and, after connecting, Kirby graciously hooked us up with Ford. Ford has been aware of the band's consistent popularity throughout the years among '60s rock/garage rock collectors but had never publicly shared recollections on his time in the band. Until now.
We've also included never-before-seen memorabila from Tonto & The Renegades' career--including a very rare look inside Fenton Studios during the recording of the band's second 45 ('The Easy Way Out' / 'Anytime You Want Some Lovin').
Special thanks to Tom Kirby for arranging the interview, and to Bill Ford for his time in responding...
|
Bill Ford Recalls Tonto & The Renegades
Playing with Tonto & The Renegades and the experiences we had was one of the most enjoyable times in my life. Terry Slocum, Tom Kirby and I started playing informally while we were junior high school students in Grand Ledge in 1963. We entered some talent shows and, after receiving positive responses and encouragement, formalized the idea of becoming a group. We called ourselves The Henchmen.
We worked pretty hard to develop a decent playlist and spent much of our spare time (including time that we probably should have spent studying for school) practicing with the band. A short time later, Gary Richey joined the group and we renamed ourselves Tonto and The Renegades. Gary's parents (they must have been saints) let us use their basement for practice and we pretty much hung out there after school every day working on our music. Other than performing locally with other guitar players for the music studio where I got a job teaching guitar, I had no other band experience.
My favorite Tonto and The Renegades song is 'Little Boy Blue.' The reason it's my favorite is that the song has a simple but catchy beat, a really cool fuzz tone (rare at that time) and guitar solo and a raw, almost unfinished sound. Shortly after we recorded 'Little Boy Blue' I remember wishing that we had more money for studio time so that we could go back and fine-tune the recording . In retrospect, I am glad we didn't. I think the recording works great as is and pretty much captures the sound of the music we played live.
About three years after Tonto and The Renegades broke up, in 1972, I moved to Wisconsin and was pretty much unaware of any interest in the band. I believe it was about eight years ago that I heard from relatives in Michigan that the old 45s we recorded work being remastered in a CD format and sold on the Internet. I did a few web searches myself, and, frankly, was astounded by the amount of interest in the band's music. I should have known something was going on because I had received phone calls asking me to sell my few original remaining copies of 'Little Boy Blue.' Since that time, I periodically do searches online and read what people are saying about Tonto & The Renegades. I think it is really great that people are still interested in the music and enjoy remembering the good times we had in the 1960s.
I have been in contact with Terry Slocum a few times over the past 15 years and, as you know, have recently been corresponding with Tom Kirby.
My only memorabilia from Tonto and The Renegades is one of our business cards (with our slogan "Big Beat Music for All Occasions") a few newspaper pictures of the group that I have seen online and two copies of the 45 'Little Boy Blue' and the flipside 'I Knew This Thing Would Happen.'
|
|
|
|
|
 |
