------Feature • B.J. Thomas------Still Hooked on That Feeling By Mark Hunter “Hooked on a Feeling,” over and over until In his teens he sang in the church choir and the needle wore out. The guy even sang a then joined the Houston-based group The Sometimes you just have to wonder few verse at the service. Triumphs. The first record The Triumphs re- ON about things. Like what if the lyricist Hal When I mentioned the funeral story and leased was a cover of Hank Williams’s “I’m TV David had been able to excise the word another about the recent National Record So Lonesome I Could Cry,” and it was a hit. “raindrops” from his head when writing the Store Day where the reporter invoked his Thomas left The Triumphs and signed song “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” name, he seemed surprised “That’s unbe- with Scepter Records. His first big solo hit with Burt Bacharach? What if, say, he de- lievable, I can’t explain that.” was “Hooked on a Feeling.” Then came cided on “kumquats” or “anvils?” And what “Your music seems to touch people in a “Raindrops,” which had tremendously broad on NBC if Bob Dylan had agreed to sing the song powerful way,” I said. appeal and brought him not only equally after Ray Stevens turned broad fame but a load of after SNL it down? Hmmm. Would money too. Sudden stardom Paul Newman and Robert did to Thomas what it does Redford have been able to to a lot of people, and after follow Butch Cassidy and a struggle with drugs in the the Sundance Kid with The early 70s he dropped off the Sting? Would Dylan have Top 10 lists for a few years. called Blood on the Tracks Then in 1975 he came Raindrops on Anvils? roaring back with the smash Would the bicycle have be- “(Hey Won’t You Play) come, as Butch predicted, Another Somebody Done the future? Kind of makes Somebody Wrong Song” the brain numb to ponder which, in addition to being such things, doesn’t it? one of the longest But the more pertinent song titles in history, question is whether B.J. B.J. THOMAS crossed the adult con- Thomas would be the cul- Saturday, May 21 • 8 p.m. temporary boundary tural touchstone and be- Foellinger Theatre where it rose to No. loved tugger of nostalgic 1. It also became a heartstrings he is now had 3411 Sherman Blvd., Fort Wayne No.1 country hit at he not been the man who Tix: $15, 260-427-6000 the same time. Thom- eventually got the “Rain- as’ subsequent coun- drops” gig. Would people try hits included “Whatever still be buying tickets to his shows, including “I get that a lot about my gospel music,” Happened to Old-Fashioned Love,” “New his May 21 concert at Foellinger Theater? Thomas said, “but it’s mostly ‘Raindrops.’ I Looks From an Old Lover” and “Two Car The answer, of course, is yes. think I would have been okay without it, but Garage.” In 1988 he recorded “As Long as At least that’s what Thomas thinks. And every couple of years when I run into Ray on We Got Each Other,” the theme song to the he’s had 40 years and countless hours rid- the road I thank him for turning it down. We family-based sitcom “Growing Pains.” ing in a tour bus and waiting in airports to laugh about it.” It’s those songs and many others that think about it. In fact, he’s thought about it What made Thomas the star he was, and keep Thomas in demand He and his longtime so much I didn’t even have to ask the ques- remains, is his unmistakable voice – a warm band just wrapped up a 29-day tour in Aus- tion when he called me from a hotel room tenor imbued with assured emotion. He has tralia and they’re back on the road again. in Nashville, where he was waiting for his credited his style to Jackie Wilson and the “This year is going to be our busiest in midnight bus to whisk him and his band off other great Motown and R&B singers of the four or five years,” he said. “We’ll be doing on yet another swing through the country. late 60s, many of whom he toured with. It about 100 dates.” I had been searching recent news was his voice that enabled him to sell 70 Even after all these years, Thomas is still items for mention of his performances and million records over his career. He’s had 15 hooked on the feeling he gets while perform- what kept popping up were not reviews Top 40 hits, won five Grammys, two Dove ing. or schedules but things like obituaries and Awards and 10 Top 40 country hits. In 1981 “As long as I feel I’m doing it to a cer- columns. There was a story about a funeral became the 60th member of the Grand Ole tain standard I’ll keep it up. I still have a in South Carolina in April where a friend Opry. burning desire to do it. I’m very fortunate of the deceased talked about how the two Billy Joe Thomas was born in Hugo, to have worked with great composers and to played Thomas’s second Top 10 hit, 1968’s Oklahoma in 1942 and raised in Houston. have had great audiences.”

PAPA ROACH - From Page 5 studio, only the studio was a mansion, to mind.” The plan now, following the Raid the record The Paramour Sessions. The album Luckily for Papa Roach and their now ra- Nation tour, is to head back to the studio had roughly 45 different titles – Days of bid fans, Tony Palermo stepped up to the kit, or mansion or whatever to work on a new War, Nights of Love was one of the rejects, and the guys, tireless, always writing, put out album that will explore “new electronic as was Forever, after the single – but the Metamorphosis in 2008. Again almost titled sounds.” band eventually settled on the homage to the Days of War, Nights of Love, Metamorphosis One thing is for sure. Papa Roach aren’t historic home in L.A. where they laid down was so christened to acknowledge the many going anywhere, unless you count the Soni- the tracks. changes the band had gone through during sphere Festival in Finland where they’ll It was right around this time when Buck- their 10 years with the DreamWorks label. headline with Slipknot this summer. ner left the band for good. According to After more tours with brothers in arms Nick- As Shaddix said to a writer with the Dal- 323 W. Baker St., FtW Shaddix, Buckner’s departure was necessary elback, Buckcherry, Avenged Sevenfold and las Music Guide, “We’re a band that tries to www.C2Gmusichall.com for everyone involved. Shaddix told Launch Burn Halo, they put out Time for Annihila- walk that line between metal, hardcore, punk facebook @ C2G Music Hall Radio that Buckner had to go to rehab “to tion, which includes revenge tunes “Kick in rock and pop music, and we do our best at clean up his act ’cause he was out of his the Teeth” and “Burn.” trying to make it all cool.” 6------www.whatzup.com------May 12, ’11