I refused to do it as just 'the Byrds,' since no original members would be in there. But people kept calling me and wanted me to put it back together. "After Michael died in '93, I was just gonna lay the whole thing to rest. He and I are both geminis and both artists, so we had a lot to relate to.
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This second blow was even more painful than the first because Clarke and Rogers had become close. By the time he went to the doctor, it was too far gone to do anything. "He was a drinker from an early age, and I guess that's one of the things about gettin' to be a rock star when you're about 18 or 19 years old," Rogers says. Tragedy was compounded two years later when Michael Clarke died of liver failure.
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"He basically died of alcohol poisoning." "And so he just kind of like said (bleep) it, and all these so-called friends started comin' out of the woodwork with lotsa blow (cocaine) and all that kinda stuff. "He got a big check from that, and also about the same time he found out he had throat cancer," Rogers recalls. The heady, latter-day flight of the Byrds was heightened when Tom Petty covered one of Gene Clark's early songs, "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better," reviving public interest in the mournful-voiced singer-songwriter. "(Keyboardsman) Nicky Hopkins also went out with 'em for a little bit." "That was a very cool lineup there," Rogers says. In the mid-'80s, they teamed with ex-Band members Rick Danko and Richard Manuel and occasional Beach Boys sideman Blondie Chaplin - author of "Sail on Sailor" - for a package tour that earned raves in every town they played, including Oklahoma City. The newly formed flock, in ever-varying configurations, continued to migrate up and down the coasts and back and forth across the continent for the remainder of the '80s, sometimes without Gene Clark, who continued to record solo projects. The lineup now included Skip Battin and John York, two former members of late-'60s and early-'70s editions of the Byrds. Michael Clarke and Gene Clark had recently won a court battle against McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman over rights to the Byrds name, effectively nixing any future reunion of the five original players. "So that's how we got to be close friends, and he got to be more aware of all the music that I do." "Michael Clarke ended up moving to Hilton Head and moved in with a girl that was the sister of my partner," Rogers says. The singer-guitarist's luck finally changed when he crossed the Byrds' flight path. Although they were signed to Capricorn Records for 10 years and recorded with producer Paul Hornsby (Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels Band), Rogers' group never released an album due to contractual hassles.īut Rogers continued to write and perform with people such as Wet Willy's Jimmy Hall and members of the Allman Brothers. Rogers had grown up singing in a family gospel group, then spent his teen and college years playing Christian rock before forming the Pound and Rogers Band in the early '70s. The other founding voices - McGuinn, David Crosby and Chris Hillman - no longer own the rights to the Byrds name. Gene Clark, who wrote and sang much of the Byrds' early material, and drummer Michael Clarke are dead. gig at Arts Festival Oklahoma on the Oklahoma City Community College campus, 7777 S May. Now a band called The Byrds Celebration is coming to town Sunday for a 7 p.m. Their four-part harmonies took wing over the chiming chords of lead guitarist Jim (aka Roger) McGuinn, and their songs lifted topical songwriting to a popular plane. They were lauded by no less than the Beatles. Tambourine Man" in 1965, the Byrds brought Dylan a broader audience and boosted the sales of Rickenbacker's electric 12-string guitar tenfold. 1 hit while forging a new sound that was dubbed folk-rock. IT was 15 years ago in a smoky place known as The Bowery that a band called the Byrds last played Oklahoma City.Īmong the musicians onstage, Gene Clark and Michael Clarke were the only originals left from the groundbreaking Los Angeles group that turned an obscure Bob Dylan song into a No.