My Time With The Royal Jacks

During the fall of 1968, a band was playing the newly opened teen center downstairs at the Hickory Foundation Center. I was there with a group of friends enjoying the music, when they began playing songs that touched my soul. One of them was “Up on the Roof” by The Drifters, and I hopped onstage to join the vocalist. I can’t recall much about other songs I might have sung or other people in the crowd, but I remember that after the show the bandmembers invited me to join the group. The players – I remember as keyboardist Tom Earnest, guitarist Neil Fortune horn player Phil Tate and bassist Charles Case – were a year younger than I, and I didn’t know them very well. Nonetheless, I became part of their band, as did a good friend of mine, Lee Jessup, singing and playing saxophone. I can’t remember if LeRoy was there my first night or joined later. Nor can I remember if drummer Keith Stokes was an original member. The expanded horn section, consisting of Stutz Wimmer, Peter Meuser and Reid McKay, came later.  My life-long friend Willie Bolick tells me he was the lead singer that I chased off of the stage on that epic night at the teen center, but my memory escapes me on that.

 Kenneth Campbell, who we called Jack, was our manager, and I’m not sure when or how that came to be. I don’t know if there was a connection, but in later years Jack became a funeral director. He helped us with equipment and arranged engagements. He also helped us hook up with a booking agent out of Greensboro, who told us we needed a flashy name. Members of the band had thought Soul Gentlemen was a great moniker for what we did, but the agent said that sounded like a gospel group. We batted around The Jacks, taking the name from our manager, but that sounded more like a kids’ group. Royal Jacks sounded more regal. That became the name. 

The Royal Jacks might’ve been re-billed as The Clay Feet, but Lorin Weaver, who performed with another local band, agreed to coach us on dance steps as our opportunities expanded.  We learned to step together on the off beat, swaying back and forth. It added a new freshness to the group.  We practiced at the Fortune home, the Earnest home, maybe the Stokes’, as I recall. We rented a downtown venue in Newton for a night’s special show. Our agent booked us at a frat party at Hampton-Sydney College in Virginia. We played outdoors on Second Street at the grand opening of Hickory’s downtown Sherwin-Williams Paint Store. As summer approached, we entered the Newton-Conover Battle of the Bands. That was the same weekend as a high-school trip to New York City that I had planned all winter. The Royal Jacks would have to find a substitute lead singer. 

They found Rick Moretz, one of their classmates that was quite a bit more flashy and confident than I. He won the Outstanding Entertainer award at the Newton-Conover contest. That qualified us for the state Battle of the Bands in Durham a few weeks later. I was back with the group for that event, and we were mediocre at best. Amid the Summer of ’69, I wrecked my gold Ford Mustang and was in bed for a few days. I was heading to college in Chapel Hill that fall. The band was moving on without me. It has taken 50 years for me to build up enough confidence again to perform in front of other human beings, even if it is only on You Tube and Facebook.