So says Dr Hook, aka Ray Sawyer, who performs a one-off New Zealand concert at Gibbston Valley Winery tomorrow along with Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
Cover Of The Rolling Stone, Sylvia's Mother, Sharing the Night Together, When You're in Love With A Beautiful Woman, Sexy Eyes, Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk, Walk Right In and a rendition of Sam Cooke's Only Sixteen ... it is a long list of notable singles that earned the original line-up of Dr Hook and the Medicine Show 60 gold or platinum albums and several top 10 chart placings in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world.
Raised in Mobile, Alabama, Sawyer was exposed to a diet of rhythm and blues, jazz and country.
At the age of 74, he still has a passion for music, he said via telephone from his New Orleans home last week.
By the age of 14 Sawyer was gigging professionally, playing drums in a Dixieland band that performed at sock-hops, so named because audiences were required to wear socks in the gymnasium venues.
"The kids would come and stand around and listen to the music. But this one day we was playing and there was a microphone there, so I went over and tapped on it and it was on.
"I asked [bandleader] Mr Sonny Bill if I could sing a song, My Baby, by Little Willie John. I pulled the microphone over to my drums, we played it and the kids started dancing instead of standing and talking.
"I thought, 'uh-oh'.
"That's where it started."
A car accident in 1967 left him without sight in one eye.
Yet, it also sharpened his focus.
A year later, Dr Hook and the Medicine Show formed in Union City, New Jersey, when Sawyer met singer-songwriter Locorriere (the duo shared lead vocals) and teamed up with a few of Sawyer's former Chocolate Papers band-mates.
"It's amazing how when something bad happens it can turn into something good.
"I had that car wreck in 1967 and it was very bad ... I lost my eye and chose to wear a patch."
Performing under the tag Dr Hook (he is the only remaining member and licenses the name from fellow founding member Dennis Locorriere), Sawyer continues to tour regularly. The Queenstown gig is part of a programme that extends to Scandinavia, Canada and his United States homeland.
"I've slowed down quite a bit but we still go out and do quite a few shows during the summer," Sawyer explains.
• Dr Hook, featuring Ray Sawyer, performs at the Gibbston Valley Winery Summer Concert tomorrow. Also on the bill is Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
Launched in 1995 by original Creedence Clearwater Revival band members Stu Cook and Doug "Cosmo" Clifford, it will perform hits such as Bad Moon Rising and Have You Ever Seen the Rain? Gates open at 1pm and the concert begins at 3pm.
• A full feature on Dr Hook's Ray Sawyer will appear tomorrow in the Play section of the Otago Daily Times.
