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Bio and Musicography Alias
"the rabbitt", aka Eddy Payne Jimmy
Rabbitt is a product of "The American Dream",
like the lead in a 50's Rock and Roll movie, he had a pompadour,
guitar, and
hot rod, wanted to be Elvis but somehow became Alan Freed first!
He was still in school in Tyler Texas, selling shoes, and singing
in a band on nights and weekends,
when he was offered a real paying radio job at KGKB am in the
Fall of 1961. Then
things moved pretty fast for "the rabbitt", then known as
"Fast" Eddy Payne, both in and out of radio!
He spent the summer of 62' as the night man on KRYS am in Corpus
Christi before being discovered by radio pioneer and record promoter
Huey P. Meaux, and imported into the bayou!
He became the morning man at KOLE am in Port Arthur, learned a
little Cajun, and a lot of radio, before moving on to Bill Young's KDOK
am back in Tyler where he stayed until 1964.
A chance hearing by McLendon Broadcasting
Manager
Johnny Borders lead to a job at KLIF am in Dallas, where he came
under the wings of radio pioneer Gordon McLendon, and super
personality's Charlie Brown and Irving Harrigan.
Under such excellent tutelage, he learned a lesson that would
serve him later years in Hollywood, "It's not what you play, or say
, it's what you don't play or say that makes the difference"! Eddy
Payne became Jimmy Rabbitt when he arrived in Dallas in 1964,
so "the rabbit" and the British Invasion began to sweep across
Texas at about the same time in history.
His radio show was filled with all the English music, The
Beatles, The Stones, The Who, The Yardbirds and others, blended with
selected "Top 40 Hits", and a growing local Texas Music scene.
Groups like The Five Americans, Z.Z. Top, Mouse and The Traps,
John Fred and His Playboy Band, B.J. Thomas,
The Sir
Douglas Quintet and others, all credit Jimmy Rabbitt and his "rare
musical ears"
for giving them their first break on the radio in the mid 60's.
Throw in some Country, Blues, Folk, oldies, and a few "album
tracks" just for fun, and you'll get some idea of the broad stroke
of music filling the niter skies over
Dallas and Ft. Worth when" the rabbit" was on "Big
Cliff Eleven Ninety Big D"!
Rabbitt became the "Number One Radio Personality" in
Texas over night, and as he increased his local club appearances
with his band, he began to show up on larger venue concerts like The
Dick Clark Caravan of Stars.
Then when Screen Life Magazine ran stories about Rabbitt and his
girlfriend Leslie Gore, they shot pictures of him hanging out with the
fab-four at their motel
room.
And then he managed to bring them on stage just like they were
his old friends at their
Dallas Memorial Auditorium Concert, he became a musical legend in
his own right as well, he was a star! McClendon
allowed Rabbitt to pick his own music at night,
and when the ratings continued to climb, often to as much as 65% of
the giant Dallas-Ft. Worth radio market, he was made music
director of the station!
Dallas soon became the number one "break out market"
for new music, and McLendon asked Rabbitt to program KLIF fm which
became KNUS fm, one of the world's first successful fm music operations!
But
California was where the real changes in radio were happening,
and Rabbitt had to be a part of them!
He got his chance in 1968 when long time friend Mike Scott became
program director at KCBQam/fm in San Diego, and hired "the
rabbitt" as music director, and night man.
Ratings climbed, and soon our hero was lured away by KRLA am in
Pasadena, to work his magic on the highly competitive Los Angeles radio
market. During
his first year in town 1969, The L.A. Times named Rabbitt "Rock
Jock" of the year, The
L.A. Free Press called him "the best thing on am or fm", and
L.A. Time's radio editor, Don Page said, "Jimmy Rabbitt could be
the first genuine super personality developed by radio in a
decade"! Then
early in 1971, "the rabbitt" began hosting an internationally
syndicated radio show on the ABC fm Network,
and began making waves all around the world!
His show,
based in Hollywood on KABC fm,
started the largest billboard campaign ever in southern
California! The
ads combined the peace sign, and a picture of Rabbitt in shades with a
radio logo, made him an overnight sensation!
The show was aired, and promoted in a similar fashion in San
Francisco, New York, Houston, Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh and all of
radio's "Top Ten" markets, plus hundreds of other cities
around the world.
So vast was his audience during this time,
Esquire Magazine included him on their list of the "Hot One
Hundred" of Rock!
Rabbitt along with friend Tom Donahue, the only dj's on the list,
were pictured with Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Bob Dylan,
and other industry giants!
Rabbitt,
known for mixing rock, blues, folk, oldies and even country music
together with sound effects and dj patter,
was described by the editors of Esquire Magazine, as "The
Peter Max of Sound"!
Then by the middle 70's, Rabbitt was hired to do some
"underground radio" for Metromedia at KMET fm.
After about a year of "number one" ratings, Bob
Kingsley heard him playing country and rock music mixes, and lured him
down the hall to Country music station KLAC am, also owned by
Metromedia!
The rest was radio history, as Rabbitt took to the air playing a
"different" kind of country music, with new artists like
Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels, and others crossing
over from rock, mixed in with old favorites like Ray Price, George Jones
and Dolly Parton!
Giant signs went up on busses and billboards all over southern
California declaring that "the rabbitt" was now on KLAC, and
very soon for the first time ever, a country music station was number
one in L.A.! About
this time, Rabbitt started a new band to play in the L.A. clubs,
he called his west coast gathering of
Lone Star homeboys, "Texas", and they were an instant
hit in California bars, and they were soon discovered by Atlantic
Records President Jerry Wexler, who also signed on to produce the group.
Rabbitt
returned to the radio on Bob Kingley's KBBQ am
in Burbank where he stayed playing his "own" mix or country
and rock and roll, off and on for years until the station was sold.
He had a great time meeting all his "country" heroes
who came by the radio station for interviews, and he was breaking new
music in L.A. as part of a new radio format that Rabbitt called
"Progressive Country" in his weekly column in the "Bob
Hamilton Radio Report".
He started playing clubs again, and changed the band name to
Renegade, after losing a long legal battle over the name
"Texas"!
Country icon and fellow Texan, Waylon Jennings agreed to produce
the band, that
had just been signed to Capitol Records.
After buying up all the un-released Atlantic material,
Waylon decided to produce a brand new "Jimmy Rabbitt and
Renegade" album based on their live performances which were selling
out clubs everywhere! Meanwhile,
Rabbitt was lured away from the KBBQ Burbank posse,
just long enough to spend less than a week (4 days!) at KHJ am in
Hollywood!
The "Boss Radio
campaign had
just started, over Southern California billboards announced the
rabbitt's arrival!
He was put on the cover of the
top 40 survey, holding a guitar
and looking very comfortable, very country, but not for very
long! After
much legal wrangling, he was soon back with his friends at KBBQ,
teaching his friend Don Sutton to be a radio guy, writing songs and
getting ready to record. One
day a was announced that KBBQ the "country breeze in the city"
was sold, and would soon become KROQ "the Rock of L.A."
He
was cleaning out his locker, when his lawyer called to say that his
contract was still valid as "staff announcer", and they wanted
him to stay on!
So Jimmy Rabbitt
joined the
growing ranks of top radio names being stenciled on parking spaces there
in "beautiful downtown" Burbank:
Charlie Tuna, Shadoe Stevens, Sam Riddle, and closer to home old
Texas friends Steve Lundy and Jim Wood!
Meanwhile,
another Texas friend David Allan Coe and Rabbitt wrote a song for Coe's
new album, called "Long Haired Redneck".
Then when Coe
recorded the song,
he mentioned Jimmy Rabbitt in the same breath as country stars
Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Bill Anderson and others during a narrative
about the state of the music business in the late 70's, and before long
our hero was playing the better clubs, like The Golden Bear, The Roxy,
and The Palomino, and the rest is history! "Jimmy
Rabbitt and Renegade" was released on Capitol Records in 1977, and
yielded two chart singles, "Ladies Love Outlaws", and
"Someone To Miss",
is still considered one of the best Texas rock and roll country
albums ever! "Jimmy
Rabbitt and Renegade" was the poster band for "The Progressive
Country" formats of the 70's,
80's, and 90's, and now recordings from various stages of his
career, are receiving air play in 2001, on the new
"Americana", as well as "Classic Rock" "Country"and
"Oldies" stations all around the world! Rabbitt
returned to radio at KMET fm, and KGBS fm,
and continued
to tour with the band for the next few years.
He returned to
KROQ in the late 70's, and worked there off and on while he was
still packing them into L.A. clubs,
right on into the beginning of the 80's. Rabbitt
spent the next ten years in his new hometown,
Aspen Colorado as
program director, and operations manager of KSNO am/fm.
Then satellite radio pioneer Robert Hall convinced him to return
to Texas to appear on Satellite Music Network's "Pure Gold"
format airing on more than 450 stations around the world.
And Rabbitt returned to college, to study computers, Music
Theory, and English Composition,
while working full time at various radio jobs, adding new call
letters to his resume, KVIL fm, KTYL fm, KTMJ fm, KNUE fm, and KKUS fm. |