It was just a great place to learn and develop your voice.”Īfter releasing a few local singles that failed to take off, Royal became a hot national commodity with the Joe South penned tune, “Down In The Boondocks.” We had some big name R&B and country acts play there like Roy Orbison, Fats Domino, The Isley Brothers, Sam Cooke, Ray Price, Marty Robbins and George Jones. “We played six nights a week, five hours a night. When the Georgia Jubilee broke up, Royal landed a job at the Bamboo Ranch in Savannah, Ga. Royal appeared on his uncle’s radio show in his hometown of Valdosta, Ga., at the age of eleven.īy fourteen, Royal became a regular on the Friday night Atlanta-based radio show, “Georgia Jubilee,” with the likes of Ray Stevens, Jerry Reed, Joe South, Freddy Weller and various Grand Ole Opry stars. You’d get a country thing during the afternoon, then black gospel until sundown and at night you’d get rhythm and blues. And the local radio stations would play three or four different formats a day. “My uncle had a band, my grandmother played, my whole family played. ”I was really lucky to always be around music as a kid,” Royal says. Royal grew up in a musical family and listened to a variety of styles on the Georgia radio stations. ”I never thought I was going to have another hit record,” says Royal, who will perform at the Little Nashville Opry in Nashville, Indiana, on Saturday, March 20 at 8 p.m. Billy Joe Royal at Little Nashville Opry March 20īy Tamela Meredith Partridge When Billy Joe Royal recorded the 1965 debut pop hit, “Down In The Boondocks,” the Georgia singer/songwriter had no idea he’d top the country charts twenty years later with the 1985 smash, “Burn Like A Rocket.”
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