SE: Did you grow up in Dallas Texas?
TR: I was born and raised in Dallas.

SE: Was music an interest of yours from very early on?
TR: It wasn’t no. My father was a singer, a musician, an actor and a dancer in Mexico. Because of my dad I got started in the business.

SE: Really.
TR: Yeah, my father guided me through it when I was about eight or nine years old because I was running around with the wrong kind of guys… I was born and raised in a Black and Mexican ghetto, and the Mexicans were killing the Blacks and the Blacks were killing the Mexicans, it was a real rough neighborhood. And so I was getting in trouble with the kids and everything, and my father told me… he says, “You know when you come home from school, I want to know that you’re here. I want to make sure that you’re home.” And the third time that I didn’t do it he took his belt off and gave me a real good whipping! And that changed my whole life for the better. That changed my whole life because the next day to make up for hitting me he stopped at a pawn shop and he bought a twelve dollar guitar that he couldn’t afford, and he brought it to me and he said, “Look what I got for you.” And he wanted to make up for the fact that he hit me, you know.

SE: Yes.
TL: And I was very excited about the guitar…

SE: Did you already know guitar chords?
TL: No, no. I didn’t know anything about the guitar, no. My father started teaching me my first Mexican folk songs that he used to sing when he was a young man in Mexico. And so because of my dad I fell in love with music. That changed my whole life for the better!

SE: Man, I’ll say!
TL: Yeah. (Laughs)

SE: You’re talking about growing up in the ghetto is very interesting.  It’s like today things have changed just a tiny bit. Now the Mexicans are killing the Mexicans and the Blacks are killing the Blacks.  It’s too bad, you know?
TL: Yeah, they’re still doing it. Isn’t that something?

SE: Yeah.
TL: Yeah you know, there’s never any peace. But music brought me a lot of peace.

SE: Yeah?
TL: Aw yeah, thank God for my dad because if it hadn‘t been for him… all of my friends ended up being killed in gang fights as I got older.  Gang fights, murders, and they ended up in prison. So because of my dad I got put on the right track.

SE: How old were you when you formed your first band and started playing clubs?
TL: I started very young, by the time I was thirteen or fourteen I was already working with a band and everything, and by the time I was nine or ten I was already performing in school, in plays and bazaars, and fiestas.  You know, stuff like that.

SE: Oh yes.
TL: And I was starting getting very popular in my neighborhood. I used to sing, ah…  you know those old men that were in parks playing dominos and all that?

SE: Yes.
TL: Well there was this one in particular corner where they were playing dominos and they would see me go by with my guitar.  I had my guitar in a gunny sack.  I couldn’t afford a guitar case… And I come from a very poor family by the way, they were very, very poor. So anyway, I was carrying my guitar in the gunny sack and the old men after awhile they saw me go by three or four times and they’d say, “What have you got in there kid?” And I said, “My guitar.” They said, “Well can you play it?” I said, “Sure!” I’ve always been very, very shy person, but when it came to singing it was my outlet. I’ve always been introverted, but musically I’ve always been extroverted. So they said, “Can you play us couple of songs?” I said “Sure.” So I started singing a couple of songs, three or four songs for them, and they would end up giving me five or ten dollars, you know, fifteen dollars and I would go home with all this money. I’d say, “Mom look!” She’d say, “Where did you get that money?” And in those days ten dollars was a lot of money! And she would say, “Where did you get that?” I said, “Well, these men wanted me to sing some songs for them on the corner there on my way home.” And so I would come home with this money and my mother said, “Oh my God!” And that’s how I started making money with my career singing.  That’s how it all started in my neighborhood. And then  I just graduated into high school plays, and then when I went to high school which I didn’t finish, I had to quit in my senior year to help my father financially. But on my senior year I was playing all of these big proms already, and all the dances, and I used to close the assemblies  every time and I used to tear them up with my band, all the kids in school… I was very popular. I was made most likely to succeed. (Laughs) And that’s how we started in Dallas from Grammar School to High School, then I had to quit in my senior year to work full time and I went on from there to start playing in the best nightclubs in Dallas, the most popular and the most expensive places to work. I used to sing at all these places with my band.

SE: You made some good money then right?
TL: I started making good money, yeah. I started making very good money with the popularity that I created in Dallas once I got a little older. And people liked my music a lot and I was very popular in Dallas, I was making the top dollar there! When I left Dallas to go to Hollywood in 1960 to join the Crickets.. Buddy Holly’s Crickets.. when I left Dallas I was making four or five hundred dollars a week.

SE: Wow!
TL: Yeah, 1959.

SE: I don’t think The Beatles made that!
TL: (Laughs) I don’t think so. I was doing very well, and then I came to Hollywood to join the Crickets and nothing materialized because they were partying all the time. And so I had to get to work and I promised my family that I would help them financially. And so I went to audition at a little place called The Little Club where they needed somebody to open the show for some acts. So I auditioned and the guy stopped me in the middle of the first song and said, “Okay, okay.” And I didn’t think he liked me. He says, “Okay, you open tonight!” I said, “Tonight?” He says, “Yeah!” I said,”Wait a minute.” He said, “ Just like that. I want you with just your guitar.” I said, “No, I’m with a group!” He said, “No, no, I don’t want you with a group. I want you just by yourself with your guitar. And we‘ll book you for two weeks, and if we like you, you‘ll stay two more because everybody stays about four weeks.” Well I ended up staying there a year! (Laughs) And I created a big following, big following. The young Hollywood used to go in there. Nancy Sinatra Jr. and Connie Stevens, and all these young actors like Bob Conrad… do you remember “The Wild ,Wild West”?

SE: Oh yes.
TL: Okay, Bob Conrad used to go in there a lot, at the time they were doing a TV series called “Hawaiian Eye”.

SE: That’s right.
TL: So all these young people would come in there and see me and they liked me a lot. And I kept hearing about a place called PJ’s.  PJ’s was a place that I used to hear that Frank Sinatra used to frequent quite a bit. And all the bigger Hollywood echelon like Steve McQueen and Paul Newman and all these people. So, I said, “Well, when I finish here, I want to get a job there.” I said to myself. Sure enough when I left my engagement they wanted me to work there because I had created this big following at the Little Club in Beverly Hills.  So then I went to Hollywood to this nightclub called  PJ’s and I was booked for three months,and I stayed a year and a half!

SE: (Laughs)
TL: Yeah. It was there that Sinatra saw me and signed me

SE: Which was kind of uncommon isn’t it?
TL: Very uncommon.

SE: I mean most new coming artists’ careers at that time lasted like what, six months?
TL: Oh yeah! You know you’re lucky if you get a one album deal nowadays. (Laughs)

SE: That’s right.
TL: So an eight year contract was really unheard of, you know? I stayed the whole eight years and I was his number one recording artist.

SE: Well, you worked your butt off!
TL: I worked very hard, yeah.

SE: Didn’t you put out two or three albums per year?
TL: I was putting out four albums a year. Can you believe it?

SE: That’s something!
TL: Yeah, four albums a year. And they were all big hits.

SE: Oh yeah!
TL: They were international, not only national but international which I was so surprised… because I’d never dreamed, you know. (Laughs)

SE: Now I was listening to some of your early material like “I’m Not A Sinner I’m A Saint”
TL: Yeah! Boy that’s before I was recording for Sinatra. I did like, four songs.

SE: Was that done in Dallas?
TL: No.  That was in Hollywood. “I’m A Sinner Not A Saint” That was in Hollywood. There was a place I was working right after The Little Club… I recorded those songs. It was like one session. And those songs had been released of course all over the world now because i became famous with my songs with Reprise Records. But I also did a session before… when I was in Dallas, I was telling you that I was working in school, and then on weekends I would go away and work in Louisiana, and Oklahoma and all over the place with my band just on weekends. I would come back on Monday morning  just in enough time to get my books and go to school. I would fall asleep in the study hall because we were working the whole weekend and we stayed up late.  You know when you work and entertain you don’t go to sleep until two or three in the morning. So, I recorded about something like eighteen songs for King Records out of Cincinnati. And in those days the people there were all black artists. I don’t know why they wanted me, but they liked my singing and they asked me…that they wanted me to fly to Cincinnati Ohio. And you know who used to record for King were people like Hank Ballard and the Midniters, and Little Willie John, doing “Fever”.

SE: That’s right.
TL: Yeah. I’m surprised you know all those names.

SE: And James Brown a little later on…
TL: And James Brown that’s right, that’s where I met him. So, that’s how it started with me, but nothing happened with my records.  I got original hits, but nothing big. And then once I recorded for Sinatra and I became popular internationally, then they released all those songs on all kinds of albums and everything.

SE: Yes, it seems like you and Johnny Rivers have sort of a similar experience…
TL: Oh really?

SE:  When it comes to recording all these early songs that later came out everywhere after you both made it huge!
TL: Yeah, yeah. And till this day, all those records, or all those CD’s now are all still selling!

SE: And they’re expensive as heck!
TL: Very expensive. But listen to this, my first album… I have a couple of my first albums, but the one “Trini Lopez At Pj’s” that’s selling in Europe for sixty, or sixty-five dollars.

SE: Jeeez!
TL: And my first Latin album that I did with Don Costa my record producer, that’s selling for sixty or sixty-five dollars too.

SE: Wow.
TL: Yeah. You can order it through the internet and stuff, but I can’t believe that all those albums had become almost like collectors items.

SE: I’m looking at these two albums now.  One is on Crown Records and the other is on Guest Star records…
TR: Yeah.

SE: …And I guess together it totals fifteen or sixteen songs of all of those early songs we were talking about. But they’re great sounding records!
TL: Thank you.

SE: One song in particular that I think I have to play at least eight times before I can take it off is that song “If”.
TL: “If”, yeah I wrote that one.

SE: It’s a very simple sounding song, but it has a great groove to it and a great sound to it…
TL: Uh huh.

SE: And it sounds very similar to Buddy Holly stuff.  Were you a fan of his music?
TL: Yes, I liked him a lot sure.

SE: And you two guys crossed paths at one point didn’t you?
TL: Yeah, when I was in Texas I was working around, and I met him in Wichita Falls Texas, a little town about two or three hours from Dallas. And he was there visiting with a disc jockey there and I met him and he liked me, he saw my show in fact. And he says,“Would you like to meet my record producer?” I said, “Sure!” You see, he was very nice to me, and I said, “Where is this?” He says, “In Clovis, can you come to Clovis, New Mexico?” And I said, “Clovis, New Mexico, sheez. I don’t know where the hell that was!”

SE: (Laughs)
TL: So he said, “You can come out!” I said, “Oh yeah, sure!” And I packed my big band… I had five guys and me.  There were six of us. And I packed my station wagon with my equipment and everything and we went out there. But nothing materialized because in those days there was a lot of pressure going on, more than now, and so nothing materialized because the guys didn’t want me to sing.  They got jealous and all that baloney!

SE: And Buddy’s producer in Clovis was Norman Petty at the time?
TL: Yeah, Norman Petty was Buddy’s big producer and he was too you know.

SE: Yeah, he wound up dying without a very positive legacy because it seemed that he ripped off a lot of money from Buddy as well as songs from Buddy Holly.
TL: Oh really!

SE: Yes, he put his name on songs that Buddy had written on his own…
TL: Yes, yes. He was a bit of a shyster.

SE: Yeah.
TL: Yeah. So he was in cahoots with my guys. See, my guys in my band were all Anglos, they were all Anglos. So when I got there the guys were all very prejudiced and I didn’t know that.  They got very jealous, and I never knew that until it was time to record. Now it’s time to do something big and they really socked it to me! They told me… they woke me up while I was there at the studio and they said, “We need to talk to you” I said, “What’s the matter?” It was very early in the morning and we used to sleep until noon or one o’clock in those days,  and they woke me up very early to tell me that they wanted to have a commune situation with the band and everything… I said, “What’s commune?” In those days I didn’t know what that meant. We’re talking about 1959, you know.

SE: Yes.
TL: They said, “Well, we want to have a community property. We‘re gonna all make the same amount of money.” Because I was the leader. It was my band, my instruments, my musicians… they were my uniforms, my station wagon. I was the manager. I used to book them. I was the lead singer, and they all said, “We’re all gonna sing now too!” I said, “You guys don’t know how to sing.” (Laughs)

SE: (Laughs)
TL: They said, “Well we are.  We’re gonna sing.” So it became a real rigamarole. So I just finished.  I should have left them there, but I was too scared to go back to Dallas by myself. So I finished about a week there. We did nothing but instrumentals by the way, all instrumentals.

SE: Did any of those songs get released?
TL: No, you know what just came out was a single. Nothing happened.  It was an instrumental, but they wouldn’t let me sing. But the Crickets liked me.  I didn’t know that they liked me while I used to mess around with them at night…. we had parties there and stuff and they heard me singing. So when Buddy died ironically enough four of five months later I got myself another band.  I took the guys back all to their homes like a taxi driver and I dropped them all off and then I said to the bass player who was the nicest guy, his name was Earl, and I said, “Earl, I’m not gonna be seeing you anymore.” He says, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, I’m going to have to get another band.” He says, “Trini what are you talking about? We’re getting ready to record and everything.  We’ve got a record coming out.” And I said, “Yeah, (laughs).. but this is conspiracy you know. You guys have taken my band away from me. It’s not right what you guys are doing so I’m going to have to get myself another band.” And I said bye to him and I got myself another group. And then of all places I’m performing in Lubbock, Texas.

SE: Buddy’s hometown.
TL: Buddy Holly’s hometown Lubbock. And I was working there three or four months later and I get a call from Snuff Garrett the same guy that was… have you ever heard of Snuff Garrett?

SE: Yes, he produced the “Trini Country” album.
TL: Yeah, yeah. So I get a call from him and he’s the one that introduced me to Buddy in the first place, and Buddy was already dead.  He had that accident with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. I was appearing at a millionaires club making about $800 a week in late 1959 after Buddy died. And I had my own group, a new group and Snuff calls me and says,  “Guess who wants you to come to Hollywood and be their lead singer?” I said, “Who?” He says, “The Crickets.” I said, “The Crickets?” He says, “Yeah.” And I didn’t even think  that they were even interested in me, but they liked me. They must have felt something about me that they liked. So Snuff said, “They want you to come out to Hollywood as soon as possible.” And I said, “Oh my God!” They said, “We’d like to send you an airline ticket and you can come out to Hollywood as soon as you can.” They were going to start rehearsing and they had a cliff house overlooking Hollywood. And I got very excited, I said, “You know what? Send me the cash and I’ll drive over there.”

SE: (Laughs)
TL: Because I wanted to stay! So, they sent me the money and I got packed up with my guitar and amplifier and my clothes.. I only had $200 in my pocket and that was it! And I drove all the way to Hollywood from Dallas by myself and I was so scared man.  And I kept saying all the way, “Hollywood or bust! Hollywood or bust!” I kept saying to myself. I get there, and the guys are having a ball. They’re partying every night and boozing, you know,..when you’re from Texas you drink a lot! So they were having a great time and all kinds of girls and everything… I didn’t mind the girls, but my money is gone! About two weeks later my money was gone! And I didn’t want to bum from the guys.  I didn’t want to ask them for any money or anything. So I asked their agent if maybe I could get an audition somewhere and make a little money while I was waiting for them to make up their minds as to what they were going to do, because I had already had been there like two or three weeks and nothing was happening.  They weren’t interested in getting going because you see, they were making a lot of money from all the royalties from all the records with Buddy.

SE: I’m sure!
TL: And so sure enough I get this audition to open the show for Jonnie Sommers, remember Jonnie Sommers?

SE: Yes, she was on Warner Brothers.
TL: There we go. At that time she had her first album out. And they wanted someone to open the show for her so that’s when I got booked for two weeks and I stayed a year!

SE: Jonnie had that one hit “Johnny Get Angry” wasn’t it?
TL: “Johnny Get Angry” or “Johnny B Goode”

SE: Or “Johnny get Mad”
TL: There we go.

SE: Or “Johnny Beat Me” or whatever.
TL: Yeah, and she had her first record out on Warner Brothers and little did I know that I would be with them in the near future. I opened the show there and people came in like Jack Jones, people like that. So it was quite an experience I’ll tell ya!

SE: There weren’t many Latin artists on the pop charts at that time…
TL: No, no.  The only one until he died was Ritchie Valens.

SE: Yes and yourself, and maybe Freddie Fender?
TL: No no, no, no, that was much later Steve. Oh no man,  that was much later. We’re talking about 1963 is when I started with my records on the charts, and then these people came by maybe two years later, maybe three, all these other Latin guys. And especially Vickie Carr, and especially Julio Iglesias much, much later.

SE: Oh yeah.
TL: So I don’t know if you know this, but I started Latin rock.

SE: Well, you’re the godfather of Latin pop period!
TL: Thank you!

SE: I saw Ricky Martin the other night on Entertainment Tonight, and he’s up there at the rock and roll hall of fame singing “La Bamba”.
TL: No!

SE: And the thing I noticed is that the band was playing the exact same arrangement that you had for the song.

TL: You’re kidding?

SE: No, and nobody else before you arranged and sang the song that way. It had a different feel to it than Ritchie Valens version.
TL: Ahh, that’s interesting. A lot of people say “Trini, you’re the pioneer man, of the Latino rock movement. This is long before everybody else.” And the only one that started it and unfortunately he died was Ritchie Valens.

SE: Right. So Don Costa came to one of your Pj’s gigs and he recorded the show…
TL: And he recruited me to record for Sinatra.

SE: And was that tape that he made of the show was that the Pj’s album?
TL: Yeah. In other words, he said,  “We’d like to have you record for Reprise records.” And I thought I was gonna die when he asked me if I would be interested in recording for Reprise records. I said, “You mean, Frank Sinatra’s label?” He said, “Yeah, do you know the label?” I said, “Of course, I know everything about Frank Sinatra!” He was my idol by the way.  I only had one idol in my whole life and that was Frank Sinatra. I never dreamed that I would ever even meet him, let alone work with him and travel with him (laughs) ..and everything. So Don said, “Yeah, we’d like to record our first album and we’d like to do it here.” And I was kind of disappointed, I said, “You want to record it here?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “Why here? Here at this nightclub called Pj‘s?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “Why is that?” He said, “Well, because we want to create all of the excitement that you’re creating here live.  We want to transform it into the record.  We want it all on the record.” I said, “Well, that makes sense. Okay, but after that can we go into the studio?” He said, “Sure, you got it!” Well, little did I know that they wanted me to do another one right after that one because they were such a success. It was in the charts  for years! (Laughs) On
Billboard and all that. So we did another one called “More Trini Lopez at Pj’s By Popular Demand” And out of that one came the single “Kansas City”.

SE: Right.  I’m lookin’ at it right now.
TL: Are you?

SE: Yep!
TL: Yeah, so that’s how we started, and then we started going into the studio and thank god I had so many other hits! I’ve got 28 international hit singles by the way. And I’ve got fifty albums out so far.

SE: That’s quite a collection! So how was Frank with you recording some of the material that was pretty much borderline rock and roll because he was kind of anti- rock and roll and you were almost doing twist music in the early 60’s.
TL: Yeah, yeah. He didn’t mind because I was selling so many millions of records so it was a lot of money for him.

SE: Oh I bet!
TL: Yes, so he didn’t mind it at all, and he wanted to meet me after my first big success “Trini Lopez at Pj’s”.  So I went to meet him while he was filming a movie called “Four For Texas” and he was so nice to me.  The first thing he said to me was,  “You’re a great talent Trini.” That was the first thing he said.. I’ll never forget that. Little did I know that I would be his friend.  He was like my dad.  He used to cook for me here in Palm Springs.

SE: He was a neighbor?
TL: He was my neighbor.  We partied and I traveled with him and did shows for presidents with campaigns for all kinds of people, and I traveled with him in his helicopter.. just he and I and the pilot. And we’d also travel in his leer jet with Sammy and Dean. I was part of the Rat Pack, you know.

SE: Yes.  (Laughs) Pretty much.
TL: Yeah, I did a lot of things with them, a lot of stuff.

SE: So after Frank sold the label, it wound up having quite an array of artists on the roster with you, everyone from The Electric Prunes, to Jimi Hendrix, to Tiny Tim, to…
TL: Yeah. He had a big roster of artists…

SE: Buddy Greco.
TL: Yeah, Mm hmm. But the ones that were selling were yours truly, and then Sinatra started selling, and then Dean started selling, and then Sammy. But he had a lot of other artists on the label, a lot of other people. He even had Count Basie.  Can you believe it?

SE: Oh yes, also Duke Ellington…
TL: Oh yeah! And he had Bing Crosby…

SE: Nancy Sinatra once told me that he pretty much made that label so that he could just have basically his friends on and people that he thought were great.  He just didn’t want them competing with the rock artists and he gave them all the promotion they needed.
TL: Yes, yes.

SE: Which was pretty smart!
TL: Oh he was a very, very astute person. I admired him not only for his voice, but he was a very good businessman. He was sharp! Oh man, he was one of the sharpest guys I had ever met! Pshew!

SE: I was looking at this great cover shot on the cover of the “Pj’s Volume 2” album.  When did you get your signature T-Bone Burnett Gibson guitar?
TL: My old guitar?

SE: Yeah, do you still have it?
TL: Oh sure! You kidding? I use it all the time. I just got through doing sixteen shows in Florida.  I was all over Florida doing concerts.

SE: And you used the same axe?
TL; The same one. Oh yeah!

SE: Does it have a new neck?
TL: Oh no, no, no. After I designed my model that’s all I ever used. And by the way, those are classics too.  They’re collectors items.

SE: I believe that.  I can never find one.
TL: Yes, they are very hard to find and they’re very expensive. They’re selling through the internet every once and awhile.

SE: What kind of guitar did you play before you picked up that one?
TL: I had a Barney Kessell that was a nice guitar. In fact I kept the design of the… One thing that Barney Kessell had on his guitar was the sway of the body where the neck comes down so you can really go down there with your hand and really play it real high.  I kept those. But everything else I designed electronically and everything with my guitar, different buttons, different gadgets and things to make it much more convenient to play. It became a very popular guitar to this day.

SE: Nice lookin’ guitar.
TL: Yeah. I was very, very honored to have my own model, it sold all over the world!

SE: Once you hit L.A. back in 1959 or 1960…
TL: I went to Hollywood in 1960 by the way.

SE: In 60, it went from like clubs, to concerts, to TV shows, to movies.  Did it feel like it was an overnight success?
TL: No not at all. To everybody else it was of course, you know… when you work all of your life to… see I always had it in my mind that I wanted to be a  popular singer one day. So, the fact that it took me from the age of eight or nine years old, all the way until I was in my early twenties… that’s a long way, that’s a long time.

SE: Yes.
TL: So I worked very hard.  I worked for no money at all… You know, I used to play in restaurants, I used to go from table to table with my guitar.  I was a troubadour, you know. I used to do four or five shows per night at The Little Club, four or five shows per night at Pj’s, and many, many other places before I even got there! So, it’s no overnight sensation. People don’t know what you do, or where you come from until once you’re popular, then they know everything about you. But it’s (laughs) an overnight sensation to all those people. Unless they really know what it takes to achieve success.  It takes a lot of work, a lot of sacrificing, a lot of dedication.

SE: Oh yes, definitely. What year did you  first tour Europe?
TL: 1963 or 1964.  You see, the minute I became popular with my first record “If I Had A Hammer” that was kind of surprising to me because, to be honest with you I just wanted to record so that I didn’t have to audition.. because I didn’t like to audition for nightclub owners because they were so rude!

SE: Yes. (Laughs)
TL: And I just wanted to have a  tape and just let them hear the tape and then they could tell me yes or no, give me a phone call or something. But that’s the only reason I wanted to record, can you believe it? Little did I know that not only would I be coming out with a record and be famous in America, but all over the world overnight!

SE: Oh yes!
TL: “If I Had A Hammer” became number one in about twenty-six countries in a matter of four or five months.

SE: And a lot of your hit records were like, Latin folk songs, and American folk songs.  Were you into folk music yourself or was it just because that was kind of the trend at the time?
TL: That was the trend, that was the trend in those days. So what I did, I took the songs that were really popular folk songs like “If I Had A Hammer” “Lemon Tree” “ This Land Is Your Land” “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore”, and I took those songs and I put my Latin rhythm to them.

SE: Yeah, because women weren’t shakin’ their butts to Peter, Paul & Mary.
TL: No, no are you kidding? My god! (singing the slower P, P, &M rendition) “If I had a hammer, (Laughs) I’d hammer in the morning”…you know.

SE: (Laughs)
TL: So I took those songs and I just really revamped them!

SE: I’ll say!
TL: I really gave em’ my Trini Lopez touch.

SE: (Laughs)
TL: And that paid off because not only did they want to listen to them, but they also wanted to dance to them.

SE: So when you toured Europe… I mean, at one point when you were in England you shared the bill with The Beatles.
TL: That was in Paris, right. We got booked for four weeks in the Olympia Theatre in Paris and we were booked for four weeks… two shows a night and three on Saturdays.. matinee. It was a great, great engagement.  They had their first record “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and I had my record “ If I Had A Hammer”.

SE: But at that time they weren’t that well known over here yet were they?
TL: No, no.  They had not yet come out.  They had not been to America yet. This is right before… in fact, when they finished our engagement the reporters said to me,  “Mr. Lopez, you know The Beatles are going from here to America.  Do you think they’ll be a hit?” and I said, “I don’t think so.”

SE: (Laughs)
TL: Because I used to see their show and it was no big deal, you know?

SE: Back then? Sure.
TL: And they were just standing there, and just shaking their head and that was it. They didn’t have any kind of an act or anything. So I said, “I don’t think so.” And the reporters said,  “Why not?” I said, “Well, because in America we have a group that I like so much better than The Beatles, called The Beach Boys.” And they said, “Really?” and I said, “Oh yeah, they’re much better at harmony, and I like their sound better,” and all of that, and I meant it.  Little did I know man, whooo! That they would tear it up!(Laughs) I guess all that hair, and they kept going from one hit song to the next! That helped a lot.

SE: I bet. (Laughs)
TL: That helped a lot, sure! I didn’t know man, that there was going to be such a… they were going to change the whole record scene, the whole music scene.

SE: Yeah! A few years later you were doing a couple of their tunes.
TL: Did I? Let’s see…

SE: You did “Yesterday” didn’t you?
TL: “Yesterday” yes, Mm hmm, that’s a great song. I’d love to do a whole album of their music.

SE: Didn’t you do another one of their songs on the “Trini In London” album?
TL: No, no.  I didn’t do that no. I did some English tunes that were written by Mick Jagger.

SE: Yeah, that’s it, “Lady Jane”.
TL: Yeah. That’s a good song!

SE: At that time when you were doing four albums a year.. I mean, did you spend all of your free time in the studio?
TL: Would you believe I did a lot of that,  but I also was traveling at the same time. Don Costa would come and meet me in Paris… he’d meet me in Germany, he’d meet me in Mexico, all over the place. And we would work on songs and work on the ideas and then he’d go back. Even when I was doing “The Dirty Dozen” can you believe that I did an album there – “Trini Lopez In London”.

SE: Oh wow!
TL: Yeah, when I was filming. (Laughs) Yeah, before I had to leave the film. I had to leave the film because my contract was for four months and I was there seven. And Sinatra had just married Mia Farrow in Las Vegas, and then the next night he flew to London, and that night he invited me to dinner at his flat in London. I’ll never forget it.  He had a really nice flat across the street from the American Embassy in London. And it was just him and me and Mia, and the cook. And after dinner he says, “ I understand your movie is running really late.” I said, “Yeah, how did you know?” He says, “I know.”

SE: (Laughs) Yeah, he knows.
TL: He knows. He knew everything this guy! And he said, “You know, I suggest that you go back to your touring.” I said, “Oh really?” He says, “Yeah, you’ve been here seven months and you’re the hottest thing in the world.  When you’re hot you know, you’ve gotta make hay while the sun shines! You know, the public is very fickle and they’ll forget about you. You should really go back.” I said,  “Oh, okay.” So I got my attorneys to get me out of the movie, so when you see that “Dirty Dozen” I’m the first one that gets killed, you know.

SE: (Laughs)
TL: I had to get outa there! Yeah, because of Sinatra I left the film.

SE: Sheez!
TL: Yeah.

SE: That’s a great story, I never knew that.
TL: You didn’t know that?

SE: No I didn’t.
TL: Oh yeah! I was supposed to be one of the big heroes in “The Dirty Dozen” if I’d have stayed. But I didn’t stay because he told me I should leave and get back to my career. So he was like my dad you know, and he advised me on everything.. about singing and so on and so forth. So I said, “Okay, sure.” I got out of the movie, and if I had known that it was going to be such a classic I would’ve stayed! (Laughs)

SE: (Laughs) That’s right! Aside from the tunes that you were writing, did you pick your own songs to record, and pick your own songwriters?
TL: I picked all my songs myself, and then Don Costa would bring me songs once in a while and say “Trini if you like this, we can do this.” He was very, very nice, he was a real classy guy! And he would suggest,  “If you like this song maybe we can do this song, we can do that song..” And so there’s a lot of songs of his that I did do, and then I liked the songs that I wanted to do and he said, “Great!” and I didn’t know music so… when I would write a song I would sing it with my guitar and he would be writing it down musically, and then he would work the charts around my song. Because I don’t know music at all.. I only know music by ear. So people would say, “Can you give me a D7 diminish with a whatever, and I said,  “No, I don’t know what the hell that means.” So everything was all by ear.  Thank God that he gives you that talent. Don would write all around my humming and my singing.

SE: We’ve mentioned Paris a few times and I keep thinking of this song that you did called “Made in Paris”.
TL: “Made In Paris” is a song that was written by Burt Bacharach and he wanted me to sing it in a motion picture called “Made In Paris” starring Ann Margaret, or Jill St. John, and Robert Wagner… or Chad Everett I think it was. I don’t remember right now, but it was a great song!

SE: Yes, it was a great single!
TL: Great song yeah.  It came out as a single.

SE: I’ve got the single, the flipside I can’t think of… I believe it was “Pretty Little Girl”… That was a great song too.
TL: Yeah, you have it as a single too?

SE: Yeah.
TL: My god!

SE: And I could never find either of those songs on any album.
TL: Really? I have a lot of singles by the way.  I don’t know how many singles I’ve got but I must have… if I’ve got fifty albums I must have at least one hundred singles man!

SE: I’ll bet!
TL: Or more.

SE: Do you think you’ll ever put out the definitive collection on CD and just put all of these rare singles that fans couldn’t even find in the 60’s?
TL: Yeah, that’s a good idea isn’t it. To take all of my singles and put them in a two CD set with a booklet on it.  Yeah, that’s a good idea Steve, a very good idea.

SE: So when you’re not recording or touring today, what do you do on your days off?
TL: I love to sleep late! It’s one of my greatest pleasures.

SE: Yeah?
TL: Yup! I love to sleep till noon and then just get up and putz around my house.  I love to work in my own yard.  I like to plant flowers and plants and go play tennis and golf, and I like to swim. I’ve got a Jacuzzi and a swimming pool so it’s nice, you know, in the summertime it’s great! You can swim in the swimming pool anytime of the day or night.  It’s so nice! I enjoy being a man of leisure… you know?

SE: (singing) “It’s the goood life…”
TL: It’s the good life! There we go. Yeah, I love to do that.  I enjoy it very much! I was under pressure all my life, you know? Schedules  and da ta ta ta ta da ta ta ta…  once in a while I’d go out, like I went to do sixteen concerts all over Florida about two weeks ago and it was very successful..standing ovations every show every night, two shows per night, two or three standing ovations per show.  It was great! People still rush the stage and they want to touch me, they want to shake my hand. (Laughs)

SE: And you’ve got this new album right?
TL: Yeah, it’s doing very well. It’s in the charts in Italy and I have a single that’s doing very well too, and they’re getting ready to release a new single as soon as this one dies down.  We’ll see what happens.  Maybe it will break all over the world, who knows! It’s on Sony records.

SE: Well you don’t have to break, you broke forty years ago and everyone still knows who you are and…
TL: Yeah, it’s just a matter of getting something going like a big hit record, or a big TV show, or a big part in a movie or something, you know.

SE: Right. One thing I was thinking about was that from where I sit it seems like you pretty much took care of yourself financially and you didn’t wind up like a lot of stars from the 60’s wound up…
TL: Yeah.

SE: By getting ripped off, and ending up with nothing.
TL: Right.

SE: I mean it seems like you invested your money wisely…
TL: Yes I did.

SE: And counted every penny since…  you know, you came from the ghettos of Dallas so you probably learned your economics there.
TL: Yes.

SE: So you now own publishing companies? And…
TL: I have different businesses and I have a pension, thank god, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to retire if I hadn’t started a pension a long time ago to have my money working, you know?

SE: Right.
TL: And I’ve been in all kinds of different businesses, apartment buildings, and cattle, and all kinds of things. So I was very fortunate that I had good attorneys! (Laughs) So I listen to them too.  You know a lot of entertainers don’t listen to their business managers, They think they know it all. I always listen to people that know more about something that I do. If you listen you learn more.

SE: Yeah, I’ll say!
TL: So I was very, very lucky that I did that.

SE: I’ve got an album here that’s called “The Trini Lopez Show” it looks like a TV special that you did…
TL: That was my last album for Reprise by the way.

SE: Really?
TL: Yeah. That was the last one out of my eight year contract. My guest stars were The Ventures…

SE: And Nancy Ames.
TL: Yeah, Nancy Ames.  Remember her?

SE: Oh yeah, she did a lot of Latin folk singing and she used to do some work with Mason Williams.
TL: Yes I think so.

SE: And she was a folk singer.
TL: She was a folk singer, there we go. She sure was!

SE: And pretty easy on the eyes!
TL: Yes! Very nice, good lookin’ lady.

SE: (Laughs) So who owns this TV special because I’ve never seen it.
TL: That’s all Reprise. The TV show was produced by Jackie Barnette.  He wanted to produce the show and then Reprise of course recorded it. It was a good show.  Did you ever see it?

SE: No. I would like to see you and The Ventures playing together… plus the whole retro scene during the show is fun to watch along with hearing the great sounds.
TL: Good music never dies. But maybe one day somebody should re-release this kind of stuff.

SE: I was also checking out this album that was made in Korea, Live in Japan?
TL: Yes, it was done in Tokyo.

SE: Was that after the Reprise days?
TL: No no, that was during Reprise.

SE: But it never came out in America?
TL: It didn’t come out here, it was only released in South East Asia. It’s one of the best albums I’ve ever done live!

SE: Yeah, it’s a kickin’ album!
TL: Thank you! The musicians in Japan man were so good! Some of the best musicians in the world are in Japan.

SE: Well, it’s really tough to encapsulate forty years of entertainment in an hour and a half!
TL: I’ve enjoyed it Steve.  Thank you so much for your time.  I appreciate it.

SE: Thank you very much!