0:00

The True Story of the Fake Zombies is a

0:02

production of iHeart Podcasts, Talk

0:04

House and never Mind Media.

0:21

Back in nineteen sixty nine, when

0:23

the real Zombies were at their lowest point,

0:26

two guys in rural Michigan dreamed

0:28

up the Fake Zombies. It's

0:31

a strange business to get into. Jim

0:34

Atherton and Bill Keho, the bosses

0:37

at Delta Promotions, thought they'd

0:39

found a loophole. They caught

0:41

win that the Zombies had broken up, and bought

0:43

the rights to the name the Zombies, or

0:46

at least they claimed they did, and assembled

0:48

their own version of the group. Then

0:51

they assembled another one. Delta

0:54

Promotions invested time, money, and a lot

0:56

of effort into supporting their bogus bands

0:58

and making them seem legit. They

1:00

took promotional photos and gave them high

1:02

end amps and tour buses, all

1:04

to capitalize on the success of

1:06

a Zombie song racing up the charts.

1:10

Time of the season set off Delta's Great rock

1:12

and roll swindle. But this was

1:14

not an isolated incident. Another

1:17

British invasion band with songs and the radio

1:19

fell into a similar sort of limbo as

1:21

the Zombies broken

1:24

up but still in demand. Delta

1:27

Promotions once again saw dollar signs. They

1:31

started a fake version of the Animals. But

1:33

it wasn't the fake Zombies or the fake Animals

1:35

that would lead to the downfall of Delta.

1:39

That would come from their version of a group that never

1:41

really existed in the first place, The

1:44

Fake Archies, a fabricated

1:46

version of a cartoon band.

1:47

Do you know the song Sugar Sugartada?

1:52

Ah? Honey, honey.

1:57

This is the final episode of the true story

1:59

of the Fake Zombies. I'm Daniel Ralston.

2:07

Hiring young American musicians to impersonate

2:10

British rock bands may not have been ethical,

2:13

but when Delta Promotions started doing just that,

2:16

it wasn't technically illegal. Bill

2:20

Keho, the businessman behind Delta,

2:23

wasn't afraid to take on the record company's

2:25

management, companies, bands and lawyers who would

2:27

inevitably come beating down his door. He

2:30

happened to know a ton of extremely talented,

2:32

equally impressionable young musicians through

2:35

his business partner Jim Atherton. Why

2:38

not take a shot at becoming the next big industry locals.

2:43

Delta laid claim to the unused name the

2:45

Animals, just like they did with the Zombies,

2:48

and hired another group of young guys, also

2:50

from Michigan, to tour America. Every

2:54

English band, from the Zombies to the

2:56

Beatles and Stones, owes a huge

2:58

debt to American blues music. Every

3:01

Mick, Keith, John Paul, and Ringo started

3:03

out trying to sound like the black artists who

3:05

invented what we now know is rock and roll. Of

3:08

all the British Invasion bands that hit it big in

3:10

the States, nobody tapped into that sound

3:13

like the Animals. Their first

3:15

big hit was a cover of an old Blue standardsan.

3:19

Misery in the

3:21

House. Otherise

3:24

it.

3:26

Like the Zombies, the real Animals were done

3:29

after conquering America with songs like House of

3:31

the Rising Sun. Their singer, Eric

3:34

Burden was bored with his British Invasion

3:36

past, and by nineteen sixty nine

3:38

he was breaking new creative ground in his next project,

3:41

War That

3:44

was Delta's in for

3:47

a brief period of time, as the sixties

3:49

became the seventies, the Fake Animals

3:51

and two fake Zombies tour in America, performing

3:53

for unsuspecting fans, and this

3:55

might have continued on had it not been

3:58

for these words written in the pages of

4:00

Rolling Stone Magazine.

4:02

None of the groups being hunted down is

4:04

real. They're all phonies, tenth

4:07

rate bands using names of well known,

4:09

technically non existent groups to

4:11

pull the wool over the public's collective

4:14

eyes and ears.

4:16

That's Ben Funktorres, the man who wrote

4:18

those words back in nineteen seventy, and

4:21

his story would mark the beginning of the end for Delta

4:23

Promotions. Ben was

4:25

on to them here.

4:27

Ten miles from Saginaw and one hundred

4:29

and twenty or so miles north of Detroit,

4:32

Delta Promotions makes phone calls

4:34

to booking agencies in smaller towns,

4:37

telling them in certain tones about

4:39

the existence and availability of

4:41

groups they handle.

4:43

When he wrote his story, Ben actually spoke

4:45

to people who'd been duped by Delta's fake bands.

4:48

These small town concert bookers were given a

4:50

line by Bill Keho.

4:52

Those promoters who are aware the

4:54

Animals and the Zombies both disbanded

4:56

a couple of years ago are told that the groups

4:59

have reformed, built around

5:01

Nuclei, composed of several

5:03

original members. What

5:05

this means is Delta went to the trouble

5:07

of claiming a copyright on an unused

5:10

band name for their own packs of musicians.

5:16

When he learned about the fake animals. Eric

5:18

Burden was understandably pissed. He

5:21

sent his business partner after Delta. It

5:23

was later reported in Rolling Stone the Burden

5:25

and a few of his friends and the Hells Angels showed up

5:27

at a fake animals gig with I quote,

5:30

subpoenas and baseball bats. The

5:32

fake zombies and the fake animals may have upset

5:35

Eric Burden and the generation of people

5:37

who read Rolling Stone, but

5:39

Delta continued to get away with it.

5:41

The animals are closely linked to the pony

5:44

zombies. Delta even pulled a double

5:46

stunt last Easter Sunday in Duluth,

5:49

Minnesota, building both groups in concert

5:52

and drawing twenty four hundred unsuspecting

5:54

customers at five dollars ahead

5:57

to witness the masquerade.

6:00

The business side of the Delta partnership went

6:02

on the defensive when Rolling Stone reached

6:04

out.

6:05

As for Delta, the word there is no comment.

6:08

Keho would tell Rolling Stone no more than

6:11

I'm ticked off you. People haven't answered

6:13

my letters and dared Rolling Stone

6:15

to come up with proof of their activities.

6:19

Rolling Stone is gathering up a healthy

6:21

collection of contracts, come

6:23

on offers, and promo material, all

6:26

linked to Delta and its associated

6:28

firms, Delta Promotions has

6:30

the next move.

6:34

The imposter groups could have continued caught

6:37

up in trademark claims over the name of the Zombies

6:39

and the Animals for who knows how long, but

6:42

Delta's next act would bring everything

6:44

to a screeching halt. They

6:47

started a fake band. There was

6:49

already kind of a fake band.

6:51

They handle the Animals, the

6:53

Zombies, and the Archies most

6:55

prominently.

6:57

If you don't instantly know the name the Archies,

7:00

you almost definitely know their biggest hit, Sugar

7:03

Sugar. But

7:12

the Archies don't just play music. They've

7:15

also starred in a comic book for the past eighty

7:17

odd years. They

7:20

even have a couple of TV shows. Any

7:22

Riverdale Heads out there.

7:24

Ronnie, you know in your heart I'm right about this.

7:26

It just hurts to admit it.

7:30

Don't you make me say goodbye to you?

7:31

Or Chianrews.

7:34

Apart from the occasional foray into live

7:36

action teenage soap operas, the Archies

7:39

are usually fictional animated

7:41

characters. Juughhead, Betty,

7:44

Reggie, Veronica, and of

7:46

course Archie

7:48

their high school students, and together they have

7:50

a band called the Archies. Archie

7:53

comic dates back to nineteen forty one and

7:56

has had a massive stranglehold on popular

7:58

culture for generations. Never

8:01

was that more true than in nineteen sixty nine.

8:04

People lost their shit when Sugar Sugar, recorded

8:06

by the Archies hit the airwaves,

8:08

like really lost their shit, not just in

8:11

America, all over the world. I implore

8:13

you to go online and see how many countries the Archies

8:15

went to number one. In Okay, it's

8:17

twenty seven. Here in America,

8:20

Sugar Sugar sat at number one for four

8:22

straight weeks in nineteen sixty nine.

8:27

We tend to imagine this era the Vietnam

8:29

era, with a heavy soundtrack full

8:31

of protest songs and mind expanding

8:34

consciousness raising protest anthems Creeden's

8:36

Clearwater Revival, led Zeppelin

8:39

sly Stone.

8:40

We're obtaining a list.

8:41

Of the one hundreds of American prisoners held by

8:43

the North Vietnam Ease. Well, apparently

8:45

the Pentagon has found that.

8:47

The best selling act in America in June of nineteen

8:49

sixty nine was actually a five piece band made

8:51

up of cartoon characters from the Archie comics

8:53

universe. So

8:58

how did a cartoon band end up with the number one

9:00

song in the world. They had a

9:02

really good manager named Don

9:04

Kirshner. If

9:07

Bill Keho knew deep down at

9:09

some point he was going to have to face consequences

9:12

for his imposter band operation, he

9:14

could not have come up against a worse opponent

9:17

than the man who decided to turn the teenagers

9:19

in Archie Comics into the Archies. Kirshner

9:23

got his start in music publishing, helping

9:26

to launch the careers of songwriters and performers

9:28

like Carol King and Neil Sadaka while

9:30

he was still in his twenties. By the time

9:32

he started the Archies, he was a certified

9:34

kingmaker in the music business, with the rolodex

9:37

of world class songwriters in his publishing stable.

9:40

But ironically, it was a different, prefabricated

9:43

band that would make Kershner a music industry legend.

9:48

I had a song in my possession called

9:50

Sugar Sugar, which I felt, after

9:54

I'm a Believer, could be one

9:56

of the biggest songs of all time. And

9:59

I gave him always the money, which they took, and

10:01

I gave him the goal Records played

10:03

him Sugar Sugar.

10:05

Mike and Peter.

10:07

Said, it's a piece of junk. We're never going to do

10:09

this song, Mike proceeded

10:11

to put his fist through the wall at the

10:13

Beverly Hills Hotel. And

10:16

you know, as we say, the rest is history.

10:19

That's Don Kirshner talking about the band

10:21

he helped create, The Monkeys. Don

10:25

picked their songs in the early days of the band. As

10:28

the Monkeys grew more popular, the band

10:30

wanted to write their own songs. Don

10:32

wanted them to sing bubblegum pop hits. When

10:35

the Monkeys passed on Sugar Sugar, written

10:38

by Canadian songwriter Andy Kim,

10:40

Kirshner hired studio musicians to record

10:42

the song. The lead

10:44

vocal was sung by longtime Kirshner hired gun

10:46

Ron Dante. None

10:48

of the people who played or sang on the song are

10:50

credited on the record, It simply

10:53

reads the Archiees. According

10:55

to Tony Wine, the female vocalist

10:57

on Sugar Sugar, Kirshner Peter dozen

11:00

Roses for her services on the most

11:02

popular bubblegum pop song of all time. When

11:30

Delta started a fake Archiees to capitalize

11:32

on the success of Sugar Sugar, just

11:34

as they'd done for Time of the Season, they

11:37

crossed an invisible line while

11:40

in theory, it should have been easier

11:42

to duplicate a group with no actual members.

11:45

That was not the case. The Zombies

11:47

and the Animals were just bands, but the

11:49

Archies were a business, a

11:51

big business. Delta

11:53

found a piece of the Archie's action in Boston,

11:56

Massachusetts.

11:58

Let's put you're a little bit closer to the micro

12:00

from sir, should lean forward.

12:03

Yeah, we called it eating

12:05

the mic. My

12:08

voice should be prominent now, Okay,

12:12

my name is Joanne lef

12:15

I'm a SAG actor, and as

12:18

a SAG actor, my name is Joanne

12:20

rolt r Alt.

12:23

I've been looking for Joeanne for a long time. Today.

12:27

She's an actor and jazz singer living in New York

12:29

City. Back in nineteen sixty

12:32

nine, she was Veronica in the

12:34

touring version of The Archies assembled

12:36

by Delta Promotions. She

12:39

ended up in the Archies for a very teenage reason.

12:43

She wanted to make a guy jealous.

12:45

I fell in love with this guy who couldn't see

12:47

me for dust. He wanted this blonde

12:50

buxom whatever, and he was

12:52

from Rutgers and I was at Boston University.

12:55

So I said, I'm going to become a star. I'm

12:58

going to become famous, and then he's going to be very

13:00

sorry.

13:01

On campus at Boston, you Joe

13:03

Ann learned that a local folk rock group called

13:05

Bluesberry jam Or holding auditions

13:07

for a female singer.

13:09

I went on this audition, and

13:13

they wanted me to sing Somebody

13:15

to Love? Don't you want Somebody

13:18

to Love? You know the Gray Slick

13:21

Jefferson Airplane thing that was happening

13:23

in the I guess sixty eight, sixty nine,

13:25

whatever it was. I didn't know the song.

13:27

I was listening to Laura Nero

13:30

and Judy Collins and you know other

13:32

people.

13:33

Heavy rock and roll music like Jefferson Airplane

13:35

wasn't joe Anne's thing still isn't.

13:38

But she wanted the job. She had

13:40

a guy at Rutgers to impress.

13:42

It was my turn.

13:43

I got up there, I bent my knees a little bit,

13:45

grounded myself and sang

13:47

it with all I had, shaking the mic because I

13:49

was nervous. They cleared

13:52

the room and said, who are you? You

13:54

didn't know this song and you sang it like that.

13:57

There was no second audition. She

13:59

killed it. Joeanne was now the lead singer

14:02

in a rock band.

14:03

They hired me on the spot, and that

14:06

was the Bluesberry Jam.

14:09

They played all over Boston, becoming a favorite

14:11

of the college age class, cutting hippie set.

14:14

We would be at the Boston Common, which

14:17

was, you know, sort of a big lawn

14:21

that was like, you know,

14:23

endless the day of the locust

14:26

of people, and I would look

14:28

at them and they would say, go ahead, go ahead, go

14:31

on, Joe. And so my first song

14:33

singing with them was people get Ready

14:36

by the Chambers Brothers. And then

14:38

I was doing led Zeppelin and all kinds of things

14:41

that I knew nothing about. I just listened

14:43

to the record and sang it.

14:47

My coincidence, Bluesberry Jam

14:49

just happened to feature a tall blonde guy, a

14:52

short guy with olive skin, a thin, dark

14:54

haired guy, and a beautiful blonde woman.

14:57

Now they had Joe Anne a brunette

15:00

front.

15:05

We all looked the part of the Archies,

15:08

but I wasn't thinking about that.

15:10

Then a few months

15:12

into her tenure in Bluesberry Jam, an

15:14

offer came their way.

15:16

What happened was Craig, who

15:18

was the drummer. He

15:21

told us one day that we're going

15:23

to audition for a

15:26

higher paying job. He didn't

15:28

say very much about it. He just said, we have to learn

15:30

certain songs, bubblegum songs,

15:33

silly but cute. But I didn't care.

15:35

I just loved singing.

15:37

After getting their set in shape, they piled into a

15:39

van and headed west to their big audition,

15:42

an audition being held by Delta

15:44

Promotions.

15:45

We went to Detroit and we got the job.

15:48

I knew for sure that Delta

15:50

Promotions were the business

15:53

people behind our

15:56

work, and we found out that we were going to

15:58

be the touring of the Archies.

16:02

Because the Archies didn't actually exist, it

16:05

made sense to a nineteen year old Joanne that they'd

16:07

need a touring version.

16:10

You know, I didn't think anything of it.

16:12

I knew that I had nothing to do with the records,

16:14

and we all did.

16:21

Joanne got her wish for stardom. She

16:23

became the singer and one of the most popular acts

16:25

on the planet sort of.

16:28

We started touring the country as

16:30

the Archies, and we were elevated

16:33

to like being stars. We

16:35

would travel on a Volkswagen bus or

16:37

we would fly or whatever it is, and we stayed

16:39

in holiday inns and we

16:42

would be on stage whenever there

16:44

was a gig, and it was all children. Baronica,

16:47

I love you. It was like, I'm

16:49

in Hellica. I

16:53

have a resounding in my ear. Baronica,

16:56

Baronica, Baronica, we love

16:58

you, we love you, and I would say, just

17:01

shoot me now. I

17:04

kept saying to my bandmates,

17:07

these kids are like nine and ten. We're

17:09

in hell. We're like on

17:12

an island with children. We love.

17:17

Joe Anne's Archies played for huge crowds

17:19

and mostly children and their parents.

17:22

She was soaking up the spotlight and giving every

17:24

performance her all. It was a new experience

17:26

for Joanne and her bandmates to be traveling all

17:29

over the country playing music and

17:31

getting recognized on the street or in the grocery

17:33

store.

17:34

We traveled around and through

17:37

all the adventures and blow into

17:39

a city and they would be all these posters

17:41

the Arches are here. We looked like

17:43

each of the characters to a tea, which may

17:46

have been the reason why we got the job. We

17:48

would go shopping and people say, oh,

17:51

yeah, the archiesus. So it was

17:53

fun, and we were getting

17:55

paid one thousand dollars a week,

17:58

so that's two hundred dollars a person

18:01

per week.

18:02

They were living the lives of rock stars. I'll be at

18:04

fictitious ones.

18:05

Every one of us in the group were good

18:08

musicians, and what we did

18:10

as the Bluesberry Jam was good

18:13

stuff. But what we did with the

18:15

as the Archies was very

18:18

bubblegum and very bang

18:20

Shang lang and Scooby Doo and

18:23

please don't touch my guitar, bicycles,

18:26

roller skates and you and of

18:28

course the one and only Sugar Sugar,

18:30

which was number one in Malaysia. It

18:32

would not die after a show.

18:35

We would go to the hotel, it

18:37

was still number one, playing everywhere,

18:39

and we were like, God, this song,

18:42

what is it with the song?

18:45

Delta was very specific in their instructions

18:48

for the Archies, no deviations,

18:50

just show up, play the hits and get

18:52

out of town.

18:53

We were told to sing just like the record,

18:56

so we weren't permitted to do any improvisation,

19:00

and you know what is really

19:02

creative music. We weren't permitted to change

19:05

the rhythm. I would have loved to

19:08

have been able to let go and just

19:10

really make music because we were musicians,

19:13

you know, we just weren't permitted to and

19:16

the audience loved it just as it

19:18

was.

19:20

The audiences may have loved it, but Rolling

19:22

Stone didn't. When Ben Fong tore is

19:24

this story on Delta promotions dropped, the

19:27

Archies were singled out.

19:29

It blew the lid. It blew the lid off of

19:31

this.

19:33

The Rolling Stone story brought Delta's Archies

19:35

to the attention of Don Kirshner and his team

19:37

of lawyers, and the Gigs dried up before

19:40

they disbanded. Joe Ane's Archies try to last

19:42

ditch attempt to keep the band together

19:45

and to make the outfit above board.

19:47

Harry emanation Reggie.

19:50

He told me, he said

19:53

we wanted to continue,

19:56

and Craig had spoken to I believe

19:58

it was Don Kershner to try and have

20:01

him legitimize us, and we would split the

20:03

proceeds with him. He'd make money,

20:05

and we would make money, and we would still be

20:07

working. Well, not fifty years later, but

20:09

we would have worked for longer. I

20:12

had quit by then, you

20:14

know, after a while being on the road,

20:17

it just had lost its luster

20:20

for me. But the thing is that Craig

20:24

had evidently approached Don Kirshner and

20:26

said we ought to do this together. Don

20:29

Kirshner, as the story goes, he said,

20:32

if you sing one more song

20:35

under the name the Archies, I

20:37

will sue you. He got crazed.

20:40

He went off and that was the end of that, so

20:43

they broke up the band. I

20:47

had fun, and I love singing.

20:49

I've always loved singing. I

20:51

mean, I don't know what went on with other groups,

20:54

but it wasn't a warm family

20:56

type atmosphere.

20:59

In the years after her stint in the Touring Archies,

21:02

Joanne's time as Veronica continues to follow

21:04

her around, especially Sugar Sugar.

21:07

When I moved to New York, friends of mine

21:10

would pull me up on stage and

21:12

ask me to sing the song and they

21:14

would do harmony with me. And

21:17

after a while I didn't even remember the lyrics

21:19

because that would that waned. But

21:22

you know, I always know the beginning to tell

21:24

people, you know, do you know the song Sugar

21:27

Sugar d D D dah

21:31

honey honey, And

21:34

by then they know yeah, oh yeah, yeah yeah,

21:36

and that's all I have to sing.

21:50

What does Joe Anne think of her time in the Fake Archies

21:52

now fifty five years later,

21:55

Well, when you're.

21:56

When you're nineteen or twenty

21:58

years old, and you are a singer,

22:01

and you know that you're a good singer, and

22:03

you have an opportunity to do it professionally

22:07

and you understand that it's not that

22:10

you were not involved in the record making,

22:13

but that's the way business runs. And

22:16

the takeaway is business

22:20

is not always what it

22:23

seems to be. Delta

22:25

Promotions didn't care what the kids thought at

22:27

all. Just be there, you

22:29

know, And so business and entertainment,

22:32

it is show business and

22:36

you have to really love what you do, no matter what

22:38

you do.

22:46

Joe Anne was a theater kid, joined

22:49

a folk rock band and ended up becoming Veronica

22:51

in the Archies. She

22:55

was suffering from a broken heart, so she

22:57

jumped at a chance to become a rock star. For a while,

23:01

Joanne and her Archie bandmates would return to Boston.

23:04

She still continues to perform today and is most

23:06

likely the only woman in history to

23:08

walk on stage and perform as Veronica from

23:11

the Archies. After

23:13

the break, Don Kirshner dismantles

23:16

Delta Promotions. On

23:34

June twelfth, nineteen seventy, Don

23:36

Kirshner and his army of lawyers filed

23:38

the civil lawsuit claiming trademark

23:41

infringement on his intellectual property against

23:43

Delta Promotions and the Fake Archies

23:45

group. Kirshner threw the book

23:48

at Delta a month and a

23:50

day later, to avoid a lengthy and

23:52

likely very costly trial, a

23:54

settlement was reached behind closed doors by

23:57

both parties lawyers. Kirshner

23:59

had the kind of money Keyho could only dream about.

24:02

It was never a fair fight. Face

24:05

with the might of Kershner Enterprises, Keyhoe

24:08

folded his imposter bands operation and

24:10

quit the music business. Delta

24:12

Promotions was done. Kirshner's

24:19

legal victory over the fake archies didn't

24:21

even make it into the pages of Rolling Stone. Delta's

24:25

band stopped touring and returned

24:27

to Texas in Boston and

24:29

Michigan. Delta

24:32

Promotions a little music management

24:35

company in Bay City, Michigan that tried

24:37

to break into the business with a bunch of fake bands.

24:40

Delta would become a footnote, a name

24:42

and address printed on a promotional photo.

24:45

The four guys from Texas who called

24:47

themselves the original Zombies,

24:52

Delta's roster of bands played for thousands

24:55

all over the country. They played

24:57

on TV, They hustled, They

24:59

packed their gear into vans every night, traveling

25:02

from city to city, each one selling

25:04

Keyho's dream to the world. The

25:08

Michigan Zombies who entered the Delta

25:10

Promotions roster as a promising young band

25:12

called the Excels, were torn apart

25:14

by the accusations against them in Rolling Stone.

25:17

They disbanded shortly after their Zombies tour

25:19

and left Michigan, never able to outrun

25:22

their time borrowing someone else's band name. That's

25:29

how it went for Mark Ramsey too. The

25:31

Zombie's tour would be his only time out on the road

25:34

living the rock and roll life. His

25:36

dream faded, only showing up

25:38

occasionally when he was alone in a

25:40

late night guitar solo. Seed

25:44

Meta, the Texas blues pioneer

25:46

and the guy who brought the Texas Zombies together, stayed

25:49

out on the road, living hard, before

25:52

dying of cancer at just thirty years of age. Seed's

25:56

life was cut short, but the music

25:58

he left behind can still be found if

26:00

you look hard enough. The

26:11

bass play the singer in the Texas Zombies,

26:13

Dusty Hill, passed away in twenty

26:16

twenty one. He held down the low

26:18

end in zz Top for fifty one years. It

26:20

became a rock and roll legend. The

26:23

only living Texas Zombie, Frank

26:25

Beard, remains unavailable for comment. Zz

26:29

tops longtime publicist Bob Merriless,

26:32

something of an industry legend himself, forward

26:35

in my interview request to Frank, Bob

26:38

told me not to get my hopes up. He hasn't

26:40

gotten an email from Frank in

26:42

twelve years. Bill

26:56

Kehoe was a big fish in a tiny pond.

26:59

He had a part Jim Atherton, but

27:02

Big Jim was the same age as the bands they managed

27:05

on the Delta roster and worked

27:07

for Sun Amplifiers and Smoked Pot.

27:10

Jim Atherton isn't named at any legal proceedings

27:12

that followed Delta's collapse. According

27:16

to friends, Atherton left

27:18

Michigan and One on the road working for

27:20

Son and helped build the sound system

27:22

at Woodstock. Bill

27:25

Kehoe was left holding the bag. He

27:28

was a well respected local businessman who

27:30

raised money for charity and ran for public office.

27:33

He organized Bay City's first Saint Patrick's

27:35

Day perade. By nineteen

27:37

seventy, he was a forty year old music

27:39

manager, called a fraud on the front page

27:41

of Rolling Stone, and had just been

27:44

sued by Don Kirshner, one of the titans

27:46

of the entertainment industry. The

27:49

world of rock and roll seems like an odd choice of employment

27:51

for a guy like Bill Kehoe. He

27:54

tried to follow a playbook for success that dates

27:56

back to the beginning of the American music industry,

27:59

one that was rich by guys like Don Kirshner.

28:05

Bill Kejo's messed up dream of managing

28:07

imposter bands lasted less than two years.

28:10

He didn't know it at the time, but he briefly

28:12

managed two future rock and roll legends, and

28:15

he impacted the lives of dozens of young musicians

28:18

hungry for their big break. Keijo

28:20

saw rock and rolls a business from

28:24

his teen dance club in Bay City. He

28:26

helped launch careers and helped destroy

28:28

them. Did

28:31

Bill Keyho have any regrets about all

28:33

this? That's

28:35

one question with a definitive answer.

28:39

On June fourteenth, nineteen seventy, two

28:41

days after Don Kirshner filed suit against Delta

28:43

Promotions, a headline appeared in

28:46

the Bay City Times ban

28:49

promoter quits blasts DJs

28:52

mafia. Already

28:54

in the opening quote, Keyho was

28:56

bringing the drama.

28:58

If you ever hear of Dell to promotions,

29:00

booking and managing groups again, you can

29:03

turn over in your grave because we're

29:05

through.

29:06

That's it.

29:07

I'm finished with this business. The

29:09

reason he was done well, you

29:12

just don't succeed by being honest.

29:15

Keiho agreed that his Zombies, Animals and

29:17

Archies were not the same as the famous bands

29:20

with those names, but said Delta never

29:22

represented to anyone at any time that

29:24

these were the same groups who made

29:27

those records.

29:28

Well, obviously Delta wasn't super above board.

29:31

Keijo was enraged at the dishonesty

29:34

of Rolling Stone, who's reporting

29:36

he called.

29:37

A lie printed by a group

29:40

of people who couldn't get me to give them

29:42

twenty five percent of the archies, so

29:44

they decided to put me out of business.

29:48

Keho claimed it was local promoters who

29:50

misrepresented who the bands were, and

29:52

Delta merely took ten percent cut for any bookings.

29:55

What's more, he claimed in two

29:58

years, I lost twenty thousand dollars

30:00

in the business. One of the groups

30:02

wrecked a bus we bought for them, and some didn't

30:05

pay back the money we advanced them. He

30:07

then launched into a rant about how DJ's

30:09

were immoral scam artists, bands

30:11

were ungrateful opportunists, and the

30:13

mob were taking over music. He

30:16

had some memorable closing words for the

30:18

readers of the Bay City Times.

30:21

Regardless of what others, what have you think?

30:23

At least I can quit knowing I stayed

30:26

honest.

30:30

The true story of the Fake Zombies started

30:33

in Bay City, Michigan, when Bill Keho

30:35

borrowed a song and a band name. He

30:38

found four guys from Texas and then

30:40

five guys from Michigan to live out

30:42

this rock and roll fantasy, and

30:45

he borrowed the name The Animals and the Archies.

30:50

Key Hoosts stayed honest in

30:52

a game where truth had no value.

30:55

He saw the bands he was copying as ungrateful

30:57

and the young bands he created as pawns

30:59

to be shuffled around the country if he

31:01

thought of them at all. In

31:05

nineteen seventy, two years

31:07

after the Fake Zombies controversy faded,

31:10

Bill Keyjo made one more attempt to attach

31:12

his name to the rock history books. You

31:15

see, there was another young band on the Delta roster

31:17

during those halcyon days of the late sixties.

31:21

They were called Terry Knight and the Pack.

31:24

Terry Knight in the Pack would turn into Grand

31:27

Funk Railroad, one of the biggest Michigan

31:29

bands of all time. Grand

31:32

Funk ruled the airwaves in the seventies and sold

31:34

millions and millions of records. You've

31:36

definitely heard their music like this their

31:39

number one single, We're an American Band.

31:51

Bill Keho felt his time managing a

31:53

young Terry Knight in the pack entitled

31:55

him to a piece of the action. A

31:57

Bay City Times headline from July fifteenth,

32:00

nineteen seventy two reads Bay

32:02

City ensues rock band for fifty six

32:04

million in damages, the

32:07

modern equivalent of just under half

32:09

a billion dollars.

32:18

Jams.

32:26

The True Story of the Fake Zombies is a production

32:28

of Talkhouse, Nevermind Media, and

32:30

iHeart Podcasts. Executive

32:33

produced by Ian Wheeler, Melissa

32:35

Locker and Daniel Ralster. Produced

32:37

by Anna McLain and Nick Dawson. Written

32:40

by Daniel Ralston. Score,

32:43

original music and additional audio engineering

32:45

by Robin Hatch. Additional audio support

32:47

by Cooper Mall in Los Angeles and

32:49

Scott Baker in Bay City, Michigan. A

32:52

special thanks to Gary Johnson of the Michigan

32:54

Rock and Roll Legends Museum in Bay City. We'll

32:57

be back with two bonus episodes in the coming week.

33:00

Listen to the True Story of the Fake Zombies feed

33:02

wherever you get your podcasts. The

33:05

True Story of the Fake Zombies is a production

33:08

of iHeart Podcasts, talk Hosts

33:10

and never Mind media. For more podcasts

33:12

from iHeart Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio

33:15

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

33:17

you get your podcasts.