I wonder if Richard had any forgiveness for his dad before he died. It's so nice to see the band let him come up and sing with them the few times that he did. I love this family.
How aweful, Their father was a beast. So glad The Cowsills kept their positive inspiration and support Ed each other,. Thank you Louise, for sharing this video.
I'm 90% sure that I recall seeing a Cowsills lunch box ages ago, when I was a young teen (I'm 66 now) so I agree with Richard. I pretty much agree with everything that Richard says here and elsewhere.
Louise thank you for posting this great footage and sad to hear they had such a rotten father... Rip Billy Barry and Richard and of course Barbara .....
It’s hard to fathom that both of these men have been dead for several years now. Thank you, Louise, for leaving a legacy for them by sharing your experience with them with the world!
Yes Louise, thank you. The work you put into all of this and the results are amazing to me. When seeing some of the TV appearances in their heyday, I'm recognizing some of the episodes. The one where Susan "likes Bill" is very familiar to me. But I don't think I had put together the family band thing with the "Hair" 45 that I bought when I was a kid. I worked with a guy back in the 90s who asked me if I had ever heard of The Cowsills. I told him I had and that Hair was the first record I had ever bought when I was a kid. Used to play that over and over and just laugh and laugh standing by the phonograph. Anyway, it turns out that that he was married to a cousin of the Cowsills. He had never heard of them until they went visiting and one of them said, " say, I think Bob is playing tonight. Should we go see him?" And that's when he found out about the Cowsills. I've had a lot of fun keeping up with them these days. Bought the new CD. Even some of the old vinyl records. I hope that Omnivore re releases the old CDs (especially Cocaine drain and Global) They sure seem to be having a lot of fun these days. Hope things get better and better for them! Thanks again, Louise. 🙂
John and Barry suffered (And not just getting smacked around by Bud.) They always had too much class to give details. Protecting the Cowsill brand. But we know how Cali works. How you get a TV show... There is a cost. Rest well Barry.
It's not the brand they're protecting. They understand that any discussion on their part of the traumas they experienced as children serves only to bring up bad memories and traumas in their other siblings.
I just found out who the Cowsills are. I honestly never heard of them but I ran across a live performance that was played on RU-vid. I really liked it. I start looking into the groups biography. They're definitely very interesting and very talented family. I like that they had different styles of music later in life. I love this interview, Richard and Barry seem like very good people. I know they're were speaking of serious subjects but both had good sense of humor. They have their differences but what siblings don't. How unfortunate that Bill, Barry and Richard had passed away. I honestly would've love to have seen them perform with the Cowsills. My favorite is Barry. Barry seemed like a very likable and talented man. Richard I know didn't sing but still done great on stage with his siblings. I'm glad the remaining Cowsills are doing good and still performing. Thank you so much for this great interview.
I'm not sure either way - but it's clear to me from interviews and such that there has always been something not quite right in his brain and that he was very likely a liability to the band because his behavior was the least stable of any of them. Part of his brain just never seems to have developed past childhood.
@@vgr112261 No, it's clearly NOT ridiculous. You would have to be the most obtuse person on earth not to notice this - oh....wait....that makes you the most obtuse person on earth.
Ha ha ha they were wonderful and funny wish I could have taken away their pain, but coming from a family of 7 kids also with dysfunctions I know all too well … rip Richard and Barry 💕
Yes, every time I see these guys try taking, they constantly interrupt each other. I guess they enjoyed singing because they got to express themselves without interruptions, lol
Once I pumped gas and no gas went in. I didn’t notice until I was several miles down the road. I didn’t get the receipt either. I learned a valuable lesson…
Haha. Chalk it up to distraction but in this case, I went in to buy something and Richard was on pump detail. I think it had been awhile since last he pumped gas. But it was very human.
Hey Louise, I love your videos and documentary and I am a huge Cowsills fan! I was just wondering if you have more footage to upload of them? They are sooooo interesting and I just cannot get enough of them. Thank you so very much for all of your work and research!
I do. I have a ton of footage. It's a lot of working editing pieces to put up and then making sure that The Cowsill sign off on it. But, yes, I will put some more online soon!
I have to admit that my patience grew thin with the Cowsill siblings when it came to hearing Richard's side of the story. Their constant interruptions and denial of his feelings (possibly out of guilt?) drove me crazy.
Before this movie I listen to Howard talk with them and everyone family would talk over each other and half of stuff they talk of good stuff it was half and half I like at least someone in family come out great 👍
The father is not here as well as some of the children so it’s so all in the past now. I think the remaining Cowsills Bob and Paul and Susan are light in their public presentations. And doing great in their shows. In the end, we need to move on and forgive and love.
I really enjoyed this interview. I think Richard and Barry the the two most like me, which is a bit odd because it seems to me they are the two brothers least alike! An advantage which rests with me is I got along with my parents and didn't have a houseful of siblings.
Louise, thank you for your hard work making the documentary, posting these clips and the insights. Do you have a sense of the differences between Billy, Barry and Richard and their lives derailing vs Bob, Paul, John, and Susan who's lives have flourished (with some bumps in the road for sure)? I mean, they all had the same parents, but different outcomes. Thanks again for sharing.
The siblings have a green eye, brown eye theory. They say that the brown eyed kids got Mom's better nature and the green eyed kids got some of Dad's demons.(mental illness, substance abuse, etc.) It's so hard to know but I think it's a study in who we are when we come to Earth and how that interacts with our circumstances.
Its sad about the way they were raised but even sadder the way they turned out.......they seem to all be under the influence of something in almost all the videos Ive seen them in and they talk openly about it and to date 3 of the boys are dead due to the addictions and its so sad at what they could have been,,,,,if they had believed in themselves and surrounded themselves with good people........
There's absolutely no way to know, and it is a creepy thing to think about - because the mind always wanders to the inevitable question of whether his abuse and brutality toward his children, particularly the oldest sons, was a necessary precursor to their pursuit of music and determination to excel at it. So it's a very uncomfortable question to pose.
That was a shame with Barry After Susan relocated to New Orleans Barry fell in love with the city too. unfortunately it took him in Katrina floodwaters Basically bud cowsill turned out to be a Bing Crosby. Beat the hell out of his kids after drinking but acted like everything was perfect on screen Richard of course more like the family promoter never really played any instruments while the rest of the family were musically gifted
No children should have to suffer for what their fathers went through serving our country it’s just a sad situation it’s like my father he covered his time spent in the Navy by drinking and it it really put airy dysfunction in my family as well as my older brother got older my dad would always pick on him and try to build literally saying he was going to mount a hell of beans and all the stuff I know exactly what they’re talking about
Louise I just watched a recent interview with Bob, Paul and Susan where he says that you started coming out to his shows in 2007? to talk to him about doing a documentary. But here's Barry who died in Katrina. And I thought I saw you with them doing the Star Spangled Banner so was Bob incorrect on that date? He must have known you long before that.
@@lonh6744 It's such a good question. Richard volunteered to pump the gas while I went into the shop to get coffee. I assumed that he had, in fact, pumped the gas, since the nozzle was in the car and then returned to the pump. It turned out, as I pulled away and looked down at the meter, that Richard did not know how to pump gas. I was attempting to communicate this to Bob's car as diplomatically as possible. We were following them and this was before GPS was on phones and in cars.
Adult children of alcoholics. Constantly enabling, rationalizing the irrational, excusing the inexcusable. A thoroughly dysfunctional family. Richard provided an outsiders view & opinion of the dysfunction, the Fool in this Tragic Kingdom. He obviously wasn’t taking the official position. Walking wounded, all. Shocking & disgusting.
The Cowsills had brilliant writers and chose good covers. Mom & little girl additions were unfortunate. Fans hated that. Their father was the worst manager ever, and destroyed a band that would have been legendary.
