🟦 Episode Description

Bobby Eaton, musician and owner of KBOB 89.9 FM, joins Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley to share his journey from Tulsa’s rich musical landscape to international stages with Natalie Cole and Bobby Womack. He reflects on his deep ties to Black Wall Street, early days with Charlie Wilson and The Gap Band, and the moments that shaped his lifelong mission to preserve culture through music.

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🎧 What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

• Bobby's roots in Tulsa and connection to Black Wall Street
• Early band days and nightlife with Charlie Wilson & The Gap Band
• Behind-the-scenes touring with Natalie Cole and Bobby Womack
• The real story behind “If You Think You’re Lonely Now”
• Launching KBOB 89.9 FM and giving back to Tulsa’s creative community

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🔗 Links & Mentions

• YouTube – Musicians Reveal
• Live365 Radio – Musicians Reveal
• KBOB 89.9 FM
• Eaton Out Band
• Musiciansreveal.com

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📝 Key Takeaways

• Bobby’s music and activism are rooted in Tulsa’s history and resilience
• His friendships with major funk artists shaped his musical voice
• The spontaneity of live music often creates timeless recordings
• KBOB is more than a station — it’s a community platform

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🎙️ Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley features legendary and emerging funk, R&B, and Prince-associated artists. On air since 1982 and now spanning five decades, the show was personally spotlighted by Prince on his website in 2004. He also gifted us the One Nite Alone box set in 2002 — before any other media outlet.

And he got the phone and he say, what you say?

You lonely?

If you think you're lonely now, wait until the night hung the phone up and went and jumped on the piano and started playing this.

This little song.

And all of them joined in, you know what I mean?

And that's how that song came became about.

Did she get royalty check for.

For.

Doubt it?

I doubt it.

Joda.

She got royalty check from it.

Hello, you guys, this is Bobby Eaton, and you're watching Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelly.

Welcome to Musicians Reveal.

Joe Kelly here.

I'm extremely excited because our next guest is an entrepreneur, a musician, a band leader, owner of a radio station, and a community activist.

And he's got all those awards on the back of his wall, so he's been busy.

He earned all that.

And we welcome, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Bobby Eaton.

How you doing, Bobby?

Hey, man, I'm doing fine.

How are you doing, Joe?

I'm doing great.

And, you know, you're at home right now?

Yeah, man, I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma, man.

Where I was born and raised, man.

Right here at home.

Home of Black Wall Street.

Yeah, There you go.

And your family has deep roots in the city, right, with the barbershop and everything?

Yeah, I am.

I'm a descendant of Black Wall Street.

Yeah, my grandfather was down there during that particular time.

Tell us.

People don't know.

And, you know, I know a little bit about it, but tell us about the.

The meaning of Black Wall street and where it was and what it is now.

And Black Wall street was a thriving community.

A few of them had airplanes, and it was thriving.

You know, and it was sad because I. I often think about, wow, what would it have been if they never had burnt it down?

Yeah.

So you have family members going way back.

Did you hear their stories?

Yeah.

Well, you know what I'm gonna tell you.

Growing up as a kid here in Tulsa, we didn't talk about it.

Nobody talked about it.

That was a discussion that wasn't never talked about, because the people who were in it didn't want to talk about it because they didn't want it to reoccur, so they never did talk about it.

So my grandfather had the Community barbershop back in the day.

And whenever a stranger, somebody will come in there and they were talking about Black Wall street, they would just shut up.

They wouldn't talk about it anymore.

Yeah, a lot of pain and anger.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was able to catch the very end because they did.

They rebuilt it, you know, after the massacre, after they burnt it all down and stuff.

They came in.

Blacks came in and rebuilt Black Wall Street.

And I caught the very end of Black Wall Street.

When I was a little boy, I would go to the Rex movie theater and it was all down there and Lattimus Barbecue and you name some other places down there before urban renewal came and tore it all down.

I call it urban removal, you know, so that's what I call it.

And they tore down all the businesses and things like that.

So now we just have a little small segment, a little small portion of Black Wall street down at Greenwood and Archer.

So is that where the radio station.

I'm in Black Wall street, but I'm over on Lansing Avenue, which I call the forgotten Black Wall Street.

You know, it's forgotten.

It was part of Black Wall street, but nobody never talks about Lansing Avenue.

Yeah.

Bobby Eaton's with us.

And let's get into some of your history as a musician, which is really interesting.

And how did you first.

Did you gravitate towards the bass guitar initially?

Well, what happened was I was a kid, man, and I did a couple of talent shows.

And, you know, back in those days, man, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were really hot, man.

And I went on a little talent show in elementary school, and I call myself being Mick Jagger.

And I put on.

You get what I'm saying?

So I put on my mother's wig, right?

Me and some other guys, we grabbed our mother's Nim wigs and we got out there and I did Ain't can't get no Satisfaction, right?

I was doing the James Brown singing I Can't get no Satisfaction.

Wow.

And all the girls were screaming and stuff like, you know, like Rolling Stones, Beetle.

We had Beetle.

We had Beetle boots on and little turtleneck.

Turtleneck dickies and things like that.

And we had that going on, man.

And I said, wow, I kind of like this.

This is kind of cool, you know.

So we did all.

We did a little.

Little show.

I'm talking about elementary school kid, you know, Right.

And I said, wow, I like music, man.

So my grandfather had a trombone in his closet.

Wasn't being played.

So I gravitated to play that trombone, you know what I mean, so I started taking up trombone in elementary school, and so learning how to read notes and things of that.

That nature right there.

Hey, I flunked out in music.

You know, I got.

My.

My band teacher flunked me in music.

Wow.

Why?

Well, man, I was.

I wasn't really into it.

That.

That tough.

I got the trombone, but I wouldn't rehearse.

I didn't learn all my lessons or nothing like that, and, you know, that kind of stuff, so.

And plus, my grandfather cut his hair in the barbershop.

Oh, okay.

You get what I'm saying?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it was one of them kind of things, like that little Bobby, he ain't doing his work.

He.

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

So.

Right, right.

Wow.

You know, that was part of that, man.

And I. I flunk.

Made a big old F. You threw.

Out the manual and did it yourself.

Yeah, because what ended up happening, you know, I used to play football back in the day, and I was pretty good at it, but somehow I gravitated to music, you know, and one particular Christmas, my mother.

I told my mother, she said, what do you want for Christmas?

I said, I want a guitar.

I said, I want a guitar.

So she gave me a guitar for Christmas.

And, man, from that day on, I was about 12 years old, and I said, wow.

So while I was in middle school, I asked a couple of my middle school friends who had guitars and drums and stuff to come over to my house and, you know, let's get together and put a band together.

And that's how it all got started.

How big was the band?

Because I know your current band has a lot of players in it.

Yeah, well, that particular band, man, back then, you gotta understand, we were in middle school and there was probably about five of us, you know, something like that.

You know, I think me on bass, a guitar player, a drummer, saxophone player, maybe a singer or something like that.

So we would just kind of like.

And then we started playing at the school talent shows and things like that, you know, And I was.

They.

They were liking us and.

Yeah, yeah.

And meanwhile, there were two black middle schools.

There was Marian Anderson Middle School, and there were Carver Middle School.

And these two black schools fed Booker T. Washington High School.

They were the feeders for the.

For Booker T. Washington High School.

So once I got up to Booker T. Washington High School is where I really met Charlie Wilson and others right there.

We all got together and formulated our high school band up in there.

Wow.

So, yeah, the brothers Wilson.

Robert.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, what happened?

Gap Band.

Well, it's a long story.

Charlie Wilson was in my band at the time, right.

I had a band that I started called Liberators, which was a big seven, eight, nine piece band.

Charlie was in my band and we, we were in high school playing for our teachers, you know, and people, civic people around.

We were in nightclubs, man.

Wasn't even supposed to be in there playing.

Charlie was sitting at the keyboards, playing keyboards, and I was playing bass and some other of our classmates and stuff playing.

We were supposed to be chaperoned and stuff like that.

But, you know, we were acting like bad boys.

We was asking some of the older guys to buy us drinks and stuff.

They would buy us a drink and set it on the table over there.

And we go over there and sip the drink and get back up on stage.

We're too young, man, you know.

Yeah, we were, we all did stuff like that.

Yeah, we're doing that kind of stuff.

Getting bottles of wine, drinking it and playing on break and stuff, you know.

So we were, we were doing that and we would go to school the next, the next day and the teachers walk in the hall.

They were in the club that night and they said, boy, you guys sure sounded good last night.

You shot.

You sounded real good, man.

Y' all was jamming and, you know, so we were saying thank.

Yeah, we was going to sleep, getting the girls to do our homework and stuff, you know what I mean?

Me and Charlie and all of that.

So from that point on, we just loved music, man.

We just love Charlie and Melvin.

And I was in the class of 72 back then, so I was a year behind them.

So I played with the older guys and Charlie was in my band.

And the Gap Band was a nine piece group at one time before it became the Wilson Brothers, it was nine piece group.

They played across the street at a club called the International.

We were at a club called the Gallery Supper Club.

The Liberators were with Charlie Wilson.

And Ronnie Wilson would come into the Gallery Supper Club, sit back in the back with his arms crossed and just be upset because we had all the people, we had the crowd.

We were young guys, Joe.

It was the young guys and we were throwing in all the people because we were playing all of that new music.

Charlie was singing Stevie Wonder songs and Donny Hathaway music and we were playing Cool in the Gang in Chicago and stuff like that and all of those type of songs, you know.

Shaft and you name it, we were playing it in this club that was jam packed and nobody could get into it.

They were.

Gap Band was across the street and they really didn't have anybody in there at that time.

That was a nine piece Gap Band.

Right.

They had just got off a tour with Leon Russell.

Oh, okay.

Because they went on tour with Leon Russell.

Leon took them out as his band on tour, you know, so they were opening up for Rolling Stones and other people like that.

So.

But, but, but what happened was Ronnie decided to take Charlie from my band.

And that's what he did.

He offered Charlie 50 more dollars to come across the street and join his band after he got through playing with my bed.

Because we were kids, we had to get to bed so we could go to school.

So we did an early set like from 7 to maybe like 9 or 10.

And then Gap Band did a set like from 10 to 3 or 4 in the morning playing at that club.

And what ended up happening, Charlie was going back and forth, back and forth, you know, pushing his organ across the street.

That's what he would do.

Pushed Oregon across the street over there with the Gap Band.

Wow.

His plan, he is playing with the Gap Band.

Meanwhile, my cousin Julia Northington, who lived down in a Langston University, was the band director down there for Langston University, which is a HBCU down there.

He got another job at Central State University up in Ohio.

So what did he do?

They gave him some scholarship money to recruit students out of Oklahoma or wherever.

He recruited the Liberators, My whole band.

Wow.

So he recruited.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He recruited a whole band.

And we went off to Ohio.

So we went off to Ohio, to Central State.

And at that time you had, you had all of those Ohio bands up there in Ohio.

Lakeside, Rogers, Zap Slave, you know, everybody was up there, man.

Ohio Players.

Everybody was up there.

And we were going to school up there.

So we left Charlie behind.

Charlie didn't go with us.

Charlie had gotten married and stayed behind, joined the Gap Band.

And while he was with the Gap Band, we was up in Ohio.

We was up there playing, man.

We were kicking it.

Well, we was kicking it without Charlie.

But we wish we had that voice.

We lost that voice.

But.

But at the same time, we broke up, came back.

I came back to Tulsa and when I got back to Tulsa, the Gap Band was kicking it hard, man.

By that time, Robert Wilson had joined the Gap Band playing bass at 14 years old.

And they were, man, and they were just kicking it real strong and heavy, man.

And I was like, wow, man, he's.

Man, Charlie, man, y'.

All.

Man, y' all sounding great.

So we all remain friends because we all knew each other and grew up together and stuff like that.

So they decided to take off to LA because, you know, Leon had let them go, you know, and he didn't want to deal with craziness no more.

So he let them go and they went off to California.

And I was playing with another band in Tulsa.

I had joined another band.

And I decided all of a sudden, Charlie had called me.

He said, hey, man, Ike and Tina Turner need a bass player.

I said, what y' all doing, man?

He said, man, we in the studio with Ike, me and Robert in the studio with Ike, working, doing songs and doing tracks and stuff.

I said, really?

He said, yeah, man, Dooney gonna come back home.

Dooney is Mitchell Dooney Edwards.

He gonna come back home, man, and maybe you could ride back with him.

So Dooney came back.

Dooney was a drummer who helped bring them out there.

So he was a good friend of ours, too.

He played drums with the Liberators.

And he came home and I said, hey, man, let me catch a ride.

And that was it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Caught a ride and came on back to la.

How was I?

Cantina in the studio, man, this was.

It was crazy, man.

It was.

It was kind of wild because when I got there, I could ask me, did I have any place to stay?

And, you know, I came out there.

Charlie introduced me to Ike Turner, and I didn't have no place to stay.

So Ike put me up, you know, he put me up.

You know what I mean?

I guess he liked the way I played and stuff and put me up.

And they were arguing and fussing and fighting and all of the madness was going on.

Just like, you kind of saw some of the stuff in the movies, right?

You know, sex, drugs, rock and roll, man.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, they.

It was right.

I guess, right before she took off in.

In as soon as MTV started playing the.

Her videos, right?

A little before that.

Yeah, that's what it was.

It was right.

Right at that time, you know?

And I'll never forget the day when his secretary, which was one of the Ikes, she came over, Ann Thomas, she came over and gave me.

She said, hey, here's a check right here, you know, you're gonna have to move out and you're gonna have to go, you know.

And I left, man.

And that's when I. I ended up with Charlie.

Still hanging out with Charlie.

We still boys and Me and Robert and all of us still boys, Oklahoma Crew, you know, we would all get together.

And by that time, they had joined the Total Experience Records and nightclub.

You know what I mean by Lonnie Simmons, you know?

And so they were with Total Experience Records.

And one day we were sitting in the club, the nightclub, during the daytime.

And the guys, the workers were in there cleaning up.

They were cleaning up.

They're cleaning up the club.

So we were in there drinking Lonnie Simmons alcohol, you know, sitting in there, you know, going behind the bar, drink.

Me and Charlie sitting in there.

And all of a sudden, Lonnie came in.

Lonnie Simmons, he came in there, hey, man, what y' all doing, man?

What y' all doing?

You know what I mean?

And we sitting up there, we got his alcohol sitting all on the table.

We drinking.

We drinking it, man.

And he said, hey, man, I gotta find a bass player for my group called, you know.

He had a group that was called the New Experience, who opened up for all of these acts at his nightclub.

This New Experience was opening up for, like, Billy Preston, the Moments, the Stylistics, Rufus and Shaka Khan, New Birth.

And the list goes on and on, man.

Ltd, all of these groups.

The New Experience was a singing group, kind of like the Temptations, but they were good looking young men, and they were Lonnie Simmons group, the New Experience.

He said, man, I gotta find a bass player for the New Experience, man.

I don't know.

I don't know who that's gonna be, man.

I'm looking.

So Charlie looked at me and I looked at him.

Charlie say, here's a bass player right here.

He said, man, can you play bass?

I said, yeah, man, I play bass.

He so he gave me a phone number to this guy named Bob Farrell.

He said, man, we'll call this dude right here, tell him, get with him and y' all rehearse and get the music down, because the New Experience got a show coming up this weekend.

So I made a phone call and this guy named Bob Furrow, a white guy who was a director of a black band, you know what I mean?

All.

You know, the whole black band, the New Experience, he came and picked me up, took me to his house up in Hollywood, and we rehearsed.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

The New Experience is music.

And learn that music, man.

And it was on from there.

Yeah.

How did you roll into Natalie Cole's band and that Orbit?

Okay, well, being with Natalie Cole, I was playing with a gentleman named D.J.

rogers.

Now D.J.

was D.J.

rogers, man.

D.J.

rogers was with RCA Records and he was with the Total Experience first before he was with rca and he was with Total Experience Records.

DJ Rogers was like the underdog in the music industry, man.

He was like the guy on the football team who just didn't learn all the plays, but he was better than the guy out there who running the ball, you know what I mean?

So DJ was kind of that can.

He was born and raised in the church.

He studied up under James Cleveland and all the gospel artists.

But, man, he was a powerhouse on stage and had a powerful voice.

So me and him.

Me and him and some other guys were in the group.

Let's see in that group, man, it was some powerhouses.

And his.

In his band.

Because the New Experience band consisted of Patrick Moten.

Patrick Moten wrote and produced Anita Baker, and he wrote songs for Bobby Womack and others like that if you think you're lonely now.

And he played for Tina Turner as her keyboard player.

And he was the keyboard player in the New Experience.

Michael Wyckoff was with RCA Records, you know what I mean?

And he played the keyboards with D.J.

we were all playing with D.J.

and Geno Henderson played the guitar.

He ended up playing with Billy Preston and the Pointer Sisters and Mitchell Dooney Edwards played the drums.

And we were all in that Total Experience band.

And we were playing with D.J.

and Natalie came and heard D.J.

play.

And what ended up happening was after she heard me play with dj, I was staying with Michael Wyckoff and his wife.

And I was sleeping on the sofa, man, you know, eating whatever I could eat.

Just kind of hustle.

Michael gave me a place to stay.

And Michael got a phone call.

Michael Wyckoff, the did.

He got a phone call.

And it was from Natalie's road manager saying, asking Michael did he want a job playing with Natalie.

And Michael said, yeah, we didn't have it.

We had.

We had quit DJ by then and we wasn't playing working with Total Experience anymore.

I had went off and wrote a couple of songs at RCA for the Memphis Horns.

You know, I wrote for the.

I wrote some songs for them.

And I didn't have a job just writing songs.

We were all writing songs.

And so Michael was talking to the road manager and he said.

He said, hey, man, you want to come play for Natalie Cole?

Michael said, oh, yeah.

Now you gotta understand, at that time, Natalie was on.

She was number one on the charts, man.

She was.

She was knocking it down.

And she was just at a whole nother level.

And he said, yeah, he.

So they said they were going to fly Natalie's music director and a drummer in, and they were going to go to Sir Studios and rent a room where they could rehearse studio instrument rentals.

And that's just what they did.

So Michael, he said, go out and learn all the Natalie Cole music you can, Michael.

So Michael went out and I went with him and picked out all this Natalie Cole music.

And then when he got back, the phone rang again, and he says, hey, man, where's the bass player, Bobby?

Where's the bass player at, Bobby?

He said, man, he's right here.

They put me on the phone and he said, hey, man, how would you like to go come play with Natalie, you and Michael?

I said, oh, yeah, I can do that.

You know what I mean?

I can do that.

So me and Michael got in the room and woodshed.

All we did was practice, practice, learn all her music.

Back then, you know, they had them little Sony Walkmans and stuff.

Yeah, yeah, I remember those.

Yeah, A little Sony Walkmans and a little headphones on.

And wherever you go, we will just, you know, going over Natalie Cole music and we just learning everything we could.

So the music director and the drama flew in.

So the four of us got together and they had an engagement in like a couple of days, man.

It was just like in a couple of days they had an engagement and we had to be ready, you know what I mean?

So we got into the rehearsal for that length of time, and I think we flew out on a Friday morning.

It was like we rehearsed on all day that Thursday, and we went out on a Friday morning and we arrived in Memphis, Tennessee.

And, man, I. I didn't know that Natalie had a limousine for the band.

I'm so used to riding in the van, you know what I mean, with other.

Other cats.

But she was high class, man.

And then I looked up, man, and, wow, man, we had rooms to ourselves and things like that.

I'm like, man, this is foreign to me.

And.

You know what I mean, Joe?

It was like, this is.

This is really upscale, right?

And so we checked into the Hyatt Regency there in Memphis, you know, and the band members came down to the room.

We had little amps and little keyboards and stuff like that.

And we got inside the hotel room and just started going over some of the music, right?

And they going over.

Drummer had a little drum pad.

His name was Ted Sparks, and he had drum pad.

We was going over this music because.

Going over over and over and over, just like drill sergeant you know what I mean?

And so we had to go do a sound check.

They said, well, we're gonna do an early sound check.

And I said, okay, I'm nervous now.

I'm like, wow, man, this is at another level, nervous.

We get there at 12 noon.

Normally they have sound check about 2 o' clock or 3 or something like that.

But this time, they had a sound check at 12 noon.

And we went to this big old auditorium.

All these empty seats, man.

Empty seats.

Just thousands of thousands of seats.

Big old sound system and stuff.

So we went up and we went up in there, plugged up, we started rehearsing the show.

And they started smiling.

People in the band started smiling.

And they said, ah, this is gonna work.

Yeah, this is gonna work.

And from the.

And all of a sudden, here comes Natalie.

She comes out there and she says, hey, Bobby.

Hey, Michael.

How y' all doing?

Welcome.

Let's take the show from the top.

And we just started playing the show, and she started smiling, too.

And they started laughing, and they stopping in the middle of the middle of the rehearsal.

And I'm like, why they stopping?

Because they was liking what they were hearing, right?

Oh, and from there on, man, that first gig, man, it was just, like, crazy that night, because what had happened was we were in the dressing room and Pebo Bryson was opening up the show.

Okay, right?

He.

People was opening up the show.

So we in the dressing room that night, still going over music, going over the show.

Ted Sparks, the drum is saying, hey, man, look here, pay attention to me and Linda Williams, you know, Aziza, pay attention to us.

You know what I mean?

And you're gonna be all right, man.

You're gonna be all right.

Don't focus on nobody else in the band but us.

And I said, okay, all right.

I'm gonna focus on that.

So people, Bryson is out there, he's killing them with Feel of Fire and stuff.

Feel the fire.

He just singing.

And women is just screaming and hollering and breaking on down.

And I said, wow, man, this is crazy.

So they knock on the door.

They say, 30 minutes till showtime.

Getting nervous now.

My knees is knocking.

You know, the knees is knocking, Joe.

Yeah.

And I'm like, oh, man, this is crazy.

You know what I mean?

So they say, okay, 15 minutes till showtime.

They was knocking on the door.

Now, I hadn't been in this type of environment on this magnitude, on this level before now.

When I was with dj, we used to open up for people every once in a while, but it wasn't at this magnitude and so after that, what happened was they said, natalie, want to have prayer?

So we went all out in a big old circle, and, you know, they was praying for me and Michael Wyckoff that we memorize the show.

It was dark backstage.

They had flashlights and all of this stuff going on.

And so as we approach the stage, man, the screams were so loud that you can't even hardly hear yourself talk to the other musicians because the screams are so loud.

And all of a sudden, we got up there, plugged up.

I plugged up, and this guy, he came up to me and he says, hey, my name is Zach.

I'm your roadie, man.

I'm gonna watch you.

Here's some.

Here's some water.

Here's some tiles.

I know what your settings are like on your SVT amplifier right here, and I know what your settings are like and how you like it.

I've got them written down.

And, man, just have a good show.

If you need me, just look over there at me.

I'm saying, wow, I got a row.

A roadie.

Yeah, you know, I got a roadie.

There's a road crew here.

So all of a sudden, announcer say, ladies and gentlemen, Natalie Cole.

And the crowd just went crazy.

We started off playing Joe, and they started smiling.

Everybody got smiles on their face.

And all of a sudden, you know what I mean?

Every guy smiles on their face.

And during the show, Natalie would feature all of her musicians in the band.

There was a segment where you got a chance to.

To play, you know.

Yeah, solo in the group.

And so it got around.

It got around.

The keyboard player, she do her solo.

Yeah, the.

The keyboard players do his.

The drummer do his.

And he got around, and he was getting around close to me.

And I said, man, all these people out here, what am I gonna do?

What kind of solo am I gonna play?

Am I gonna play with my fingers?

Am I.

Am I gonna thump it?

You know what I mean?

I said, man, I'm just gonna thump the hell out of this base.

You know what I mean?

It got around to me.

I thumped that base.

I started playing, thumping.

And the crowd just went crazy like that.

The crowd went crazy.

And then after the show, from then on, we became like family, man.

And for several years, we just became family, man.

And I traveled the world with her several times, different places.

Me.

And the background singers were friends and the band was friends, and, you know, some people were coming and going, but, hey, I was still there.

And with Natalie Cole, she took me around the world, man.

And TV shows, you name it, man, we did a lot of stuff, man, together.

Yeah, you, you've.

You've been on the biggest stages and.

Yeah, when you're speaking of those bass solos, when, when bands break it down like that, the bassists and the drummers usually get the, the most response, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, we got the response, me and Ted Sparks.

We were like married, man.

We were.

We.

The two of us was like this, man.

2.

Two peas in a pod, right?

Hey, let's go into your, your endeavor owning a radio station.

K Bob, right?

Yeah, man.

89.9 kbob.

Yeah, man, it's.

You can get it online.

You know, we stream to Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, you know, all streaming platforms, man.

You know, I'm back here in Tulsa, oklahoma.

I've got 13 radio shows over here.

Yeah, I was looking at the program and it's, it's really great.

And, and you had, then you had a huge star on your, your own show recently, Eddie Levert, Right, man.

Yeah, man, that was a great interview, man.

I interviewed Eddie Laverta, the OJs.

And you know, he.

Man, I was playing OJ music.

I, I grew up playing OJ's music, you know, backstabbers and all of that.

And we had a great conversation, man.

You people can go back and look at it on YouTube.

All they got to do is Google KBOB, 89.9 FM, Bobby Eaton show with Eddie Lavert, and, you know, you can check it out.

Yeah, yeah.

How's he doing health wise?

He's doing better, man.

You know, he's, you know, it comes with age, man.

You know, the older you get, the more you're not able to jump around and holler and scream, you know what I mean?

Like you used to do.

I can't do it all that much more.

No.

In my band, you know, so.

Right.

It's.

It's a, you know, it's an age thing.

You know, that's.

The roadie has to include a chair beside the towels and the water sometimes.

Yes, you do, man.

You know, I, When I do my band and we do our shows because we play on the big stages and, man, after a show, man, I just got to sit down, man, and take a seat, you know, and rest up for a minute and get some energy to get back to moving again.

Yeah.

You.

You played the music festival.

There's a big one out your way in May, right?

Huh?

You did a big music festival in May, right?

Oh, yeah, they have a big music festival here called Mayfest and Mayfair.

Thousands of people come and I was Just shocked, man, that all the community and people who knew me came out, man, to hear my band.

You know, they were out there in lawn chairs and.

And, you know, when the lady got off the stage, her name was Caitlin Butts.

She's a country and western star.

When she left, then all the crowd came and they were out there to see the Eating Out Band.

That's my band here in Tulsa.

Thirteen piece band.

I got a horn section, you know, a rhythm section and a few singers.

And you guys are looking sharp.

You know, everybody's coordinated with the.

I seen you with the white.

Oh, man, we do it all.

Yeah, we do the all white thing.

We were all white.

We run around the stage and we perform and we do a lot of old school classics, man, back in the 70s and 80s music, you know, we play that because it's kind of.

It's not.

Well, it's kind of lost because they're not.

People are not doing that today.

Yeah, nothing beats going to a show, seeing a live band and going home.

And as far as a fan, that, that, that legal high that you get from seeing great performances, man, it's.

Oh, man, you know, I get that high, man, whenever I play these songs, man, because thank God, man, I'm able to still play the bass guitar.

You know, some of us in the industry have went on and passed on, you know, to glory, and I'm still able to get out here and play and talk to old friends and, you know, and people like Charlie Wilson are still carrying a torch out there, you know, and, you know, I just, you know, I correspond with a whole lot of groups and people who are in the industry who are still doing it.

Yeah, I mean, it's.

It's encouraging Charlie sounds.

He's almost had two different careers with the.

With the Gap Band and then the solo work.

He sounded great.

I saw the NPR small desk performance.

Oh, man, the tiny disc performance.

You know, one thing about Charlie is instead, it's the voice.

You know, you could put that voice on a car.

He's on a cartoon character, you know, called Gracie on YouTube.

And, you know, Charlie Wilson, man, you know, you.

It's just that voice, you know, it's just so unique.

And I heard that voice before the world heard the voice before anybody actually heard Charlie Wilson's voice.

That voice was with us back in old liberator days and.

Yeah, the high school days and, you know, back in those days, you go.

Back to Charlie pushing the organ across the street into the next club.

Yeah, man.

Yeah, that's a cool Story.

Yeah, he would push that.

Push that organ across the street when he finished up with us because Ronnie really didn't give him too much of a choice, you know.

Right.

And then, yeah, they started drunk when.

When Robert got there and Charlie got there with the Gap Band across the street, the Greenwood, Archer and Pine Street Band, which stands for the Gap Band, you know, and through a typographical era, that's how the Gap Band became, you know.

Okay.

The Cap Band, Greenwood, Arch and Pine street were the main streets in Black Wall Street.

The last time I saw the Gap Band was in Brooklyn, New York, and outdoor festivals.

The Gap Band and the Time were more staying the time.

And the Gap Band ran a little over into the Time set.

So when we went to hang out with the Time after, it was a little, you know, they weren't too talkative, you know, but they were all friends.

It's just a scheduling thing, so.

Yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead.

Well, I mean, you know, Gap Band was Gap Band, you know, that's all I could say is Robert, Ronnie and Charlie, they were who they were.

And, you know, they, you know, they did what they did.

The two Wilson brothers are gone now.

Ronnie and Robert are no longer with us, man.

You know, and I miss those brothers right there, you know, and they're no longer with us.

And we had some great times together, man.

We did.

We.

We never did disconnect, you know, you didn't.

You know, me and Raymond Calhoun was just talking about, you know, Raymond played with the Gap Band for years.

Yeah, the drummer.

Yeah, yeah, drummer.

And we were just talking about days with the Gap Band and days with Yarboro and Peoples, and, you know, recently we just lost Cave in Yarbrough.

Right.

And.

And, you know, time brings about a change, and we all got some.

Some memories and some history together.

You know, me and all of these musicians, man, I. I know a lot of them, man.

Yeah.

You know, it's always cool eavesdropping on, you know, when the musicians hang out backstage.

And like you said, they're trading tales.

Hey, you remember this?

And this guy?

And, you know, oh, man, all of it gotta be fun, you know, I can.

All of Those guys with D.J.

rogers, a lot of them have went on the Glory, man.

You know, and they did some iconic things in music and in an industry, you know, Michael wyckoff, Patrick Moten, D.J.

rogers, you know, all of them, man.

You know, they were awesome, man.

You know, because I played with.

I played with Bobby Womack and because Patrick Moten was his band.

Director, you know, and I played, you know, when I wasn't playing with Natalie, I could play Womack, you know, and, you know, just.

We were just networking with each other, you know, on and off here and there, doing some stuff, you know.

Did you do.

Did you do a tour with Bobby Womack and Sly Stone and Jocelyn Brown?

No, I only did dates with Womack when I wasn't playing with Natalie.

Natalie, get off the road.

Patrick.

Patrick Moden would say, hey, man, you want to do a couple of dates, like in Seattle or somewhere like that?

And I say, yeah, man.

So I go play with Womack, you know, for a little bit.

Come on back, you know, and go back out with Natalie, you know, let's talk about before.

Before we bid.

Yeah, go ahead.

You go ahead.

No, I was just saying, you know, we would interact with each other.

You know, me and Patrick Moden were songwriters, and we were.

And he wrote the big hit, like I said earlier, if you think you're lonely now, and he produced that on Bobby Womack.

Yeah, I remember having the.

That's a funny.

Yeah, that's a funny story to how that song became a hit, you know, Patrick was in the studio with Womack, and they were in the studio cutting some tracks, and all of a sudden, Patrick's girlfriend kept calling him in the studio, and he kept telling her, hey, look here, I'm working.

I'm in the studio.

I can't come home right now.

And he hang the phone up.

And she called back.

He said, hey, look here, I'm in the studio.

You don't get it.

You don't really get it, and hang up.

And the guys in the band was laughing and cracking up at him.

As soon as the phone would ring again, they knew it was her.

It was laughing.

And he got the phone and he say, what you say?

You lonely?

If you think you're lonely now, Wait until the night hung the phone up and went and jumped on the piano and started playing this.

This.

This little song.

And all them joined in, you know what I mean?

And that's how that song came.

Became about.

Did she get royalty check for.

For.

I doubt it.

I doubted Joda.

She got a royalty check from it, you know, but it was so funny how that came about.

And, you know, Patrick produced Anita Baker's first record, too.

Angel.

You know, I love that song.

Yeah, yeah, Angel.

He produced that as well.

So he was a.

He was, man.

He was an iconic genius behind scenes.

And so these guys that I work with, man, with some.

It was some bad, bad dudes man.

Only instruments.

They love the music, and I love music.

And at my age right now, I'm 71, and at my age, I'm still going, man.

Still.

Yeah, I was gonna say you're.

You're busier than ever.

Yeah, man, I'm busy, man.

This radio station got me going.

I'm playing music in my band.

I'm traveling, I'm doing things.

I'm just.

I'm just.

I'm just active, man.

I haven't.

Haven't really slowed down.

Hey, before we bid you Ado, Bobby, I gotta ask you the array of gold and platinum records behind you, what's going on there?

What are those records?

Oh, man, these are Natalie Cole records, man.

Those are records that I got awarded with Natalie Cole.

And one of them is Natalie Cole and Peabo Bryson, you know, that I worked on because they did a project called we're the Best of Friends, which was a gold album.

And I got a Natalie Cole live album up there that I did with her playing.

I played bass on Natalie Cole Live.

You know, some Natalie stuff, man.

You know, some Natalie memories and stuff like that.

And I've got a lot of awards that you can't see that are over here on the shelf over here by my friend Evan Clayburn.

That's right.

We gotta give props to Evan for.

For documenting this through you.

And look out, It'll be on YouTube, I assume, right?

Oh, yeah, man.

I'm.

I'm doing a little documentary, telling my story, man, you know, and trying to keep some of those memories alive.

And it's important that we record all this stuff like what you do.

I mean, look at what you're doing, man.

You're doing some great work.

I love it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate.

And luckily we, last summer we did an interview like this because we didn't know he got sick.

It was very sudden, brothers.

He's gone now.

Yeah, yeah.

Great musician, man.

Oh, man, you know, real great, great songwriter.

Yep.

So listen, we will have all the links in our description on YouTube for KBOB and also eating Out Band and also go check out Eating Out Band and listen to KBOB because some great program.

I'm sure you, our audience will.

Will enjoy it.

This will be up on YouTube and also Spotify, Apple, and also we'll have this interview with music on our Musicians reveal radio on live365.

So there's gonna be Bobby in everywhere.

Yeah, I appreciate it, Joe, man.

Thanks for having me, man, you know.

Yeah.

Thank the public and the people, you know, for supporting me and others, man, who are out.

They're still going.

Yeah.

We'll continue to do it until we can.

No more.

All right.

Thank you very much, Bobby.

Take care, man.

All right.

Peace.

All right.

Bye.

Bye.

Sa.