All Current Photos: Alan Mercer
Photos & Interview done at the Texas Opry Theater in Weatherford
Tony Booth grew up in Tampa, but launched his musical career in the Southwest. As a boy, he showed his talent by winning a contest in New Port Richey, Florida, at age 14. After high school, he attended the University of New Mexico with the intent of becoming a schoolteacher. But he decided to give music a try, and began his music career with the Mel Savage Band. In 1968, after founding the band Modern Country, Booth began working in Las Vegas and from there moved to clubs in California. He renamed the group the Tony Booth Band and became the house band at the Palomino in California.
His band won an Academy of Country Music award, which they would take home for three consecutive years. Tony also received the Most Promising Male Vocalist of The Year from the Academy of Country Music in 1972. That year he scored three Top 20 hits, including ‘The Key's in the Mailbox.’ The next year he had five more hits, including a cover of the Doris Day hit ‘Secret Love’ and ‘When a Man Loves a Woman (The Way I Love You).’
After two singles failed to chart, Tony Booth's cover of Jim Croce's hit, ‘Workin' At The Car Wash Blues,’ made it to No. 22 and the album of the same name won an ASCAP award in 1974. Up to that album, his recordings for Capitol were largely penned by Buck Owens, but by this time Owens was retreating from the music scene following the death of his close friend Don Rich and the net for Tony Booth's material was cast wider.
He went on to tour in Gene Watson's band and played bass and sang backup on many of his mid-1980s albums, and performed the song "Still on the Bottle" for the movie Daddy's Dyin'... Who's Got the Will? In 1990. Over 3000 performances throughout the United States as Narrator and Band Leader of Tommy Tune's "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."
Tony has been a nominee finalist for Song of the Year 2009 from Academy of Western Artists (Is This All There Is To A Honky Tonk) and 2009 Male Vocalist of the Year from the Will Rogers Academy of Western Artists and a 2014 C.M.A. of Texas Hall of Fame Member.
Tony Booth recently traveled to Sweden, Scotland and London with the Heart of Texas Road Show. During the summer of 2016, he traveled to Japan for the "COUNTRY GOLD 2016" with Bucky Covington. Each year, the Heart of Texas Roadshow takes their entertainment on the water for a classic country cruise.
Tony currently lives in Alvin, Texas, with his wife Wanda and family, and appears frequently in the band at the Alvin Opry with his brother Larry. Tony has also resumed touring on his own again, playing mostly in southern states such as Texas and Oklahoma. He signed with Heart of Texas Records in 2006 and has released 10 CDs, as well as two albums with Curtis Potter and Darrell McCall as "The Survivors," traveling all over Texas and Nashville.
Alan Mercer: Tony, you are originally from Florida!
Tony Booth: Yes, I lived on the gulf coast.
AM: And didn’t you win a contest when you were fourteen years old?
TB: Yes, I won that contest when I was in high school.
AM: That’s amazing. Was there ever another path for you besides music?
TB: Yes, I had no intention of being a musician. I fell into it because my stepdad was a steel guitar player. I started singing for the girls, actually. (Laughter) I was a band nerd.
AM: How did you get the girls as a band nerd?
TB: I would take my guitar along on the football trips and got started like that.
AM: What brought you to the University of New Mexico?
TB: My mother had health problems where she needed to move out of the damp atmosphere of Florida to New Mexico or Arizona. I guess New Mexico was closer because that’s where we ended up.
AM: What did you study in school?
TB: I was going to be a music teacher, but one day I saw the pay scale for teachers and it wasn’t too hot so…
AM: That’s for sure! A teacher or leading the house band at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood.
TB: That was pretty cool.
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The Palomino Club
AM: I can’t even imagine how amazing it must have been. That place is a legend unto itself.
TB: Oh yeah, that was the place to play on the West coast and probably the most important club in the country at the time. Everybody who was anybody played there. All the Hollywood crowd would hang out there.
AM: So you met everybody.
TB: I met them all, yeah. Played with most of them.
AM: I love that you won band of the year for 3 years in a row.
TB: Well if you’re playing in the hottest place on earth, it follows that you would win.
AM: What does it feel like to be called the hottest band of the moment?
TB: It was pretty cool. It’s always nice to be recognized.
AM: Was there anyone you didn’t like playing for?
TB: Only two, Linda Ronstadt and Doug Kershaw. Their audiences don’t want to hear anything else but them. Doing an opening act for them was the hardest 45 minutes. It feels awful. I know how feeling unappreciated feels too.
AM: After being high profile for a few years, you decided to go underground. What were you doing?
TB: I toured with ‘The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas’ for two and a half years.
AM: What was that like?
TB: It was really fun! I hadn’t had to read music since I was in high school. It was a totally different world. The people were totally different. A lot of them were rich kids who had never worked a day in their lives or their parents subsidized them through acting and dance school. It was fun! I did feel a little like a brown shoe in a tuxedo store. (Laughter)
AM: I understand. (Laughter)
TB: A masculine type of guy is strange to theater people. If a guy is straight at all, he’s a stud. No matter how wimpy he might be! (much laughter) The first question the girls will ask the other girls is, “Is he straight?” That’s the first thing they want to know. So, yeah, it was fun.
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AM: When did you get inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame?
TB: A couple of years ago. That was pretty nice. Being from Florida, I looked into that situation and they only have a Florida Hall of Fame not Country music. That means you have to compete with big stars.
AM: I know you toured with Gene Watson for a while. I love him. Tell me about working with him.
TB: I toured with Gene for twelve years. I’ve always liked to play bass as much as I like to sing, so that’s what I did for Gene. At one time we had a seven-piece band. Musically, I really had a ball! Of course, Gene is an awesome singer. I am a huge admirer of Gene Watson.
AM: Tony, I know you enjoy Nascar and riding your Harley, do you get a chance to enjoy them much?
TB: Not as much as I want to. I’m just gone so much or else the weather is crummy. So the bike sits in the garage a lot.
AM: All this work you are doing now, touring and recording, you must be doing it because you want to.
TB: I was talked out of retirement by Tracy Pitcox, the guy that runs Heart of Texas Records and my friend, who is now my wife. I was done. Our music was dying out. I wasn’t a guy starving to death. I always had other ways of making money, but Tracy really talked me out of it. I’ve been very fortunate that I haven’t deteriorated yet.
AM: I’m so glad he succeeded in talking you out of retiring.
TB: I am too.
To learn more about Tony Booth visit his web site http://tonybooth.homestead.com/