Yes, I did it. I chose the wrong place to interview Thomas McClary. You see, everyone who walked into Johnson's Diner that day wanted to have conversation with the well-known member of the Commodores, but he handled it well. You see, being a celebrity is not as easy as one might think. But we got through it despite multiple interruptions.
Thomas "Mr. Brickhouse" McClary is a native of Eustis, Florida. Having been born into a musical family, of four boys (including himself) and four girls, he claims that he's the least musical of them all. Is there anyone out there who believes that? In fact, his family performed on many occasions as The McClarys.
Growing up, young Thomas McClary enjoy baseball and was the pitcher on his high school team. (Side bar: McClary was the first black to integrate the school system in the state of Florida.) Says he, "I wasn't fast, but I was good." He said that he would get thrown out trying to convert a double into a triple. It just wasn't happening.
Eustis had one radio station that only played Country and Easy Listening music, but Thomas would tune in to the Nashville station late at night where most teens of the 50's and 60's listened. That way, he was able to keep up with the blues and R&B of the day. Early on, he was influenced by The Beatles, James Taylor, Elton John, BB King, Wes Montgomery, Carlos Santana and the like. The thing that puzzled his young mind the most was, how Jerry Butler could come out with a hit and be booked at the Elks Club, but Elton John could come out with a record and perform at the coliseum. He, therefore, discovered early that mass appeal was key, and authentication was critical.
Said Thomas, "I remember Zip Miller who was 95 years old at the time. He was the first to show me chords on a ukulele. My brother, Samuel, played all of the instruments, so between the two of them, they gave me my first lessons. When I went to Tuskegee, I was still playing the guitar and tuning it like a ukulele. The boys would tease me because the ukulele influenced my techniques and strumming style. They'd say, 'Man, this is some different kind of funk here.'"
McClary was the founding member of the Commodores. According to him, he was standing the registration line, when he heard this guy behind him whistling an Eddie Harris song called "Listen Here". Turning to him, McClary asked, "Are you a musician?" He told him that he was going to put this band together and they were going to be the "Black Beetles". Tiptoeing as he was expressing his intentions, the guy looked at him and said, "You're serious, aren't you?" The guy was Lionel Richie.
When McClary was at Tuskegee, Tom Joyner was singing with the Duponts. Said McClary, "They sang all the Delfonics stuff, but they didn't have a band. When the two groups got together to go places, they would call it the Commodores-Dupont Show." Depending of what kind of a spin you put on it, one could say that Tom Joyner was a part of the Commodores. It was really as close as one could get, because the Commodores had the band and the Duponts had the singers.
The organizational meeting of the Commodores was held in the basement of Lionel Richie's grandmother's house. At one point the Commodores merged with the Jays. They had a base player named Michael Gilbert who was their singer, but in 1968, he was drafted into the Viet Nam War; therefore, placing them back to square one.
During the summers, the Commodores would go to New York where they met their manager, Benny Ashburn. Ashburn was a friend of Suzanne de Passe who left New York to work with Berry Gordy in the Creative Department. "That was about the time that the Jackson Five was getting ready to come out with their first single," stated McClary, " The single was a 'smash'." As a result, they started going on tours and were invited to the Ed Sullivan Show.
Meanwhile, Suzanne de Passe remembered that Benny Ashburn, her old buddy, was managing a group called the Commodores, and asked Benny if the Commodores wanted to audition to travel with the Jackson Five. The answer was obvious, "Well, Y-e-a-h," said McClary. "We won the audition and for two years, we were the opening act for the Jackson Five. After the two years had expired, we signed with Motown." As a result of signing with Motown, the Commodores, had great opportunities to talk to Marvin Gay, Smokey Robinson and Quincy Jones who often gave valuable advice regarding the industry.
Motown initially wanted to go with all the musicians and singers that had gotten hits. They had writers who wrote for the people they signed, but McClary and his group told Berry Gordy that they wanted to write their own songs. Being very adamant about it, Gordy finally said, "I've never seen a bunch of guys with such strong convictions." He agreed to let them write their own material saying that if they did not come out with a hit, Motown would just write it off.
The first album that the Commodores popped out was "Machine Gun" and it went gold. Motown had never sold a gold album in the history of the company--they had gold singles, but no gold albums.
At that time, the Commodores were still unsure of whom their lead singer would be. Lionel Richie was mainly playing saxophone, he started singing on the Jackson Five tour, but it was more or less a cover song. Said McClary, "We would do 'Wichita Lineman' by Glen Campbell, but we would 'blackenize' it. We would take James Sill and Three Dog Night songs and 'Commodorerize' it. People would say, the melody sounds familiar, but it has a funky arrangement. We had to do something to give writers reason to write about us.
"We started touring after our first album, and actually broke the Beetles' attendance record in the Philippines, which was unheard of," said McClary. 'Machine Gun' written by Myron Williams, broke all kinds of record sales in Nigeria and the Orient. As the Commodores were touring in 1974 in Manila during the time Mohammed Ali had the "Thriller in Manila", Ferdinand Marcos was the president and ordered the military to escort them from the airport, because the crowds were unbelievable. When they got to the hotel--Ali, who was staying in the same hotel, hung over the balcony and said, "I'm the greatest, who are these guys?"
Although the group's first album had gone gold, they were still like a group without a face, but not for long. "I Feel Sanctified" was released soon after," Slippery When Wet", written by McClary followed. Lionel Richie and Thomas McClary wrote fifty percent of the songs. James Carmichael, the Commodores' co-producer, was the other contributor.
The Commodores also did crossover touring with the Rolling Stones. Their largest crowd was at the Toronto Jam where 500,000 were in attendance. At that point, international tours had become a way of life as they toured the states, Europe and the Orient. Writing on the road became necessary, because by the time the tour was completed it was time to put out another album.
As a group, the Commodores put out 13 albums. All of them went gold at the least; however, most went platinum, double platinum and triple platinum. To top it off, they were the first act at Motown to get their publishing rights. As a result, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Norma Whitfield got theirs. "Berry Gordy was not giving up his publishing rights," said McClary, "and the only way we got ours was because our contract was up. We had a one-album deal with an option. We had sold 500,000 albums, so we had an option to leave." The only thing that kept the Commodores at Motown was that Gordy agreed to let them have their publishing rights.
Today, Thomas McClary has his own foundation, Mr. Brick House Foundation. The funding is earmarked to help needy children. He went to Vancouver, British Columbia to do a fund-raiser on Mother's Day. Those funds will go to kids who have lupus and arthritis. Kids Across America is another organization with which he works. Locally, he works with Doc Rivers' Celebrity Golf Tournament every year to raise money for Shepard's Hope, an event that was held this year on July 16th at Grand Cypress.
Well, in spite of a number of interuptions, the interview finally ended, and I left Thomas McClary behind to face his admirers--but he could handle it.
