HomeMy WebLinkAboutVillage Squire, 1980-01, Page 19PROFILE
Earl Heywood
is still a cowboy
at heart
BY LAURA DRUMMOND
"I'm not going to retire until the good
Lord puts me down."
Looking at 62 year old Earl Heywood
today. you can believe him when he says
these words. He •and his wife, Martha,
work as a team doing shows for fairs and
private parties. Earl is still on CKNX radio,
FM 102 every day at 12:30 noon,
interviewing country artists.
Earl has been described as "Canada's
Number One Singing Cowboy." He has
always sung country music. Other artists
change their style of music to suit the
times. But he says, "I don't believe in
changing horses in the middle of the
stream."
Earl says the entertainment business has
its ups and downs --there are as many joys
as there are disappointments. He recalls
the time when he was 24 years old. Tom
McKnight was the manager of the Patricia
Theatre in London. The manager put Earl
on as a special attraction. Earl sang "South
of the Border" and got a standing ovation
from the crowd. But afterwards, when he
went to Tom McKnight's room, Mr.
McKnight said. "You've got a long way to
go. You were rotten."
Earl could not believe his ears. It was
some time later that Mr. McKnight finally
admitted that he liked Earl's performance
that night. He said he was rotten so it
would not go to his head.
It takes more than a guitar and a voice to
become a well known country singer. It
takes plenty of drive and nerve to get on
the airwaves. And Earl has it. He even
surprised his mother.
In 1942. 25 year old Earl heard about a
barn dance in Hensall that CKNX radio
was broadcasting. He drove over to
Hensall in his Model A Ford while the
dance was in full swing. He walked up to
the platform. Cactus Mac, a well known
performer. said, "Here comes a cowboy."
Earl asked Ross Hamilton, who is now
the president of CKNX. if he could sing.
They said no, because they had no idea
how he sounded. But Cactus auditioned
Earl behind the stage. He approved and
Earl sang that night. He proved to his
Earl and Martha Heywood have been performing as a duo for the last 14 years. --Photo by
Laura Drummond.
mother he did not need an appointment to
get on stage.
Doc Cruikshank. who was the founder of
CKNX, paid him a dollar for his
performance. and asked him to play
requests every Saturday on the radio. Since
records were not popular yet, Earl received
boxes and boxes of requests.
Earl was always a fan of the star, Gene
Autry. Autry was the first singing cowboy
in Western movies --before Roy Rogers.
Earl says, "We used to have men like
Gene Autry as an idol. Autry would not
drink or kiss a girl on television. Autry set a
good example. Kids still need an idol.
Today kids idolize the "Hulk" --a man who
turns into a gorilla and throws cars. That's
fiction. We need a new country idol.
Cowboys are real and down to earth."
Down to earth as country music is,
country music took a hard blow when rock
and roll music came in. In the early fifties,
Earl was the Canadian editor of the
magazine, "Country Song Roundup." The
circulation dropped and the magazine went
from being a monthly to a bi-yearly
magazine. The company started to publish
a rock music magazine instead.
Earl lost a singing partner Bill Hailey to
rock and roll. The io bad appeared
together singing cc, • ry atusic on a
television show in Philadelphia. Mr. Hailey
January 1980, Village Squire 17.