Goldsboro Brings Hits, Paintings to Center

Musician, television star and artist Bobby Goldsboro will bring his hits and his art to Lindenwood University's .

Goldsboro will perform at  8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, on the stage of the Bezemes Family Theater in the center. Several of his paintings will be on display in the center's Boyle Family Gallery from Feb. 20 through March 13. Goldsboro will attend the opening reception from 1-5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20.

Goldsboro's musical career began in the 1960s, but being a singer and songwriter wasn't his original plan.

"I thought I was going to be in sports. I had no idea I would end up doing this," he said in a phone interview from his home in Florida. When Goldsboro was 10 years old, a neighbor got a ukulele for Christmas. The neighbor he couldn't play it, so Goldsboro picked it up "I don't know why--but I started playing it," he said.

His neighbor couldn't figure out the instrument, so he gave it to Goldsboro. He played it off and on and discovered he had a talent for music.

"I found out that I would hear a song, and I would remember all the violin parts, what the background singers were singing and all of that. I would remember the arrangements as much as the lyrics for some reason," he said. "It's something you can either do or you can't because there's a lot of things I can't do, and that's one of the things I could."

Goldsboro went to college for two years and was in a band at the same time. His future was still undecided until his band was asked to back up the legendary Roy Orbison. 

"We hit it off, and Roy and I became like brothers, and I traveled with him for two-and-a-half years on the road," Goldsboro said. "That really opened my eyes to the whole music scene, and I probably learned more from him in those two-and-a-half years than I've learned since."

In 1964, Goldsboro began his solo career, which resulted in 16 Top-40 hits and 29 consecutive singles on the Billboard charts. His hits include "See the Funny Little Clown,” “Watching Scotty Grow,” “Little Green Apples” and "With Pen in Hand."

Goldsboro's signature hit came in 1968 with "Honey," a song about a man dealing with the death of his wife. It spent five weeks atop the Billboard singles chart. Over the years, it has been both beloved and derided.

"It's funny, it's been on the '10 Greatests Songs Ever Recorded List' and the '10 Worst Songs Ever Recorded List,'" Goldsboro said. "It is the kind of song that, if it doesn't get you it doesn't get you, and I can understand that. I'm the same way about certain songs that I've heard that don't really thrill me, and they were big hits. It never bothered me if somebody didn't like it, because there were many other people that did."

Television has also been an important part of Goldsboro's career. For three years he fronted The Bobby Goldsboro Show, a variety show that ran from 1973 to 1975. 

"We had our highest ratings after the third season, but by that time I realized I wasn't getting to write anymore, I wasn't getting to spend as much time at home," he said. Goldsboro thought the show had hit its peak. He didn't want to wait until it started losing ratings, so he stopped after the third season.

His other contributions to television include creating the children's show The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon and providing the music for the CBS comedy Evening Shade.

Five years ago, Goldsboro decided it was finally time to explore his longtime interest in painting. "I thought about painting for 30 years in my head, and I had never tried it until five years ago," he said. 

When he would go on tour he and his wife would often visit art galleries, and he always told her one day he would take up painting. "Finally, she said, 'You keep saying this, when are you going to start painting?' I said, 'When I turn 65 I'll start painting," Goldsboro said.

True to his word, when Goldsboro turned 65 he bought brushes, paints and canvases. Of the 70 originals, almost 50 have sold. He's also sold more than 200 prints. "I would have never dreamed this five years ago when I started painting that I would be selling one much less doing art shows. I'm just flabbergasted by it, and it's probably the most enjoyable thing I've ever done."

Goldsboro is shipping 18 to 20 oil paintings to Lindenwood for the art exhibit. "This is the first time we've done an art show outside Florida," he said. "I don't know of a venue in the country that would be any more perfect than the Scheidegger center. You've got the Bezemes theater, and then you walk out and go into the art gallery. It's the most ideal place for me to play."

Tickets for the Bobby Goldsboro concert range in price from $24.50-$42.50 and are available at the Lindenwood Box Office, 636-949-4433, or online at www.lindenwoodcenter.com. The box office, The Bezemes Family Theater, and The Boyle Family Gallery are located in the Scheidegger Center, 2300 West Clay Street, St. Charles.