This remembrance of Alex Chilton, who passed away Wednesday at the age of 59, was sent in by John "Bucky" Wilkin, aka Ronny of the '60s Nashville surf-rock group Ronny and The Daytonas.
I first met Alex Chilton in 1987 when we were part of an oldies package tour called The Great American '60s Cruise. The headliner was Gary Lewis and his band the Playboys, who backed up the rest of us — namely myself as Ronny and The Daytonas, Alex from The Box Tops, Dennis Yost of the Classics Four, and Sonny Geraci of Climax and the Outsiders.
We toured off and on for two years. It was a well-organized affair, each of us living in different cities and rendezvousing at the gig city. The promoter lived in Minneapolis, the tour manager in Indianapolis. Sonny and Gary flew in from Cleveland, Dennis from Florida, Alex from either Memphis or New Orleans and I from Nashville. The band drove their big truck overnight between cities. Our plane tickets arrived by FedEx the night before and somehow we all met up on time in City X. Nobody got hurt and everybody got paid. A miracle.
