After health issues and Covid-19 delays, Dr. Hook singer Dennis Locorriere is relishing finally having the chance to celebrate the band’s legacy.
The 72-year-old founding member was scheduled to tour the world to mark the multi-million selling band’s 50th anniversary in 2019.
However, Dennis was forced to postpone his plans due to a previously undiagnosed kidney problem. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit and the shows were pushed back even further.
Now, Dennis is finally set to roll back the years with a performance of Dr. Hook classics at the Music Hall in Aberdeen on Friday November 5.
Dennis said: “We were supposed to do a 50th-anniversary world tour in 2019 and we started it in Scandinavia with four dates.
“I wasn’t feeling that great but it was winter, it was snowing and a lot of the band had the flu so I thought I was okay.
“After that we had a couple of weeks off before we really hit the road but I felt horrible.
“The doctor said if I’m going to go on the road for the next few years they should maybe take a blood test.
“The blood test showed my kidneys were almost about to fail.
“All of a sudden I was in a different world and the doctors told me the tour was off.
“It broke my heart. However, in some ways, it strengthened my resolve.
“I had to make the doctors know I’m not just a bear who wants to go back in the woods to die in his cave.
“I’m a dancing bear and I have a band in a taxi cab with the meter running now.
“I have been doing this my whole life and no way was it was over just like that.”
‘More than ready to do these shows’
Thankfully Dennis’ kidney problem is now stable and the charismatic singer feels ‘pretty good’.
He will celebrate the rich legacy of Dr. Hook in the Granite City by playing chart smashes such as When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman, Sylvia’s Mother, A Little Bit More and If Not You.
Dennis laughed, “I don’t want anyone to think we better not go, he’s on his last legs.
“My kidneys came up with the numbers they wanted to see so I am stable and have been for a year now and I feel pretty good.
“It’s still not great and would still be better if I had a kidney transplant.
“However I couldn’t do that during Covid either as they weren’t doing any surgery.
“I’ll have to look at that after this tour but I’m not on dialysis or on my last legs.
“Kidney problems don’t go away unless you do something about it but you can maintain. You have to get your body chemistry to a point where you are not overworking your kidneys.
“I just want everyone to know I’m more than ready to do these shows.
“Otherwise this is going to be like suppressing a sneeze for the rest of my life – aaaah, aaaah, aaaaah, aaaah.”
Ready to ride Aberdeen’s wave of energy
Formed in the late sixties, initially as Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show, the band exploded into the big time with global hit Sylvia’s Mother which hit the top 10 in the United States and peaked at number two in the UK.
Dennis can’t wait to take to the stage in Aberdeen and ‘ride the wave’ of audience energy at the Music Hall.
Won’t be long now and we’ll be on our way!!! See you there?!?🎱~ pic.twitter.com/dCzcskdWSf
— Dennis Locorriere (@DrHookOfficial) October 24, 2021
Dennis said: “The great thing about Scotland – you get a review after every song.
“There are nights you leave the stage when you think I wonder how that really went – in Scotland, you know exactly how you’re doing.
“When you go on stage in Scotland there is already a wave and you just throw out your surfboard and ride it.
“My Dr. Hook audience are four generations now and my gig now is to perform this body of work.
“We did a lot of different kinds of music, changed with the times and took a lot of flak for that.
“It all works in the show as a body of work as some of it is country, some rock, some dancey and there are ballads that will break your heart.”
Dr. Hook’s music needs to be represented
Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show’s big break came in 197o when their demos were heard by the musical director of a planned movie starring Dustin Hoffman – Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
Songs for the film were written by Shel Silverstein and it was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration.
💥Scotland! We’re coming to see you! Get your tickets now or your friends will get ‘em! 💥🎱~ pic.twitter.com/Bnk8D1QGeO
— Dennis Locorriere (@DrHookOfficial) September 12, 2021
Silverstein would write hit Sylvia’s Mother for the band, among many others.
Dennis said: “I cannot stress how few aspirations I had when we started this band.
“I was a kid, 19, and wasn’t about to get a job.
“I used to sit in with bands in this area in Union City, New Jersey where I lived and play guitar, bass and harmonica.
“One day I sat in and played bass and joined a band and we played bars.
“We got a lucky break as they put us in a little bit part in Harry Kellerman, the Dustin Hoffman film.
“Shel Silverstein wrote the songs for that movie and he liked us and we started working with him. He wrote Sylvia’s Mother which was a big hit.
“You may look at it and think what a plan you had.
“No way, we were stumbling forward.
“This is Dr. Hook. Although it’s not the original Dr. Hook because four of those guys are not with us anymore.
“They were all good friends of mine but short of having a seance, there’s nothing I can do about it.
“The music is there and needs to be represented. I’m not trying to pretend I’m Dr. Hook. No-one was.
“Everyone thought it was Ray (Sawyer) because he had an eye patch so he got saddled with that.
“The music is Dr. Hook so I thought let’s do it on the road and do it good. The band that will play Aberdeen is so good.”
Tickets for the Aberdeen show can be booked here.
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