Interview with Stan Lark (1940-2021)
Bassist for The Fireballs

“Even though we’ve been doing some of our songs for five or six years, there are always a lot of people in the audience who are hearing them for the first time. That’s why we always try to do the songs with the same enthusiasm we had when we first started playing them. After all, those hits have been good to us and so have our fans. We try to be nice to them in return.”
-Stan Lark of the Fireballs, 1967 

The Fireballs had many lives. They started out in the mid-fifties as a typical teenage rock ‘n’ roll band. But just as they were all set to go off to college, they made a long-shot play for the big time: they called producer Norman Petty in nearby Clovis, New Mexico and set up an audition. Petty—who was then making a name for himself for with his work with Buddy Holly—took a chance on the group, recorded some of their original tunes, and helped them secure a record deal. Together they cracked the Top 40 in 1959 with the rock ‘n’ roll instrumentals “Torquay” and “Bulldog,” which in turn led to two appearances on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. After Buddy Holly’s death, Petty also used them to overdub Holly’s “apartment tapes” and other unreleased material. In 1963, with vocalist Jimmy Gilmer, the Fireballs released their signature song, “Sugar Shack,” which rocketed to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually became that year’s overall best-performing single (the song is also, to my knowledge, the first hit to feature a Rickenbacker electric bass). During the heyday of the British Invasion, the band continued to successfully tour across the United States. Their career was given yet another boost in 1967, when they reappeared on the charts with their final Top 10 hit, “Bottle of Wine,” and the core of the band survived for nearly another full decade. They reformed in the nineties to once again play their hits for new and old fans of early rock ‘n’ roll. And throughout it all, they never lost that enthusiasm.

Below is my interview with Fireballs bassist Stan Lark from September 2020. Sadly, Stan passed away on August 4, 2021. May he rest in peace.

Brian F. Wright: How old were you when you first started playing music?

Stan Lark: I started playing piano when I was 4 and then the upright bass when I was 10. I was in the 5th grade when a teacher, Carl Woodworth, came in my classroom and picked me to play the bass in the school orchestra because I was the tallest kid in the class.

BW: Did you start off playing rock ‘n’ roll or some other style of music? What bands did you play in before the Fireballs?

SL: I first played country and western music with my Aunt Ruth Elaine Begio when I was 11 or 12. We played dances all over the Southwest. My aunt had to pretend to be my guardian so that I could play in the bars. Our band was called the Night Riders, and I was related to most of the other band members. 

BW: How did you end up originally forming the Fireballs?

SL: [Guitarist] George Tomsco and I started school together in 8th grade and we found out that we were both interested in music. We started playing together in George’s basement and put together our own band. When we were in High School, we played for the PTA talent show and the only song we knew was “Great Balls of Fire.” They had us play it over and over because they loved it and that’s how we got our name: The Fireballs!

BW: Did you mostly play local shows in and around New Mexico when you were starting out?

SL: We played all over the Southwest, including in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. We also played a lot of frat parties in the Raton and Clovis area.

BW: Some of the Fireballs promo photos show you playing an upright bass. How long did you play upright in the band before switching to electric?

SL: I played upright bass for the first two years, and it was very difficult traveling with it! I started playing the electric bass because it was easier to carry around. It also had a new sound and not many people were playing them yet. 

BW: Do you remember what your first electric bass was?

SL: My first electric bass and amp were Fenders that I bought in Trinidad, where they gave me a very good deal. Later Fender also gave us all amps to advertise for them, as we were on the road constantly. I got a Rickenbacker in the early ‘60s. I think it came from a Clovis music store and was about $400. I liked playing the Rickenbacker more because it was easier on my fingers.

BW: How influential were Buddy Holly and the Crickets on the Fireballs?

SL: Buddy and the Crickets were contracted by the same studio that we were. But Norman [Petty] did not want us to have the same sound—he liked our sound because it was unique. But we did become friends with them.

BW: Did you ever talk to Joe B about bass playing?

SL: Joe B and I didn’t really talk about bass playing, but he did borrow my upright several times.

BW: The Fireballs’ early records were mostly instrumentals. How did you come to be primarily an instrumental band?

SL: George wrote the instrumentals and insisted that we play them. We had Chuck Tharp as a vocalist, but he quit because he didn’t get to sing much.

BW: What did you think of other instrumental groups like the Ventures, Duane Eddy, and the Champs? 

SL: I thought the other bands were good and they all had different sounds. We were never in competition and just wanted everyone to do well. But I also remember one early show we played with the Champs in Albuquerque. It was scary because it was the first time we played with a group that had already made it!

BW: What was it like recording at Norman Petty Recording Studios?

SL: It was wonderful recording in the studio with Norman.  He was a genius and very good with us as a band. When Jimmy Gilmer later joined the band, he and I lived in the apartment in the back, worked as studio musicians, and did odd jobs around the place. Waylon Jennings was a DJ in Lubbock back then and he would show up often. He talked a lot, so Norman would have us lock him out when we were recording.

BW: What were your first impressions of Petty? What was he like?

SL: I was intimidated by Norman at first, but he turned out to be a very nice man. He was all business, and he was very upfront about what he could do for us.

BW: By the time you started recording, was the band earning enough money for you to live on?

SL: No, we barely made it through our first recording! George and I were supposed to be starting college, but we decided to become full-time musicians instead. Needless to say, our folks weren’t very happy with us. 

BW: At what point did you feel like the Fireballs had “made it”?

SL: When we hit the charts [with “Torquay” (1959) and “Bulldog” (1959)], I finally felt like we were going somewhere. But our first real taste of success came when we finally bought our first band car and trailer. Before that we were using my car and it was well used! 

BW: When I’ve seen clips of the Fireballs playing live, you all do this synchronized choreography. Was that a part of the band’s act even back in the 1960s?

SL: We came up with different steps for each song. Norman watched and was the one who approved everything.

BW: After Buddy Holly’s death, the Fireballs overdubbed some of Holly’s “apartment tapes.” What was it like working on that material?

SL: We overdubbed Buddy’s music to make it stereo. It had all been done in mono. I used both upright and electric basses on those recordings, depending on the sound we needed for each particular song. We also did some backup singing on them.

BW: When the band had a #1 hit with “Sugar Shack,” did that feel like an overnight success?

SL: No. I didn’t feel like an overnight success when “Sugar Shack” came out. By that point, we had already been on the road for years and we had a few hit records before that too. Throughout it all, we just stayed on the road, touring constantly from around 1959 to 1972.

BW: Is it true that your originally weren’t that excited about the song’s keyboard part?

SL: No, we did not like Norman’s addition to “Sugar Shack” at first. We thought he had ruined it! But our attitudes changed quickly…

BW: How did you feel about British Bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones when they first started to get popular in the U.S.?

SL: I thought they opened more doors for us, but we also bookended them: “Bulldog” was a hit in 1959, “Sugar Shack” was ‘63, and “Bottle of Wine” was ‘67.

BW: Did you play in the Fireballs consistently until 2016? When did you start to branch out beyond the band?

SL: From about 1976 through 1994 I didn’t play with the Fireballs—they were not playing then. George had other bands and I had my own country band called Willow Springs. I played in Raton, Reno, and Las Vegas until about 1983, and then began working in gold mining. I did this until 1992 and then started playing with the Fireballs again from about 1994 to 2016.

BW: Looking back on it now, what was it like to be in a hit rock ‘n’ roll band for over 50 years?  

SL: Being in a hit band was amazing. I am so very fortunate that I was able to do this and very fortunate in all that happened after. I have had a wonderful life. I’ve met many famous and not so famous people, played in every state and every province in Canada and experienced many opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise.  I am a very blessed man.