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A body found in New Orleans Dec. 28 has been identified as Barry Cowsill, of 1960s music stars The Cowsills.
Cowsill was in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit August 31, and survived the initial storm: he left a message on his sister Susan’s answering machine Sept. 1. But nothing was heard from him after that.
“He went missing the day after the storm,” said former Vancouver resident Billy Cowsill, Barry’s older brother.
“We got a phone call from him on the Monday, after the Sunday that Katrina hit. That was the last we’d heard from him. I believe they found him under a bridge, drowned.”
Barry Cowsill was only nine when he started playing drums in a rock ‘n’ roll band with his older brothers Billy and Bob in Newport, Rhode Island in the early 1960s. He switched to bass when brother John joined, and all four band members sang harmonies.
“It was a four-piece from hell, man, it was great,” said Billy Cowsill, who now lives in Calgary. “Beatles, Beach Boys, any kind of vocal thing we could tackle.”
After the band signed to MGM, the record company added Barry’s mother and sister to the band as a gimmick. This was the lineup when the Cowsills shot to fame with hits like The Rain, The Park and Other Things, Indian Lake and Hair.
The family’s success inspired The Partridge Family TV show, but the Cowsills broke up in acrimonious circumstances in the early 1970s. Barry continued to play music, releasing a solo album in 1998. But he led a restless existence, moving back and forth between Newport and New Orleans.
Asked what Barry had done the last few years, Billy said, “Just getting’ drunk, mostly. And making demos and trying to get ahead. Trying to get a good band together. But he was his own worse enemy.”
Billy Cowsill says despite Barry’s alcohol problems, “he was just a sweetheart, man. He would give you the shirt off his back. An all around funny guy, very humorous. He was my favourite brother. Had a great imagination. And he could sing like a bird.”
He also had a wicked sense of humour. After Billy moved to Canada, Barry followed him to Hay River, in the Northwest Territories. The brothers ran afoul of the local RCMP, who were constantly hassling them over their wild ways when they sang at the local bar.
In protest, Barry proceeded to “burn a Mountie doll in effigy onstage,” which got him kicked out of Canada. He never returned.
The Cowsills did several reunions over the years, including singing the national anthem at a World Series baseball game in Boston in 2004. Mother Susan (Note: yes this is an error in name) Cowsill died in 1985, and their manager father Bud Cowsill died in 1992.
Billy Cowsill, who turns 57 Jan. 9, has also had health problems over the past few years. He has osteoporosis, which means his bones are very brittle; he had four back operations in the last two years, and also suffered a broken hip. He has been in hospital for long stretches of time, but is now out and living in an apartment in Calgary, where he moved after his band the Blue Shadows broke up in 1995.
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