WHHM - Star 107.7 - Gregg Fulkerson -- in memoriam

In the years stretching out behind me, over the course of what has been a fairly quiet life, I realize I’ve had some pretty interesting times. One of the more exciting times in my dimming recollection took place during my undergrad years; I actually got to associate with rock stars. In fact, I studied Survey of Rhetorical Theory under the father of one of the aforementioned rock stars.

At the time, the hottest local band in Jackson area was a group called Pink Noise, and everyone was thinking “Hmm… now these guys have potential. Wonder how long before we hear them on the radio?”
A musical tidal wave was building just off our shores that would shortly sweep over West Tennessee, drenching everyone in its path. Riding the crest of this musical wave was local a band called Nonstop. Nonstop was comprised of a group of hometown boys and masterminded by guitarist and songwriter Gregg Fulkerson, the son of an FHU professor. Gregg had started playing and writing songs when he was 17 with some friends from the college, including Canadian lead singer Roger La Pointe, another Phoenix alumnus.

The Nonstop tapes weren’t just catchy, they were exciting; there was a certain kind of energy in those early recordings where you just knew that these guys were going places. Then the band hit a bump in that road that goes on forever where the party never ends. Roger LaPointe left the group, to return to Canada, leaving a big gaping hole in the place where the lead singer had been.

With a couple of minor adjustments, the band restructured with Gregg as lead singer. Like the mythical creature the admissions band was named for, Gregg and the gang rose from the ashes of Nonstop to form Sahara. New demos were cut, and the first track that featured Gregg as vocalist was a track called “Follow Your Heart.” Suddenly Sahara was getting a lot of local airplay and not just on the college radio station. WYNU, 92.3 FM the local pop/rock station out of Jackson started tracking Sahara’s single in heavy rotation during drive time hours.

Sahara’s music had an optimism to it that rings just as true today as it did all those years ago. When you listen to “Follow Your Heart,” you can still feel the excitement of those days. When Sahara played a show, the crowds topped 1,000, a very respectable number for a band who were just a local sensation. Sahara’s music was heavy, but not quite heavy metal. It had a tasty pop sensibility, and best of all, they were ours.

We later found out that the local buzz combined with airplay on WYNU had attracted a lot of attention. Somewhere in the midst of the Sahara frenzy, a management company in Los Angeles got wind of the band as well as a copy of their demo. The demo led to a record contract with MCA Records, and a celebratory concert in Jackson to thank Sahara’s fans for their support.

That night at the show, Gregg and company announced that they were no longer to be known as Sahara. It turned out that there were a whole lot of bands out there who were already using that name. The band formerly known as Nonstop, formerly known as Sahara, from now on would be called Blue Tears. And as they say in the movies, the crowd went wild.

The CD came out in the winter of that year, and the album sales shot through the roof. Blue Tears opened for the likes of the Smithereens, and the Stray Cats. Gregg and the band came back to our little town to film the video for the first single from the band, “Rockin’ with the Radio.” The video was shot on location at the local Sonic drive-in and the local high school. When the video premiered at about 3 AM one night on MTV, our TV production instructor taped it to show the class. It was a more lackluster premiere than we’d hoped for, but everyone just chalked it up to the band paying their dues.

Some of Gregg’s songs went to the all girl metal band, Vixen. Another song authored by Gregg and his band-mate Mike Spears “Fast Cars, Loud Guitars and Wild, Wild Women” went to a rock and roll super group called Contraband. The track was featured on the soundtrack of a film called “If Looks Could Kill.”

Gregg was making a name for himself. He was establishing himself in the world of music, and if we didn’t hear much about what was going on with the band, we figured he was just working hard. The road to stardom looked like it would go on forever … and then it all came crashing down.

A number of things happened, most of which Gregg has never talked about. There were problems at MCA, and as he put it, he got the shaft from the record company. Blue Tears couldn’t go back into the studio to record a follow up album. Then tragedy struck from distant Seattle; Nirvana sounded the death knell for the not only Blue Tears, but the entire hair-band genre, changing the face of rock and roll as we know it forever.

Gregg took a long rest from music. The band members went their separate ways. Little more was heard from Blue Tears beyond rumor and memory. It seemed that the golden haired boys of that magic season were destined for obscurity.

As for Blue Tears, well, they reached a kind of success. Bootleg copies of their old demos at one point were selling for about $250 over the Internet. Eventually, the website, Melodic Rock.com made the old Blue Tears demos available for download. Sometime after, a complete CD of the previously unreleased demos was put out under the title of “Mad, Bad, and Dangerous.”

Even though almost twenty years have passed, the die-hard fan base was still out there, watching and waiting for the day when Blue Tears returns. In 2003, the band reformed with some of the original members and a new drummer under the name: Attraction 65. Gregg referred to it as a darker, moodier version of Blue Tears. Nothing much came from that incarnation of the band or the resulting album. But in November 2005, a newly reformed Blue Tears played Firefest in Nottingham, England. About that same time, Gregg signed with an Australian label called Suncity Records who took over Gregg’s catalog and compiled the albums that would become “Mad, Bad, and Dangerous.”

In 2006 Blue Tears, with Gregg as the only original member, released their long awaited follow up CD “The Innocent Ones.” The band didn't see the resurgence of the success they enjoyed in the 90’s. Still, the fanbase remained strong, with a ready-made audience, hungry to snap up any new material.

Gregg Fulkerson passed away unexpectedly Tuesday morning, April 14, 2009. He will be missed.
by Allen Berry jab0003@uah.edu