“It’s straight from the heart, that’s the truth,” says the singer, 84, who’ll be forever known as half of the Righteous Brothers, the soulful duo that rode the mega-hits “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “(You’re My) Soul and My Inspiration,” “Unchained Melody” and “Rock and Roll Heaven” to stardom in the 1960s and ‘70s, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Medley hopes country fans realize he’s no Johnny-come-lately jumping on the Nashville bandwagon. “I don’t want people thinking I’m trying to sneak in, cause I’m not,” he says, noting that country music got his attention early. Growing up as a kid in California, he was transfixed watching TV commercials by flamboyant car-dealership kingpin Cal Worthington, who dressed like a dapper cowboy and wrote his own country theme music. “It sounds stupid, but I remember clear as day, loving those songs,” Medley tells Parade. “And that was way before I was a Righteous Brother.”
“Country music has always been a big part of my life,” Medley says.
But he also notes he’ll “always be a Righteous Brother,” alluding to the glory days of his stratospherically successful collaborations with his original singing partner, Bobby Hatfield. The duo initially broke up in 1968 but reunited for touring and recording several times over the years before Hatfield’s death in 2003. The Brothers’ musical melding of “blue-eyed” R&B harmonies with soaring pop power made them superstars, and their songs became part of the pop-cultural mainstream, used in movies and TV shows — like in Top Gun, when Tom Cruise and his flyboy buddies serenade Kelly Preston in a bar with a boozy “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.”
Bobby Hatfield & Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers in 1965.Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage
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And speaking of stages, he continues performing those timeless Righteous Brothers hits with his “new” singing partner of almost a decade, Bucky Heard, in their musical residency onstage at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas. Medley says the magic of those “old” tunes is still very much alive with audiences today. “We start singing, and people start holding hands and hugging and kissing,” he says.
Straight From the Heart is now available wherever you get your music.
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