When and where were you born? Are you originally from Independence, Missouri?

I was born in Kansas City (Missouri) and I have lived in the Kansas City area nearly all of my life. My family moved to Independence when I was twelve and I’ve moved between Kansas City and Independence many times. I did try to move to L. A. several times in the mid-to-late 1970s while I was seeking to land a recording contract with a national label. I never lasted more than a month. I didn’t like the “feel” of L. A. – too many people and too many cars and too much asphalt. I did live in Hendersonville, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville for 14 months between May of 1981 and August of 1982. My intention was to try to work through Combine Music (Monument Records’ publishing company) to write some songs for other people. I soon realized that I preferred to keep my songwriting personal. I wasn’t really cut out to be a “staff writer” at a Nashville publishing company.

Gary on the left, his Dad's mom holding him, Uncle Ray (Dad's younger brother), and Gary’s mom.

What was growing up like for you? When did you first become interested in music? What was it about the drums that initially interested you?

I had a very happy childhood. Lots of friends and a warm and loving family. Although that may have deprived me of the psychological damage that seems to give many artists of various types an “edge”, I’m okay with that. I’ve always liked being happy. I first became interested in music when my favorite uncle (who is just four years older than me) bought me an Elvis Presley EP for Christmas when I was eight years old. I soon had a pretty substantial record collection. My parents also got me my own stereo. And from that point on, I spent a lot of time in my room singing along with all my favorite records. When I was sixteen, two of my friends (Chuck Tignor and Jim Walters) got guitars and formed a band. They couldn’t find a drummer and, knowing how much I loved music, they asked me if I would like to get some drums and learn how to play them.

The Classic at Van Horn High School circa: April of ‘65.

When did you begin singing and writing?

Not long after we formed that first group, Jim Walters gave up on learning the guitar and dropped out of the group. We replaced him with Billy McElwee (who played the sax). And, after a few months, added Danny Ball on bass. Of the four of us, I was far and away the most enthusiastic about singing, so I became our lead vocalist. I didn’t really develop an interest in songwriting until I had been playing for nearly eight years. When I did, I realized I needed to learn to play piano and/or guitar. At the ripe old age of 24, I took up the piano. Our bass player at the time (Rocco Priolo) told me I was too old to be learning a new instrument. Fortunately, I ignored his advice. My interest in songwriting, once unleashed, soon became a driving force.

What was your local music scene like? Where would you go to see bands perform and who were among some of the first groups you saw live? When did it dawn on you that music was something you wanted to pursue?

There weren’t a lot of bands around when I first started playing. That changed over time. But there wasn’t a lot of competition initially. There were just a couple of places around the Kansas City area that had local and/or national bands but did not serve alcohol. (I was never enough of a rebel to sneak into bars to hear bands.) I heard Jerry Lee Lewis at Big Bandstand. And some good local groups at K. C. Bandstand. My first major concert was The Who. (The second time they came to Kansas City.) As soon as I joined my first band, the hook went in quick and deep. I loved playing and singing.

The Classics at Teen Shack circa: April of ‘65.

Did you participate in any groups prior to Appletree? If so, who were they and can you tell me about some of the first ever gigs you played in front of a live audience?

That first group was called “The Classics”. For as long as I was mostly playing in bands that did cover songs, the names of the bands I was in and the players changed frequently. I can’t remember exactly how it came to our attention, but there was a day care facility not far from where I was living and the two women who owned it decided to start having dances on Friday and Saturday nights. I took the initiative to contact them and set up an audition. They hired our band to play from 8 pm to 10 pm both nights every week. That turned out to be a big break. We got a lot better fairly quickly. And we were getting paid to play. ($5 each per night.) After six months at the “Teen Shack” (as it was called), I started finding other places to play (mostly high school and junior high dances) that paid better and drew bigger crowds.

Tell me about writing as well as recording the tunes “The Ballad of Pencil” and “You’re Not the Only Girl (I’m Out to Get)”.

“The Ballad of Pencil” was inspired by one of the first relationships I had. We started “dating” but should have just been friends. I felt bad about how that relationship ended. (I still do.) I wrote the song as something of an apology. “You’re Not the Only Girl (I’m Out to Get)” was a total fabrication. Not a single word of the lyrics was drawn from anything that had happened to me. I

When and where did recording start and how did the deal with Wacks Records come about?

I decided that we should press 500 copies of the Appletree single and sell them at our gigs. The other band members were not interested in spending the money to do that, so I want ahead on my own. Getting a deal with Wacks Records was easy. That was just the name I came up with for the label. My father had been self-employed during my formative years. And I didn’t really even think about shopping the recordings. I just went for it. (I did manage to sell nearly all of the copies and made a small profit.)

Did you have any other musicians help you on that record?

The other members of Appletree were Lowell Premer on guitar and a rotating cast of bass players. Lowell and I met our freshman year of college and have played together off and on ever since. Rocco Priolo played bass on the recording, but he had a habit of coming and going from bands, including Appletree. So various other musicians came and went to fill in during the periods when Rocco left the band. (He usually left and returned in about six-month cycles.)

What was the writing and recording process for that single like? How long was that particular process?

Songwriting came very naturally for me. Although the process of writing each song varies a lot. Some songs come quick and easy others can take a lot of time. I don’t worry too much about how long it takes or whether it comes easy or takes some work. When I first started writing songs, once I had a song written, the band would learn the song and we would start performing it at gigs. So, by the time we went into the studio, it was a pretty quick and simple process.

Appletree band with Gerald Robinson on bass.

Had you ever been in a studio before?

The first song I wrote was called “Find Myself (Loving You)”. I somehow realized early on that once a song was written, it needed to be recorded. By that time, Lowell Premer was the guitar player in the band (and we were calling ourselves “Appletree”). We booked time in a local recording studio and recorded a single with a song Lowell wrote on one side and “Find Myself” on the other. We had the studio press a few acetates but did not get a real pressing done. Once I started writing songs, I couldn’t stop. The “The Ballad of Pencil” and “You’re Not the Only Girl (I’m Out to Get)”, came pretty quick and we headed back into the studio and recorded them.

What exactly happened once the single was recorded? Did it manage to get any airtime on the local radio stations?

Not much really. In a pattern that persists to this day, I was more interested in writing and recording more songs than in promoting the recordings I had just made. I didn’t do anything with that first single other than sell copies at gigs. I didn’t even contact radio stations. That would change (a bit) with my next recording – the album “A Musical Tribute to the Last of the Great Toadstool Madonnas”. I sent a copy to a reviewer for the Kansas City Star and to radio station – KUDL-fm. I got a wonderfully positive review in the Kansas City Star and some airplay on KUDL. I still remember the first time I heard myself on the radio. I was driving at the time and had to pull over to listen because I was too excited to drive. I also got some copies of the album in local record stores and it sold pretty well.

What was the band’s process in terms of writing/approaching music?

Once I started writing songs, that became my primary focus. I still had to keep the band booked. I actually earned a living from music (with no “day gig”) until I was in my mid-thirties. I didn’t make much money from songwriting or recording until I signed with Monument (in 1977). But I did write a lot of songs. To this day, as much as I love recording and performing, writing a song is what excites me the most.

How long did this group last after the Appletree record was released?

Within a year of recording the single, I had switched from drums to piano and the group broke up at that point. Lowell and Rocco did not want to be in a band with me while I learned to play the piano. I formed a band called Speakeasy at that point, with some musicians who weren’t as talented as Lowell and Rocco but were pretty good.That turn of events was pretty easy for me to handle because it wasn’t long after we recorded the single that I figured out that being a solo artist as a singer-songwriter freed me up to use whatever combination of musicians seemed right for the arrangements I came up with for each song.

Tell me about Speak Easy. Was this just your publishing house where you wrote your music, or was this actually a band as well? You released quite a few works throughout the mid/late 70s. Titles included, “A Musical Tribute to the Last of the Great Toadstool Madonnas” and “The First Ones Free”, as well as a few singles on Monument. Can you tell me about your solo career as well as working on some of those projects?

It was both. In 1973, I won a Rock and Roll Trivia contest on KUDL. The prize was a year’s free rent at a nice new apartment complex. I decided to use the money I was saving on rent to record my first album. The relatively modest success of that album - “A Musical Tribute to the Last of the Great Toadstool Madonnas” – opened up a number of doors for me. I was approached by a potential investor who encouraged me to form a production company. (Which I did – Treehouse Productions.) I got some expressions of interest from record labels. And the primary owner of the studio (Cavern Sound) where I had recorded both the Appletree single and the album offered me a job managing the studio and doing some engineering and producing for clients. One of the perks of the job was that, when the studio was not booked, I was allowed to record for free. Needless to say, I took full advantage of that opportunity. I took some of the recordings to Nashville and got some songs picked up by music publishers.

How did the deal with Treehouse and Monument come about?

With funding from the people who invested in Treehouse Productions, I went to Nashville in August of 1977 and recorded four songs. That led to the recording contract with Monument Records.

When putting together the Gary Apple Band, how did you go about picking members to join and what did you look for the most in the players?

I recorded “The First One’s Free” for Monument in January of 1978. It was released in May of that year. In March and April, I auditioned musicians in the Kansas City area to put together “The Gary Apple Band” to tour in support of the album. Monument lost their distribution deal with Phonogram in August of 1978, just as the single “Shoot ‘em Up, Cowboy” was starting to get a lot of airplay and was showing up on some of the charts. Monument kept me under contract for several years after that but never got another distribution deal. In 1980-81, I recorded an album for Mad Dog Records, but the owner went bankrupt before the album was completed. In October of 1984, I sold my piano to pay the rent, dusted off the teaching certificate I had earned in 1970, and took a job teaching high school. For a number of years after that, I took a complete break from music.

What have you been up to in more recent years?

I taught high school for the next 20 years, then took early retirement. A few years before retiring, I bought a keyboard and some recording equipment and started writing and recording again. In 1999, I finished the album I had recorded for Mad Dog Records and wrote and recorded an album of all new material. With digital recording equipment making it much easier and less expensive to record I started cranking out one album after another. I have now recorded a total of eighteen albums and released them on CD. I have done next to nothing to promote them. But I am very proud of my body of work. And in spite of my lack of interest and skill with regard to promotion, I am very grateful that I have managed to sell some copies online and even get some airplay. (All thanks to CD Baby for distribution and bloggers here and there who stumbled upon my music via the Internet.)

I understand you’ve taken an interest in politics.

Yes. I have always been interested in political issues. And the political songs of Bob Dylan always impressed me. On the other hand, I have always viewed writing political lyrics as a dangerous undertaking. Despite the ease with which Dylan does it, it is very easy to sound ridiculous trying to make political points in a song. I eventually overcame that fear. More and more of the songs I have written are political in nature. I also came to realize that, as powerful as music can be politically, a more direct approach is sometimes needed. So, I have run for office a few times and served on the Democratic National Committee (from 2016 to 2020). I have written one book and I am nearly finished with a second book. Both overtly political in nature.

What inspired you to embrace, or become interested in your community in that way?

The climate crisis and the fact that so many other critical issues are going unaddressed.

Are you still playing music and, or working on any projects?

I have been consumed with work on my second book for a few years now, but I do have a few songs that are written and/or partially written and a couple of unfinished recording projects that I am eager to complete once I have finished the book.

Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?

I have set up a web site where people can listen to nearly every song I have recorded. (Except the Appletree single.) I encourage people to visit: https://winstonapple.net. It means a lot to me that some people (like Dakota Brown) manage to find my music and appreciate it.

https://www.ridingeasyrecs.com/product/brown-acid-the-fourteenth-trip/

Apple’s track “Your Not The Only Girl (I’m Out To Get) will be featured on the 14th vol. of the Brown Acid series coming out on 4/20!

Dakota Brown

Gary Winston Apple - Appletree

Ron Johnson - DARK (Pt. 2)

Ed Koran - Erving Forbush