Richard Campbell (second from left) got his first interview with Denny Doherty (far right) of The Mamas & The Papas in 1984 as a junior in high school.
Richard Campbell was born the day after The Mamas & The Papas appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for the second time. He was barely out of diapers when the band broke up in 1968 and was only 7 years old when Cass Elliot, famed singer for the group, died from a heart attack on July 29, 1974.
So how is it that Campbell, the presiding judge in the 13th Judicial Circuit Court of Virginia, became an expert on the popular folk-rock band credited with helping to define 1960s counterculture?
“In the pie of my life, it is only a small sliver, but it’s the one that gets the most fascination,” he says.
That’s maybe not a surprise, as he has been collecting band memorabilia, conducting interviews, writing album liner notes and material for various projects, and becoming great friends with the remaining band members and their children over the years.
It’s all culminated in Campbell’s latest venture, “Gettin’ Kinda Itchie: The Groups That Made The Mamas & The Papas,” a book that explores how the band came together.
“I am loath to write the story of the group because it’s been told so many times. This part of their history has always been a passion of mine. It’s the untold story, these legacy groups, these pre-groups before they became The Mamas & The Papas,” he says.
His fascination with The Mamas & The Papas started as a teen. A Richmond native, Campbell discovered their music in the early ’80s when a high school friend from Trinity Episcopal School lent him an album.
“I fell in love with the sound,” he says. “I wasn’t a hippie, and my parents weren’t hippies. There is certainly a lot about their lifestyles that is not parallel to mine, so that’s sort of an enigma.”
In 1984, Campbell got his first breakthrough to the group. For an oldies show on local radio station WRVA, he interviewed founding member Denny Doherty, who was appearing in Northern Virginia as part of a re-formed version of the band, The New Mamas & The Papas. “For a high school junior, I felt like I had really achieved something,” he says.
That spurred decades of researching, collecting memorabilia and developing relationships. In fact, Campbell became “the Rolodex” for the remaining group members and their families, so much so that when The Mamas & The Papas were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Doherty and John Phillips left a message on his answering machine. “I was at a friend’s house, having a Mamas & Papas party that night. I had no idea they were going to call me.”
Outside of the legal world, Campbell is proud to help create another lasting legacy.
“I think their music is singular and masterful. The four personalities [Doherty, Elliot, and John and Michelle Phillips] really intrigued me. They are so different and so compelling, each one of them. It was almost like ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ You have these different characters that come together in this harmonic way.”
BOOK SIGNINGS
- April 13, 1 to 3 p.m.: Crossroads Records, Stony Point Fashion Park
- April 20, 1 to 3 p.m.: Barnes & Noble, Libbie Place
- May 6, 6 to 7 p.m.: Deep Groove Records, 317 N. Robinson St.
