from Dothan's AMOS TINDELL, a member of THE WEBS:

Roy Orbison and the Webs (now the Candy Men) in Detroit at the State Fair C1962

It's a hot Summer's night in Mid August C1962 in Dothan, Al. All the doors and windows are open and we are practicing at John Rainey's House on Main Street, as usual and the cars are lined up and down the street, listening to us, as usual. The air is filled with Music flowing out into the night......🎵Come on Baby, Let Me Take You By the Hand🎵.....it's one of Roy's latest songs, "Candy Man"! Half way thru the chorus, the phone rings. Lily Ida Adkins, JR's mother calls down the hall, "John Rainey, it for you"! It's Roy with orders to meet him at the Goldenaire Motel in Detroit, Michigan, we are going to play at the Michigan State Fair, August 24-25-26! WOW!

Thursday, August 22nd we start packing our equipment in the trailer (that Paul built) and getting ready to head out first thing in the morning, it's a 14 hour drive! Suns up and we hit the road.

We're riding in new Wheels now (new to us, anyway) pulling our trailer with The Webs painted on the sides and back. Thank goodness Roy gave us Claudette's 1960 Bronze/Gold Oldsmobile Super 98 Celebrity 4Door Sedan with Red Leather interior, he got her a new car. KOOL, we had plenty of room to sleep, eat and play some Guitars in the back seat. (Paul's T-Bird had NO room in the back seat) We would take turns driving a 100 miles at a time. Roy also gave us an American Express Card for expenses plus $300 a week each and paid for us to join the Nashville's Musician's Union, local 257. We were definitely in the big leagues now!

We had been on the road for almost 14 hours and were about 10 miles out of Detroit. All of a sudden, BOOM! Steam is blowing out from under the hood and in front of the windshield, Paul is struggling to see the road. Up ahead on the right is a Truck Stop. He pulls in, it's the Bonneville Service Center, he gets out and pops the hood. (We're lucky that we are not still walking) We get out and stretch our legs. Paul said, it's a water hose, the bottom radiator hose has burst! We go inside and Paul asks one of the truck mechanics to check it out and that we will pay extra if he hurries. In the meantime, we grab a booth, check out the Menu and what's on the Juke Box. There were only two waitresses and the cook, no customers. We mulled over the Menu. What to order? What else but, Cheeseburgers, Fries and a Coke. We were checking out the place. A waitress starts toward our table.

Bobby decided to play "Roses Are Red" by Bobby Vinton, he popped in a quarter and selected three of his songs. As the waitresses comes over to get our orders, Bobby is singing along with the record. He sounded just like Bobby Vinton. The waitress stares at him while taking our orders and then heads to the kitchen. Then, we notice her talking to the other waitress and pointing over at our booth. We smile and Bobby continues to sing (sounding just like Bobby Vinton)😎.
We are humming some back ground stuff and drumming on the table. (Bare in mind that we've been calling Bobby, Bobby all this time).

John Rainey comes up with the idea to fake these chicks out and to say that Bobby IS Bobby Vinton and we are his band. Whoa! I said....he doesn't even look that much like Bobby Vinton, Vinton has brown hair. As we argued quietly about the situation, the waitress comes back to the table with our food and asks if we are a band or something? We looked at each other, thinking to ourselves, they're hooked! We downplayed it at first, trying to act normal. (HA)! "Blue Velvet", another of Vinton's song started playing and we jumped right in, singing a few bars and then quit abruptly. (By now it taking all we can do to keep from cracking up)!
Our waitress takes a step back, her mouth popped open and her eyes glazed over. She motioned for the other waitress to come over. Pointing at Bobby and giggling they asked, Who are you guys! You sound just like Bobby Vinton! Are you guys a band or something? Then one of the waitresses asked the dread question.....
I thought Bobby Vinton had brown hair?!?!

We finally confessed! (Almost ready to roll on the floor)! Yes, this is Bobby Vinton I said, he dyes his hair black with a rinse so people won't notice him and we are playing at the State Fair in Detroit tomorrow. We all nodded our heads...Yes. They both gasped and giggled some more, totally at a loss for words. (Meanwhile, the Mechanic signals to Paul to come outside., the car must be ready, I hoped)? The waitresses are asking all kinds of questions and we are trying to answer them. Just as we are finishing eating, one waitress says she's going over and call the local News Paper to send a reporter out for a picture and interview... We freaked, time to go! We made excuses that our manager would be mad if we did an interview without him, paid up and got ready to leave. By then, Paul comes back in saying the car is ready. Whew, thank goodness ! Bobby signed a few "autographs" as Bobby Vinton and hurried out to catch up with us at the car. We jumped in and took off, laughing all the way to the Motel !

'When we got to the Motel, we checked at the front desk and Roy had already signed us in. We went to his room first and told him about our crazy adventure. He had a good laugh with us. After catching up and making a song list, we all hit the hay.

The next day we went to the Fairgrounds to check it out, set up, get a sound check and get settled. Then, we went to the dressing room and got ready for the Show. We were surprised to see The Detroit Symphony Orchestra tuning up. They would play back up and fill in for whoever needed it plus, intro music for all acts.

There was Jimmy Dean doing "Big Bad John", Johnny Tillotson doing "Poetry in Motion", Gene Chandler doing "Duke of Earl" (all dressed up, in his top hat, cape and walking cane). Also, Ray Stevens doing "Ahab the Arab", Bobby Rydell doing "Soldier Boy" and guess who, none other than BOBBY VINTON (doing all THOSE songs)! NOT A WORD WAS SAID BY ANYBODY BUT, ROY DID POINT AT HIM AND SMILE... and then the Star, the Voice himself, Roy 'the boy' Orbison in person and on stage doing "Only the Lonely", "Running Scared", "Crying", "Blue Angel" and "Candy Man". Of course Roy got the most standing ovations.

After the final show Sunday night, everybody signed autographs, took some pictures and mingled. The Fair shut down to the general public. Roy had made a deal earlier with the Fair Management and had paid for all artists, bands and friends to go ride, eat and drink till....😎

Roy went back to the State Fair in 1964. He bought a RV for the band and he would fly here and there. This gave him more down time to write, record and see his family😎
Here are a few pictures and postcards that some how survived these 56 years. (There are some scenes
From the State Fair on the Movie posted earlier).