Q & A

GEORGE WAYNE

The Captain & Tennille keep it together

Throughout a decade of stagflation and gas lines, the music somehow kept getting ... easier. The Captain & I Tennille were perfectly emblematic of the Marin/ Maxwell’s Plum/fern-bar milieu, which reminded us that if we said a little prayer it would all turn out O.K. This month, the duo has an encounter session with George Wayne to rap about those ever present hats, their influential TV show, and that Ike Turner rumor.

George Wayne:Hey, kids. How’s life on the chitlin circuit for the Captain & Tennille?

Toni Tennille: Pretty good. We live up in northern Nevada, surrounded by mountains. We have five acres there. I am the ambassador for the arts for the state of Nevada, so I go around promoting the wonderful arts that we have there.

The Captain: I’m concentrating my efforts on the Internet. I have a concept called SurferzRule.com, a portal and home base for entertainers, anyone with a gift for the arts.

G.W.Nineteen seventy-five—the year the American Psychological Association officially removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. The same year that Jaws terrorized audiences, and the Vietnam War drew its last breath, the Zeitgeist demanded a tune like '‘Love Will Keep Us Together.” Do you remember what you wore to the Grammys that year, Toni?

T. This was at a time when we were just starting our career. I remember going to the Grammys and having my first gown ever made for that night. It was a yellow chiffon. I felt very, very special. And I do remember that Stevie Wonder announced the winner, and he read it in Braille. And I remember that Joan Baez was the one who had to hand the Grammy to us. She appeared to be very upset by the choice. Our record company had no clue that we would win, and they had not planned any kind of party for us after the Grammys. And when we won, they finally came over and said, “Can you come over to such and such a place, where we’ll have a little drink to toast this?”

G.W.And of course the Captain wore one of his signature hats.

T.C. Absolutely.

G.W.What, do you have a house in Lake Tahoe just for those hats?

T.C. I didn’t really collect them, but it sort of became: Without the hat what am I?

G.W.Which was vital to hide the lack of hair.

T.C. Absolutely.

T. We were even in Rome once and were going to go into the Sistine Chapel. And they told Daryl he had to take his hat off, and we did not go into the Sistine Chapel.

G.W.But what’s the D.L.S. on the Captain & Tennille?

T. The what?

G.W.The dirty little secret. Didn’t the Captain once walk in on Tennille making out with Ike Turner?

T. With who?

T.C. Ike Turner.

T. No, I’m sorry. I wish we could come up with something like that for you.

G.W.Toni, I wouldn’t believe you, even if your tongue were notarized. ‘‘Do that to me one more time. Once is never enough with a man like you.” That sounds like S&M foreplay to G. W. That was the secret to the Captain & Tennille—R-rated lyrics sugarcoated with G-rated melodies?

T. The truth is not as interesting as you’d like it to be. I wrote that song because I was thinking about the first time Daryl ever kissed me. And when he did, the thought that went through my mind was: I can’t wait for him to do that again.

G.W.And your TV variety show has been hailed as a visionary blueprint for talk shows today.

T.C. And the record company [A&M] didn’t want us to do it. They felt that if people saw you on TV every week they wouldn’t buy your records. And today we’re in crossword puzzles.

T. Television is incredibly powerful. I meet so many people who still tell me that they used to watch our show when they were kids, It meant a lot to a lot of people.

G.W. I.W. Thank you, darlings. Let’s do the time warp again someday.

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