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Lars Lindh
You were born here in Hibbing?
LeRoy Hoikkala
Yes, and my parents are also from Hibbing. Well, one was from southwest Minnesota and the other was
born in Hibbing, so they are local.
Lars Lindh
But you have relatives further back that came from Scandinavia?
LeRoy Hoikkala
Yes, from Finland and Norway. That’s my
great grandparents. My grandfathers did come from Norway
and Finland. We don’t do the "roots," we’re Hibbing.
Lars Lindh
So you have lived in Hibbing all your life?
LeRoy Hoikkala
Right.
Lars Lindh
When did you meet Bob?
LeRoy Hoikkala
I knew Bob pretty much from school and everything.Growing up you see each other. It is a small
town.
You know, everybody knows everybody in town.
How we got to meet as far as playing in a band was
Monte Edwardson – who is a guitar player; who is very good; he still plays today; he is a natural guitar
player – we worked downtown, Monte and myself. Right across the street [from school], we met each
other and we walked to a little job, an after - school job. And Bob was just there one day. Monte and I
had been messing around with playing drums and guitar; just jamming a little bit. I had taken lessons for
quite a few years.
So, Bob just happened to say, "Hey, you guys going downtown?"We actually walked from school to downtown, so we told him that we were playing, you know, just
getting together and jamming around and playing. So, he said: "Hey, I’m playing piano, mouth-organ,
harmonica and guitar. Maybe we could get together and kind of play a little bit."
We said, "Yes, sure."
So we started playing in Bob’s garage that was attached to his house, that little garage. We jammed in
there for quite a bit, and we got a couple of jobs. The first time he ever got paid to do anything was with
our band the Golden Chords.
Sometimes we’d go into the house to play, because he had a piano in the house.
Lars Lindh
Anyone else besides you, Monte Edwardson and Bob?
LeRoy Hoikkala
No, it was just the three of us at that time. I played drums.
Lars Lindh
Where did you play?
LeRoy Hoikkala
It was at the National Guard Armory, a pretty big building. We hired the police
department, because you had to have the police, we hired people to collect
tickets, we sold tickets, made tickets. We hired
someone to clean the place up and everything, and we made money. It was kind of
fun. It was one of
those things where you put a lot of money out and do something; try to fix a Saturday night rock opera
or "jam," and a lot of kids came. That was probably the first time Bob ever was paid to do anything
musically.
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Lars Lindh
Was it a dance or more like a concert?
LeRoy Hoikkala
It was a dance. There was a wide-open area, no chairs, nothing, big stage, that’s all.
Lars Lindh
Was that a onetime show?
LeRoy Hoikkala
Yes, that particular one. That was kind of how we got together and started playing.
Then we played that talent show, you know, where we actually won but lost, because the kids went
crazy [but the judges] gave it to someone else that tap danced. Bob was a little detached on that one
saying, "We should have won, you know?" Because, in fact the audience was with us, but they gave it
to someone else. We came in second. (He laughs.)
That was the three of us as the Golden Chords. The reason we called it the Golden Chords was
because Bob was really…he could really chord with the piano and the guitar, really chord beautifully. He
was really a natural at chording. And my drums were gold, sparkling gold. So, we said Golden...Chords,
that´s how we got the name.
Lars Lindh
What tunes did you play ?
LeRoy Hoikkala
Ah, some of the Little Richard tunes, [like] "Jenny, Jenny." Some of the southern type music, the blues
songs...a lot of Little Richard. Bob loved Little Richard, so we did a lot of Little Richard stuff.
It was kind of new for the kids around here. We used to sit together with a reel to reel tape recorder at
night and tape the AM-stations that came in really good at night. We taped it so we could listen to the
new songs that didn’t come along here. Hibbing was kind of a
backward-area. The last to get in.
So we listened to the songs from the AM radio, taped them and then Bob would play
them, because
that was more the type of songs that he liked; the bluesy songs. We listened to
Shreveport, there were
a bunch of DJs down there that we listened to.
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Lars Lindh
Was Bob kind of the leader?
LeRoy Hoikkala
Yes, kind of, but he wasn’t really close to anybody. I don’t think he ever had a bestfriend. He was kind
of a loner, as we all were kind of loners. We’d hang around the motorcycles, the Harleys, and ride in our
convertibles. He had a convertible like mine.
When we decide to play we used to go to Collier’s Bar-B-Q. Van Feldt’s owned it. On Sundays they
were closed but they still had to clean up the place, do the potatoes for french fries and everything. So
we used to go down there–it was right off the main street–and we’d bring our instruments in there, set
up where you walk in, and leave the door open. The kids could hear the music from Howard street when
we jammed.
Lars Lindh
Was Bob playing piano then?
LeRoy Hoikkala
He played guitar and a little harmonica, at that time.
What we kids used to do on weekend nights in the summertime was cruise the streets with our
cars.
That was where the kids used to hear us when they were [cruising or] walking up and down the
street.That’s one of the fun things we did together.
Lars Lindh
Did Bob write any of his own songs at this time?
LeRoy Hoikkala
He changed a lot of songs. He listened to a song and he changed them. He didn’t like the way they
read. Just like a lot of the songs that he’s recorded. I use to say that he wasn’t copying someone, but
he took the basic song and if he didn’t like the lyrics he just changed it to what he wanted. He was a
natural. He is a great songwriter. Some songs he didn’t change, others he changed to his own liking.
Lars Lindh
Did you tape any of those songs?
LeRoy Hoikkala
Yes, but I don’t have them anymore. Too bad! You know, Bob was just my friend, and he still is. When
he became famous it was like a different person. He has his life and we don’t
communicate now. We
were friends and we played in the band and all of a sudden he went ...and now he’s a different person.
One of the big things that we really enjoyed was James Dean. We went to Steven’s Grocery and
Confectionary to look at all the magazines of James Dean; how he got killed in that car accident.
Lars Lindh
Did you go to Lybba’s Theater with Bob?
LeRoy Hoikkala
Yes, we went to movies related to music all the time. James Dean, Brando …things like that. It was
usually John Bucklen, Bob and myself.
Lars Lindh
Did John Bucklen ever play with you?
LeRoy Hoikkala
He was kind of a beginner. Actually all of us were beginners. But he didn’t play with the band, no. Bob
jammed with a bunch of guys, but that wasn’t [as a] band. Then in the end it broke up. We didn’t really
form a band. We played as the Golden Chords here and there and then Bob went to Duluth and got
some friends there that played more blues and jazz type of music. Then he took off to Minneapolis.
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