Bestselling author and celebrity biographer Mark Bego recalled his adventures working with the Village People. #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos has the scoop.
Bego had been working on a Village People biography when he received the news that the group’s original lead singer, Victor Willis, has suddenly passed away a few weeks ago from a short illness.
Bego, who has followed the group since their inception in 1978 (and their very first album, the self-titled “Village People”), once was roommates at separate times with original members Glenn Hughes and Randy Jones, and was able to observe first-hand the formation of the group with original producers Jacques Morlai and Henri Bello.
Mark Bego remarked, “Jacques and Henri recorded the first Village People album without a formal group formed, so when it became a sudden disco hit, they had to go about casting a six-member group. They held a casting call, like The Monkees had, back in 1966.”
Bego was also the first person to interview the group for CUE magazine and has that original tape from 1978. He also attended Willis’ wedding reception, when the singer married Phylicia Rashad in 1978, and knows the full story. He penned a book Macho Man with the group’s original cowboy, Randy Jones in 2008.
To learn more about bestselling author and biographer Mark Bego, visit his official website.
