Download PDF – Profile from the 2023 Greater Cape Ann Guide
Stop reading this. Hop onto YouTube and watch The Fools’ 1980 video “Psycho Chicken.” Resume reading. If you’ve heard the tune before, and you’re of “a certain age,” let the MTV memories flow. If you’re new to The Fools, listen next to “It’s a Night for Beautiful Girls,” one of their biggest hits. You know this tune. Lucky for us, the band still performs, still sounds outstanding, and, yes, they hail from greater Cape Ann. Lead singer/songwriter Mike Girard, now 74 (more like 47), lives in Kensington, NH, yet is often back in his hometown of Ipswich visiting bandmate Stacey Pedrick. “I’ve known Stacey since I was five. We started playing when we were in high school.” Through several iterations of bandmates over the years, The Fools today are Girard, Pedrick (guitar), Rich Bartlett (lead guitar), Eric Adamson (bass), and Leo Black (drums). “I used to always say if we didn’t have a band, we’d probably have a bowling team or something.” Or their own sitcom. These guys are fun. By 1976, things were clicking and their identity was taking shape. “The first time we played, I wanted to call us Five Desperate Men but the other guys didn’t like it. Then we were going to be Five Desperate Fools. At some point, it just became The Fools.” Did Cape Ann itself inspire a particular song? “I want to say ‘It’s a Night for Beautiful Girls.’ That was just that feeling of being young, being in a nightclub dancing, meeting people, listening to rock ’n’ roll or playing rock ’n’ roll. Definitely inspired by the lives we were living at the time.”
And they were living quite the life. The Fools opened for top bands, including J. Geils (“They treated us like friends”), Van Halen, The Ramones, Rush (“We always got a sound check”), and The Knack (“We had a great time playing with them”). Star struck yet? The stories are outrageous while some are quite poignant. Girard also shares them, with scathing wit and candor, in his 2010 book, Psycho Chicken & Other Foolish Tales. “When it came out, The Boston Globe called it a ‘hoot.’ I don’t think there’s any higher praise than that.” Listening to Girard regale the band’s life on the road, the egomaniacal antics of a certain lead singer (spoiler alert: his initials are DLR), the backstage stories and romances, the European concerts, it’s impressive that The Fools remained as grounded as they are today. Through it all, they held to the values they established early in their career. “No matter where we’ve played in the world, we’re always introduced in the same way: ‘From Ipswich, MA, entertainment capital of the world and home of the fried clam,” laughs Girard. “We will always be Ipswich boys.”
While super stardom eluded them, perhaps that was both their destiny and salvation. Girard waxes philosophical, possessing a deep appreciation for the music. “Because we grew up playing smaller places, we’ve always tried to make it seem like we’re playing in our living room. We wanted it to feel intimate. There are comedy aspects to everything that we’ve done, but at the base of it all, we’re just trying to make people feel good. Our job is to have fun.” And yet life isn’t always fun. The band played on despite family issues, injuries, and loss. The music was a salve. “It’s been therapy for us, an escape to a happy place. We look at every show like it could be the last.…There’s so many things that can break a band. We’re really fortunate to still be hanging after all this time.”
There will even be another CD. “All we ever wanted to do was play music. To me that’s success.…I feel like we’re just starting to get good! It’s funny,” Girard muses, “I always thought, ‘What an odd thing to belong to something art-related.’ As I learned when I was house painting, you could do a really good job but there are no people clapping for you when you’re done. In showbiz, you get the love, you get the adoration.…I don’t think other professions really grasp what that’s like. It’s pretty special.”
As you drive through greater Cape Ann, throw your shades on, open the sunroof, blast “It’s a Night for Beautiful Girls,” and you’ll understand where Girard found his inspiration. Just let those Fools—and great times—rush in.
