The Righteous Brothers’ Bill Medley on winding down after six decades of music

The Righteous Brothers. // photo courtesy the artist

As one half of the legendary vocal duo The Righteous Brothers, singer Bill Medley has been making music for over six decades. Be it his work on Righteous Brothers’ classics “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” and “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration” or his smash duet “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” with Jennifer Warnes, along with lesser-knowns like the theme song to the ’80s sitcom Just the Ten of Us, Medley’s voice has soundtracked the lives of multiple generations.

The Righteous Brothers reformed in 2016 with singer Bucky Heard taking over for the departed Bobby Hatfield, who passed in 2003.

Since then, Medley has been on the road, performing the Righteous Brothers’ repertoire for fans the world over. That’s soon coming to an end, as Medley and Heard are now in the midst of the Lovin’ Feelin’ Farewell Tour, which will precede Medley stepping away from the road sometime in 2025.

Ahead of the Righteous Brothers’ stop at the Kauffman Center on Saturday, September 14, we hopped on the phone with Bill Medley to discuss his long and eventful career, and what it’s like to be winding it down.

The Pitch: You are on your farewell tour. What’s making you step away from touring after over six decades?

Bill Medley: Traveling, airports. I mean, listen–if I could magically be in places without traveling, I would do it in a heartbeat. I love performing. I just love it. But boy, traveling … I’m going to be 84 this month, and traveling, it’s just getting tougher and tougher and tougher. The farewell tour, hopefully it’s going to take a couple of years to unwind. We have some contracts to fulfill, and I have some places I want to go before I get out of here, especially musically, so it is unwinding, but it’ll take a little time.

The Righteous Brothers came back starting in 2016. What do Righteous Brothers audiences look like? I have to imagine it’s very multi-generational at this point.

It truly is, for a couple of reasons. In the end of the ’80s, “Lovin’ Feeling” went in Top Gun. I had a hit with “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing. Then, they put “Unchained Melody” in Ghost. It was like three years in a row and it just brought us back bigger than ever, so some of those people are showing up.

I asked a lot of kids that are in their twenties or thirties. They say, “Well, we’re here because our mom and dad used to play your music in the house all the time and we just fell in love with it,” so it’s different, but I would say the majority are probably the people that were raised on the Righteous Brothers in the ’60s.

How do you respond to the fact that so much of your fandom is from folks my age who came to your music through its use in film?

Well, it just happened to end up that way. Thank God for the movies, especially in a movie back in those days. I mean, the songs were really important to the movie and you know, “Unchained Melody” was a good size hit in the ’60s, but boy, when they put it in Ghost, it just became almost a love anthem, and Dirty Dancing and “The Time of My Life”? My God, that’s the song that will not die. And “Lovin’ Feeling,” for years–most played record in the history of American radio. So, all that together. I mean, boy, in 1990, we were bigger than ever.

Given that you’re so closely associated with both Ghost and Dirty Dancing, did you have any sort of relationship with Patrick Swayze, given that you soundtracked two of his most iconic film performances?

No. It was kind of an amazing thing, isn’t it? I mean, yeah, to be in Dirty Dancing, which kind of made him a huge star and then Ghost. The interesting thing is I sang “The Time of My Life” in Dirty Dancing, and Bobby sang lead on the Righteous Brothers’ record, “Unchained Melody.” It was an interesting time, but it sure was a great time. Ghost, it’s such an emotional kind of movie that, “Unchained Melody”–it just gave it a whole different meaning.

As the Righteous Brothers have come back and you’ve partnered with Bucky Heard, what was the process for you developing the ability to sing with somebody new after having performed with your former partner Bobby Hatfield for so, so many years?

Well, it was it was nothing that I was looking to do. He passed away in ’03 and we didn’t put this together until 2016, because I didn’t think anybody could fill Bobby’s shoes, you know? In reality, what Bucky is doing on stage in this show is filling in for Bobby–impossible to replace Bob–but I had friends and fans and people in the business telling me, “You got to keep this music alive. People want to hear it.”

In the ’60s, they really came out see Bob and Bill, and now they’re showing up to hear those songs. I think that’s why tribute bands are doing so well. I wasn’t looking to do it, but I went in to see a show that Bucky was doing ’cause we were good friends. We’d met in Branson, Missouri, and I just liked him, but I knew him as in the Blues Brothers. I didn’t know how he could sing. I went to see him, he was doing a couple of Journey songs, and he just killed it.

I said, “Wow, if I was going to try and do something, this would probably be the guy,” mainly because he’s a great singer and he was a a big, big, big Bobby Hatfield fan and we got along great, and he was just a great guy and a friend, so that helps.

Given that this is a farewell tour, and it is a lengthy one, what plans do you have for once you’re off the road for good?

I don’t quite know. I’m just reaching the stage that–I feel really blessed. I’ve been doing this for 60 years, and it’s just been one blessing after another. I might do some producing or produce some shows. I’ve written and produced some Broadway shows, but just shows for a club or this and that. I probably would stay busy, but like somebody said to me, “Listen: you fought a good fight and you ran a good race, so now it’s time to rest,” and I’m starting to feel that a little bit.

Not on stage! Not on stage, man. I feel like I’m 21 or 25 years old on stage. But boy, getting to that stage is just getting tough.

The Righteous Brothers are at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, September 14. Details on that show here.