When the opening chords of a familiar Beatles tune drifts out of the doors of the Fabulous Fox Theatre on September 17th, passers by might just think they stepped back in time 40+ years to Liverpool, England. And if they come see RAIN – A Tribute to the Beatles presented by Theater of the Stars September 17 – 19 they might just succeed in that time travel. RAIN – A Tribute to the Beatles, a show that has been called “the next best thing to seeing The Beatles,” boasts a repertoire of Beatles favorites, ranging from such beloved songs as “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “Hey Jude” to classic hits including “Revolution” and “Come Together.” Playing all those familiar songs, in the guise of George Harrison is Joe Bithorn who will be a part of the show when it returns to Atlanta. I caught up with Joe to learn a little more about his journey.
Let’s start with a question about your background. Tell us a little bit about how you got started in the business.
Sure. It has been a very interesting life. My mom and dad were huge classical music fans, really music fans in general. We lived in New York and my parents, coming from Puerto Rico just loved to get their fill of culture. They used to go dancing with big bands and hey saw performers like Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey band, and it was a very exciting time for them to be young and living in New York. My mom worked for the offices of The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and one of the accounts that she worked on was for a man by the name of Alexander Schneider, who was at the time one of the world’s greatest violinists along with Isaac Stern. When she was invited to come to Carnegie Hall, she took my older sister and brother (who is a musician in the Atlanta area) and me and they told me that at a very young age I would go and just be astounded, taking it all in. Then afterwards I would see these people at the Russian Tea Room or at my mom’s office. Beverly Sills was in and out of that office, they used to call her Bubbles, and when she would see me there, Beverly would say she wanted to take me home with her. My father also played guitar, and he would teach all of us to sing harmony when we were very young and I became a big fan of harmony in general. I also have two cousins that are latin jazz musicians and in my teens the whole family would get together and we would listen to music like John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, who actually used to live in my neighborhood and would scare us walking up and down the street.
What did you think you wanted to do when you were growing up? Did you always want to be a musician?
I don’t think I had a choice! It was something that I was so interested in and it was like a kid in a candy store to be in that environment, it would have been crazy to not have been a musician. I don’t know what else I would have done. I was interested in classical guitar too. My dad had a nylon string at the house and I would strum it when I was very young. He had a friend who would come over with his guitar and he would play these Bach pieces and all this other music that was unbelievable and I couldn’t believe that I was hearing out of six strings. He would play Segovia, and stuff like that. That was a passing fancy at that moment until I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and then it was game over. As for other instruments I play piano, bass, and sing, and actually have picked up a sitar recently.
