"I wasn't cut out to be a hero."

- Keith Partridge

Keith Partridge: My Life

My name is Keith Partridge. I was born in 1955. I grew up in San Pueblo, California. Dad died when I was 15. Us kids were pretty much kept in the dark about his death. No one ever told us how he died. Dad was the one who gave me my first guitar. I got it on my 9th birthday. Man, I loved that guitar! I still have it in my attic, along with the pillow that Uncle Milton brought us back from Atlantic City, my scrapbook, and my private journal. Mom was a bank teller at the San Pueblo National Bank. I have two sisters: Laurie (a year younger than me) and Tracy (eleven years younger than me). I also have two brothers: Danny (6 years younger) and Chris (8 years younger).

One day, Danny and I we're jammin' in the garage (he plays the bass guitar), and we came up with an idea that was just crazy enough to work: we were going to start a rock band! Not just ANY rock band, but a FAMILY rock band! Laurie had an electric keyboard she could play. She had gotten pretty good at "Tambourine Man", so I knew she would be able to play my songs. Chris played the drums in the San Pueblo Elementary School band (he was the best drummer in the entire third grade, too!). Chris really improved in our second year. That must have given him a lot of self-esteem because he even looked different after the first year! I had to come up with something for Tracy, after all, it was a family band. Inspired by Laurie's keyboard song, I decided to give Tracy a tambourine, and just let her run with it. We could always drown her out. We got Gloria from down the street to sing. After a few practices we sounded really groovy! Once we had our first song "Let The Good Times In" down perfectly, Danny borrowed some recording equipment from his school. Gloria got sick which was a drag, but we convinced Mom to sing in her place. She said she was tone deaf, but she wasn't. When a big record producer was in town, Danny and Tracy took the song on a tape recorder to the hotel he was staying in. They bugged him until he would listen to it, and whammo! Man, we had a contract!

Once I became a big rock and roll star, the chicks really started digging me! At one point, Danny and Chris even stole things from me to sell. And everything sold like hotcakes of course. They even set up an auction! Mom popped us all into the bus to find them. When we did, Mom made them stop, but this little girl with a lisp was really upset. She had ridden her bike all the way across town for a piece of me. Mom caved, and agreed to a song instead. Luckily, the bus was stocked with our instruments, and wired specially for just such an occasion. We used the top of the bus as a stage and sung the song that I had just written, "Every Little Bit O' You", for the first time.

It seemed like I always had a girl. I even dated a real live princess once! I liked her a lot. Her name was Jenny. I fell hard for this other girl, Dori, in one of my college classes. She was really groovy, and she had it for me bad. But I found out she was married, so I had to end it (poor girl, she was probably crushed). Out of all of them, my best girl ever was Carol. She was terrific. I even sold my car so I could take her to the prom. It was worth it but I think she was a little embarrassed when we pulled up to the prom in the bus. I made it up to her later at Muldoon's point.

Being the oldest son had a lot of responsibilities. Especially when it came to watching out for Laurie. I had to break into the school once to get back a diary that she had accidentally donated. I even had to follow her to Muldoon's Point to make sure that Lester Braddock didn't try any funny stuff with her! I never could understand why she dated such losers. I guess because she dated out of pity. She only went to two dances all through high school, and both times, she went with guys who only knew the box step!

I never had any money as a teenager. Even though I was a big rock and roll star, all the money we made from our gigs went towards our college education (Mom didn't want Tracy to end up working in a sleezy strip joint). I had a couple of part time jobs too. None of them lasted long, but I did get a neat vegetable slicer for Mom out of one of them. Danny always had money. It seemed like every week I owed him $2 for something. One time I got my own pad. I had to do yardwork for Mr. Jarvis next door in exchange for an apartment above his garage. I had to move back home because I had no time to write songs. Plus, I was tired of eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bags of potato dust.

We had a lot of great gigs. We once played for this weird hermit, Sydney Rose. He actually hired us to play for him in a private performance at his mansion. We played a block party in Detroit, and in a hospital for kids. My all time favorite gig was on a cruise ship. Hey, I just thought of something. I didn't get a girl on that cruise!

My favorite hang out was the Taco Stand. I wonder if it's still there? That was the place where everyone hung out. One time this girl gave us a million dollars. I went to the Taco Stand and bought all my friends tacos and sodas. They didn't appreciate it at all.

Of course there was Muldoon's point. It's a great big apartment complex with a terrific view now. I only took my number one girls to Muldoon's Point. I would never have taken Sheila Barfas there.

Yepper, I had some really groovy times back then.