Agoura Hills : ‘60s Rock Star Has Taken Fame in Stride

Can you ever live a normal life again after years in the spotlight as a 1960s music icon?

It’s not easy, but it can be done, said Mark Lindsay, former lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders.

He not only survived the pitfalls of fame, he said, but he’s still making music. And enjoying life more.

He will appear at 5 p.m. July 30 in Agoura Hills as part of the city’s summer concert series at Chumash Park, 5550 Medea Valley Drive.

The series kicks off Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. with Dan Crow and the Thunderwear Band, a concert for children. For information, call (818) 597-7361.

As for Lindsay, he said he won’t be dressed as Paul Revere. OK, maybe just for one brief segment. And just the coat.

His best known hit, “Indian Reservation,” was the biggest selling single in the history of CBS Records, he said. There were other hits, too, including “Kicks,” “Hungry,” “Good Things” and “Arizona.”

Then, in 1974, the spotlight burned out.

“For a while there, I heard my records on the radio every day and I saw my pictures in magazines,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho. “It’s kind of an adjustment, because there is no place to go, but join the normal folks.”

“But life is more than just pictures and magazines and charts; there is a whole world out there,” he said. “It took me quite a while to realize that, but I’m enjoying life more than I was then.”

At first, Lindsay stayed on the sidelines, mostly writing songs and singing for TV commercials, and living off royalties, he said. Then, about five years ago, he said, a friend asked him to host a rock show.

“He introduced me as Mark Lindsay, and I got applause and that felt good,” he said, “and when I was finished, I got a standing ovation, and that felt great.”

These days he does 75 to 100 gigs a year, and enjoys his time off at his home, near a small mining and logging town called Elk City.

While he’s 50 now, he said, the music he made back in the ‘60s still seems relevant.

“A lot of kids have dug around in their attics and got their parents’ records out and found out that they liked them,” he said. “A lot of college-age kids seem to know the records and the lyrics.”