It wouldn't have surprised me to meet a burn-out case, but Les McKeown was quite the opposite. He used to be a pop star, the kind over whom teens faint and promise their undying loyalty. When the ride is over, you end up playing a three-night gig at some bar. The first night, there were 200 paying customers at the Ballard Firehouse. Les McKeown meets me in the lobby of a Ramada Inn, and we find an empty reception room in which to talk.
Nobody takes notice.
He's just another guest who goes to the nearby Denny's for a meal. It's actually quite mindboggling how popular the Bay City Rollers were in the mid-'70s. One estimate is that they sold around 70 million records. Rock 'n' roll is not known for its bookkeeping. It's all gone Once, when he was 21, a teen idol with no notion about finances, he could pick up the phone and order a car.