The King of Cool was Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Elvis Presley rolled into one.

Hey pallies, likes a couple of days 'go posted a pix of our pallie Jeff Incink with his pallie Ricci Martin. Well sharin' a post with you today of an interview conducted with our Dino's boypallie by Mr. John Benson of "Vindy.com."

Seems that Ricci is goin' to be returnin' to his Dino-daddy-o's roots by doin' several shows in the great state of Ohio this comin' May...if you go to Ricci-s pad (RicciMartin.com) and clicks on his schedule you will find all the details.

Mr. Benson telephoned interviewed Ricci from his Utah estate for his upcomin' show in Boardman, Ohio on May 22. Besides the usual patter that Ricci oftens sez in such interviews by doin' his trib to our beloved Dino, Ricci shares what it was like to fly to 'Vegas to spend a week there while our great man was doin' his great shows.

Also, very very cool to read that Ricci's reason to continuin' to do the show after almost 10 years is 'cause, likes of course, folks just can't get 'nough of our Dino, and, Ricci is doin' his part to keep the his daddy-o's legacy in front of of the public...workin' to turn on new generations to deep, pure, and true Dino-devotion.

Likes totally diggs the followin' reflections on our Dino contained in this Dino-prose..."The King of Cool was Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Elvis Presley rolled into one. To say he was a superstar is almost not doing him justice. He ruled movies, television, music and more." Ain't sure of this Dino-praise is comin' from Ricci or Mr. Benson, but certainly it is a great summary of the Dino-truth...our Dino is truly the eternal essence of cool!

ilovedinomartin sez our thanks to Ricci Martin for graciously bein' interviewed, and thanks also to Mr. John Benson for sharin' Ricci's reflections with the wider Dino-world. To view this in it's original format, as usual, just clicks on the title of this Dino-post. Dino-loved, DMP

Ricci Martin’s show honors his father, Dean
Published: Thu, April 21, 2011 @ 12:00 a.m.

IF YOU GO:
Who: Ricci Martin
When: 6 p.m. May 22
Where: The Georgetown, 5945 South Ave., Boardman
Tickets: Admission is $45 for adults and $40 for seniors; price includes dinner. For more information, call 330-757-2779

By John Benson
entertainment@vindy.com

For Ricci Martin, memories are made of his father, Dean Martin, every time he takes the stage for this retrospective “His Son Remembers” show.

“It’s the same show I’ve been touring for the last almost 10 years now,” said Martin, 57, calling from his Utah home. “As long as people keep inviting me back, I’m going to keep going because it’s a show that honors and celebrates Dad. I kind of stay away from the whole idea of a tribute because all I have are visions of Elvis impersonators in my head. This is different. I sing a song, offer stories and show photos that people have never seen from the family album. And there’s Q&A. It’s just kind of sharing an evening with Dean’s son and celebrating his life, basically.”

Martin is no stranger to music and performing. He briefly explored his own singing career in the ’70s, even opening for the Beach Boys on a 1977 tour, but it wasn’t until a few years after his dad passed that he decided to keep the songs alive. Today, he performs everything from “Volare” and “That’s Amore” to “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime” and “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head.”

And then there are the stories. Looking back to the famed Rat Pack years, when Dean, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. palled around together in Sin City, Martin remembers the time fondly.


“We would actually go to The Sands and see the shows,” Martin said. “The upside was, in those days, they had the showgirls up front doing big numbers, so it was always incredible for me to see that. But the downside was there was nothing going on in Vegas. It was desert and was just plain boring. Still, it was special because we were getting on an airplane, and in those days you dressed up to do it. Then you got dressed up to go see the show. And there was that electricity of just being Vegas before the curtain went up, and also because that was Dad there. We knew in a week or so he’d be home, and we’d be sitting on the couch hugging him in the living room.”

Finally, the legend of Dean Martin grows more distant year after year. That is, most folks under 40 don’t understand that during his heyday, The King of Cool was Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Elvis Presley rolled into one. To say he was a superstar is almost not doing him justice. He ruled movies, television, music and more. This is what keeps Martin out on the road.


“I see that obviously more and more since his passing; however, I’ll still have parents my age who take their parents of Dad’s age to the show,” Martin said. “And they in turn are taking their children. So they are turned onto Dad’s music. Usually, the folks that were into Dad, it was like Beatlemania. There’s a fanatic aspect to their love for Dean. And it’s a family affair, but they are still there and hard core.”

He added, “What’s fun is the casinos know that, too, because the high rollers these days aren’t the Franks and Deans at the craps table. It’s the gals with the bungeed club card in a slot machine that keep it going. So there’s a lot of blue hair at my shows, but it’s the best audience. They’re rooting for me. They’re on my side. It’s all good.”