uring the height of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Robby Cox started a custom drum company, bearing his name, Cox Drum Co.
For each drum sold, $25 will be donated to the Cancer Center at Self Regional Health Care.
Cox, from Greenwood, lives in Tennessee now. He is a manager of — and former drummer for — Greenwood-based party band the Swingin’ Medallions.
The custom drums are made in a collaborative effort between Cox Drum Co. and Grant Camp of Stella Maris Guitar Company of Jonesboro, Arkansas. Guitar-maker Camp is also from Greenwood and he and Cox have known each other since junior high school.
At the time this venture started, Cox said the band was canceling and rescheduling “tons of Medallions shows.”
“I played drums for the Medallions between 1986 and 2014,” Cox said. He lives near Nashville and works in the music industry in artist management and development with Curo KR, with fellow former Medallion alumnus, Kos Weaver.
Cox said his custom drum company has released a few signature snare drums so far, including one in memory of Greenwood musician, the late Eddie Wayne Bailey, who played with Kinfolk, the Medallions and The Fabulous Expressions, and one in honor of Joe Morris, the Medallions’ original drummer, presented to Morris, during a show in Loganville, Georgia July 16.
“It was absolutely terrific,” Morris, 77, told the Index-Journal by phone Monday. “We had a huge, huge crowd. ... Some time ago, Robby was asking me about the drum we did ‘Double Shot’ with. ... I liked it because of the sound of it and I told Robby about that wooden drum. ... I didn’t know he was going to do something.”
Morris now lives in Columbia and is retired from sales and marketing with packaging company, Sonoco Products, where during his initial job interview, Morris says “Double Shot” somehow, serendipitously, began playing over radio airwaves, and helped him land the job. This was after a human resources manager asked him about a gap in his resumé between the time he graduated college and started his first job. During that gap, Morris was playing with the Medallions.
“That is an absolutely true story,” Morris said. “’Double Shot’ has served me well.”
The song has woven itself into the lexicon of popular culture and has fans well outside of Greenwood. It was voted No. 14 in the top 600 Songs of Summer on SiriusXM and has made No. 1 on Bruce Springsteen’s Frat Rock playlist, per backstreets.com.
Morris said he learned to play drums in high school band at Ninety Six, under the direction of then band instructor, Bob Merritt.
“I was always around music,” Morris said. “My father played a mandolin. ... Years later, John McElrath and I started a band.”
Morris, originally from Ninety Six, said he started playing and rehearsing with McElrath in 1961. Morris was on stage with them from 1962-69 and 2003 to present.
Morris said they would often go into a local store in town, open in those days, the John B. Lee Music and Record Shop. He said they would listen to every record the store owner had and learn to play the songs because they “couldn’t afford to buy them all.”
Morris recalls his first time playing with who would eventually become the original Swingin’ Medallions was when he was a senior in high school.
In those very early days, Morris said the lineup included him, along with founder John McElrath, Carroll Bledsoe, Brent Fortson, Steve Caldwell and Perrin Gleaton.
Other early members in the Swingin’ Medallions include Jimbo Doares, Charles Webber and Fredie Pugh.
“We played at Lander College (now Lander University),” Morris said, of that initial six-member configuration. “Bob Merritt let me take the drums. ... When they opened curtains to the stage, there were six to seven hundred girls and I froze.”
Morris soon found his groove.
“When we finished playing, there were 600 college girls rushing the stage,” Morris said. “And, a couple of the younger ones actually wanted to talk to me. ... From there, that’s when we started a band and looking for instruments.”
Cox said this most recent snare drum is reminiscent of what Morris played on the Medallions’ 1966 smash hit song, “Double Shot of My Baby’s Love,” recorded at Arthur Smith Studios in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Joe and I had many conversations honing in the design of this drum and I wanted to give props by putting his name on this signature snare drum,” Cox wrote to the Index-Journal via email.
In a phone interview Tuesday, Cox said he was 17 when he first met Morris and began playing with the Medallions.
“I’ve played thousands and thousands of shows, but very rarely talk behind the microphone,” admits Cox. “I’m usually hiding behind my drum set. I was really nervous last week...but I was really excited to do this for Joe. He’s been a really good friend and a mentor, to the band and to me.”
Morris said he was totally caught off guard by the surprise honor July 16.
“I do a lot of PR for the band and play with the guys when I can, on ‘Double Shot’ ‘Hey, Hey Baby’ and I play a novelty song,” Morris said. “...I was motioned to stay on stage and that’s when Robby Cox started the presentation...I looked over to the other side of the stage and saw three of my grandchildren, who live in Birmingham, Alabama, and my daughter, who lives in Camden. I thought, ‘What is going on here?’
“The band had been working on this for a while and boy, they got me...,” Morris said. “It was, without question, my biggest thrill in my music career. ... When you have all your guys show you that they love you, that means a lot.”
Morris said the Swingin’ Medallions draw record crowds and are beloved by music fans from all over.
“These young guys in the band now work unbelievably hard at what they do,” Morris said. “They are jumping, moving, dancing and it’s incredible. ...I think John McElrath would be proud of his legacy with these young guys.”
Morris said the band’s current lineup recruits original members to play with them whenever possible.
“We have a saying, ‘Once a Medallion, always a Medallion’,” Morris said. “John McElrath helped develop so many young musicians. There aren’t many around Greenwood who don’t have a connection to the Medallions, a band that will be 60 years old next year. ... We’ve survived lawsuits, which we’ve won, hard times in the music business and if COVID didn’t get us, maybe we will be here for another 60 years.”
Morris said it’s humbling to get the chance to still be a part of the Medallions, his voice choking with emotion as he reflects on his years playing with John McElrath, who died in 2018.
“It is up to me to help and encourage and that’s what I try to do,” Morris said.
For information, visit coxdrumcompany.com.
