Jon Corneal
Born: August 30, 1946 in Lakeland, Florida
Currently resides in Auburndale, Florida

Jon Corneal is a native of Auburndale, Florida. Born to Bud and Marguerite Corneal on August 30, 1946, his father was a successful lumber and building products retailer in the Auburndale area.

Jon, along with the cousins Carl and Gerald Chambers put together their first band in about 1960 for a junior high school talent show. That band became"The Dynamics" and played teen centers throughout Central Florida as well as several appearances on "Hi-Time with Jack Stir", an American Bandstand style dance show that was broadcast live on WFLA television each Saturday afternoon at 4:30 out of Tampa.

In 1962, Jon joined up with Gram Parsons, Jim Stafford, and Gerald Chambers to form the "Legends", a rock dance band who traveled all over the state of Florida. Each of these players went on to influence the national music scene.

Jon graduated from Auburndale High School in 1964 and on July 5th, he and Jim Stafford packed their belongings in a Scotty Camping Trailer hooked to a Ford Econoline van and were off to Nashville. About 18 hours later they pulled into the Crestwood Trailer Park, a popular parking spot for many of the active players in the Nashville music arena. As luck would have it they pulled in and parked right next to a trailer occupied by "Cousin" Jake Tullock (he was the bass player for Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys) who befriended the boys and introduced them around town. Jon and Jim spent a couple of weeks just hangin' out and germin'. They managed to get backstage at the Grand Ol' Opry where they met the likes of Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow and even slipped unnoticed into a Chet Atkins recording session at RCA's Studio "B".

After a failed attempt to jump-start their careers by attending the National Stage Band Camp in Oklahoma, Jon returned to Nashville and Jim went back home to Winter Haven. Jon's persistence finally paid off later in 1964 when he landed a job playing drums for Hal Willis who was riding a #1 country hit with the song "The Lumberjack".

Jon kept busy in 1965. He played with the back-up band that toured the country with various Acuff-Rose artists, toured Greenland and Iceland with Clyde Beavers and appeared as a member of the back-up band in "Music City USA" a country music movie starring many of the top Nashville stars of the day. He even had a speaking line. Also appearing in that movie was fellow Auburndale native Bobby Braddock.

It was while doing the movie that Jon met the Wilburn Brothers who offered him a job playing drums in their show and 1966 found him both touring and playing on some of the Wilburns recordings. He also recorded with Loretta Lynn on a Christmas album she was cutting at Bradley's Barn that year. It was also during 1966 and at Bradley's Barn that Jon recorded his first original songs. On his session were "Pig" Robbins, Junior Husky, Pete Wade and Wade Phillips. It was on this session that Jon sang his first songs in front of people and somehow he managed to survive.

During early 1967, Jon toured for a short while with the legendary Kitty Wells show and then spent several months touring with songbird, Connie Smith.

In the late spring, while on a visit back to his home in Florida, Jon ran into his boyhood friend and cohort, Gram Parsons. Gram was excited about this recording project that he was developing in Los Angeles. His concept was to meld rock and roll and country music and he was eager for Jon to come out to California and record with the International Submarine Band. Jon agreed and flew out to California soon after Gram had returned.

On the West Coast, Jon was in a different world. On his second day there, he found himself at Peter Fonda's house hobnobbing with the likes of David Crosby and Dennis Hopper. This definitely wasn't Auburndale.

The International Submarine Band began rehearsal at Burrito Manor and soon Gram, Jon, John Neuse, and Bob Buchanan, along with a temporary bassist, auditioned for Lee Hazelwood's LHI Records. They passed the audition and by Christmas of 1967, the album "Safe At Home" was finished. Even though the album was destined for obscurity, original copies of this album have sold for more than $300.00 each in Europe. They have become collector's items.

Unfortunately, by the time "Safe At Home" was released, Gram had already jumped ship and was recording with the Byrds. The band was under a lot of pressure to sign a release that allowed Hazelwood to use the I.S.B. name in order to protect Gram from a breech of contract suit. Looking back, they should have sought legal council but hind site is always 20/20.

For nearly a year Jon and the guys tried to find a replacement for Gram but without success. Country music had just not yet become part of the common vocabulary of the California flower movement.

Disillusioned with the L.A. scene, Jon moved first to Harbor City and then back to Nashville in late 1968. But the latter move proved only more discouraging when Jon was fired from a night club where he was playing in Nashville because he had long hair and a "mutton chops" beard. Jon says he was told, "We just don't need your kind here."

In the winter of 1969, Jon moved back to California.

While visiting the famed "Troubadour" night club, Jon met Gene Clark who was playing there with Doug Dillard under name "The Dillard and Clark Expedition". Jon was asked to join the group as drummer and went on tour with the band as well as recorded the album "Through the morning, through the night ". But the music was becoming too bluegrass for Clark and just after the album was released the group disbanded. Jon was again jobless and it was first back to Nashville and then back home to Florida.

After a short hiatus, Jon moved back to Nashville in 1971 where he landed a job as drummer for the Glaser Brothers. The Glasers recorded one of Jon's songs, "Phoney World", on their #1 album "Rings". Jon would tour and record with the Glaser Brothers for the better part of two years.

Jon quit the Glasers in early 1973, and decided to try it on his own. He formed his own group and under the name "Jon Corneal and the Orange Blossom Special", produced an album in 1974 at Central Sound Studios in Auburndale, Florida.

After spending time in Nashville promoting his new album, Jon settled into a more domestic home life in Central Florida. He met his wife Debbie in 1979 and they were married in 1981. They have worked together ever since - playing resorts, conventions, and special events around the southeast United States under the name Limousine Cowboys and more recently as the Jon & Debbie Corneal Show.

In September of 1983, Jon and Debbie performed at the Lonestar Cafe on Fifth Avenue in New York City for a country-rock music roundup, basically for the people who had been around during the beginning of the country-rock movement . The house was packed and they received a standing ovation. Truly a night to remember.

Beginning in 1986, Jon and Debbie were weekly regulars each Wednesday and Thursday morning on "The Ernie Lee Show", a live, early morning television show that aired on Tampa Bay's WTVT-TV. They played over 200 shows with Ernie during that time, getting up at 2 a.m. in order to make showtime in Tampa.

In 1987, Ian Dunlop, one of the founding members of the International Submarine Band came over from England and camped out in Jon's front yard for about six weeks. He and Jon wrote and recorded a bunch of demos in Darrell Johnson's garage studio, that Ian then took to Nashville. Producer Fred James became very interested and in a bartered agreement with Dunlop, studio time was acquired at the "Creative Workshop" studio. After two trips to Nashville, the album was finished.

Thirteen years later, in September 2000, Magnum Records in London, England has released a new International Submarine Band CD (featuring Jon Corneal and Ian Dunlop) and is now available from Amazon.com. A tour and a "live" album from Germany are also in the works.

PARTIAL DISCOGRAPHY

1966 - Loretta Lynn - "Country Christmas" (MCA) - drums
1967 - International Submarine Band - "Safe At Home" (LHI) drums
1968 - The Byrds - "Sweetheart of the Radio" (Columbia) drums
1969 - The Flying Burrito Bros. - "The Gilded Palace of Sin" (A&M) drums
1969 - Warren Zevon - "Wanted Dead or Alive" (Liberty) drums
1969 - The Dillard & Clark Expedition - "Through the morning, through the night " (A&M) drums
1972 - The Glaser Bros. -"Rings" (MGM) drums and wrote the song "Phoney World"
1972 - The Glaser Bros. - "Group of the Decade" (MGM) drums and wrote the song "She's Sweet, She's Kind and She's Mine"
1974 - Jon Corneal - "Jon Corneal and the Orange Blossom Special" - (Auburn-Orange) vocals, drums and wrote all of the songs
2000 - International Submarine Band - "Back At Home" (Magnum) wrote and sings several of the songs and plays drums on most cuts

CONTACT INFO:
Live show and/or record sales

LP - "Jon Corneal & The Orange Blossom Special" - available in vinyl only

Jon Corneal
P.O. Box 127
Auburndale, FL 33823

Phone: 863 - 967- 5196

E-mail Jon a Message @ Dizzy Rambler.com

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