June 14 -Where Are They Now? Wednesday - Village People Lose Seaman

This week’s Where are They Now? Wednesday is The Village People. Not the original group, but a group of middle aged STRAIGHT men that dressed up as The Village People. When people ask me why? I say “Why Not?”

To put it in the proper context, The Village People were playing a post-game concert at a Cincinnati Reds game in June 2002. In Cincinnati, many people get all dressed up in the parrot-phernalia for Jimmy Buffet concerts, so I figured the same thing would happen for The Village People. As it happened, we were the only ones that decided to participate in the tribute to one of the top Disco groups of all time.

Many baseball fans thought we were the real deal. We had our pictures taken, got a few free drinks, had several dollar bills stuffed in our pants, mostly by women. Our Indian actually took out pictures of his children to prove to some patrons that he was not gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

We made the local news and were on ESPN Sports Center.

Pictured below are your 2002 Village People: Sailor (Porter), Construction Worker (Jay), Biker (Jim), Indian (Scott), Cowboy (Jeff).
We tried to recruit a Cop, but in 2002 there had been urban unrest in Cincinnati. Nobody wanted to be the fake cop during a real riot. The Where Are They Now? concerns our Sailor. He has not been seen in some time. The rest of the group golfs, travels, and attends baseball games together (in normal clothes). We thought about taking out an ad in the local paper, “Local Village People Group Loses Seaman.”

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of our Sailor, please advise. Rumor has it that KISS is coming to town and we need a Gene Simmons type.

For those of you who wonder about the real Village People: only three members of the original group are still performing in the group. The Cowboy, Biker, and Cop have moved on.

Randy Jones, the original Cowboy currently lives in New York City with his husband.

Glenn M Hughes, the original Biker, died of lung cancer in 2001.

Victor Edward Willis, the original Cop, married former television star Phylicia Rashad in 1978 but was divorced in 1980. Around the time of his divorce, Willis was also fired from the Village People for cocaine abuse. He was replaced by Ray Simpson. Ray’s sister is Valerie Simpson of the famous duo Ashford & Simpson.

Ironically, the Cop has been in and out of jail since 1997. As of now, he is doing nightly shows in the San Mateo County Jail.

On January 24, 2006, Willis failed to appear for a San Mateo County Superior Court hearing on weapons and drugs charges stemming from an earlier arrest. After two months on the run as a fugitive from justice, Willis was arrested on March 26, 2006 (mug shot on the left). He was actually featured on the TV show, America’s Most Wanted. (Must have been sweeps week.)

At that time, Assistant District Attorney Morley Pitt commented, "it's just sad that his life has spiralled down to the point where in all likelihood he's going to go to prison".

I believe Willis entered the “sucking vortex of doom” by turning his back on Disco. Drug use was just a “Inconvenient Truth” to quote Al Gore. Al Gore will be the feature of Where are They Now? Wednesday on November 5, 2008.