Scene - Blogs - Ridley Pearson on fame and flames

Ridley Pearson on fame and flames
Published: 7/8/2008 4:47 PM
Last Modified: 7/8/2008 4:47 PM

Novelist Ridley Pearson is an extremely successful writer. He's written 27 novels, all of which have remained in print, and many of which have occupied spaces on various national best-seller lists.

You could call him "famous." But as Pearson himself will say, there is famous, and then there's Stephen King famous.

Pearson is one of the ringleaders of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a loose congregation of writers who join together from time to time to play rock 'n' roll at bookish events. It's a band, as co-founder Dave Barry put it, that "plays music as well as Metallica writes novels."

A number of members of this band have been in Tulsa in recent years -- Barry, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, Pearson (who will be here for a book signing 2 p.m. Saturday at the Barnes & Noble at 5231 E. 41st St.).

One of the early gigs the Remainders played featured horror novelist King as one of the band.

"We were getting to the end of the evening," Pearson recalled. "And Stephen was singing the lead on this song. People were getting into it, holding up lighters and cell phones and waving their hands, all that rock concert stuff.

"But there was this woman -- a perfectly attractive woman -- who worked her way to the front of the crowd and stood there, staring up at Stephen King, holding up her hands. And the tips of all ten of her fingers were on fire.

"I remember bopping across the stage and leaning over to Dave Barry," Pearson said, laughing, "and yelling at him over the noise we were making: 'I NEVER want to be THAT famous!'"

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James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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