THE heartbroken son of showbiz legend Dickie Rock has spoken for the first time about life without their dad and cried: “The fans helped get us through it.”
In the family’s first interview since the singer passed away on December 6 aged 88, Jason Rock told how he and brother Richard plan to keep their father’s music alive in a new show singing his songs.
And Jason recounted the struggle all his children had getting over their dad’s death — but revealed they have been lifted by a huge mail bag from fans all over Ireland who continue to mourn their father.
Jason, 54, and Richard, 50, both sang at Dickie’s funeral in Dublin’s Cabra West just a few streets from where the dad-of-six grew up.
Now they plan to sing some of the showband icon’s biggest hits at a new musical show dedicated to him.
Asked what Dickie would make of his sons performing his greatest hits, Jason joked to The Irish Sun: “‘You’re not doing it right’ — that’s what Dad would be saying!”
But Jason and Richard will have their dad’s own musical director, Eugene McCarthy, and his backing group, The Sugarcubes Big Band, for the Celebrating Dickie Rock concert, which is taking place at Dublin’s National Concert Hall on April 19.
Jason told us: “It’s been so hard for me trying to master these songs because whether it was There’s Always Me or Come Back To Stay, my dad really inhabited these songs when he sang them.
“The love, loss, pain and anguish he sang about. Dad believed in the lyrics he was singing and put his heart and soul into it. That’s why they are so hard to cover.
“I’ve have been listening to Dad’s songs, trying to learn them for the concert and the more you listen to them, the more you hear what the songs are about.”
Beloved Dickie represented Ireland in the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing fourth. And he was still entertaining audiences in his 80s.
But Jason watched his sprightly dad crumble after his beloved mum Judy died in 2022, after contracting Covid-19 at the age of 77.
He said: “If my dad wasn’t singing, he was on the golf course or with mum. The years after she died were so tough for him.”
However, Jason recalls how the kindness Dickie showed other performers during his long career was repaid.
KIND ACTS
He said: “My dad had a bad fall last February and hurt himself very badly. He ended up in an ambulance to hospital.
“When he was admitted to A&E, a doctor showed up at his bedside and told Dad they had once performed together at the same concert for Prince Rainier of Monaco when the doctor had been a young Irish dancer. The gig was a showcase for Irish talent in Monaco.
“He said Dad was the biggest act on the bill but had come backstage to make sure all the young dancers had been fed and were OK.
“The doctor said now it was his turn to look after Dad. It was a lovely story and it gave Dad back his dignity when he felt so helpless.”
HEARTWARMING MESSAGES
And Jason said that since his dad’s passing last year, the family had been consoled by other messages about their dad’s generosity.
He said: “A guy contacted us and said his mum had been homeless back in the Seventies, and Dad gave her two grand for a deposit and to get back on our feet.
“He said nobody knew this but it was a story in his family and he wanted to thank us for what Dad had done.”
The Rock family also said they had also been moved by the huge turnout at Dickie’s funeral, with Jason telling us: “There were people who drove five hours to be there and five hours back home.
“It was a beautiful service but there were so many touching aspects to the funeral we had no hand or part in, like the arch of pool cues that Dad’s coffin went under as it came out of the church. Ken Doherty organised that in tribute to Dad’s love of snooker.
‘IT WAS VERY MOVING’
Thanking those who had been at the Church of the Most Precious Blood, in Cabra West, for the service, Jason acknowledged there were many older fans of Dickie who were unable to attend.
He said: “It was just too cold. But when the funeral cortege went through Cabra West you could see all the older people standing at their doors in respect of my dad. It was very moving.”
And Jason recalled how he had driven his dad back up to Cabra in his final days.
He said: “Dad wanted to go back up there because it had so many memories for him. The whole north inner city where he grew up, first in Donnycarney and then Cabra, where his family moved to when he was six or seven. They were very special places for my dad.”
Jason revealed how the family were going through a seismic shift with their dad gone.
“It’s been so hard for me trying to master these songs because whether it was There’s Always Me or Come Back To Stay, my dad really inhabited these songs when he sang them.”
Jason Rock
He said: “There were two people. Dickie Rock and the stage persona he took on, and then the other person was my dad. I’m sure it’s the same for Bono’s kids. To them he’s not Bono of U2. He’s just dad.”
Along with the sadness, Jason recalled the fun his father had with his Dickie Rock persona.
The star — famous for having adoring fans shout “Spit on me, Dickie” at him — once slammed Miley Cyrus for spitting water over fans at her concert in the 3Arena.
Jason laughs: “Dad’s comments about that or him saying he wanted to box Johnny Logan for slagging him, how big those stories became proved how much the Irish people loved him back.”
SHOW NERVES
While nervous about taking to the stage with his brother Richard to sing their dad’s iconic songs in April, Jason said he believed he was in good hands with Dickie’s own MD in charge of the show.
Jason said: “We will sing whatever Eugene and the fans want us to sing in memory of Dad.”
The concert is sure to be well attended like Dickie’s funeral last December, where celebrant Father Brian D’Arcy told mourners pal Dickie would be delighted he had a full house for his last gig and that he was being laid to rest on December 12, the birthday of his hero Frank Sinatra.
Jason added: “We can’t thank Father Brian enough. He clocks up more miles around Ireland than a truck driver doing funerals and does it because of his faith.”
- Celebrating Dickie Rock at Dublin’s National Concert Hall is on Saturday, April 19.
