Keener13.com - Tom Zarski

Tom Zarski: An "Urban Legend" Speaks

Sunday, October 12 is a watershed date in the WKNR story. It was the afternoon when an Eastern Michigan University student called Russ Gibb with questions about a rumor that Paul McCartney was dead. For 34 years, "Tom" has existed only as an anonymous sound byte, although he was the catalyst for the broadcast that amplified the Paul Is Dead story to international proportions. In June of 2003, Keener13.com tracked Tom down and at long last, we unmask his identity and hear an account of the historic day in his own words.

By that Sunday, Oct 12, 1969, I had spent the better part of a week going over the "Paul is dead" mystery clues, keeping track of them as best I could, on paper, and in my own head. I was hoping to solve the riddle there in my Ypsilanti, Michigan apartment, that was going around on the Eastern Michigan U. campus-amongst mainly my friends. Each of them seemed to remember only one clue or so that they had heard, and brought it to me. I was simply stumped at trying to find significance in a notion that one of the Beatles had died, if only figuratively speaking, as part of some story -legend, and nobody officially acknowledged it, or if so, why they wouldn't?

Certainly, I had no reason to believe it was true. It was not. Yet I felt as if I was being sent on some quest. It was either a riddle, or maybe some kind of scavenger hunt. I believed that, even then. I was driven, however, by my own curiosity. I was exhausted from trying to figure it out. I needed an answer.

Since the rumors were brought to me in bits and pieces from campus friends-they had to have had a source. And then, what was the significance or purpose of twisting the meaning of artwork on album covers to mean something more?

Why did I want to listen to music played backwards? I had to end the agony of my week long curiosity.

My detective-like mentality drove me to dial the phone to quiz the number one source for Rock and Roll information in the city of Detroit, Uncle Russ Gibb, and ask him about it, directly over the air, on his call-in show. Everybody listened to him on WKNR, and he often had local rock talent join him in on-the-air chatter about local performances. On that Sunday, I never expected to be interviewed as his special guest,-I wanted him to do the talking!

He would talk about anything, anytime, and maybe munch a sandwich loudly as he chatted. He was a free spirit. He was a cool "hippie uncle". He was a local rock impresario. He was our guru. He would explain the phenomena. He was friendly enough to the kids..it was his job to know, too!! There began the problem. He didn't know.

He was simply fascinated to let me talk on the air about the clues. And, instead of giving me some simple answer that I craved, he kept me on the air for nearly two hours as he played records. In-between, I shared some of the clues with Russ for his listeners. He played Revolution Number 9 backwards, as I had instructed him to do. It wasn't long before he switched to all Beatle record cuts. Some clues were even my own creation.

My roommates told me, while Russ kept me on hold, that every other station in Detroit...(then around the country)...switched over to an all Beatle format....within minutes....believing that Paul WAS ACTUALLY DEAD! .

Your Kenner website's Paul is Dead story is more than excellent. It has the best format, is objective, and clearly worded too. All of the facts so far seem correct, and it avoids the sensational aspect that makes kids even today become over absorbed in the meaningless aspect of what turned out to be a classic bit of celebrity worship. It never occurred to me, then, as a youngster, that Paul might have had, or should have had, privacy issues to be concerned about, or that he would break into some crazed hysteria, himself, at the news. Russ, nor WKNR, nor "Tom" meant to do him any harm. It was all innocent talk. If anything, I would really like to be able to apologize to him for any discomfort that he felt about the mystery. I could never have dreamed that I would start a world wide rumor into motion.

That is the story. I am even listed in the Ultimate Beatle Encyclopedia- only as "Tom". It was my 15 minutes of fame...and nobody knew....but for me and my friends. Now they say that "Tom" is the URBAN LEGEND, and I just heard my voice on some link http://www.ncf.ca/beatles/tr3.wma . That sounds like a fair description for what turned out to be, as I thought, a hoax! I drove over to the station a couple of hours after my call with two of my friends, and met Russ. He was producing another event that night, "The Who" at Cobo Hall. I didn't think about asking him for a ticket. The Beatles immediately had their lagging sales of the Abby Road album take off, and even their old stuff was reissued after that. Russ was sent some free promotions calendar from Apple Records. I only found out only later that I got stuck with a big long distance phone bill for my efforts. Today Paul is one of the richest men in the whole world...and that incident marked a jump start for revival of Beatle record sales-that was for a group that had just announced that they had broken up for good.

Tom Zarski, Roswell, GA
formerly Ypsilanti, MI

LINK: Keener Kills Paul
LINK: Russ Gibb