The musician discusses the pot- and acid-fueled genesis of his multiplatinum self-titled first album in the new film 'Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary'Jeremy Helligar is an Executive Editor at PEOPLE and an author who has written about race and queer issues.burst onto the music scene at the end of 1979 with his Grammy-winning self-titled debut album, he seemed like a banker or someone who'd be selling insurance door-to-door. He didn't look anything like your average rock star.
He ended up sending his tape to the wrong person at Warner Bros. Records — an assistant who liked it so much that he went to lunch with Lenny Waronker, then head of the label's A&R department, and forced him to listen to the tape in the car. By the mid '80s, Cross' chart era was pretty much over, despite its auspicious start at the turn of the decade. Like his career, his debut album's first single,"Ride Like the Wind," which went all the way to No. 2 on"I was playing at a club in Houston. We were doing '' by McCartney of Wings, and in the middle of that song, I started doing this and people would go crazy. They started dancing and moving around.
AJ McLean Recalls 'Really Dark Time' with Backstreet Boys, Realizing 'Something's Not Right' When He Drank on Stage