Herman sat back lazily on the comfortable sofa in his suite at the Seaside Motel in Atlantic City. He was tired looking, rightly so because I was interviewing him on the last day of a grinding week-long engagement at Steel Pier, a schedule that would have exhausted many a show biz veteran.
      "I've always been ashamed to admit a number of things," he said honestly. "Life for me has not been very easy. When you see blokes with loads of money and flashy cars and beautiful homes, you feel ashamed that you have to live in a small two-story flat on an out-of-the-way street."
      He paused, rubbing his red-rimmed eyes, then continued: "Even so, even today, I'm not really doing this for the money. If I were worth a million pounds (nearly three million American dollars!), I would be able to buy anything I wanted and if I had everything I wanted, that would be it, wouldn't it! There'd be nothing else to buy, to get, to have. If a bloke had all the money in the world, he'd have little else to seek.

      "The injustice of earning money today is what annoys me the most. A man who has 15 years education in some sort of specialized trade might make only 20 pounds a week, while a truck driver or a dish-washer could earn much the same amount. I'm ashamed to admit that things are like this not only in America but also England as well. If life were really just, the bloke with all that education would be the one to make a lot of money. But it just doesn't work that way!"
      "Do parents ever make you ashamed of your long hair by poking fun at it?" I asked.
      "You're so right they do!" he exclaimed. "One lady came up to me just yesterday and asked, 'Can I pull it to make sure it's not a wig?' Now what kind of manners is that? Yet we're supposed to sit back and smile and be nice-nice. But if we ever acted in a similar way, you can bet the results would be spread in big black headlines: HERMAN'S HERMITS ARE IGNORANT SLOBS! I'm ashamed to admit that our life while traveling on tour anywhere is like that. But I'm not ashamed of my manners because I - and the other boys - show considerably better taste than most of our fans and their parents."

      "After all, you were picked as a best-dressed young man last year, weren't you?" I pointed out.
      "Absolutely," he replied. "But most adults wouldn't believe it, and to the fans, it didn't really mean that much. As you say over here, it's a losing fight!"
      "Have you ever done anything in the past that you were ashamed to admit, even to yourself?" I asked.
      "Yes," he said wincing a little as he recalled the incident. "I sneaked out to a party once without my folks' permission. I thought it was going to be a good clean affair. An hour after I arrived, I discovered otherwise. Somebody brought out a case of Scotch and passed out the bottles. A friend offered me a drink, but I declined and left the party soon afterwards.
      "I'll never do that again, sneak away, I mean. You can bet on that! However, a number of the blokes in certain recording groups don't care one bit about the image they present to their public. Anything goes! But not with us ... we feel our fans should see a clean-cut image, as though we were 		  typical boy-next-door types. And I honestly feel we are exactly that! You never hear anything adverse about our behavior, do you?'
      I had to admit that I didn't. Whereas other groups raised the ire of millions of parents, Herman and his buddies were accepted without much complaint other than a few jibes at their long hair. They've never been seen drunk in public, never been ousted from hotels or cursed old ladies. Some groups have been guilty of all three points.

      "I'm also ashamed to admit that I smoke," Herman told me. "I mean, I know it's a bad habit and by smoking, I might influence other teenagers, but I still go on doing it. I'm ashamed of the fact that I do have a temper which I display at times. I'm rude to my parents and I think that's unforgiveable.
      "I blush when I meet complete strangers, and in this business, that's something I should be ashamed to admit! Often I could do some little thing to help my parents along and I don't. Later, I regret it very much.
      "I hate being skinny but I realize there is nothing much I can do about that fact, because I stay that way even though I already eat like a starving horse. I'm a bit opinionated at times and this, too, is something I dislike in me.
      "And I'm ashamed to admit that I have an uncanny gift for saying the wrong thing so often! I will joke around when I really should be serious. The consequences of this in show biz can be devastating if you carry this too far - which I frequently do! More than once, I've been asked a question which I answered in what I thought was a funny way only to have it repeated as serious. Sometimes I almost reach the point where I am actually ready to enter a monastery and take a solemn vow of silence simply to save my own skin! It certainly would make matters a lot easier, and safer for me!"

      Herman interrupted himself to answer a nearby phone that had been ringing. When he was finished, he replaced the receiver and said, "I have to rush soon. But let me tell you something else that I'm ashamed to admit. I'm really painfully and awkwardly unsure of myself when I'm in the company of girls I'm meeting for the first time! But the ultimate irony is that I'm judged too cocksure by the same people who don't realize how I really feel!
      "I come across this often when I'm on tour. People will, as I said before, make fun of my long hair and when I ignore them, they get all mad and huffy. But I actually don't pay attention because I am, despite stories to the contrary, quite a bit on the shy side and don't like to get involved in an argument of any kind.
      "There are dozens of other things I'm ashamed to admit. I eat too much. I sleep too much. I don't brush my teeth as often as I should. But I am still a teenager and in a way, my faults are typical ones. Maybe that's why the kids respond so well to me and the mates!"
      I said goodbye and left. It had been an enjoyable, interesting conversation. Herman was quite a nice guy and he had one quality lacking in many other entertainers.
      Plain, simple honesty.


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