Toni Tennille will release her new memoir, detailing her career and life with estranged husband Daryl Dragon, on April 1 via Taylor Trade Publishing.
Tennille, who came from a family of entertainers, was working on a musical that she co-wrote called Mother Earth when Dragon, who had been playing keyboards for the Beach Boys, came in to audition. At the end of the run, Daryl went back on the road with the band and suggested they bring Toni along, making her the first “Beach Girl”.
Over time, they realized that they worked well together and, after landing a recording contract with A&M Records, released their first single, the number one hit and Grammy Record of the Year Love Will Keep Us Together. Later in 1975, they married.
Over the next few years, they were a constant presence in the top twenty and even landed their own variety show, yet not everything was well in marriageland. Toni, who filed for divorce two years ago after 39 years of marriage, is now detailing a life with what she describes as an distant Daryl Dragon. In an interview with People magazine, she said “I felt that he just didn’t know what love was. I thought if I showed him what it was, if I were able to give it to him, that he would open up like a flower. It never happened.”
According to Tennille, Dragon had a number of problems, including anxiety, megalophthalmos, which gave him oversized eyeballs leading to his wearing of sunglasses much of the time, and early baldness and a failed hair transplant which caused him to wear the captain’s hat. In 2010, it was also revealed that Dragon was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.
Still, Tenille told People “I never met another man I thought could measure up to him.”
“He was the one.”
Toni Tennille: A Memoir was co-written with Toni’s niece, Caroline Tennille St. Clair.
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