I was actually contracted to fill in for Roger until he recouperated from his heart attack. Nobody expected that he would die, and he wouldn't have if he had given the doctors all the information about the substances he'd been injesting. When he passed away and Bob Shane offered me the gig fulltime it was a difficult choice. It meant jumping into a totally different life style of constant road travel. I was making a decent living with the Brothers Four and augmenting that with solo work and artist management. I gave all that up to join the Trio.

My decision came down to realizing that I had an opportunity to work with the group that really started the popular folk movement. Not to diminish The Brothers Four in any way, but it was, in fact, a jump up in stature for my career. Over the years The Kingston Trio name has elicited a great deal of ooo's and aaah's from people when they are made aware of my connection to the group. It's not quite such a reaction to my Brothers Four affiliation.

The first two weeks with The Trio (before Roger died) I did not consider that I was leaving The Brothers Four. In fact, I had back-to-back gigs with both groups during that time, which was a bit confusing musically. Both groups were doing "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" in our shows, but the arrangements were totally different. I really had to pay attention from night to night on that one. Fortunately everything timed out so I didn't leave The Brothers in the lurch. I finished my obligations with gigs that were booked and then there was a lull in the Brothers' schedule which gave them time to work Mark in. And, those being the circumstances, I didn't burn any bridges with them. I gave them the courtesy of seeking their advise about making that move and they totally understood the difficulty of my decision and supported me in that. I'm happy to say that I remain on very friendly terms with all my former band-mates to this day.