Sonny and Cher were scheduled to perform at at an Aquatennial show at the Minneapolis Convention Hall on July 14, 1967.  WDGY’s Johnny Canton:

Frankly, it was I who convinced Sonny to appear sans Cher at WDGY’s Minneaplis Auditorium concert July 14th. Cher had just suffered a miscarriage a few days prior to our concert and Sonny was reluctant to appear without her, much less leave her. The night before he was to fly to Minnesota, I was on the phone with Sonny at their home. The doctor was with Cher and both Cher and the doctor convinced Sonny it would be OK for him to do the show. I applied some pressure and he acquiesced and came to Minnesota. In order to cover for Cher, I put Sonny on the air and we appealed to our female listeners to “audition” to sing with Sonny at the concert. We had several viable singing candidates and it turned out to be one heckuva show with that twist. It was the first time Sonny had ever appeared without Cher. I nearly experienced suffering from an ulcer considering it was a well-promoted WDGY show and had Sonny not appeared we would have had much egg on our faces.

The day after, the Tribune did not report a miscarriage, but that Cher had begun to hemorrhage while on a shopping trip in Hollywood the night before.  (Cher suffered four miscarriages before they had Chastity in 1969.) Sonny made a personal plea on WDGY for girls to audition to sing with him.  21 girls auditioned and five girls were chosen to sing:

• Mary Gonzalez, 17, Glenville:  “Baby Don’t Go”
• Becky Bothof, 18, Albert Lea:  “Just You” and “Bang! Bang!”
• Tere Berns, 18, Bloomington:  “The Beat Goes On”
• Tami Peterson, 14, New Ulm:  “Unchained Melody”
• Kathy Stasik, 16, Minneapolis:  “I Got You Babe”

Sonny, 27, wore a pale blue brocade suit minus lapels, a multi-colored silk shirt, and white boots.  But he insisted he was not a hippie, and said he “deplores the use of narcotics and other hippie conventions, but sympathizes with the hippies.  ‘They’re lost,’ he said.  ‘They want answers.'”  (Minneapolis Tribune, July 15, 1967)

Sonny and Becky Bothol; photo from Minneapolis Tribune

Tere Berns and Sonny Bono. Photo in Sun-Suburbanite, taken by Mike Barich

Stillroven and the Del Counts opened the concert.