Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Circling The Drain is a show about the current state of the music and radio businesses as well as culture in general!
Hosted by John E. Bozeman and Jay Harper along with Jim McCarthy as Co-Host/Executive Producer.
John has had a storied career in music and talk radio, most notably as the Executive Producer for the late and legendary Phil Valentine.
Jay also has has a long career in radio as Announcer, Play-by-Play, Voice and On-Camera Actor. He was also an Artist Rep for MCA records.
Jim McCarthy ALSO has had a tremendous career in radio since 1996 and has since brought his consulting/producing skillset to the podcast world.
Circling the Drain is produced by ItsYourShow.co
Unknown: The ride, Gary. Oh
yeah, I told I was telling John,
I told Gary, I said, "Man, I
just want to, because Gary kept
calling me, thanking us for
cutting the ride, and I said,
"No, man, thank you. He said,
"Why are you thinking me? I
said, "Because when that ride
came out, my level of traveling
on the road got a lot easier,
no more hamburgers at Crystal,
except for one time in Oklahoma.
Five straight days of nothing
but Kentucky fries.
Welcome to a podcast about music
and entertainment before it all
goes down the disposal. This is
Circling the Drain.
Hey, welcome back to Circling
the Drain. Of course, I'm John
E. Bozeman. Johnny B over there,
my man Jay Harper. How you
doing, brother?
You talking to me? Yeah.
Hey, Johnny B. Always good to
see you.
Yes, we do have another guy that
is, if without him you wouldn't
be hearing us or seeing us. One
James Patrick McCarthy,
Jimmy Tuton, Jimmy Tutton. Well,
it's good we use the three names
for James Patrick McCarthy
because we're going to talk
about a guy that is a country
legend, and we just want to set
some stories straight,
absolutely, about David Allen
Co. That's right. We recently
lost, yeah, yeah, it's been,
well, I guess a couple of months
now. No, it's only been two
weeks. Oh my gosh, it's wow,
time, just 29th Yes, he did. But
anyway, we've got, and he wrote
a great book called My Life on
the Road with David Allen Co,
which I, I think I go down as
maybe the second person that
bought it, because I bought it
right when it came out. No, only
five people bought it, so you
were third,
Mickey. You played bass to have
you with us.
Yeah, the great Mickey Hayes,
who has been through the wars,
man. We ain't got enough time to
get to all the stories that this
man can.. Oh, we could. We'll
have to have several, several
episodes. We may be joined by
Gary Gentry. Gary,
no show, Gentry. We don't know
what's happened to Gary, but he
may show up and keep this on our
toes. But even if he does,
fashionably late, yes, he wants
to make a big entrance. Well, he
can afford to do that, because
he said big, big, you know, big
song. He's had a few, yeah, he's
VIP, yeah, he is VIP, didn't he
just have was a Garth who cut
the ride recently? Yeah, yeah,
we got to ask him if he put the
siding on his house, yeah, that
was his plan.
But Mickey,
you know, you wrote this book,
man,
it is like I was telling you, it
was like being on the road with
you guys and
David was a great entertainer.
Yes, he was a great entertainer.
But the thing about you guys,
it's like I told people that
they go, 'Oh, man, I went to
see..
well, I went to see that this
show, the Sex Pistols, man. It
was, it was crazy, it was
dangerous. I said, 'You've never
been to a David Allen Co show?
Yeah,
you know, tell you how dangerous
it was.
Maybe the first year into
playing with him, we were doing
a club in
Miami called Cowboys, yeah. When
after Urban Cowboy came out, all
of a sudden the disco started
changing in the country, yeah.
And I came on stage to do a
sound check, and David said, I
got something new over there,
and I looked over, and on the
stand in front of his
microphone, he had like a
little, like a music stand, but
flat, it flattened out, yeah,
and he had a little eight
channel board on it, so he could
do his monitors, and I looked
over, he said he had something
new, and I said, what, I've seen
those before, he said he
had a four shot, four barrel
derringer lying on the side of
his monitor mixer.
What's that? He said, well, you
never know,
which I found out. Yeah, you
never know when you first got
together with David, what, what
year was it, if you can
remember? And 70, it was the
first of the summer of 79 Yeah,
and you flew, you were flown,
were you not? Yeah, what
happened
is I was starving living in
Garner, North Carolina. We
didn't have electricity, and
always my mom said electricity,
but
shout out to my mom, but
I didn't have any money, I was
starving. I just quit beach band
I was playing with, because I
just made me drink a lot. I had
to quit drinking,
but so
Wizard Alan Hicks
was his bass player.
He was out front of house with
Band deposit. I had quit, so
he called one of the roadies
useless.
Useless had his daddy, his daddy
was worthless.
But anyway, don't ask what Mama
said. But anyway,
he said, "Mick, I said yeah,
this uselessly introduced
itself. He said Wizard wanted me
to call you, see if you'd be
interested in joining the David
Allen Cole band. I said, Well,
who's that?
I've been rock and rolling news
all night. He said, well, he
explained it to who it was and
everything. I said, Well, yeah,
I'd be interested. I said, How
much he pay
and pay was good for that time
period, and, and he said, "Well,
we got you a plane flight in the
morning to marathon.
He didn't mention that it was a
one-way flight, but
so we got, and we flew down to
Miami, and caught a little
puddle jumper they called air
sometimes. It was air sunshine,
but locals called it air.
Sometimes I found out why I was
sitting, and uselessly, man, the
engine over there was throwing
oil out. I'm like, well, go tell
the pilot. So he went up and
pulled himself that damn DC nine
seats, you know, you got to pull
up. He came back and said, what
the pilot say? He said, let him
know if it quits.
Oh man. Welcome to David Alico
World,
only the best,
but I walked off, and, like, I
told you, I walked off, and
Darty, who was past president of
the Louisville chapter outlaws,
Illinois, Louisville, Kentucky,
and David was standing right
beside her, and look, Dougherty
looked like a hardcore outlaw
biker, which he was.
David, like I told you, looked
like a white mr. T. Yeah, he
did, had all the chance. He
would drown if he fell in a
puddle, yeah.
And he had diamond rings, I
mean, biggest 50 cent piece,
even on his sums, yeah, and I'm
sitting there going and bib
overalls,
and I had that moment. Am I
gonna go down these stairs or
I'm gonna get the get back in
this plane?
So I went down, I got into limo,
and we went on to the compound,
the purple house, yeah, yeah.
Mimi, his wife, after Debbie,
the first Debbie left, no, the
first Jodi, yeah, left him. Mimi
came in. She was from Florida,
really a nice girl. Yeah, she
was, and
he painted the house purple.
I helped, I didn't want to, but
she, she told him her favorite
color was royal purple. So we
were going to Lowe's. I
just finished redoing the bus,
me and Useless and Rodeo, you
know? He bought the old bus from
Chubby Checker, and it was
pretty bad shape, so we went to
Lowe's and bought nails and
screws and lumber, and I'm like,
okay, I'm the bass player, all
right,
yeah, now I'm doing bus, so then
we, we refitted a 50 foot wooden
hole, used to be a cable vessel,
like it laid cable phone cable,
yeah, and we had to refit that,
and
then, and we had these beautiful
busses, he had a 59 golden
eagle, we had the band bus was a
60 silver eagle, and Hobie Laws
was a fantastic art. Oh yeah,
airbrush, he had painted two
porpoises, yeah, yeah, it was
cool, and had the old western
with them right near him, and
Waylon and Willie riding up, you
know, the sunset behind him,
western cowboys riding up, yeah.
So I wake up one morning after a
pretty hard night,
and I smell paint,
so I walk out, and we're right
on the end of the peninsula, you
know, and you can see the seven
mile bridge off to the right,
and I wake up, I walk out,
useless is on a 12 or 10 foot
ladder with a spray can
of black paint, he's got boxes
of hands over here by his side,
and we're on the Edit Peninsula,
you know. We got wind coming off
the channel. Yeah, he's up there
painting the busses black,
both busses, which break hands,
unbelievable. Yeah, I started
learning a lot those early,
those couple of weeks, I bet.
So, what was the point of that?
I mean, did some.. did David ask
him to do that, or he just did
it? No, David had him do it. Oh,
wow, yeah. Wow, David just got
it in his mind, he wanted.. he
wanted, but.. and then he put
these.. had them, I think,
rodeo.. he went and got gold
paint, because he's got to have
his name on everything, and he
just really amateurish EAC in
five foot levers on both sides
of the bus,
no AC, might I add.
Oh man, in the middle of summer
in the Keys,
we're on a black bus, the
windows don't open. Oh no,
school.
Us, we did,
yeah, but that was us, and we'd,
you know, back then, two busses,
I wrote a song about it,
two busses, couple limos, two
tractor trailers, outlaw bikers
behind us, and looking mean, and
that was us, that was you.
I left out the elective case of
swamp ass
people, people, you know, we
come into town, and there'd be a
TV station or radio or whatever,
so we'd stop about 20 miles out
of town,
and Mater was our Harley
mechanic, we had Harleys on the
road, each memory had a Harley,
he would get, he'd back our
Harleys out of the truck, and we
put a little dust on us, you
know, yeah, right into town
with 20 miles in the town,
wow, man, them a hardcore
outlaws, I'm like 20 miles back,
we sit on butt ring, Jack
Daniels was smoking,
but it was all David. He was
like, he told me one time, I
said, "Man, why have you got all
these busses and trucks and
everything painted? Because the
trucks, the trailers are painted
up too, and I'm like, "Why? Why
is it all painted up like that?
You know,
I don't want to say it's gaudy,
but yeah, he's so well. If
you're in a small town and
circus comes to town and they
put up that big tent with all
those pictures, you ride by,
you're like, I gotta go and see
what they're doing in there.
Same thing with us, we ride in
those
dive bar towns
until the ride came out, yeah,
and everybody would show up.
Well, that's true. I mean, I
always thought it was
really ingenious of David,
because at the time, you know,
if you were a country singer,
and especially in the case of
David, where you're playing
clubs all the time, you usually
just had a bus, and that was it,
that was all you had, but David
showed up, he had like three
busses, several semis carrying
it was like, man, this is it,
was PT Barnum, baby, exactly,
that's why in the book I called
David the PT Barnum of Country
Music, I think he was, he
I am Vinny Tavarez. I'm the
owner of Milltown Bikes, right
in the heart of Columbia,
Tennessee, on the square. And
we're here to serve the
community. We have bicycles from
kids to adults, e-bikes,
mountain bikes, road bikes. We
run a repair shop. So I am the
third generation of this current
bike shop, it's been here since
the 70s. It's a historical
building, it's an integral part
of the downtown community in
Colombia. We got customers here
coming in and talking that they
got their very first bike here,
so the reception is doing great.
Everybody's been super friendly,
super welcoming. A lot of the
old customers that been coming
here for generations now still
come here, they're now my
customers, and I have a huge
responsibility to continue to
carry that legacy and that
passion forward.
One
of the first times I saw you
guys, I was also knocked out
that he had screens, oh
yeah, yeah. I think Popsco,
Popco, Popco was, was, was
running, was running that head
of God. Yeah,
David got this idea way back. I
don't know where he got the
idea. I guess he's seen it, the
curtain. Yes, we start Willie
Whaley and me, you know, that's
our opening song in the curtain
falls. So we're in five points
in Atlanta. I don't know, I
remember this stuff, but
Pop Co, the crew had to build
him,
you remember the horse, the
Trojan Horse? Yes, they built
him a tower like that, it had
rollers on it, bottom up, so it
could roll them, you know. But
anyway, that's where he stood,
and he's up about 10 foot in
there. Oh yeah, pop cold from
Ohio, yeah, he worked the rubber
company, yeah, he was a steward,
yeah. Damn it, come here, come
here, but anyway, that's a whole
nother story. But yeah, and so
David got his curtain, and so
that crew spent hours putting
the damn thing up, and it was
probably about 15 foot high,
black,
and the stage was probably maybe
foot wide. So we're up there,
and we start Willie, wait, the
curtain don't do anything. Oh
no,
spinal tap still,
still nothing. David's getting
pissed off,
so Roku has to go out and pull
the curtain,
drag it off to the side. What
happened
when you just pick.
People off the street,
and you're on my road crew now.
What experience you got? None.
Okay, you're hired.
Well, it's like his son Tyler. I
remember Tyler told the story
about when he joined up with his
dad. Dad
said, have you been learned, you
know, have you been working on
your guitar?
Tyler said, I lied. Oh, yeah. He
goes, well, good, because you're
going to be working on a live
album tonight.
Yep,
Scott Tyler, try your trial by
fire. Yeah, people ask me when I
got to the funeral in
Cincinnati, they're like, 'Is
Tyler coming? I'm like, I doubt
very highly he's going to be
here. Yeah, he didn't show. He's
got his own reasons, and I
respect him. I do too. I think
he's in fact, I think both he..
I think all the kids, really,
Tanya, all of them, yeah, have
handled it far better than very
classy, very classy, far
classier than his widow. Yeah,
yeah, but we won't go there. No,
I won't.
I respect what they're doing,
and I show my respect to them,
and I know what they've gone
through. Yes,
God, since early 2010 or
whenever, but I've been there.
And then I went back and saw it
firsthand. I worked with him. He
called me in the middle of 2014
wanted me to put another band
together, I guess. He respected
the first one I put together,
but so I put him another band
together and went out on the
road with him, and he was
married then. And so I found out
firsthand what was going on, but
you know that's family business.
Well, that's what he wanted. I
mean, well, he told me one time,
you know, I asked him, because
we had a good relationship with
y'all, and I said, "Man, I mean,
what's going on? I mean, I'm not
putting anybody down, but I
don't think you need her up here
on stage with you. People come
to see you, and you're sitting
over on the side, yeah, coming
to see you.
And he go, "And he told me. He
said, "I just don't want to die
alone.
That was, that was all I needed.
Wow, I respected that. Yeah, I
do too. He just didn't want to
die alone. He knew his time was
coming sooner or later, and he,
yeah, because his health was
already getting bad back then.
But he, I'll give it to him, he
tried, you know,
he'd get up there and we played
shows, and
he just didn't have that
well. I saw him in 2009
with Blackberry Smoke. It was in
this little place called
Covington, Georgia. Great show.
In fact, I wasn't expecting
much, because I thought, man,
David's got to be up there now.
And, and what was weird, they
didn't have a bass player.
There was no bass player, but
they just, they had really
pumped up the bass drum, like,
oh yeah, yeah, right, yeah, but
he was great, I mean, he, and
she wasn't there, it was just
him, so it was a really good
show. Now, last show I saw with
him, no, I really wanted my
money back, because they only
stayed on stage maybe 30
minutes. He acted like he didn't
want to be there, and we got
when I went back with him, we
got
a lot of club owners and
promoters,
because we, I made a point. I
rented a vehicle for me, and I
hired a drummer and a guitar
player, but I made a point of
renting my own vehicle, because
I got, I saw what was going on.
Yeah, and so I'm in control, and
y'all send me itinerary, I'll
meet you at the show, that way
you know I don't have to be
there, and
but it just, it wasn't same, it
was
every show was a struggle, you
know, yeah, and, and having that
tambourine going in,
it just wasn't what I
remembered, you know, and no,
because you guys, you put
together a great band, that was
a really good band, because you
found, of all people, Warren
Haynes, who, I mean, that dude
was, I remember, first time I
saw him with you guys, I
thought, where they find this
cat, man. I was, we'd finished
that movie, we
filmed the movie Lady Gray over
in Charlotte with Ginger Aldrin
Earl Ownsby. Yeah, we got drunk
one night. She told me what
exactly happened. I can't repeat
it. She formed me in secrecy,
but she told me what happened
that night. Wow, and I'm like,
oh, okay, because I'd read all
this other crap in the papers,
you know. You can't believe any
of that. Her mom, after she told
me a good part of it, her mom
came
and got hers because they had a
lawsuit, because they'd promised
her a house, right? And they
were in legal thing, you know.
So her mom said, "Come with me.
I got most of the story,
but she was a sweetheart, but
yeah, David, man,
like in a song I go, you know,
David comes along one once in a
lifetime.
What was the last line of the
song? Country Mute, Nashville
said no, but old Dave said.
Diamond, yes, I can,
and he did, and he did, he did
it his way, yeah, he did, and a
lot more artists are doing that
now, which I really like, you
know. Well, he paved the way.
There's a lot more really good
entertainers that write their
own songs, which I hate, because
I'm trying to write songs,
but I'm not an entertainer, I
was a bass player. Yeah, you
know, I sang harmony. I can give
you a fifth or a third or
whatever, but I've never wanted
to be out front. Yeah, I go now
and people want to hear a code
song, and I'll play on my co
song with my acoustic, and then
I sell my book. Yeah, and I just
don't want to be the front man,
you know. Yeah, I just.
I'm enjoying. Got I got the book
finished, and it just opened up
a new thing for me.
I think I've written in the last
two months, I've probably
written 3540
songs, you know. Wow. Well, it
just, it opened up that, uh,
cannabis-induced dead part of my
mind.
I don't know, maybe it's been
there for a while, but I finally
found it. But now that's what I
do.
Promote the book. I stay on the
road as much as possible.
Sally owns the Iron Horse
Saloon. Yeah, I go down Steven.
Yeah, Sally's a good old girl,
but
she thought the world of David.
Yes, she really did. But she,
she put my book in her stores,
and I go down twice a year and
get up and do a song or two. I
got to do Perfect Country
Western, darling, darling. Oh
yeah, got to do that one. But I
do the ride sometimes, and every
now and then I go back, and
if it's inside somewhere or
something, I like to do.
Would you lay with me? Of
course, everybody knows that
one, but there's a lot of his
old songs people don't know that
are really good. That early
stuff rides again, all those
albums. Oh, I mean, he.. I mean,
you look at his whole Columbia
catalog. I mean, there were a
lot of songs. That's why, when I
was in radio, yeah, I played a
lot because I thought these
songs should be played on the
radio, they're too good, and
great statues, rides again,
those, yeah,
find, find a bad song, I dare
you, called Mysterious
Rhinestone Cowboy, Once Upon a
Rhyme, those albums were great,
we,
we were rewrote, you know, he
did stand by your band, that's
the song we wrote. He did stand
by your man. So me and Warren
got together and rewrote Stand
By Your Man, and rewrote it into
Stand By Your Band.
You know, David, we drive your
busses all night long because we
care. Just to get to the hotel
the next morning and find out
you spent the money on your
damned old hair.
What started the what started
the wig thing happening
was you?
He liked your hair. We were in
London. Well, you know, you saw
the Gilly show. Yes,
head full of hair. So we were in
London, and so I'm, it's Mimi's
birthday, so I'm in my room
somewhere downtown, and she
knocks on the door and comes in,
and we talk, you know, and she
tells me the itinerary for the
day,
and said, I got something to
tell you, you're not gonna
believe,
honey, I believe anything
you talk about your husband,
and she said Dave went downtown
and bought a wig. I said, yeah,
well, his hair is starting to
fade, you know. Say, well,
that's not it.
I said, well, what's it? If he
bought a wig, what's it? He
named
it. He named his wig,
and of course, what do you name
it, Mickey? I'll
bear that for the rest of my
life. Oh man, well, and some of
the wigs.. oh Lord,
actually it started slowly. We
were in Meridian, Mississippi.
Yeah, I remember, because I was
sitting. Mimi had booked this in
a salon, David. Yeah, I said I
called her. I said David's going
to a salon. She said, yeah,
yeah. So we went, and you know,
day
John Lennon got killed. I was
sitting watching it on TV.
He was getting extensions,
you know, his little, yeah,
things with all the colored
beads, oh yeah, he was getting
them extended and getting a
little extension in his hair,
yeah, and that kind of broke the
ice into going, and then we got
to London, he went and got a
wig, but some of those wigs,
you're right, they were, oh
man, oh, they were bad. There's
one you can see it on YouTube.
He's being interviewed by some
television station. He's got a
Farrah Fawcett wig, and it's
just blonde as can be. And
thinking, damn, we did Ralph
Emory one night. It's right when
they were having the, what do
you call it, the CMT
of.
All the stars come out and sign,
yeah,
so he did it that day,
and he wore a short haired wig
to do something. So we're on
Ralph Emory, he's got a long
haired wig over,
so he's in between songs. He
goes, "Now, most of y'all saw me
today at the festival, and I had
long hair, new crowd.
He said, Well, that's not my
hair, and he pulls it off. He's
got the short hair wig on TV
Live, Ralph Emory in Ashville
now, and I'm sitting there with
my bass, going,
and he pulls the wig off, he's
got his short hair wig on in the
crowd. He said, but that's not
my hair either. Then he pulls it
off, he's got another long hair.
I always said they're like my
mama's watching this day.
I remember one, remember one
show, because we had him several
times at the Rusty Spur in
Birmingham. Oh yeah, he really
liked the club, because I mean,
he pulled great crap, and plus
the station did a great job
promoting it, but
I think it was whenever Deb,
Debbie Pardue left him. Yeah,
and he came, and he was not in a
good mood,
and he had forgotten his wig,
because he was.. it was just.. I
mean, there was no hair at all.
Yeah, so I thought, how's he
going to explain this to the
crowd,
and he said, yeah, I know you
all saw me a few months ago, and
I had hair, real long hair. He
said, my wife just left me, so
he said I cut off all my hair
and threw it at her, said you're
taking everything else
that's inventive
old day. Yeah, you never knew
what was coming down that road.
I tell you, Mickey, the first
time you met him, though. Yeah,
I mean, what, what was that
like? I mean, did it take a
while for him to warm up to you?
Was it an immediate,
you know, kind of you hit it
right off immediately? I mean,
how did that go, especially with
a guy that you admit you didn't
really know who he was. Well, it
wasn't the first time I met him.
It was the first week, and we
were on the road, and we're
playing in Fort Lauderdale
Center, or someplace down there.
And
the first week, Wizard was gave
him a week's notice, the bass
player, Alan Hicks, and he was
going to leave at the end of the
week and get married, and so I
was tuning David's guitar for
the first week. So I'm sitting
on the side stage right over
here and tuning his guitar
because he capo is on the third
fret, so you have to tune it
with the third fret on, make
sure it's right, because he
knocks that capo over you out of
tune, so I'm tuning a guitar,
and David walks up, and he's
kind of knows me, you know, and
he walks up and goes,
I need my guitar, so I look him
in the face, I'll say, well, it
ain't in tune, he says it
classic line, if he's pissed at
you, he ends it with his word,
it's in tune with me,
sir. So, what do I do here? Here
you go, there you go. So, he,
this is where I got the respect,
because he told the crew
afterwards, I like him, because
I stood up, go play, I don't
care.
So, he hit that first capote on
the third fret, and he hits the
D, so you don't have to play
that bar chord in F, you know,
and here's that first chord, and
it sounds like dog poo,
so immediately he's looking at
me with the
prison stair, and you know us
old boys, you know what this
means when you look at somebody
and they're saying something bad
to you, you just go
that
It just turned around, kept
playing, you know. And then the
show Wizard said, "Man, he came
to me. He said, "He likes you.
Okay, and David said, "The only
thing I have is you're the best
rodeo on my guitar I've ever
had. I said, "Well, it's either
I play bass or I gotta.. I guess
I gotta pay for the plane
ticket, go home, but I'm going
home. He hired me. Yeah, so he
got,
he got that. What Wizard told
me, he is, because I stood up to
him. He respected
it. Did he? Did he appreciate
that? Did he have a lot of yes
people around him? I see. Yeah,
yeah. So, you were, you're the
standout. I just said, hey, you
know. Oh, many mornings, man, a
lot of times.
One really good one.
We bought this car. He bought
this car out of Miami Coach
Works. It looked like an old
Packard with the pipes coming
out of it. Remember that car?
I had a CDL, which didn't matter
for driving the car, but I was
elected to drive the car,
and so Warren, I said Warren's
gonna ride with me,
so
picked it up in Miami Coach
Works, and I got in the car, he
got in the car, Warren got in
the car, and we had two trucks,
two busses, limbos, blah blah.
So started pulling out on the
road, and I was right behind the
band bus,
and
I called David on the CB,
said, "David, I gotta pull over,
we'll catch up to you, I gotta
get some gas in the car. So
we're going for gas, we're going
to get some beer and some
rolling papers,
because he'd given explicit
directions, you can't smoke no
pot in that car, and don't drink
it. I'm like, okay, sure. This
is
crazy, although I did it, but we
got it, and I caught up to him,
and David was driving his bus
that day. Rodeo didn't feel
good, so David's up there, you
know,
and
I pull up that old, it was on a
Ford big Ford Explorer chassis,
but it looked like an old
Packard. Yeah, it had a ball
punk radio in it, man. I was
blaming, but pulled up outside
of David. He looks over and he
goes, "What are y'all doing?
By that time Warren
pulls up a joint, and I take a
chug of some old beer.
I pulled the classic, because I
used to drive a truck with my
daddy. I go in my mic, I go,
well, that
even pissed him off,
so I fell back in line,
but you know he knew that I'm
just an old country boy. Yeah,
you know, you say something to
me and I don't agree, I'm gonna
tell you, yeah. Well, you, he
appreciated that, yeah. Well, he
was in prison. You give respect,
you get respect, exactly. You
know, and
we won't talk about death row.
Well, yeah, there was always
that story. Yeah,
I killed a man with a mop
handle.
Well, in fact, my stepmother was
Sherry Bryce. She was.. she sang
with Mel Tillis. Yeah, they had
some hits, but she met David at
Mel's office, and she said that
was the first thing out of his
mouth when, because she, she
never did care for him, and she
never understood why I dug his
meat, but she said that's the
first thing out of his mouth
was, she goes,
I've been to prison and killed
the man, and she said I had no
idea what to say.
Everybody knows the true story,
right?
Y'all know the true story about
death row. Well, you told me
recently, and I've kept it.
Well, some somebody, he, the
cell block he was in,
some guy was pissed off, so he
flooded the cell block, the only
cell block they had open.
Mops did figure into it, they
had to mop the floor, but, but
not in my handle, but they had
to move everybody death row, so
he was on death row, but not is
true, but not another reason,
not for the reasons, but you
know, David was kind of that
way, but I looked at it as show
biz, you know, because most, I
mean, even a lot, I mean, a lot
of entertainers kind of jazz up
their resume, so to speak, you
know, and that's the way I
looked at a lot of people gave
him hell for that, but it
didn't, it didn't bother me as
bad,
what is the old saying?
If you got me in the paper, just
spell my name right. Well, I
think he.. I mean, I think a lot
of what David did, and in fact,
even with the X-rated albums, is
that he wanted people to talk
about him. He liked controversy.
Yeah, he welcomed
it. I mean, you got
a patched member of the Outlaws
MC. He's been in prison reform
school and rough life. Boy, is
it song?
David was on David was on death
row. He took a ride from Juvie
straight to the penitentiary.
Yep, that's one of my thing, I
write about, I write, I learned
from him,
right from your past, what
you've seen, what you
experience, how you feel about
it. I was lucky enough to meet
Christopherson, and because I
asked questions, I mean,
somebody, they tell me shut up,
but if I don't ask it, I don't
know, right? And I, we were
talking really nice guy, smart
guy, God, but I asked him, I
said, Sunday morning coming
down,
how did it make you? What'd you
feel? What, how'd you feel
writing that song?
And he looked me an eye, and I
remember this, and it's been a
long time ago. He said, man,
it's not so much how it makes me
feel. What does it mean to you
and to me,
if that's a songwriter? Yeah,
he's was it? Am I relating to
you something in your life? And
that's a songwriter. Yeah, he's
painting a picture for him
nowadays. It seems to be
getting lost a lot. Yeah, it is
a lost art now. It's just, you
know, let's party in the.
Yeah, truck, and throw a chair
off the roof.
I'm an outlaw. My favorite guy,
I won't mention name, but you
know who I'm talking about. He
comes out and he slings a six
pack on stage. I'm like, okay,
yeah, all right.
Did you ever experience David's
being around the record company
execs? I mean, you know, he was
on Columbia Records, you know,
major labels, so he had to deal
with those people at some level.
Yeah, I him being such a kind of
an anti-establishment kind of
guy. Yeah, I would be kind of
surprised how
did he deal with the suits?
Well, have you ever heard the
famous story about what he did
when he was meeting with them?
No, I have not. Yeah, standing
up on the table. Yeah, I've
heard it. No, I don't know if I
can talk about that. Well, we
could probably clean it up a
little. Well, when you get a
bunch of record executives and
you're all in a meeting
and you stand up and jump up on
top of this table, and
that's how he dealt with them.
He said, "You better not leave
me.
I guess they left him waiting,
didn't they? And he let him
know, and he said, "Next time
y'all make me wait.
Yeah, he did that in Wichita,
no, no, Wichita, somewhere up in
Canada. It was Newton, I
thought, was Nebraska, maybe it
wasn't a corn, whichever one was
the corn. Yes, that's Nebraska,
looking out the window. It was
supposed to be a family show,
yeah, one of those old Opry
houses. Yeah, yeah,
Mickey says in the book,
wailing, you know, instrumental
opening up for him, right?
So we're about, you know, maybe
30 seconds into the song crowds,
you know.
Here comes David.
Well, he had just bought a new
nudie suit, yeah, pink,
he had a pink hat on,
pink boots, and a pink nudie
suit.
I'm sitting there like,
did he have the wig on? No, that
was before the wig, and he comes
out, and you know, you got these
people down here, then you got
those people up there,
and he comes.
I'll clean it up best I can,
but he comes out and he comes,
his, you know, and useless puts
his guitar on him, and he goes,
I'm David Allen Cove, and this
is my, oh Lord, and flash bugs,
just I wrote in the book,
there's probably people now up
in Nebraska, these little
country houses, and they got
guest over, and they got his
picture of that up on their
wall. I took a picture of David
Elling.
Well, you also had his story too
about the Loretta Lynn tour bus.
The tour busses would come on
their tours to tour the Country
Star zones, and you guys, I
think, were on it once.
One, yeah. We,
we,
when David, we were off for a
couple of weeks, and Warren and
I, David called us, he'd just
gotten off parole, so he could
go overseas, so they'd booked us
a tour on, uh, Sweden,
Stockholm, France, Spain,
wherever, in London, England,
all over, but, uh, so he flew us
in, and that's when she told me,
you know, I said, Where are you
living now? She goes, he bought
a cave,
so beautiful Ruskin cave, Ruskin
Cave. Oh, Dixon, Tennessee.
They was, they didn't know what
was going on. Town folk would go
into town to the downer to eat,
and they'd kind of,
but yeah, we flew over and did
that. But hell, I forgot what I
was talking about. Well, we were
talking about
it, was about the tour bus. Oh
yeah, because they would go,
they would take them out to
Loretta Lynn's dude ranch, and
then come by. Yeah, we were on
the schedule, and we got
notified. So the first day the
tour bus came, you know, and
it's got a lot of older people
like us on it. Yeah, so we're
out there, and in the outlaws
picked that day we had an
Olympic swimming pool. When
you're coming in on the drive,
the swimming pool is on the
left, so the bus is coming up,
and all the outlaws are out
there with the old ladies,
skinny, skinny dipping in the
pool, but there were a lot of
flashbacks. The bus comes by,
and the flashbuck is going off,
and the next day, we were
notified we were no longer on
the tour,
but you know, I was really blown
away that
a few years before she died,
Loretta Lynn suggested that
David should be put in the
country Museum Hall of Fame,
should be, but you know, as well
as I did, it ain't gonna happen,
it's a shame, because
just look at the magnitude of
all those songs he wrote. Oh
man, I mean, that's a lot of
them, but he did write. I did
bust him one day. We were at the
house in the Keys at Big in
Marathon, in Big Pine Key, and
him and Sherry and Mimi and
Grandma, she made the food and.
Ring the bell to let us know. Go
eat,
and we were there, and
it just.. I don't know,
you have to really know him to
know how to understand where
he's coming from and where he
wants to go,
and we had a lot of discussions.
Sometimes we'd end up cussing
each other out,
you know, David. What the whole
down the road crew quit last
night because you're a butt.
Screw you, Hayes, screw you
back.
That's kind of relationship we
had. Yeah, love one day, hate
the hell out of you the next
day, you know. Well, he had to
be kind of tough to
work with, he had a tough skin
layer, and once you got to know
him, let's see, we were right
around for several months, when,
when they got me down there,
him and I would just go out on
the limo, of course, he would
drive, he wouldn't let me drive,
and we go out and do acoustic
shows, yeah, and I'd just play
acoustic with him and sing
harmony, you know, I'm just, you
know, and we just be two of us
riding around on the limo.
He wrote, he wrote, we were in
Canada, man, he, and he things I
noticed about him, how he
writes, and we were passing this
big sign said, "Drink Canada
Dry.
He says, "Drive. I'm like,
"What? He said, "I want you to
drive. I'm gonna write a song. I
said, okay. He started writing,
I drink Canada Dry. Yeah, I
remember the song.
He has a great song with you,
riding down the highway, and as
a song, that's what I liked
about him too. When he would
write, they said he just kind of
went into, uh, you did mess
with, yeah, you don't even
paper, yeah, leave him alone,
yes, yeah,
but
you just think of all those
albums, and he wrote all that,
oh yeah, he did, I mean, Buzz
helped him, no Buzz,
oh Buzz Cason, yeah, him Buzz
Raven, Buzz Raven, yeah, Buzz
Raven, and he hung out at Ruskin
Cave with us
for the short two weeks I stayed
there.
You got seven people in the
band, six guys on the road crew,
and hangers on, and we had an
old two-story Civil War house,
no insulation, one old bathroom,
one decrepit kitchen, and y'all
can stay in that house.
Thanks for nothing. Well, I like
this story in your book too,
about when you first got Ruskin
Cave, and they were doing all of
this, oh Lord, maintenance work,
and Mickey decides to go up to,
uh, oh yeah, well, he wanted us
to go out.
He had this one really big
building, had 234, floors on it.
He wanted to make it into a
million dollar muse, David Allen
Cole, million dollar David. So
he said, I want y'all to go out
and scout for arrowheads and old
Indian artifacts on the grounds,
I'm thinking,
so I took one play bass, yeah,
he bought these two kabuki golf
carts, or whatever, yeah, but he
took and put Warren and the rest
of the guys in that, and I said
I'll drive this one, and they
took off, and I went the other
way,
and there was a ridge right
above the old the rock house.
Yes, there was a ridge back
behind it. So I went up there
and played Johnny Appleseed,
except they want apple seed
when I come. We came back off
tour, and I got these six foot
plants over
Dave. Oh. I remember too that
that that
was
fact I saw him right after it
happened was when the flood hit,
think it was an 84 yeah, because
right around the time Mona Lisa
Lost Her Smile came out, oh
yeah, and great song, I saw him
because I just moved back to
Nashville. He was not. He was
always nice to me. I mean, he
saw
us, you know, over in the
corner, and he recognized he
came over, and I could tell he
wasn't in a great mood. And I
said, "What's going? I said,
"You should be really happy.
This record's gonna do well.
It's gonna be huge. He goes, "Oh
man. He said, "I'm just dealing
with a flood. He said, "I lost
everything. I said, well, man,
surely insurance. He said I
didn't have any. I went, oh no,
insurance. Yeah, he wasn't big
on buying insurance, was he? No,
he was big. He was big.
He had money. Oh yeah, I won't
get into that because I arrest,
but he had money. I'm not. He
just spent it quickly, and he
showed me at one time, and I'm
like, because he kept cash,
yeah, that's how he dealt, yeah,
that's one of the ways he tried
to elude the IRS,
yeah, you get cash, you know,
you write a check, get back to
you, give me cash, but, uh,
he was a good guy, he just had
that side to him, and you knew
I.
Knew when I could and when I
couldn't, you know.
Well, he marched to the beat of
his own drummer, basically. But
he was not. I would like to
cover this, because I've gotten
this a lot from people that
don't understand him. But I
always got the, how can you like
that guy? He's a racist, and I
said, man,
not that I know him, but I've
met him, and you know, I've
really gotten into his music,
and I said, I don't see the guy
that could be racist that writes
a line like, you know,
I've got black blood rolling
through my veins, and black
blood you can't control,
and that, and plus, with the
music that he,
you know, was inspired by it,
was all inspired by black
people. Yeah, we do sometimes we
wouldn't open with that. Willie
Weller to me was usually our
standard opener, but sometimes
he'd go back to that and we'd
come out and just do like 20
minutes of nothing but blues.
Yeah, I mean, and it was good,
it was good blues, yeah, because
he can weigh all this, yeah, he
can feel it, he can feel he's
got it, man, he's got that
feeling, yeah, and we just 20
minutes, and I'm like, oh yeah,
because it was, he's getting
into it, so that means you're
getting into it, you know, and
you feel it instead of just
playing it well, and that's why
I liked when I first saw it,
well, when I saw you guys
together in Birmingham, that
whole show blew me away, because
it was David's stuff. He did
Allman Brothers,
he did blues, he did rhythm and
blues. Yeah, I mean, I was like,
these guys are playing
everything, playing my girl, I
mean, it, you got a yeah, and
that the one we did on Austin
City Limits, man, that was good.
That was because I changed it. I
didn't do James Jameson's party
at all. I stayed completely.
He's like an old black guy I
used to play with. He built
himself his 500 pound of blues.
Yeah, I was the white boy in the
band. I was playing all those
metal buildings, you know, yeah,
I'd be the little white boy and
little girls on the front, and
the black girls like, oh, look
at that white boy, he's cute,
scared the hell out of me, but
you know, he started doing that,
and I'm like, going back to what
I used to do, you know, yeah,
because we play hardcore blues,
and I'm like, yeah, I know that
stuff, he'd tell me, man, you
know, I played blues, I said,
yeah,
well, that had to be what drew
him to Warren as well. Yeah,
Warren Hayes, a lot of you are,
you know, you know him from
Government Mule, but and Almond
Brothers, but he got to start
with David, and thanks to
Mickey.
Yeah, I still have old blackmail
pictures of Warren.
So, Warren, if you're watching,
Warren's a good guy. He's got a
good heart. He's built a lot. He
works with a Habitat for
Humanity. Yes, and he's built -
they've got a whole community
over there, and they renamed it
Warren Haynes Boulevard in
Asheville, and there's like 4550
houses there. Wow, contributed
to him doing the Christmas jam
every year. Yeah, we started
that one in
Tony Kiss was a local newspaper
guy, did the entertainment for
Asheville Citizen Times, and we
always laugh at it because
Warren put it out. It started in
89 it started in 88 Yeah, but
the place called 45 Cherry,
Asheville, Northern, we did it
first one for the veterans,
and then it just progressed and
kept progressing. Then we moved
to a bigger one, went over to a
bigger slot, and we got Derek in
there and Susan in there, and
and then it went from
be here now, which was a larger
venue, over to the civic center.
So he does a civic center every
year now it raises,
he raises several $100,000
every year for Habitat, you
know, and yeah, that's gone two
or three, four houses,
good for him, great thing, you
know, yeah, and they renamed,
they have a Warren Haynes day,
really gave me Keechin City,
wow, I neglected to tell him, I
said, 'Call me. We still had the
house
in Nashville, and he called me.
Well, I saw him. Yeah, we.. I'll
start it off. We drove this old
1953 Plymouth, broke down,
that's all we had to drive. He
wouldn't drive, I had to drive.
He never drove. So one day he
comes home after Garth cut the
song, and Warren comes home.
We got to go to Asheville for
the jam. I said, "Okay, I go
check on the car. He said, "No,
I'm gonna rent a car. I said,
"Oh, okay. So, what does he do?
We go to rental place. He picks
out the biggest Lincoln he could
find, White, and I drove all the
way to Asheville. Right before I
got to Asheville, he said, 'Pull
over.
I said, 'Okay. So I found a
little service station, pulled
in, said, 'I'm gonna drive
what you. So I let him drive to
Lincoln, big long stretch.
Lincoln, what does he do? He
pulls into the main street of
Asheville, rolls his window
down, and everybody we pass.
Spot on the street,
you made it, Warren. Yeah, but
later that night he called me
the next day, where he had to go
back to Nashville. He calls me
the next day, and it's in the
paper. He got pulled for pot.
Oh man, I said, he said I told
him who it was. I played with
Almond Brothers. I see you told
them you played with Almond.
Yeah, there
it is in the paper. Yeah,
man, you got pulled over for
pot. Yeah, Warren, you may want
to, you may want to keep that
out of the car at certain times.
Yeah, he's a good guy, man. I
enjoyed playing with we when we
first quit David,
and we got that house over in
Antioch, and we were playing all
these little dives over by the
Vanderbilt,
and you know, just playing
little pizza joints, a little
pizza joint that used to be
across the street from that exit
end. Yeah, that old.. I
remember, though, if it's still
there, but there's a little
pizza, Sam
Bush, and all them boys be
there, and
Billy Joe's boy, what a guitar
player, boy, he was Eddie,
Eddie was something, he was, but
we'd all go over there and play,
you know, for pizza,
that was some good, see,
I don't really, Nashville has
changed too much for me. It's
not what it used to be. Sure,
it's back in those days, man. It
was so cool, especially Elliston
Place. That was, oh yeah, yeah,
the Rock Block, what they call
him. What was that? What was
that music store over there?
What was that, Corner Music?
Corner Muse,
I can't even remember now, I
don't think so. I used to go
there and do my business. I like
them, but yeah, in the comedy
club I used to go over there on
Zanies. Yeah, Zanies, yeah,
yeah, because I saw
when a guy named Carson
Chamberlain, and he's the
producer in town now, I guess. I
didn't know that Andy Buckner is
a friend of mine, and he's
producing Andy Buckner, but, uh,
Carson was my steel guitar
player and Leon Everett band, so
yeah, many nights on the bus in
the back, you know, talking,
he's the one that turned me on
the Keefe, actually, he had a
demo Whitley, yeah, he had a
demo tape, and he said, man, you
got to listen to Scott sing, and
I'm like, okay, he put that on.
I'm like,
damn, that got his voice.
That's what Billy Sherrill told
me one time. I asked, we were
talking, I said, why did you,
when you found David, why did
you sign him? Is it because of
his voice?
Yeah, David had a great voice,
and women love it. Oh man, they
did. I've never met a woman who
didn't love his voice. They
might hate his guts. Oh, yeah,
that's how he got all those
wives.
That was bad when he was Mormon.
Ask me about the pirate getting
stuck out on the waves and
sinking on the 50 foot,
oh, that's right, yeah, the
Coast Guard came out and they
brought this boat out, they had
a crane on it, yeah,
no insurance,
no insurance again, 50 foot, we
had just refitted it, I did the
whole wheelhouse and teak wood
and rubbed it down, we bought
all brand new Loran
Sea Farron Cibarand Electronics,
and
the biggest thing, though, is
on the back it was an open spot,
and he had us build,
you remember the old Cleopatra
movies? Oh yeah, her bedroom, oh
yeah, Cheer Kirk, oh yeah,
that's what we build on the back
of the boat. I'm saying, well,
the first down big wave comes
by, that thing's gone.
Took it out, had
an actor, I forgot his name now,
Jan Michael Vincent, Jan Michael
Vincent took it out,
and as we later found out,
clearing the until we got into
the channel, and the channel
also has got all that hard coral
in it, because big boats can't
come through there, and
useless runs up, had two twin
three eight teams in the motor,
on under, under, under, and
useless comes up, David
Wheelhouse is half full water,
like, oh, okay,
it hit one of those coral reefs,
and it broke the beam, and it
was leaking bad. So they
radioed, Coast Guard came out
and rescued everybody, and when
they put the crane on
it, it broke. Wow.
And then when they got it back
to the shipyards down there, we
still had pirates, yeah. It
won't, nothing. They stripped
it. It won't nothing left on
that boat. So that was the end
of that.
Well, and to you guys,
you know, the because David was
a member of the Outlaws, the
Outlaws Motorcycle Corps,
and I always remember this story
you told.
About when they didn't know who
you were, they thought you were,
then they think you were worried
a critic or something, that it,
yeah, they well, we did that
show in Florida, and that was my
first show playing,
so I came back and I was
laughing because I was driving
the damn tour bamboo, so I was
the last one, and it's old
Holiday Inn, you know, three
floors and all the doors are on
the outside, yeah.
So I didn't have a gig jacket
because I was new, I just had my
street clothes
and suitcase, and I was got up
the third floor and I was
walking down the highway, and I
noticed it was like five or six
or seven, a bunch of outlaws out
on that was before they outlawed
the dummy dust, so they were all
having a good time. Yeah, and
they saw me coming,
and I got up on mr. Will, you,
what do you think you're doing
here? And they grabbed me,
and they hung me over the
railing by my ankles. Oh man,
yeah, I'm staring down at
asphalt three fours
down, and I hear this big voice,
let him go. I'm thinking, don't,
don't let me go.
Hang on tight. He follows that
he's in the band. They pull me
back in, and I think I'm safe.
Yeah, no, no, I gotta go to
their room. Oh, and do what
they're doing. Oh
no, oh, did I.. well, it got so
bad. I got up the next morning,
I had to have Big Al. He's only
like five foot five.
We called him Big Al.
I said, 'Man, my whole face is
frozen on the right side. I
can't griddle, you know. So he
takes me to the emergency room
and wrote a song about that one
too,
he takes me to the emergency
room, and yeah, this whole
side's gone. Yeah, and the
doctors at me say, "What were
you doing last night? I said,
"Well, we were partying. He
said, "With what? Now, I told
him, and I did my share in
somebody else's. Yeah, he said,
"Well, you got it's short term,
it'll be okay in a week, you
know. But for that whole damn
seven days, everybody in the
band decided, well, man, can't
you chew your fruit? What's
that?
So I got that for the whole
week. Yeah,
got that. But yeah,
they hung me over, man. Scared
the hell out of me. Oh, I bet
I'm sitting there looking at
them, and I knew they would do
it. Yeah, that was the scary
part. But thank God David saved
me.
Yeah, but I mean, that's like it
got to be like that's what I
expected. Yeah,
I'm like I'm here, I'm not going
anywhere, so I gotta get used to
this. Yeah, I've had the picture
of us doing the show at Ruskin
Cave. Yeah, we had a big party
after that evening. Daughter
saved me. He was a road manager,
also, but he's a fellow MC
outlaw. But one
of them had done too much of
that dummy dust, yeah, not
cocaine, but he'd done other
stuff. And
when you got a pistol this far
in front of you, and the guy's
hand like this. Oh Lord, and
Darty came over, and
he took him away, and probably,
yeah, took care of it. But I
learned how not to answer, ask
questions. Yeah, you don't ask.
Just mind your business. How to
ask? I asked one time, I asked a
hot law. I said, "Well, what?
What? He said, "You don't need
to know. I'm like, why isn't you
don't know, you can't testify.
That was the world, that was the
world of David Allen Co. band.
How old were you when you
started with 30? Oh, okay. So
you weren't like some young kid.
No, I've been on the road, yeah,
since I was 1514,
Okay, yeah, so, but I never
experienced
that level of insanity.
I mean, insanity, but still
there was a motive,
that's what I dug about it. He
was fucking act like a craziest
person you ever met, but he had
a purpose, he knew what he was
doing, you know.
You got to give it to him. He
stood up and did his thing, and
he pulled it off, and he pulled
it off. Yeah, he's a legend, you
know. Whether you want to admit
it or not, he look at who else
has wrote
a volume of songs like that.
None that I know, a few, very
few, and songs that will stand
the test of time. Well, yeah, I
mean, they'll be singing "Would
You Lay with Me" to feel the
stone, for
they might not be doing Little
Susie.
Well, yeah,
but the rod, Gary. Oh, yeah, I
told I was telling John,
I told Gary, I said, "Man, I
just want to, because Gary kept
calling me, thanking us for
cutting the ride, and I said,
"No, man, thank you. He said,
"Why you thinking me? I said,
"Because when that ride came
out, my level of traveling on
the road got a lot easier.
No more hamburgers at Crystal,
except for one time in Oklahoma.
Five straight days of nothing
but Kentucky Friday. Oh
Lord, we had good, we had a good
time, man. And I just kept
telling the stories like I'm
doing now, and everybody just
kept pushing me to write a book.
So I finally, it took four
years. Luckily, I had partial
diaries, you know, because I
wanted it to be honest, and it
took me two months after I got
it finally finished, and the
editor had it. I wrote all of
that. None of it was written.
That's why I was probably got
some grammatical errors, but I
was always good in English, and
you know, I'd get up. You know,
you have to do an essay on
Fridays, and everybody write
their little thing, a couple of
sheets, whatever. I never
thought about it, and she called
my name. I just go up on the way
up, I'd make something up.
You could do so much better. I'm
like, I'm making A's, yeah, but
you could be
okay. But I've had,
I interpret how I lived, what
I've been through, people I've
met, I write songs about women,
of course. Well, yeah, got 15
ex-wives, and
only got 215
between you and me. There you
go,
yeah. I just write what I lived.
I learned that from David, you
know, and watching some of these
other old guys, artists that
write their own songs, you know,
and I appreciate a good
songwriter that gets up there
and sings his song, and he's
singing it from something he's
lived that way. I can look at
him, go, yeah, I've been there,
you know, and that means a lot
to me. Yeah, I mean, you know,
Haggard was that way, yeah, it
was, you know, Waylon, yeah, all
those guys. I still love the
Billy Joe shows he was gonna
Waylon's butt. Oh, that was a
great story. And Waylon, Waylon
was promised Billy Joe he was
gonna do an entire album of his
song when they were in Texas.
Yeah, when they were in Texas,
then I guess Waylon didn't get
around to it fast enough. So
Billy Joe shows up in Nashville.
Well, he was there while he was
cutting, and what he didn't do
any Billy Joe songs, so he was
getting Whadlands, getting ready
to leave, and Billy Joe bought
him. See,
the horse, Hoss, you promised me
you're gonna cut my songs, and
you ain't getting out of here
without me, and you going for
it, unless you cut some. I'm
gonna whip your ass right here
in front of everybody, and thank
you. That's what honky tonk
hears came the whole album.
Yeah, it was, yeah, because
Waylon said, I'm gonna tell you
what. He pulled him into an
office and said, you play me,
you play me two or three songs.
He said, if I like them, I'll do
the album. He said, if I don't,
you never bother me again. And
the story went that he played,
he did three, and Waylon wanted
to hear more to hear more. Yeah,
well, it pleases me, because
Waylon can.. I work with his
grandson, Way, a lot now. Way's
a good guy. Dad was a good guy.
I love Terry. Terry, I never got
a chance to meet Terry. Oh, it's
a shame. I think you guys would
have gone along great. You might
remember back in those days,
Willie's Row crew and Whalen's
Row crew, they do these little
films on the road, and they turn
them into the public TV station,
but little we did one, me and
Warren did
one over at Wayland's warehouse,
set it up, it's everybody's
addicted
to helium, yeah, so everybody's
walking around. We went to the
Goodwill store and bought all
these little.. I had a madras
jacket with striped pants, you
know. We're looking, and
everybody's walking around with
a little tank of helium,
and Warren's got his little
cheeky little straw hat on,
that's got the little sun shade
right. Yeah,
he's walking around when
I got that video, and that was
one they would put it into the
local public stations, and
they'd play it, you know, doing
crazy stuff like getting to the
show, or whatever. Back then,
they were some good, his crew
was good guys. Yeah, that I
still got that video. Me and
Warren did the soundtrack, we
just went in studio on, and
Lauren plays drums pretty good
too, so he played guitar, I
played bass, and he did the
guitar.
Wow,
but, uh, that was pretty cool.
That was my youngin. Oh, okay.
I told him not to call me. He
did anyway.
Well, he can. He's got car
blind, yeah. But yeah, it was a
lot of fun. Back, we did a lot
of crazy stuff, man. We just,
you name it, we probably did it.
Oh, yeah, I know this, like this
automatic
many times. We did that on the
bus. We got rated once. One of
the crew members had taken a
female home, and I don't think
she was of age. Oh, so 7o'clock
in the morning, they're pounding
on the door, and we got like 10
or 12 cars downstairs.
Well, I remember one time you
guys, it was the last time you
played the Rusty Spur in
Birmingham,
and I went into the station the
next day, and the salesman who.
I had sold the whole package,
man. We got a problem. I said,
'What's wrong? And he goes,
'Well, he
said there's a waitress that
worked at the restaurant. Said
she's still living at home with
her parents.
Said she took off on the bus.
He said she's wondering when
she's holding us responsible. I
said, How are we responsible? We
didn't, we didn't set it up.
Yep,
we had the first time that
happened. I took care of it. I'd
already trained a guy we had, we
hired, we called him Big R,
because he's big. So I taught
him how to drive the town band
bus. I was tired of it, and we
were out west at some
fair state fair. Yeah, that's
when I still had to.
David pawned him off on me. I
had to take care of him. He was
a Black Panther.
I remember that he had a black
because he always had these
exotic cats. He had a tiger
once, and yeah, I was accused, a
friend, my front of house guy
had sent me a letter last year
that man,
David gave you the tiger, so you
put it in the car, went to the
club, and you partied all night
long, and you come back the next
morning, and tiger had ripped
the whole damn car,
didn't even have a stairwell,
it's all still, oh man, I'm
like, well, I thought he'd be
all right. I
thought it'd be okay. Well, we
had monkeys,
monkeys,
two or three, we had tiger,
black panther. I had to be black
panther in
state fair we did out in
Oklahoma, I think it was. Yeah,
you had to walk him around. I
walked him around, you know. I
walked back to where the food
area was. No cop standing there,
and I'm thinking maybe I might
not want to take him in there
with all that food. Oh yeah, the
cops like looking
here in Oklahoma, and I'm
walking up with a Black Panther,
so I turned around, took him
back to bus. We finally donated
him, I think, to a zoo, because
he was - it was in the summer.
Yes, and our lack of air
conditioning, it wasn't - he
gets a little rowdy, and his
claws were coming out, and he'd
nip at you, and you know, yeah,
we had to get rid of the
panther. I think we, my register
is one of the only touring bands
with a panther on your bus. Oh
yeah, I don't know. I think you
were the only ones. I didn't
like the monkey. He starts stuff
at you.
I can only imagine. Yes,
everybody's a critic. A little
monkey, every day was like it's
like a movie, you know? You want
to get out of it? No,
you got to be seeing some of the
stories these days, and just
laugh, and just be like, really,
you think that's you think
that's newsworthy?
No idea. I just, you know,
there's a lot of good stuff
coming out of Nashville, but
it's not mainstream, no, it's,
it's on the second tier, maybe
call it, I don't know, but
there's a lot, there's still a
lot of good songwriters, still a
lot of good singers in this
town, but they're not getting,
they're not getting attention,
they're not getting what they
deserve. No, I listened to our
group on the road a lot with
David, I got to know all those
old Texas songwriters, man,
Jerry Jail. We had a.. oh, I
love Jerry. We did a show in
Oklahoma, and Jerry Jeff was on
the bill, and I was talking
backstage to the row crew. See,
man, we finally did it. I said,
"What'd you do?
We taught Jerry Jeff, that we
drinks too much and passes out
on stage to fall backwards
instead of
mess up his guitar
feeding a dog. I like this story
about Jerry Jeff. I forget where
it was, but I think it was in
Texas somewhere. But he had been
in the swimming pool, he was
late for the gig, and they had
to go get him out of the pool.
Jerry Jeff shows up on stage
with wet swimming trunks goes on
stage, man. Those days are gone,
them old boys, Diamond Jim and
Fred Spears with the Tennessee
Hat. Yeah, that was that was a
good band gum, good band. It
was. They're all still friends.
Billy the kid died. He took my
place for a little while.
I might as well mention I hold
the record for quitting David
five times. He'd always called
me back. He surprised me when he
called me back one time, because
I got really mad, and I bought
this old Dodge van from Mater,
our truck driver. It was old,
like early 70s,
and it had four slick tires on
it, and the spare was slick, and
I quit David, and I had the van,
and I'm going to North Carolina,
and I'll say, well, I can't go
on those slick tires, so I went
down to our service station that
did all the cars, and blah blah
blah, I said I need four tires,
and I put one on that spare too,
he said, okay, so he redid, and
I all four brand new tires.
Was a brand new spare, he said.
What are you gonna do with Bill?
I said, he sent David,
so he sent it, and I never heard
a word about it.
He never would come up. I do
like that stuff. I mean, you go
in a music store, and he gave me
$10,000
and I went to the music store in
Miami, and Mater drove me up on
one of the equipment trucks,
and I walked in, and that's
where all those sun amps, the
amp wall, yeah, came from.
They had a whole row of sun
amps, they suck, but
they look good when you stack
them up six, seven foot high
down wall, but that's where the
amp wall came, and the guy was
talking about, we were talking
about David, you know, and
which one of his amps he was,
and all of them. He said, "Okay.
I said, "Trucks pulling up out
back, just load them in it. And
we were talking, I said, "Yeah,
you know, if David ever comes
in, if you really want to sell
him something,
just kind of go, 'Well, man,
that costs a lot of money. I
don't know if you can afford it.
He'll give you whatever you
want.
That's just.. we were starving
on the road, and we eating at a
truck stop. We not a lot of
money, right? I got paid. What
does David do in front of all of
us? He gives the waitress $100
tip.
I ain't got no money,
huh? was like one time, too. You
said that he bought a parrot. Oh
God, I could talk the green
chicken. Yeah, and yeah, we
were, yeah. And he talked about
how much he paid for it, $6,000
Yeah,
but you can't pay your band
members. Yeah, I'll give you a
back. Yeah, he had to go back to
Nashville. We were in the middle
of filming Lady Gray over there,
yeah.
So he had to go to Nashville,
and he had just bought the
chicken and told us to take care
of
it. So what he tore the chicken,
the parrot knew 400 words. So
I'm thinking, okay, so David's
rolling was Big Big Don, Big
Jack Donovan, or something like
it was BJ,
that's right, like Black Jack
Donovan, like Jack Donovan.
Yeah, so I went on the bus, and
they only took a couple days,
and I talked
the chicken
how to say big jerk, big jerk.
So David comes back, and we go
over to the bus. He's getting on
the bus, he opens the door, and
the parents right there in the
front, he sees David, big jerk.
David looks, you taught him
that, didn't you?
Somebody else is no. Well, I
loved also the movie because
Earl Owensby, if people don't
know who Earl Owensby was, he
was a big B movie, C movie,
whatever,
he put these kind of movies out,
4o'clock in the morning, you
might see it, yeah, Black Jack
Donovan, all they did was they
had like David Allen Co, like
greatest hits, but somebody that
just put tape over David Allen
Co, but Black Jack Doc. Oh
yeah, you're seeing that one. We
got that film in that little
barbecue outside. Yes, they
introduce Ginger, you know? She
gets up, yes, Panama, and you
know, playing a song. She was a
sweetheart, and I didn't notice
it, but then we did a shot in
the studio of her cutting song
at what's that guitar picker out
of Charlotte. He had him and his
brother had a TV show, can't
remember his name, but we were
doing, and they had a shot close
up of me and her. She's on the
mic, standing up, and I'm
sitting right behind her.
We had the same damn haircut,
and David, that's where David
got the idea.
She's a sweetheart, though, man.
But
because of her, I got the
lowdown on what happened that
night to Elvis.
I can't talk about it. She swore
me, her mom got on me too. Boy,
they had the lawsuit because
Elvis had promised her a house,
and sure, but she told me what
happened when she woke up that
morning, and she told me what
led up to it, but you know, I
don't want to be called in to
testify, so I don't know, yeah,
you don't know a thing, who
it
was, John Lennon, that's
well, man, what, how do you,
because you know, losing David
recently, a big thing, and how
do you think he'll be remembered
by
the majority of the Nashville
community?
Well,
you probably know, you probably,
everybody probably knows how
this business works. Yeah,
they,
they don't give a lot of credit
to someone like that when
they're alive, right? Once they
die, they're gonna try to figure
out how to make a book. Well,
they're putting out an album. I
heard that's Kim. Was that Kim?
Okay, let me talk about that.
No, so.
She's, it's, it'll be an album
of her,
mostly. Oh no,
I hope no, no, it's not. But
I mean, I'm sorry, but I mean,
I'm hoping it's not. I'm hoping
it's like I said, I'd rather buy
a Yoko Ono album, I think. No
offense, Kim,
I would say her nickname, but
you tell us when we get done,
so it would be something if you
changed her name to something
familiar with Yoko. Oh, okay,
gotcha. Keep your K, okay. It,
yeah, many nights with that
woman,
she was a casino waitress, but
he, yeah, he loved her
well. They seemed to make each
other happy, I guess. That's
all. My hat's off to her for
keeping, you know, taking care
of him, yeah, for all those
years,
and just putting it out that I
mean, when they had the flag on
his casket, so many people
didn't know he's in service. Oh
yeah, my friend Dave Pommery
over here at the Union, he
called me because they had a
CSAC check for him, and she had
called him checking on the
checks, and he said she said he
was in his service. I said,
yeah, not for long, but he was
in service. In fact, didn't he
go in underage? Didn't he? He
went in under age, so he
qualified for a pension. So he
gets his service pension. Well,
good for most people don't know
he was in service, you know.
Yeah, you know, he volunteered
at a young age. You gotta give
it to him. Hell, just got out of
jail, you know. Yeah,
yeah.
Well, I just hope that people
will
check out his Columbia catalog,
because that stuff's just
classic. I mean, he made some
great records. Yep, and check
out the early stuff, the
songwriting on that early.
That's what I was hoping would
happen in the end of his life
was that he would get
a like what cash got done for
him? Yeah, at the end, that's
why I was hoping for David, but
it didn't work out that way,
unfortunately. Yeah, it was
he passed away, or it was on the
29th around 5o'clock when I got
to where he passed out. I mean,
he passed away around 5o'clock
and luckily they got in touch
with me.
It takes a little while to
digest. We were, you know, we
were close for a long time.
Well, and I would stress to
everyone to pick up the book,
especially if you want to know
what it was like on the road
with David Allen Cohen, and you
know, brace yourself, because
it's some of it's
what you would think. My life on
the road with David Allen Co.
Mickey Hayes. Is there anywhere
else people can check out stuff
on you?
Yeah, I guess everybody's got me
here and there on social media
and movies and
shows. We did Austin Sea of the
Limits was probably the best
show we ever did on.. Oh, that
was great. It was like
when David, if you haven't seen
Austin See the Limits, when
we're doing my girl, yeah, and
David does the freeze, yeah,
while Warren plays the, yeah, so
I'm sitting over there, good,
what's he doing? Just freezes,
yeah, he's just standing there,
he's got his friend Jonah, yeah,
I'm like, well, what I really
loved was when you guys did
Willie Whalen and me, yeah, and
I swore to somebody, I said
somebody said gland instead of
band, you got it, yeah, as rodeo
on the far left,
and I tell people that she,
what, listen to it really cool,
oh yeah,
and you can tell by David's
place, because
David kind of
smiles. You guys are on me. Oh,
national TV. Well, man, it's
been a treasure. This one thing,
go ahead, show you how smart
David is. We were doing, you
know, preliminary, you know,
that they do 230 minute slots,
they came, and then they put
them together, and you don't
have any say so over that. They
put them together, yeah. And
David knew this, so we went in
the first 30 minute show we did.
He cussed every song,
cussed, and
then we did the show, and he
didn't cuss
until the last song, darling,
darling, yeah, and they tickled
me, they were so bad, they put
the, and they put the X's on his
mouth, yeah,
but he cussed on the, and they
kept it in, they just, but I
figured out he did that because
he didn't want that one, he
wanted the one he wanted, so he
cussed all the way through the
first 30 minutes, then we filmed
the second 30 minutes, and
that's the one they used.
Well, Mickey, thanks so much for
coming, man. And you came in,
uh, yeah, this is really cool,
man with us. And Gary Gentry, I
mean, we waited for you, but
it's cool, brother. Gary, we
still looking.
Him another time, by the way,
Gary. It's get the right circle
in the drain podcast with you,
Sharon. And Gary, I know where
you live. I'm coming to see
here, Harley, at 12 o'clock at
night. It's me, I'm coming with
him, buddy.
Jay, tell folks where they can
catch us. Yes, Johnny B, of
course. Our social media
platforms, Facebook, we try to
get it on Twitter, where X,
whatever, when it cooperates, of
course, our YouTube channel and
the website Circling the
drain.net
and check that out, because you
can also get some cool stuff.
Yep, and we'll join us next time
on Circling the Drain.