| The Desperados from the journals of Steve Jones Ever wonder what it is like to be in a rock and roll
club band? The following chapters give you an inside look into one man's
adventures through life in the the North Texas local music scene
throughout the 70's and 80's. This is NOT about mansions, limos, and
excessive lifestyles due to massive wealth. This is the story of what it
is really like to be another local lemming trying to end up with those
things! This is MY story, or at least part of it, taken right out of the
pages of my journals. Careful, though. If you read too closely you
may just find that one of the chapters is all about YOU!. |
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Table of Contents (Click on Chapters to read them) Chapter One: Learning To Crawl Read the Savvy Stories in the Savvy Section of this web site. Sign the GUESTBOOK PLEASE!
Just by chance, one summer night in 1975 I found
myself on the stage of a dingy Ft. Worth honky tonk, jamming with my
cousin Richard's band, Don Hudson & the Royal Kings. Cousin Richard
Jones,
or RJ as he'd later be known, had a day job at the Riverside Ice
Company and was playing with
the Kings on weekends to keep his chops up until something more substantial came
along.
My first paying gig as a musician was at a 1972 political rally with high school friends Earl Dromgoole and Rod Green. We called ourselves We Three and I played rhythm guitar and banjo. Earl and I later formed the Kountry Four with Mike Dromgoole on piano and Bill Locke on bass. The band broke up when Earl, who was a year older, joined the army after graduation.
Rod and I co-starred in the high school production of "The Odd Couple." I played Oscar, and Rod was a seemingly perfect choice to play the finicky Felix Unger. We rehearsed relentlessly for two months and the production was coming together and we thought we had a hit on our hands, but on opening day, Rod didn't show up for dress rehearsal! With less than an hour to go before curtain time, I walked the block to his house from school and knocked on his door. Rod came to the door with a hot towel wrapped around his throat and was talking in a quiet whisper. He told me he had laryngitis and couldn't do the show! I returned to the school auditorium prepared to tell everyone that it was over. But in an incredibly valiant move, Reece Pettigrew (originally cast as Vinnie, a poker game buddy) stepped up to the plate with an idea that ended up saving the play. Reece volunteered to play Felix. He hadn't understudied for it, but had been in rehearsals long enough to be familiar with the role. The only hitch was that he would have to play the part with a script in hand. Stagehand (and future doctor) Tom Anagnostis stepped into the role of Vinnie. We didn't have time to wonder if it would work or not. We just went with it. In the end, Reece Pettigrew saved the play with a stellar performance! He was great as Felix and by the second or third line, the script in his hand became invisible. Reece saved the play! (Reece, if you ever read this, I want to make sure you know how great you were that night in the play! We couldn't have pulled it off without you!)
I let my hair grow out during my senior year and found that even rock & rollers liked to jam on bluegrass songs now and then. I teamed up for a while with Tim Lane, a guitarist / harmonica player, and we performed at bars and coffee houses in the area. This was fun for a while, and Tim was a good player, but eventually all Bob Dylan / harmonica songs had begun to sound alike to me. I didn't realize it yet, but I was looking for a door to open that would take me to the next level.
NEXT: Knighted Into Royal King-dom
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