I would be long out of the music business before I'd ever realize how terribly co-dependant I was back then. Only a fool in my situation would get involved with full time relationships.  Not only was I a fool -- I was the COURT JESTER of the North Texas brotherhood of musicians. Even after all I'd been through with Pam, and with all the opportunities opening themselves up to me at the Hungry I, we decided to give it one more chance. We got together for dinner at Pancho's Mexican Buffet Restaurant. Ohhh! I don't remember if "love" was in the air that night, but I can think of something else that was probably floating around.

I counted up that Carlton had played a total of 187 nights with the Desperados. I had played 264.  Time was flying by and things were pretty good. But the band wasn't progressing as quickly as RJ and I were hoping. We were always in the midst of top rated musicians, but we knew we weren't considered in their league. We were just a fun bunch of guys with a great facility for jamming. Carlton was a big Teddy Bear. He was fun, friendly, honest, and was a solid drummer. Carlton had been around the block a time or two before he'd ever even met RJ and me, but Carlton had a medical condition that held him back from being able to grow as a drummer. We used to make fun of it because it sounded funny, but Carlton had a chronic infection in one of his big toes. It never occurred to us that Carlton was playing with major pain every night. He did the gig and didn't complain. The only way we knew was because his girlfriend confided in us about it when he missed a few rehearsals. But Carlton was already gone and we had played almost 40 nights with our new drummer, Ralph, when we heard a rumor that Boogie Lamont might be looking for a gig soon.

The "Boogie" card from a card game I 
made about the music business in '78.

Our first thought was to consider trying to bring Boogie in as a sixth member, but that quickly fizzled because we wouldn't be making enough to entice him to join if we had to divide the pay six ways.  I worried that my position might be in jeopardy, but RJ assured me that he felt we were the core of the group and needed to stick together. Jim Wise was a close pal, and agreed that if we could get Boogie to join us, it would be worth replacing Jerry Coker. But none of us really wanted to lose Coker.

I first met Jerry Coker in early 1975 when Doug Wadsworth invited me and my brother Chris out to see his band. We were surprised to discover that our cousin RJ was their bass player, and we were blown away by their lead guitar player, Jerry Coker. He had a smooth, bluesy style and he played with more confidence than I'd ever seen; not fancy--just solid.  I don't think I ever heard him hit a bad note on a guitar. Coker played a Gibson ES-335 hollow body guitar, and used heavy gauge guitar strings. It was amazing to all of us how effortlessly he could bend those strings. We used to joke that he used telephone poles for strings! 

After Doug joined the Air Force and I took his place, I couldn't believe I was in a band with such a good guitar player. Jerry Coker had been playing professionally since before I even got to Middle School. He and Don Hudson were both older than the rest of the band. Coker was thirty three years old when I met him. I was only twenty. I remember how old thirty three sounded to me at the time. It just seemed ancient. Coker had lines in his face, and he looked older than thirty three to me, but he was "cool" and he could play. Coker was a great guy, and fun to be around. He was dedicated to the band and was ready to make the move with us when it came to replacing his long-time partner, Don Hudson. Jerry Coker was a true Desperado, as much as anyone else in the band. Even though he was the one with the experience, he seemed to understand that RJ and I had an agenda, and allowed us to run the "machine". 

RJ (left) and me (right) and a dead fox
in Electra, TX in '76. We didn't kill
it. We just felt we needed to have our
photo taken with it. That stupid Silver Belly 
hat never did fit me!

Jerry Coker had a great singing voice, too. He was very picky about the songs he chose to sing, but those songs were always perfect for him. Some of my favorite songs that he sang were "Third Rate Romance", "Mind Bender", "When Something is Wrong With My Baby", and "CC Baby". The man was one of the best harmony singers I ever worked with, and was a great leader. He was perfect for the Desperados; that is until the one thing caught up with him that he couldn't help -- his age.

It wasn't that Jerry Coker couldn't play anymore. He was probably at his prime as a player. The problem was that RJ, Jim, and I were all about 12 - to 15 years younger than Coker. Music was beginning to go in a new, and exciting direction that was obviously going to be a young-- or at least youngER person's game. Jerry Coker had many chances at obtaining his dreams before we ever met him. He would always be able to find a gig, but he knew it would only be a matter of time before the Jones boys (me and RJ) would have to make our own run for the gold.

In December, Coker started missing rehearsals because of "work schedules." His marriage had fallen apart, and his girlfriend, Donna, seemed to be a bit controlling. With her around, Jerry couldn't be himself as much as usual. Our new drummer, Ralph, was also acting a little uptight. We had high hopes that he would thaw with time, but never really did. But the distractions of the night life kept us all in the game, and helped us to overlook much of the personal hoopla. 

On the 13th of December, my brother Chris almost cut himself in half with a runaway circle saw. He pulled through, thank goodness. Ralph went to work part time at Bruce Music. Lee Pickens joined Sealy Aston for a short time after they regrouped. RJ and I made a trip to Dallas to see Rusty's band Curiosity. They were great, as always, but the club was a country joint. It was deserted. They deserve much better than that.  We visited with them on breaks about music, bands, clubs, girls, and the Legend of Bad Jack!

Bad Jack was a fictional character I'd made up as shtick at the Hungry I.  The story was that the projectionist at The Riverside, a triple X rated drive in theater, would interrupt the movies by talking over the movie soundtrack to warn viewers about key scenes coming up. The idea was that nobody went to those movies to actually watch the movies, but to jump in the back seats and do the nasty thing. So Bad Jack would provide his customers with a "heads up" when a good scene was coming up, so they could "come up" for air and see it. The legend also had him butting in to talk about specials they had at the snack bar, and to beg patrons to "Please don't drive off with our speakers!"  It was just a bunch of gobbledygook that I made up to talk about on stage in between songs to kill time and get a few laughs. But Rusty told me that he and Danny took me seriously and actually made a trip out there to see Bad Jack in action! I couldn't believe they'd done that! I would bring that up every time I'd see them for many years to come, until Rusty finally cleared things up for me in 2002. He said that they never really went out there after all. The joke had backfired on me! Way to go, Rusty.

While visiting with Curiosity, Charlie Bassham (drummer) told us about his adventures with Lee Pickens during the making of the Lee Pickens Group (LPG)  album. Charlie had been on local radio in the early 70's doing the voice of Maxwell the Duck on the Lee Randall Show, at KFJZ.  The first time I ever heard Led Zeppelin play "Whole Lotta Love" was on KFJZ AM radio. I grew up listening to Mark Stevens (Mark E. Baby), Lee Randall, and Larry Shannon. Those guys initiated a lot of young kids into the world of music. I remember being a freshman in high school, listening to Larry (El) Shannon reading his poetry about "The Lights of Ridglea" as it rained. I ended up tracking Larry Shannon down on the Internet in 2001, and not only did he respond to my email, but we continue to correspond from time to time to this day. He is a political consultant for the media, and has a PR firm, among many other exciting endeavors. Until recently, Mark Stevens could be heard during drive time in Houston as part of Stevens and Pruitt.

December 1977 seemed to be the month that would never end. My baby brother Ray was playing clarinet in the pit at Casa Manana Playhouse. Our friend Ryan Brennan, also bartender at the Hungry I, brought a new depth to our re-dub efforts. Ryan was really into movies and had a really quick and clever wit. Gary Owens gave me and RJ some tips on setting up our new PA system.  I had a gut-level talk with Rick Jackson about Pam. He said he didn't care anything about her and that if I had feelings for her, he'd stop seeing her. The next night he was out with her again. I must've had feelings because I couldn't get her out of my head. 

Musicians try not to let "girl matters" get in the way of business. The members of Titus Oates sat in the next weekend. The jam consisted of Lou Tielli, Rick "knife in the back" Jackson (just kidding, Rick), Steve Todd, Johnny Rose, plus Boogie Lamont. Saw several old schoolmates in the crowd: Joanne Bailey, David Jester, and Skeeter Berry. I paid $200 for a turntable (my daughter recently saw an LP and asked what it was). My car screwed up. We purchased a color TV from a gentleman in the parking lot for $50. That was our Christmas present to ourselves. A color TV for the apartment. Now we could play PONG in green.

The Hungry I Christmas Party was a blast. Sue's daughter, Karen, gave me a magic slate. Ryan gave me a record, and Sue gave me a picture. We all went to Karen's after the gig, and I think RJ and Karen almost hit it off.  The local music rumor mill cranked up again with news that Scott Douglas, Steve Todd, Billy Cook, and Steve Hankin planned to break up Flight and Stoney West to put together a new band. They did, and it was called Sidewinder. 

We came up some new nicknames for everyone in the band. Because all the progressive country performers of the day had three names, I became Steve "Larry" Jones, Ralph became "Nick", Jim was "Chip", we started calling Richard "RJ", and Jerry became "Jerry 'Cocaine Carter' Coker. It all meant nothing other than beating boredom. Ralph didn't care for the new names and began routinely pointing out that RJ and I were "acting like high school kids." That was Ralph's downfall. He could never let loose and enjoy life. He was one of the most rigid people I ever knew. He seemed smart, and was more mature than us for sure, but maturity wasn't a prerequisite in the Desperados. We knew early on that Ralph was never going to jive with the rest of us, but we had to put that situation on the back burner until we decided what to do about the lead guitar position. 

We started hearing that many of the girls that had been fans from the very beginning were having babies all at about the same time; Glenda, Darlene, Roxy, and Debbie. As the babies came, we saw less and less of our old friends, but we continued to make new ones all the time. After Christmas, I made up a list of all the people who had partied with us at our garage apartment since we'd moved in. The list went like this:  Ryan Brennan, Boogie, Jimmy Bradley, Don Reeder and his date, Judy Mosier and her friends Carol and Pat, Linda Razor, Kathy West, Tina, Jenny, Chris, Ray, Dennis Kehagan, John Cobb, Jim Wise and his date (the belly dancer), Ralph, Tom, Steve Strother, Pam Stevens, and Janice Lindsay.  

I finally made a decision to part ways with Pam for good. I didn't have much say in the matter actually. It was her choice. She was getting tight with Rick Jackson, and a few others close to home, as I would later learn. I had loaned her a small TV for her garage apartment, and we'd exchanged little 'nothing' gifts for the holidays. I was so ticked about what I was hearing that I did a "Spiderman" and climbed up the wall of her apartment, jostled a window open, and got my TV back. 

The New Year's Eve Party at the Hungry I was great, but the party at the Shady Rest afterwards was even better! The guest list that night at our garage apartment was: Dennis Kehagin, Sharon Watson, Monty, Mickey, Rita, Rick, Chris (and his bird Charlie), David, Glenda Bivens, Ryan, Jim Wise, Jim Armstrong, Pud, Donny, Billy, Glinda, RJ, Karen, myself, and others. It was a lot of fun until Ralph cracked for some reason and jumped all over Jim's case. It was going to be a race to see if Ralph was going to outlast Coker at the rate he was going. 

Ralph and RJ at the I

The first Sunday night of 1978 at the Hungry I was packed. Danny Cochran, Boogie, Don Reeder, and Rick Jackson sat in, along with a really stoned guy named Ritchie who tried to sing. Jim came over after the gig and we had a heart to heart about the band. The next day I went to the movies to see Close Encounters, then we checked out new TV games. We didn't even call them Video Games back then. I bought an album soundtrack of the movie Close Encounters (which we immediately put into use for background of our movie re-dubs) and RJ bought a device called TV Scorecard. It had a couple of basic games like PONG, and BREAKOUT.

The deeper we got into January of '78, the more the tension grew about what to do about Coker. Boogie was making it clear that he was available, but wasn't campaigning for the gig. We just didn't want to miss the opportunity to get him while we could. Meanwhile, on the surface things went on as usual; we were making lots of Desperado T-shirts, people were hanging out at our pad playing PONG, and I was reading "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" for some unknown reason. 

Finally we put a plan into action. We decided that Monday the 9th would be the day we'd tell Jerry Coker that Boogie would be replacing him soon. That night, after the gig, we all tore down the equipment -- except for Coker. He usually left that task up to us. He was outside sitting in his pickup truck with Donna. We were ticked that he didn't come in to help, but a little relieved that we didn't have to confront him that night. We decided to put it off. 

A few nights later, Pam was on the dance floor right in front of me kissing Jim Armstrong. I asked her not to come around for a while to give me a chance to move on. Hell, I'd already moved on but the drama was irresistible.  That request resulted in a letter from Pam that explained how confused she was. Me too. 

Sometime between the 9th and 12th of January 1978, RJ called Coker and told him about the situation with Boogie. He took it really well and didn't want to prolong things. We agreed to keep him on for three more weeks, as we worked Boogie into the lineup.  This would be a much smoother transition than it had been with Carlton. In some strange way, though, changing band members always made me feel a little like I'd killed a puppy.   

A really nice girl named Susan Hart came out to the club a lot. We got to be friends, then she vanished. I always wondered what happened to her. That happens a lot in this business, but most are soon forgotten. She was a standout.  

My predictions continue to come true as Avatar splits up and Steve Todd leaves Sidewinder. Steve was the typical guy who is in the band because he owns the PA. He had owned the PA in Titus Oates, left them to form Sidewinder, then went back to Titus Oates. That PA got more wear and tear during those band changes than it did at gigs for a while. Danny Rowlett joined Calico. Don Reeder began talking about his desire to split from Tarbaby. 

I had a dream that RJ and I got into a fight. The Dallas Cowboys won the Superbowl. We watched the game on TV at the "I". Leon Ellis sat in with us. RJ and I began coming up with very strange routines we'd play on girls. One night we had two girls at our apartment and told them there was a dead body in the bedroom. It was classic! We pulled another bit regularly in which I would pretend to be blind and RJ would walk me into walls and trip me down stairs. Then there was the wooden leg bit. The list went on and on.

We lost two nights because of cold weather. Bad roads. It had come down to Coker's last week with the band. We had a really good snow! We went to Sambo's to eat. When the weather cleared, we went back to work. The owner of the Hungry I, Bo Yale, told us to make it one more year! He didn't care for our band but loved the business we brought him. Then, as we were about to say goodbye to Coker, my parents dropped a bomb. They assemble me and my two brothers and told us they were going to get a divorce!  

Sambo's Restaurant across from the Hungry I

A Dead Man's Clothes