Desperados (continued)

Knighted into Royal King-dom

Don Hudson started his Royal Kings band in the mid 60's in Diamond Hill, TX. They would practice in Don's parent's garage, across the street from where RJ grew up. This is how Don and RJ came to know each other. Don never tried to be an Elvis impersonator, but he wore his hair 'Elvis' style, and wore Elvis-like sunglasses. He fronted the band from the drums, which seemed unusual, but I would run into that again with Savvy years later. Don never ran out of funny lines (all of which I would later borrow and use) and kept the audiences, and his band members, entertained at all times. Don proved that it wasn't all about music. In fact, honky tonk audiences loved him so much that he always had a gig when he wanted one. 


A very young Don Hudson  from an early publicity photo, 
coincidentally taken by my dad - Cecil Jones! 


Don was always taking requests and would promise the crowd that he would "get it all in" before the night was through. In his most sincere voice he would invite his audiences to "be sure and visit with the crew" during band breaks. We always got a kick out of hearing him say that. It made us sound like we were flying Space Missions, rather than pissing our young lives away.

On February 28, 1975, my brother Chris and I were sitting in the parking lot of the Jack In The Box restaurant in River Oaks, TX after my appearance as a clown at a birthday party when a voice came over the CB radio saying "Hey Red nose!" (I was still in my clown costume.) That was how we met Doug "Putt Putt" Wadsworth.  Doug invited us to come and see his band play at a club on Ft. Worth's south side called Little Joe's. The band was Don Hudson and the Royal Kings. Further discussion revealed that my own cousin RJ was in the band too!


Henry II was the clown character I 
used at birthday parties, parades,
and anywhere else I could make a 
buck. This was how I looked when
I met Doug for the first time. (I saved
a lot of money by not having to buy
a clown wig!)

Every weekend during March, April, and May of 1975 was spent partying and jamming at Little Joe's with Don Hudson and the Royal Kings. At that time the band consisted of Don Hudson on drums, Jerry Coker on guitar, Jim Wise on keyboards, RJ on bass, and Doug Wadsworth on rhythm guitar. I would do the novelty stuff - Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Willie Nelson parodies complete with fake beard and nose plugs,  and from time to time I would do ventriloquist bits with my puppet Jimmy (named after school pal Jimmy Mask.) The crowds at Little Joe's loved this stuff and in September, RJ talked Don into allowing me to rotate sets and split pay with Doug, and become an 'honorary' Royal King!  This was partly because RJ, Doug and I had sat in with a band at the Tack Room Club on Camp Bowie, and the owner liked us so much that he hired us on the spot - without even seeing the rest of the band! The Tack Room was a big step up from the dives of Hemphill; nicer club, better clientele, and higher pay!  Don agreed it would be a good move for the band. 


Business card from the Tack Room club

Around this time, we went into Stargo Studios off of 28th Street in Ft. Worth and cut a record (a 45 single) of Don's song "Sandra Kay". The B side was another one of Don's songs called "Flip, Flop & Fly."  It is easy for me to visualize those Stargo sessions because the studio was across the street from the Riverside XXX Drive In Theater. We could hear the sound track from the porno movies in our headphone mix! 


Business card from Stargo Records

Doug was planning on joining the Air Force soon which meant I would finally become a full fledged Royal King! In December the owner of the Tack Room sold the club to a character named Hoot. Rather than have a permanent house band, Hoot decided to rotate different groups, thinking it might be better for business.  On January 2, 1976 we pulled up stakes and returned to Little Joe's. A band called Caravan had taken over at Joe's in our absence, but Don schmoozed our way back in with no problem. I recall there being a big blood stain on the dance floor from a stabbing the previous night. [Jim Wise remembers hearing that as a couple danced on New Year's Eve, the woman's jealous boyfriend began stabbing her dance partner in the back, and continued stabbing him as he tried to crawl out the door of the club. On another occasion at Little Joe's, a fight broke out between two men and as they rolled across the floor punching each other, a Saturday Night Special revolver fell out of one of their pockets and hit the floor. Little Joe's could be a rough place, but for some reason I always felt immune to any danger as long as I was in the band.]

With the return to Joe's, we talked Don into letting us drop the corny, outdated "Royal Kings" name and replace it with a more timely one; Don Hudson and the Desperados! After being around the band for almost a year, I ended up being a Royal King for less than a month! Now I was a Desperado!


Band's biz card after name change. *Note Jim's last name misspelled.

For the next four months, that blood stain on the dance floor would be a constant motivator for us to find a better gig. We were coming together as a group. I was getting an education in audience communication 101 from the master - Don Hudson. As the band grew more confident, and our stage personas developed, we knew it was just a matter of time before we would have to choose the hard road and see what we were really made of. That opportunity would present itself in April of 1976 - but one of us would not survive the move to the Go-Go Factory!



Classic restored '76 photo of Don Hudson & the Desperados taken in front of the stage at Little Joe's on Hemphill in south Ft. Worth. Pictured from L to R: Steve Jones, RJ, Don Hudson, Jerry Coker, And Jim Wise. The Progressive Country movement was in full swing so RJ and I bought really expensive Silver Belly cowboy hats. Mine was too small and always gave me a headache when I wore it!

NEXT: Mutiny at the Go-Go Factory
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