Jerry Gatlin, 13 years old, just kicked out of junior high
school for stabbing one of the two guys that jumped him at his hall locker
during school, (rhythm guitar and lead vocals) Jerry Hanes, 14 years old,
(drummer and backup vocals) best friend of Jerry Gatlin; had been out of his
body cast for maybe a couple of years now after being run over by a car. He
was getting back in great shape by steady drum practice and regular skin
grafts. Roy Boyd, 15 years old, (lead guitar and backup vocals) after doing
kid band lobby shows in Vegas had just moved to Houston from California with
his mom, little brother (Wayney), and his sea going tug boat caption daddy who
was always gone. This is who made up a band called the Valens. They had just
cut a 45 single at Gold Star Recording Studio, now known as Sugar Hill, home
of a lot of Texas artist.
“ I, “ Jack Jacobs, 18 years old, (rhythm guitar and bassist) wanted to join the band, knowing they were in need of a bass player to give them a better rounded and kick ass sound. There was some resistance from Jerry Gatlin’s mother about me joining the band. At that time I owned and was driving a red and black two door Pontiac sedan, with a three speed on the floor, no bumper on the jacked up front end, and a newly welded on exhaust dump. Roy Boyd, (lead player) had boasted that he would give his left tit just to ride in that car. “ Well,” Roy was able to ride in that car without having to give up his left tit, and I joined the band. Actually, Roy and I had been working on music together before I became the old man of the band at 18 years old. A lot of times I felt more like a daddy than a band member.
That’s when we became the “Outcasts” ! I thought the name fit pretty good considering the rejection of an 18 year old daddy Jack of the group by the mother of a 13 year old kicked out of school, knife fighting Jerry Gatlin; hyper acting, just out of the body cast, 14 year old Jerry Hanes, and of course the 15 year old Roy Boyd who hocked his Sears Silvertone standard guitar every week for five dollars because of serious family needs. Most of the time Roy would get his standard guitar out of hock on Monday with what was left from his weekend gig money, where he played a Fender strat through a finder amp which belonged to Jerry Gatlin.
Low and behold, it was just about this time that I had the
pleasure and privilege of meeting the aspiring composer, song writer,
producer, and all around business entrepreneurial guru, Mr. CL Milburn, who
had decided for whatever reason, to go to work at the box factory where I
worked. At this time I was desperately looking for a way to stay on the day
shift so I could play music at night. CL and I hit it off right away. Most
days we would go to CL’s car to eat lunch because that’s where he kept the
little tottie he brought to work. We would sit in CL’s car and eat, CL would
drink his tottie, and we would talk music, music, and more music. CL started
to book the Outcasts at different clubs. Plus, the Outcasts already had a
standing engagement every Saturday night at the Hursh Road Teen Canteen. It
wasn’t long before CL and I figured out that this box factory job was
getting in the way of our music aspirations. So we quite! I went back to work
cutting hair as a barber, which in the sixties was tough to do when you’re
trying to let your hair grow long. CL went back to being a struggling song
writing husband of a wonderful understanding supportive school teaching wife.
<C.L.MILBURN,Famed,Songwriter
Producer/Owner of Sea-Ell Records-the genius behind Knights Bridge song
"Make Me Some Love/Cj Smith)
We were able to get Jerry Gatlin’s parents to front the band the money to buy all the members a brand new shinny ass “Gold” colored suit and neck tie. We were in high cotton and ready to put the pedal to the metal. Between CL and other bookers we were gigging and auditioning all over the place. One of the problems we ran into was when the club owners would find out our ages. Although; we did a lot of gigging in the part of town that Jerry, Jerry, and daddy Jack grew up in, which was along and around the ship channel areas of the Port of Houston. Most of the fokes we played for were made up of longshoreman, truck drivers, and bikers who didn’t really care what our ages were. Roy Boyd wasn’t from here, but believe me; he fit right in and was quickly building his own reputation. A lot of these people had known us sense we were crapping yellow (which could have been just a few days earlier) and only asked that when the brawl broke out, to please turn up the music, “ and we did “. Right after we secured the kitty!!
I remember the last audition the band had with me playing bass was at the ACT III A-GO!-GO! This was one of the hottest spots in Downtown Houston. CL had landed us chance for a standing Monday night gig at the “Hottest” road touring club for bands in Houston Texas. The night that we auditioned, the band that was playing was Johnny Winter on lead guitar and his brother on organ and sax along with a bassist and drummer. (“Try following that act”) “ Well, “ we proceeded to get on stage in our shinny ass “ Gold “ colored suits with neckties on and did our thing. Try following an act like Johnny and Edgar Winter on stage together! Then find out the Monday night gig your auditioning for is filled at this time by a hot local group called the Interns (who wore white doctor smocks, almost as cool as shinny ass “Gold” colored suites with neck ties) and they are playing for free!! DA!!? I don’t remember a call back on this one.
Jerry Gatlin’s brother who was in the Army was at the audition that night. He needed to be back at Fort Poke by the next morning or would be AWOL. He asked me, daddy Jack, if I would give him a lift to the out skirts of town on Interstate I-10 so he could thumb a ride back to Fort Poke Louisiana. Carl, Jerry’s brother was in their mom’s car. (One of my biggest fans. “Remember”?) My wonderful, maybe not so understanding, but most always ever so tolerant lovely wife and I dropped our car off and slipped under the wheel of “Mrs. Gatlin’s” car (One of my biggest fans. “Remember”?) And proceeded down the highway with Carl riding shotgun and snoring most of the time. Next thing I new we were dropping Carl off at the front gate of Fort Poke. On our way back we couldn’t keep our eyes open and had to get a motel that we couldn’t afford. We ended up back in Houston the next afternoon thinking we had done a good thing by getting Carl back just in time. “Well” think again. The next week at the regular Teen Club gig, the Outcasts were back to rhythm, lead, and drums with an old buddy of mine that made like he was playing bass so the band could receive full pay. I had decided it was time to be moving on and expanding my horizons. AUDIOSE!
For the next year or so, I played in more places, with more bands, singers, and musicians than I could shake a stick at. I was cutting hair full time during the day and playing music seven nights a week while studying and preparing to take my second and final State Board Barber Exam. This time for my Masters License. (This is when licensing required more than being able to hold a pair of scissors). I was playing in a honky tonk called the Frolics, which was on 67th street at Harrisburg just west of Broadway. This is where I met Billy Wayne, (lead guitar and vocalist) who dropped by to see Larry McNeal (signer extraordinar) who was just back from California and was booked through new years as front man and lead vocalist. I was playing organ at this time. The more Billy and I talked, the more we liked what each other was saying. Billy set in and the house was cooking. Billy and I did some gigging together off and on here and there around town. Billy was also a drummer. We never new where we were going to wind up on the same gig, and who was going to be playing what. Billy told me about a signing bass player he knew by the name of Tommy Butcher that had a good kicking sound. We were off to check him out. After talking with Tommy and finding out his wants in music, and needs of our services to help in keeping the steady gig that he had, we were off and kicking by the next week.
With in a couple or three weeks, with the following that Billy, Tommy, and I already had, we were packing the joint. We had a pretty good drummer that had a hang up with car racing. After the first Saturday night he stood us up for the drag strip, he was out of there. We had to do a three-piece thing for a couple of weeks with Billy on the drums. We got wind of the availability of a really good drummer by the name of Buddy Moore who we had all worked with in times past, and we all felt like Buddy was the guy to meet our needs. By the next week we were back to a four piece, kick ass rocking band. The more we played the tighter and better we got. We were playing some of the hottest joints in Houston and the biggest beach venue in Galveston. It was about this time that it was decided we needed a name. Tommy Butcher lobbied notoriously for the name Lucifer Lizard. Lord only knows why we ever settled on that name. We continued to play all over the place. Tommy was doing most of our bookings about now. We had a booker we new by the name of Jim Gentry that was trying to put some things in the works, but kept telling Tommy we needed to do something with that name. (Like drop it)
Billy came in the club one night and said he had met some oil guy by the name of Jim Holland who had just bought a talent, management, and booking agency by the name of Astro Talent Bookers and he was looking for good new talent. Billy said he’d be showing up about the second set to give us a listen and check us out. Well, Jim showed up, gave us a listen, checked us out, got to meet everyone and left. It may had been a couple of days later that Billy came in and told us he had heard from Jim Holland and he liked what he had heard and seen. Billy said Jim had just haired a hot shot producer and promoter from Michigan by the name of Dan Kilburn and he wanted us to meet him and we would all talk about what was next in line to get and keep the ball rolling, original material, image, NAME CHANGE, etc.
The first thing we did as a band was to get together with everyone involved including wives, dogs, cats, kids, and yes even some band members. We all had a lot to consider. After talking it over with all the bosses, (our wives) we made discussion. We were going for it. Unfortunately Buddy Moore, our drummer, the only single guy in the band decided that he wasn’t going to be able to make the journey. Well, so be it, we had a lot of things to get moving on. Original material, no problem! (enters CL Milburn) Image, (hey, we didn’t own any shinny “Gold” colored suites with neck ties!) no problem. Name change, (halalouya!) I had a great idea. I just had to sell it. Etc., we needed to get right to work on the etc. which at this point meant a new drummer. I don’t remember who new Ronnie Farrack, (drummer) or suggested we take a look-see at him to find out if he could meet our needs as the bands new drummer. Just as soon as possible we all headed out to some club where Ronnie was playing to check him out and talk business with him if we liked what we heard and saw. Ronnie was going to the U of H full time, living at home and playing drums at night to buy books and keep his car running. Ronnie sounded great and was willing to give up that crazy college nonsense if and when we needed to hit the road. Buddy was out and Ronnie was in. It was like we never missed a lick.
Our next move was to change the name of the band. Dan
Kilburn, (promoter) Jim Holland, (soon to be manager) and the band; Jack,
Ronnie, Tommy, and Billy all got together for our first big POW WOW. No one
was really coming up with any band names that anyone liked. (Time to make my
pitch) That’s when I suggested TENAHA, TEMPSON, BOBO & BLAIR.
WHAT!?!?!?!?!?! was the first replay. After filling everyone in on some of the
history of this unique and already somewhat legendary saying re: four East
Texas town names that represented the main rail road route with Tenaha (my
mother’s home town) being one of the main stops, I begin to see
everybody’s eyes light up a bit. TENAHA, TEMPSON, BOBO & BLAIR were also
and maybe still is a saying that is used right before the roll of the dice.
And to top off my sales pitch, I told them about my legendary distant cousin
on my mothers side, (so the story goes) Tex Ritter (singer/songwriter and kin
foke of the late John Ritter) who had recorded an earlier record using the
town names, TENAHA, TEMPSON, BOBO & BLAIR. “ENOUGH SAID” everyone
loved it! The band had a new name and the band members were soon to become
known as Jack Tenaha, Ronnie Tempson, Tommy Bobo, and Billy Blair.
Our next move, according to our new promoter, (after getting all the contracts signed) was to get a 45 single cut and get ready to hit the road, but not before going back in the studio and laying down enough original tracks for an album. “No problem” CL Milburn had written a song called Lucifer’s Soul Patrol. Once again, we were told that this name would not fly. Once again, no problem. CL just changed Lucifer to Jesus. Actually, the lyrical content worked great with either name, and the message stayed the same. Billy and Tommy got hard at work writing the B side, (not to be left out of the song writing loop) which was called STAND UP AND FIGHT. We used the after hours club (MO-HAIR SAMS) where we were playing at the time to get all these songs down and tightened up to the point they were potentially good album material. Into the first 24 Track Studio in Houston Texas we went. We laid down JESUS SOUL PATROL & STAND UP AND FIGHT pretty quick. The session went pretty good except for the engineer not knowing anything about the brand new 24 Track console he was working on, and the big argument CL and Jim Holland got into. Jim Holland was about to kick CL’s ass and throw him out the door because he wouldn’t shut up talking to us about the songs. Seems we had forgotten to tell Jim Holland who CL was! After Jim found out CL was the songwriter of JESUS SOUL PATROL, things got a lot better and seemed to smooth right out.
Dan Kilburn was getting the first leg of the tour set up while Jim was booking us every place he could with a major promo package telling about our soon to be released single along with the beginning of our tour as opening act for JESUS CHRIST SUPER STAR in London Canada. We, the band were already walking around with toothpicks in our eyelids trying to keep them open. We were gigging, rehearsing, doing photo promo. shots, interviews, and trying to get our personal lives in order to be able to hit the road. And now……!, they want us in the studio at 7:00am on Saturday morning, after our Friday night after hours gig to lay down about ten more original tunes. I think this was about the time we all looked at each other with somewhat of a perplexed expression on our faces saying, “I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE GOOD LIFE”….!!!!
“ALRIGHT”! Our single, JESUS SOUL PATROL & STAND UP AND FIGHT is about to be released on WANTED RECORDS, winter at hand with Christmas and the new year coming on, and we were off to Detroit Michigan. As soon as we arrived in Detroit we located the Motel we were suppose to stay at. The first night we were there, we woke up the next morning to find our van had been broken into. The thief had stolen a 35mm camera I had borrowed from my Father-in-law….”O-BOY”. I can’t really remember much of anything else being missing. Thankfully they didn’t take any of our gear. We spent our first day in Detroit looking for someplace we could get our van window repaired after the thief had broken it out and also looking for some place to get something decent to eat. We found out very quickly that this ain’t no place to get any type of Southern Cooking. Then we got a call from Dan, telling us it looked like the JESUS CHRIST SUPER STAR thing wasn’t going to happen, so we were going to have about a week layover before our ROOSTERTAIL engagement. (A Major Detroit Venue)
We’ll, it looked like we had a week to kill. Back in Houston we had played at a club owned by two brothers whom one of sit on the board at MOTOWN RECORDS. We thought what the heck ! Lets go by and visit with the old boy. The next day we all jumped in the van and drove around downtown until we found the new home of MOTOWN which was in a giant high-rise. We thought we would go in the lobby and find out what floor they were on. It took us a little while to snap why we couldn’t even get past the information desk. “Heck” MOTOWN owned the whole darn building. Even though we were able to contact our club owner buddy who was in a board meeting on the 9th floor or so at this particular time, we were still unable to enter an elevator without our names on the appointment log at he information desk. “Well”, so much for rubbing any big shot shoulders today. So, we proceeded on to try and find something good to eat. (No success in my opinion). We were able to get through a couple of really boring days before we picked up Dan (our promoter) from the airport. Saturday night was here and went on to do our gig at the ROOSTERTAIL. The place was packed and the night went great.
We were out of Detroit and headed to Flint Michigan, home of GRAND FUNK RAILROAD with more time to kill after the falling apart of our JESUS CHRIST SUPER STAR TOUR. We found a good cheap Motel just a stones throw from a pretty good hot dog joint, and just down the road there was a couple of dinners and a Pizza Hut. “Bubba” !……. we were in hog heaven. Plus, there was a washatearia right in the mist of all of this. I had budgeted myself to $3.00 a day to eat, drink, bye smokes and whatever else I was able to squeeze out of that 3 bucks. Which always seamed to work out to a big “O”. There was a pretty good size restaurant, bar, and club called THE SAND TRAP at the golf course, just down the road from the Motel we were staying at. Dan was planning on trying to get us a gig here to make some bucks through the layover. THE SAND TRAP catered pretty much to road and out of town groups. Dan got us an audition at the musician’s union hall with Mike, The Sand Trap manager. We did a couple or three songs for Mike and he “YOUR HIRED”. Dan made a deal with Mike for about a four to six week engagement and to top that off with a LIVE RECORDING AT THE SAND TRAP by RARE EARTH from MOTOWN.
“WOW” I must say, Dan (our promoter) put the wheels of motion in high gear. Although by this time the whole band had come down with some kind of flue that was going around and we were all sick as a dog. With the flue and my $3.00 a day food and smoke budget, you would have thought I was on the best weight lose program anyone had ever come up with. We had about a week to try to get well before the gig begin. Sick or not; Dan was getting the promo out all over the place. Our single, JESUS SOUL PATROL & STAND UP AND FIGHT had been released by this time Dan had us doing interviews with radio stations all over Detroit and Flint. Needless to say, with promo and of course the bands great appeal, we were packing the house within the first week we were there. The club was really happy. The crowds just kept growing and THE SAND TRAP was quickly becoming the hottest spot on the strip, or for that matter, In Flint. We had everybody coming by from Pro football players from Canada to Mark Farner of GRAND FUNK RAILROAD. “We were cooking baby”. The last night of our engagement was our faunally with Rare Earth doing our live recording. When we arrived at the club, we couldn’t believe it. There was already a ton of snow on the ground and plenty more coming down. The joint was packed, no place to park, and a line of people about a block long waiting to get in. “WOW” again! I must say, this turned out to be some kind of night. When everything was said and done and the place emptied out, we loaded up the van and headed to one of our tolerable eating joints to get a bite to eat before we headed back to Houston with our 24hr. none stop drive. We were supposed to work on tightening up our original songs in the studio while Dan put the finishing touches on the 2nd stage of our tour
Boy!…… we all thought we were kicking butt and everything was going fine. Then we found out that Tommy Bobo (as known to the world now) and Jim Holland, the owner of ASTRO TALENT BOOKERS and our manager had been having some letter correspondence between each other that had come to the point of all or none concerning Tommy’s membership in the band. “Here we go again”. The search was on. We needed another van, we needed some new equipment, and we needed another bass player. (No problem) Ha! Ha! I had a van we were going to use. Of course we had no idea all the bond-doe was going to fall out of the front end of the truck and the heater would quit working. Perfect for another northbound trip. Jim Holland, our manager, had us go down and pick up the new equipment we needed. All we needed now was a new bass player. I don’t remember where we got the tip to go check out a group that was playing in a club at Gulfgate Mall. It may have been CL Milburn because I remember him going along with Jim, Dan, Ronnie, Billy, and myself (Jack) to check them out. We were going to give the lead guitar player a look-see. The guys name was David Mayfield. He was just a youngster who had been playing with Charlie Rich around the Arkansas and the east Texas areas. David had just left Charlie Rich because he wanted to do his own thing and get out of that neck of the woods. At this time David was playing lead and sharing vocals with the drummer and bass player. These guys had a really good sound. We found out latter that the drummer was a guy by the name of Don Henley, soon to be with a group called THE EGALES; remember them? Dan had already had some conversation with David about joining up with us and his position in the band, which I had understood that he and Billy were going to swap off playing lead and bass between them. “Well”, we all liked David’s sound on lead and vocals so much that the deal was made without ever hearing him play bass. David Mayfield quit the band with Don Henley and joined up with TEHAHA, TEMPSON, BOBO AND BLAIR. We were off and running and never looked back. (Not at that time anyway!)Dan had the second leg of the tour booked and we had to hook-em. New promo pictures and we were off. Our first stop was in Little Rock Arkansas for a two-week engagement at a local road tour club before we were to open for IKE & TINA TURNER along with CANNED HEAT for a concert at BARTON COLOSSEUM, Little Rock Arkansas.
During our club gig in Arkansas we also acquired another addition to the band. An old friend and collage buddy of our drummer Ronnie (Blair) Farrack joined the group as road manager. I’m going to call this new addition Mr. Jim, for lack of a better memory.
Mr. Jim got us to BARTON COLOSSEUM in plenty of time to get set up and do a sound check. CNNED HEAT showed up with their road manager and was unable to locate their equipment truck. Come to find out, their truck, driver, and equipment had gone to the wrong town and can bet there wasn’t enough time for it to get back before the show. At that time, CANNED HEAT’S road manager asked Mr. Jim, our road manager if they could use our equipment. Mr. Jim told him “no problem”, for $500.00 they could use almost anything we owned. Given the situation, he looked Mr. Jim right in the eye and said “fine”, sounds like a deal. The concert went great. We packed up and hit the road about midnight.
We got as for as some little town in Kansas where David Mayfield decided that being just the bass player wasn’t what he had signed up for. It seemed like Billy Wayne Blair just wasn’t ready to give up any portion of the lead guitar. “SO!” here we are in Kansas, laid over in a two-story hotel, (looked to be straight out of the 1800’s) looking for a bass player. Just so happened that Billy remembered the name and number of a guy by the name of Ray Turner who had played bass in one of hottest three-piece groups Houston Texas had ever known by the name of JOSEPHISS. (ZZ Top, being no exception.) Ray was able to be contacted and low and behold, was available. There was only enough room in my van for two people after packing our equipment in it, so Mr. Jim and Billy took David’s butt back to Houston and was supposed to meet us at the next gig with Ray Turner. Ronnie and I headed on to Flint Michigan where we were supposed to play some collage concerts if Mr. Jim could get the boys back in time. (He didn’t)
After Mr. Jim, Billy, and Ray did get to Flint, to late for the gig, with more layover time we decided to check out the SAND TRAP, where we had cut the live album. This place was still cooking. Everyone told us that after our live recording there by RARE EARTH, the SAND TRAP had become the road group place. It was standing room only every night. We were told by Mr. Jim that the vacation was over now that we had Ray Turner on bass. We needed to get ready for our next gig.
We were going to have more layover time but Mr. Jim got a call from Dan who told him that the lead signer for the group BLOOD ROCK had lost his voice and we were the band that was going to fill in for them. It took us about ten minutes to get on the road. We had to be in down town Fort Wayne Indiana by the next afternoon. We were on the bill to play at an old Historical Theatre down town with who else but,……. CANNED HEAT. How cool! We were in and out of the dressing rooms back stage shooting the breeze with CANNED HEAT while they were waiting for their equipment truck to show up again. We were kind of wondering if that $500.00 thing would work again if their truck didn’t show. (No problem; it showed) The night went great and everybody was happy and charged. Ray had did one of his blow out bass solos and brought the house down. We were cooking again!!……..
We were on the road again. This time we were headed to Lancing Michigan to do another concert with CANNED HEAT again. We opened up again to a packed house. CANNED HEAT went on and did a couple of numbers before The Bear’s (Canned Heat’s lead singer) amp for his harp mic went out. CANNED HEAT’S road manager turned to Mr. Jim and asked him if they could use one of our amps. Mr. Jim told him “no problem”, why don’t we plug into this one that is still hooked up and The Bear will never miss a note. They got it hooked up and CANNED HEAT’S road manger turned to Mr. Jim, looked him right in the eye and asked what do I owe you. Mr. Jim looked him back in the eye and said not a thing man, lets listen to the BEAR.
We were off again. This time to Buffalo New York where we had a two week gig at a club that catered to a lot of bikers. (Hell’s Angles) I must say; we were starting to fill right at home. It was just about this time we got the word from Dan who was back in Houston, that he had been in touch with CANNED HEAT’S handlers and they were talking about a tour of Japan for us with CANNED HEAT. This was totally cool, except for one thing. It was just about this time that Billy and Ray started to not get along to good. Especially after Billy dove off the stage on to Ray and they started duking it out right on the dance floor. Now I was starting to realize why Billy had never suggested using Ray for a bass player. I had no idea that these two guys had some sort of lifetime problem with each other. “WOW” this was all we needed. And in turn, this was about all we got after that.
We left New York and had a short little jog through Canada in the dead of winter. I had open holes in the front of my van with newspapers stuffed in them and a heater that won’t work. After two all nighters with customs between Canada and the United States, believe me, we were happy to be back in the US of A. Even with a heater that didn’t work.
Our next gig was in Cincinnati Ohio. The only thing that happened to us in this town worth talking about was when the drivers side door of my van became unfroze (I guess that was the problem) and I was finally able to open it again. I really don’t even remember the name of the next town we played in. I do know it was supposed to be a two-week engagement. All the women in this place (except for this one girl!) wore bubbled hair dos and bobby socks. Most of the men had on Buddy Holly glasses and Elvis side burns. And everybody wanted to hear B J Thomas. Hey; B J Thomas is from my part of the country and there is nobody any cooler, but that just wasn’t our bag, not for every song anyway. I promise! This place was like being on TV in a Twilight Zone episode, especially with that one chick that was always there. She didn’t work there nor did she look like or acts like anyone else in the place. She would always laugh and talk with us about how weird everyone else was, but she was always there and never seemed to leave. It was kind of like she had gotten stuck there herself through a Twilight Zone episode of her own. I really hope this young lady was able to get beamed back to reality. I think, to the best of my memory, we gave them back the money that was paid us for the first week, and we “paid them” for the second week in order not to have to show up, and we hauled ass out of that town. Needless to say, Billy and Ray couldn’t hardly ride in the same car together by this time and we were headed back to Houston just as fast as we could go. The bedtime stores Mr. Jim used to read to us at night, right before bedtime, just weren’t doing the job they once did. “I guess”.
In conclusion; I think Jim Holland (manager) got tired of spending his money on bands and just moved on. Dan Kilburn (Promoter) moved to New Orleans and went to work for
BMI. Last time Billy and Ray were seen together was in the year 2000 in the streets of Austin Texas duking it out. Ray sill attends AA and does some gigging now and then. Billy died of cancer in about 2002. Tommy Butcher helped bury Billy and I guess is still working on the Port of Houston. I haven’t heard anything about Buddy Moore (drummer) for more than thirty years. Ronnie (last drummer) went to work for the Rail Road and Mr. Jim probably got rich and is reading bedtime stores to somebody, someplace. Last time I saw David Mayfield, was back in the early 70s on Saturday late night TV, playing back with Charlie Rich. Although, I heard he is still around playing in the joints today. Someone told me that Jerry Gatlin was paralyzed from the waist down after being stabbed in the back after another knife fight. Jerry Hanes had a triple bypass some years back and owned a mechanic shop. I’ve been told sense then, that he moved up north. (I would have no idea why.) Roy Boyd and his entire immediate family are dead. CL Milburn is still writing songs and producing. I, daddy Jack, am still married to the same understanding lovely woman Deanna, going on 39 years and counting. I work for a Developer and own a video and recording studio by the name of JACKS ARE BETTER, known as JAB PRODUCTIONS.I’ve enjoyed the blast to the past. Hope you did too.
God Bless