WEBVTT - #392 - Gary Mule Deer on Being Roommates with Steve Martin + Getting Into Comedy on Accident + Hanging Out With Johnny Carson and Seeing David Letterman’s First Comedy Set + Why Frank Sinatra Told Him “He was Unusual” 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:05.960 It's one of my first night show business. Honest to god, 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:11.440 I gotta do it. Music, comedy, gambling, and drugs and prostitution, 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:16.000 all in all five food groups in the same night. Hey, 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.639 here we go, Episode three ninety two. Gary Muldeer, he 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.080 just got inducted as a member of the Grand ol Opry. 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:24.840 He is so funny. I did not know he was 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.360 in his eighties. I thought he's probably a young seventy. 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:29.440 I did not know he was in his mid eighties. 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:31.880 I also did not know he didn't live in Nashville. Yeah, 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:33.479 and we talked about this. He comes down once a 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.479 month from South Dakota to play the Opery, but his 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:40.240 comedy career is so storied you're gonna hear stories about 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:46.600 Frank Sinatra, Andy Kaufman, David Letterman. I mean, I don't 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.160 really want to say anything else, but I'm a big 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:51.880 fan of Gary Muldier, and we were trying to track 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:53.159 him down to get him on this. It was a 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:54.920 little harder than we thought because he doesn't live here. 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:57.680 But even as much of a fan of him as 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.000 I am, I still came away going holy trap. He's 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.840 been through a lot, has done a lot, has towards 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.600 a lot of people. Weren't you a bit mind blown? Yeah, 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:08.400 I definitely. I mean that he used to open for 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.400 Dolly in like the seventies in Vegas. That's a hilarious story. 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:16.039 So Gary mule Deer. I just can't believe some his eighties' 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:18.240 This is wild to me because he on stage he 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.520 is rocking man. Here is his highest streaming joke. It's 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.200 called Grandpa. My grandpa used to say, listen, if we 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:36.479 all like the same things, everybody'd be after your grandma. 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.119 My grandpa used to say some weird things. He used 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.320 to say things like one good turn gets most of 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:49.520 the blankets. One time somebody asked him what he wanted 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:50.720 to be when he got out of high school. He 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:56.000 said no more. In twenty five I have mentioned this 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:58.680 to him, but Caitlin's grandfather had never been to the operation. 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:00.600 So I took her and Gary was playing and he 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:02.880 was laughing so hard, and I also was laughing, but 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.720 we were both just dying laughing, but really love it. 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.400 His documentary comes out called show Business in My Life, 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:10.760 but I can't prove it. It's coming out later the summer. 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:12.840 Conan is a big part of it all. These comedians 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:16.400 that say he influenced them Carrot Top, But here we go. 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.560 It's a lot of fun. It's Gary mule Deer here 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:26.640 on the Bobby Cast. My introduction to you was the Opery. Honestly, yeah, 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.920 and I consider myself a moderate fan of comedy, but 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:32.760 I was watching your stuff and the night it was 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.840 just even different back then, it was really different. And 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:38.080 I can see where a lot of these guys credit 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.120 you as being an influence on them. Yeah. I run 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.320 into that all the time. I have for some time 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:45.280 and lean up on the microphone a little bit. Sorry. 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.079 They're always asking me. Younger guys will ask me too, 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:49.760 like do you have any tips for me? I just 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.880 always say I don't see anything. This is funny, you know. 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.080 I just I always made sure I never had anything 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.120 to fall back on, So you never had a what 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.680 do you mean, fall back up on stage or life life. 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:02.480 I just going to do this, and I thought, if 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:03.880 I want to do it, I better do it right, 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:06.600 you know. So that's what I've been doing all this time. 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:08.799 I was always a little under the radar, you know. 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:10.919 I was helping down all the time. Did you wherever 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.679 frustrated with being I'll just say what you said under 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:16.839 the radar. Was therever a frustration like I'm actually good 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.360 and I'm different, but I still hasn't like hit like 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.200 you wanted to hit. I deal with that now. Yeah, 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:23.840 every day I feel I feel that. Now, what are 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.120 you feeling that? Then? Never did? Never have? I just 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:30.359 always been pretty comfortable wherever I've been. I was always 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.120 I always thought to me, just making seven five hundred 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.160 dollars a week in the lounges in the seventies and 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:40.040 in Las Vegas, Reno and Toe and alternating with toppless reviews, 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.080 I thought that was as good as it gets. Every 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.080 so often I would do it Tonight Show. They never 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.280 let me do the Tonight Show at Johnny because drops 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.800 of my guitar. Okay, they hated it, but when somebody canceled, 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.840 they'd call me. I did thirteen shows when people canceled. 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:55.840 In fact, one time we did a show where the 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:59.480 guest host canceled and like us, sad to be the host. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.480 I mean that they just didn't like my props. I 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.600 remember one time I did a show. It was so 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.200 good on Tonight Show. They were still clapping to the 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:10.880 commercial and after the show, I walked up to Freddie 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:12.840 Decarterbay I said, what do you think you know the producer, 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:14.560 and he said, it was great, Gary, but that's not 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.000 the Tonight Show. You want to be the Tonight Show. 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:18.960 You wear a suit, you know, you come out, you 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.520 get rid of all this stuff, your props, your guitar, 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:23.400 all that stuff. We'll put you on through or four 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:25.720 times a year. And that never worked out for me. 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.800 So ironically, you know a guy, would you really will 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:31.080 in the Tonight Show. Johnny would call him more to 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:32.640 sit down. That was a big deal. If you got 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.760 to sit down with Johnny, that you were made with me. 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:38.800 I got to know Johnny better than they did because 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.080 they just met him that night, you know, on the show. 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:43.719 But Johnny would work the weekends in the main room 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:45.760 with the Sahara and I was in the lounge, so 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.240 I would go and hang out of the backstage with him. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.359 He'd come and look watch me in the lounge. Sometime 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.200 we'd sit around later after the shows and talk. I 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.359 got to know him pretty well. And the other guys 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:58.080 that really did well on the Tonight Show, except for 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:00.560 two or three, like Steve Martin who played poker with 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.000 him all the time. Nobody really knew him like I did. 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.960 What was Johnny like, I'm a massive late night talk show? 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:07.320 Like I used to go to library as soon as 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:08.760 I could drive. Where can people drop me off? I 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:10.800 would go and watch old Jack Park. I got a 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.200 Jack part microphone. Yeah. Like also that to me, you're 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:15.359 talking about things. I get just excited about him. But 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:17.560 what was Johnny like hanging out? And why was he 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:19.640 doing a set? Was he practicing material for the show 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:21.840 because he wasn't. He just had a show and he 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:23.720 would do a lot of stuff from his monologue, but 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:26.080 he had writers with him, and he also just did 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.560 his own our observations of things. He was the guy 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.279 and what I noticed about him, which is so different 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.080 from today. You have a celebrity out among a lot 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.520 of people. God, you know, they're they're they're just they're 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:41.839 just surrounded. And with Johnny, people kept a respectable distance 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.960 from him. They always did. And Johnny, we love your show. 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.880 They nice to see you where we saw your show tonight, 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:50.360 but nobody came up for an autograph. He just had 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.800 this thing about him and he remember taught me one thing. 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:55.640 We would leave to go to the elevator, to go 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:57.800 to the rooms. People would talk to him, but he 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.440 would just keep talking to him, but keep moving stop 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.440 And you know today that doesn't happen any Why do 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:04.880 you think that is with him? Because you know he's 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:06.960 what was it from Nebraska? Right? Yeah, so he's like 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.839 middle America. You really couldn't define where he was from 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.000 by how he talked to Everybody felt like that he 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.160 was from where they were from, right was it? Did 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.440 he have kind of like a regals a weird word 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.720 because we don't have that here, but like like he's 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:24.520 some sort of like royalty, and you respected and liked him, 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:25.880 but you didn't want to get too close because the 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:27.839 rules were you don't like, why do you think that 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.040 is with him? I'm not real sure because I see 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.320 things like he'd be in the main room and Buddy 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.800 happened to be coming in the next week, and Buddy 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:37.920 was out in the out in the showroom or out 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.560 in the casino trying to get all the attention he 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.520 could get. He was totally different John. There was something 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.320 about John that people just respected and they really just 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.880 kept their distance and we're just happy to just to 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:50.800 be able to see him, having him talk to them. 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.440 And there was No, he just kept walking, just kept moving, 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:56.920 and no one felt offended. Were you ever like Johnny, 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:58.720 let me let me come on with you? I mean, 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:00.320 you know, why don't you put me? You want to 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.320 call me over? If you're like hanging out? You never 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:04.599 thought about kind of hopping into that water with him there? No, 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:07.839 never did. No. I just I was always happy with 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.200 I always worked. People thought I was always the hardest 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.600 working guy in show business, and I was. I had 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:16.320 to work every night to keep even because I was 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.360 a twenty four year Provian marching powder guy. I mean, jeez, 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.239 I never I went to bed Monday, Wednesday and Friday 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:26.720 for twenty five years. I mean, I'm lucky to be here. Seriously. 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:28.880 What was it like in South Dakota where you grew up? 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:31.280 It was pretty cool. I grew up in a ranch 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:34.160 and I tried every job after I got out of 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.480 high school. I have a record of Black Hill State 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.320 Teachers College. I was a seven year of freshman. I 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.880 had thirty three incomplete and an A and archery. Have 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.280 you been for a Yes, had thirty three incomplete and 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.200 an A and archery. Yeah. I mean, and that's why 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.880 I came famous on shows by taking my guitar using 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.440 it as a bowl, putting a Rubbert chicken on a microphone, 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:55.960 putting a cigarette in his mouth, walking up thirty two 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.760 feet and shooting, using my guitar as a bowl shot 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.200 shooting the cigarette out of the chicken's mouth. Back to record, 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:05.080 I have his own David David Letterman. It was a 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.080 thirty two feet so you set the record on I 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:09.640 said the record on Letterman? Yea, how many times you 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:11.640 got Letterman? I was on Letterman about a dozen of 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.400 each shows each one like Late Night and Late Show, 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:18.200 so NBC, NCBs, Yes, And we bonded immediately when I 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.760 when I met him, I'll never forget. I was at 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.360 the comedy Store a few years before he came in 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:25.560 when he went up for his first set that night. 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:27.880 I remember standing in the back room, which all the 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:29.720 comics did when a new guy came on their back, 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:31.400 kind of sizing up the guy, you know, the kind 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.040 of thing. And I remember him saying he was doing 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:37.480 an editorial. He said, you know, w x ZUY would 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:39.080 like to take this time to say we are a 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:44.280 diametric diametrically opposed to using orphans as the yardage markers 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.640 at driving ranges, and that got me right away. Wow, 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:49.120 this guy is something. So I went up and sat 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:51.360 till I got off, and we talked and became really 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.360 good friends. I mean, that's that's how we've known Letterman's 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:58.120 probably I was about probably seventy five something like that. Yeah, 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.360 I started, you know, Tom on stage. It was nineteen 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.280 fifty six. I think, what kind of stage could you 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.760 get on? I was at the Silver Dollar Bar at 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.240 the Ward Hotel and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I was a 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:12.880 bus boy at a place called Pahaska Tepee at the 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.200 east entrance of the Yellowstone and the guy in the 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.560 bar had a big country gentleman a gretch guitar, and 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.120 he could play one song, Johnny Cash's Big River. I 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.319 could sing it. So we got to be pretty good 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.560 at every night in the bar, and on our night 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.440 off we went over to Jackson Hold the silver Dollar Bar. 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.520 He got up and played a Big River. I sang it. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.040 They gave us a couple of free drinks. We did 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:36.400 about three times that afternoon. We got some food that night, 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.960 and coming back. I remember driving his convertible driving back 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.200 through Yellowstone at night, which was something at nineteen fifty six, 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:45.360 and thinking to myself, someday, I want to do that 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.280 song with a band. And then I started putting bands 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:50.480 together and started in fold music. I think about fifty 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:54.440 nineteen sixty, and I got into comedy by mistake, by accident. 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.720 The B seventh chord got me into comedy my first night. 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:01.240 I don't i'd learned. I think ten Johnny Cash songs 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.240 and Mule Skinner Blues in the key of E, and 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.480 I went at the song with Johnny Cash's fulsome Prison Blues, 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.360 and the first two lines I missed the B seventh chord, 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:14.320 and all eight people in the audience who had been 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:16.640 ignoring me after that time, just stopped and looked at me. 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:18.880 So I told the first joke I ever wrote, which 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:23.760 was three snails Molesta Tortoise officer arrives to mccut the report. 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:25.599 Assist to the tortoise, all right, I want you to 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.760 tell me exactly what happened. The tortoise said, well, everything 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.880 happened so fast, and everybody laughed, and then I went 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:34.720 back there drinking again. I went back into the song, 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:36.920 and I missed a chord or two or all night long, 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.040 and pretty soon I noticed I was getting more response 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.000 from my comedy and my jokes, and it was from 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.680 my singing. And I was playing the pinball machines in 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:47.360 between my sets. I think I was getting fifteen dollars 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:49.280 for the weekend. I was playing it from nine to 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:53.199 one with forty five on fifteen off. And this is honest. 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:55.560 It got through. What happened. I lost most of my 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.520 money between sets playing the pinball machines. And then when 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:00.720 I got through, there was a lady sitting at the 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:02.680 bar said, what are you gonna do now? Gary said, well, 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:04.640 I'm gonna probably get something to eat and go back 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.640 to spearfish. This was in Deadwood, South Dakota. She said, 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:10.280 come with me. She was the madam of the Pine Rooms, 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.320 one of the brothels in Deadwood. There were from eighteen 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:17.319 seventy six to nineteen seventy six there were brothels all upstairs, 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:19.959 all along main street. And she was the item of 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.000 the Pine Rooms. So I took my guitar and my 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:26.040 amp and you know, my little microphone, sat in the 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.760 corner and entertained. The guys are up to see the girls. 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.360 There were miners, you know, from the mining camps. There 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.400 were guys from the oil rigs over in Wyoming. They're 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.000 the cheap herders of in Montana, all kind of in 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.400 that area. And plus the college was only ten miles 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.079 away of Whish where I got thirty drink completes and 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.480 an a and archery and I played until about probably 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:48.520 until about four in the morning. I'm starting to fade, 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:50.920 and she walks up and gives me a little black pill, 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:54.400 but a half an inch long. It was exit drain 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:57.080 and I took this and next day at noon, I 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.640 was still playing my guitar. This is the honest truth. 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:01.840 She came up and said, you know, Gary, you can 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.400 stop playing now. So I stopped, and she said, by 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:05.880 the way, one of the girls kind of like ships. 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:07.240 So I went down to the room with one of 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.600 the girls. But I just sat there and just talked. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.320 I was just so high, and pretty soon she looked 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:14.199 at her watch and said, you know, I got to 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:16.880 get back to work. That's okay. So I stayed up 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.480 all that day and then I started to fade that evening, 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:22.120 and so I went up to that madam again. I said, 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:23.720 if I can have one of those pills again, I'll 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:25.320 come back after I get through with my set at 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:27.800 to a Buffalo bar so my first night in show business, 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.720 honest to god, I got into music, comedy, gambling, and 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.880 drugs and prostitutions, all in all five food groups in 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.160 the same night. That night, my first night in show business. 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:43.040 Say so, were you funny as a kid? Were you 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.800 smart as a kid? And not so much? Like? Did 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:47.760 you study and make good grades? But did you feel 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.000 like you were quicker at more advanced than others? I was, 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:52.839 and I could have made good grades. All I wanted 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:54.640 to do is read. I'm still a reader. I read 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:56.679 two and three books a week. My thing is to 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.280 My favorite time is to read till two or three 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.520 in the morning and get up with eleven, have somebody 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.560 to eat, and go play golf. That's kind of where 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:05.480 or go get ready to do a show with that 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.360 afternoon or that evening. But that's I still read two 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:10.280 three books a week. That's what I do. That's crazy, 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:12.520 two or three books a week. Yeah, And I'm always 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:14.520 been a reader and a speller. By the time I 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.080 got into first grade, I had an uncle who had 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.160 a big business. He took me around and maybe read 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.719 billboards to him and read the paper with him at night. 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:23.840 I could read pretty well and spell by the time 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:25.640 I was in the first grade. Yeah, were you not 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:30.360 challenged as a kid intellectually? And so you know, he 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.240 didn't make good grades, because why would you you're so 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.520 advanced anyway, Do you feel like that was it? I 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.719 got by. I always got by. I just always got 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.600 by with where they're always with the teachers or whatever. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.160 It was where I hung out with the smartest kid 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.839 in all the classes, my friend Building Wigan. He was 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:49.760 a genius. He'd do my homework for me in a second. 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:51.600 He'd do all this stuff for me. So I always 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.440 got by doing that. And that's a I don't know, 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:58.280 I just uh, I had We had lived on a horse, 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.000 you know, at the ranch for ever. And then when 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.440 I got out of college, I got married to my 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.040 high school sweetheart, had to get married. We had a 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.000 son coming along, and my dad gave me the movie theater. 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:11.800 We also had a movie theater and the ranch. So 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.040 I would just remember how I got into the music 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.320 with that. During the late fifties and early sixties, all 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.160 the top groups came through and there's a two thousand 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.800 dance hall to held two thousand. They came to South Dakota. Yes, 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:27.920 Spearfish as a matter of fact, it was called the 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.920 Spearfish Park Pavilion. That's where I met Jerry Lee Lewis, 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.600 I met the Everly Brothers, I met the Fenderman. I 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.960 bet God, all these different acts came through all the time. 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:40.160 The Everly Brothers and I would be at my theater 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.800 the night before on Thursday night watching Kelly's Hotel across 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.200 the street. When the guys pulled in, I would go 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:47.560 over and tell them, you guys want to see a 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:49.600 movie to night after if you want to run a 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:51.560 movie and give you a popcorn. And so they would 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:53.800 all come over and I'd keep the projectionist over and 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:55.920 they would watch a movie. Then the next side I 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:57.880 would get onto the park and sad by this stage 0:14:58.040 --> 0:14:59.560 and they'd see the guy gave him a movie in 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:01.400 popcorn and say can I got to do a song 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:04.840 with them, And so this day all the guys remembered me, 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.080 The Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, all of them remember me, 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.160 the Ventures, even getting up on stage. Ventures never played anything, 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:13.680 sang everything. They just played and they'd let me do 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:17.560 Summertime blues and mule Skinner blues with them. And that's 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.280 how I got work up. That's how I worked in 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:22.960 show business and spear feature. So you cut your teeth. 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:24.400 Basic played musically in a lot of ways with the 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:26.040 very famous people because you had a movie theater and 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.320 you just kind of yes, traded it out. Yes. And 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.760 I finally decided to put a band together because I 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.360 found the best musicians in the area. Were you good? 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.000 Could you play? I was just a rhythm guitar player 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.720 and I could sing. Once again, I just got by 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:41.680 because I had the best musicians I could find in 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.400 the area. Had a guy that was an incredible guitar player. 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.960 I mean he played like Noki Edwards from the benchures 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.920 he played like James Burton. He played like he could 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.080 play anything, even jazz. And I found the best drummer. 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.760 I found the best saxophone player, the best bass player, 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.080 and we opened for all these groups when they came through. 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.200 I've got posters opening for the Champs in sixty three, 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:03.480 and I think I'm right about this. I think the 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.440 Champs at that time they had the song to Quila. 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.200 I think it was Glenn Campbell and Seals and Crofts 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.600 were the first three guys in the Champs. And I 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.560 remember that's when I met Glenn and years ago. Years 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:15.960 later when I came out to LA I got into 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.920 a group called the New Society and our CEO Vector Records. 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:21.520 We went into record and Glenn Cambell we had the 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:23.840 Wrecking Crew to our song we went out on the road. 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.040 We couldn't play our album. You had the Wrecking Crew 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:27.760 to you had the Wrecking Cup. Yeah. We had Carol 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.040 k on bass, We had Jim Kelton on drums, we 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.240 had Glenn Campbell on guitar, and we couldn't play our album. 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.040 It was just they were so good. Yeah, they were 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:37.640 so good, and we had this album it was kind 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.040 of doing okay, and we couldn't do anything. We couldn't 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:42.280 play it. These guys were so good, but it was 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.320 amazing for me to I won the calend contest with 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.000 another guy called the Black Hills too, at this college 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.480 that I flunked out of. We went the first prize. 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:53.440 You got to go to Denver, Colorado, and you got 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:55.720 to play free at the airbase for the Officers Club. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:57.480 They gave you a meal and put you over the night. 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.600 That was your That was it. It sounds like word, yeah, 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.040 it was. Yeah. So my partner went back to South 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.440 Dakota and I stayed down there and I saw a 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.080 sign up one night that said jose Feliciano coming in. 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:09.840 I didn't know who he was, but he said they're 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.040 looking for an opening acts. So I went in and 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.439 uh mits. When I met Michael Johnson, you know, I 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.439 had Blue or Than Blue and Let's Spend the Night 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.080 together those songs. Michael and I both got the jobs 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.560 working with Jose Feliciano, and I hung out in Denver, 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:24.840 did as many bars as I could, and when a 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:26.239 friend came up to me one day and said, can 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:28.800 you play bass? I said yeah. He said, well, I'm 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.440 going out to join the Greenwood County Singers in LA. 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:33.800 They're looking for a bass player. I said, okay, I 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.040 could you play bass? No, okay, I was gonna say, 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.040 oh yeah, I couldn't play bass. Got then we went 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:40.680 out to California. I went in with the group. In fact, 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:42.720 Van Dyke Parks was the leader of the group at 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.320 the time, and they had me a bass. They said, 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:49.240 let's play our hit, went into the Frankie and Johnny song, 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:52.520 and h I couldn't play, And everybody just stopped and 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.640 froze and looked at me and the guy that brought 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:58.160 me out and says what And I said, I camp, 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.640 but I'm pretty funny. And I remember Van at seeing Gary. 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:02.720 We're not looking for funny, We're looking for a bass player. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:04.560