WEBVTT

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Hey, it's Bob Picket. We're
on our way to the legendary Broken Spoke.

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Come on, let's get out of
the truck and head inside it.

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Come on, let's go inside,
getting ready for another tale from the Broken

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Spoke. Back in be too at
the Broken Spoke. I'm Bob Pickett Monty

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Warden in his time for some more
great tales, tales from the Broken spoken

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money. I'm gonna let you introduce
our guest right now. Well, this

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is one of them because you guys
have known each other for half a century,

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probably forty years. I was getting
close to him, Darden, when

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I was fifteen years old. Uh, he was picking the hole in the

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wall. So this is multi multi
uh faceted artist. Author acclaimed, uh

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boy, what a build up painter
and an incredible hit songwriter and and uh

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philanthropist and uh just one of the
one of the one of the good guys,

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really, Darden Smith. And I
was gonna say, the best thing

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to come out of Burnham, Texas
since Bluebell ice cream. That's what I

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was gonna say it right there.
So yeah, I almost said philanderer.

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Now, no way, what's the
good one philanthropist? That's right? No,

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really, depends on who. Yeah, it's an honor to have you

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join us at the Broken Spokes.
It's great to be here, Bob.

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Now you you've who's the other guy? That's Monty. It's good to see

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you too, man. Man.
Yeah, if you ever forget my name,

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you can just go to ri i
AA and you can find it all

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over the play under under most modest
Yeah, recording that stands for the recording

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whatnot what I don't know, Platinum
Records. Okay, those people right there.

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So Money was kind of amazed when
you guys were chatting a few weeks

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ago that you played the Broken Spoke. We never realized, well you knew

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he did. What was the deal? But he got his yet your first

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major label deal here? Okay,
so that's what it was. I paid

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a picture for everyone. So this
is the very first set by Southwest and

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the very booth where we are no
way hoarding this UM podcast is where it

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kind of my life changed. Yeah, I'm hoping for some kind of something

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to happen here today as well that
will change my life. They could,

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but it did change till you shut
up on time. It probably would.

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So what year? What year was
seven? Yeah? First South By Southwest

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first south By Southwest, and um
so I did a show, did a

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couple of shows that south By Southwest. The story predates that I put out

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a record already, my first independent
record called Native Soil. Seven eight people

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bought it anyway. Um but hang
on, I'm gonna cut any right about

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about Nata Soul because it's a nineteen
eighty six is when you put that out?

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Okay, people didn't put out their
own ras. No, it was

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a It was a big deal,
you know. Now it's like, if

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you has access to a recording equipment, you put out a record, could

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you put it up on Actually,
while it was late, I was putting

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out a record. He put out
a box set. But huh. And

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so it was a big deal if
anybody had a record out, because putting

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a record out back then then somebody
said yes. Now it just means somebody

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as a credit card. And back
then somebody said yes. And when Native

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Soul came out, everybody was talking
about all the pickers in town. It

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was like, who the hell is
this guy? It was so strong,

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the songs were so good and not
like anything else. But you've been picking

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around the area for a long time, i've been I'd moved here to go

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to college. I went to I
was in Sant Marcus for about a year

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and a half, but I was
playing here all the time. So I

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was writing a song and playing here
in clubs. And then, um,

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Robert Keene. It was Robert Keene
at the time, but Robert Role I've

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watched him put a record out.
So he put out No kind of Dancer,

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and um, I immediately watched him
to go for he went from like

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a hundred dollars get paid one hundred
dollars a night to two hundred dollars overnight.

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As soon as he put his record
out, I went, okay,

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well that's the ticket. You put
a record out? How do I put

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a record out? And so it
was it was, but it was great.

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It was an eight track record.
It was recorded on eight tracks at

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Texas Motion Picture h Texas Motion Picture
Studio and Larry Sire engineered it. It

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was so simple, it was like
it was like it was an amazing to

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think about that it was eight tracks. That's it. Back in eighty six.

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So how much did this project cost? I record? Well, I'll

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tell you exactly what happened. Yeah, what's that? I know you paid

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for it. Well, I got
people to help me, okay. So

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I put it on my own label, so it's indie label. I didn't

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know anything about the music business at
all, but I knew that I had.

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There were people around um that I
just thought liked what I was doing.

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And so I raised ten grand Okay, I raised ten thousand dollars,

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right, and that was enough to
make the record. And I did it

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by asking people to contribute, not
to invest. Contribute to the record and

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the contract that I said him and
said you may get your money back,

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you may not, and people said
yes to that. And then I was

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an early example of asking people to
be patrons of the arts, basically being

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patrons, and so that was my
model and I still used that model today.

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And then I got it. I
got to it, but I didn't

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have enough money to press it.
And uh. There was a friend of

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mine named Greg. His mother was
very ill, she was dying, and

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I had said to her, I
said, like I said to him,

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I said, hey, when your
mom dies, you know you want me

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to sing at the funeral, I'll
be happy to come do it. And

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right before that had happened, I
went to a bank here in town.

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I went to Texas Commerce Bank and
asked the guy to loan me five thousand

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dollars so I could press it,
and he was he wouldn't give me the

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money, of course, he said
that's ridiculous, and I said, well,

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what if I get a co sign. He goes, yes, I'll

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get a co sign and he so
a friend of mine can coach the man

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who designed the record, Dick Reeves, his wife at the time, co

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signed a loan so I could borrow
five thousand dollars. And I remember this

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guy looking at her going you're nuts, You're nuts. This guy doesn't have

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a job, and you're gonna co
sign on the loan. Yeah, he'll

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do it. Two days later,
guys, the guy's mom dies. I

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drive to San Antonio, singing at
her wed, sing at her funeral.

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After the funeral, back at the
house and he goes, hey, how's

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that record going. I said,
well, dn thought, He goes I

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said, yeah, I just had
to go get a loan. He goes,

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how much is a loan for her? He goes five thousand. He

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goes, hang on, I'm in
charge of the money. Let me get

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the checkbook. He wrote me a
check for five thousand dollars. I went

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back in I slam. I literally
slammed that check on that guy's desk.

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I went, see, that's what
happens when people believe. He said,

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I cannot, I cannot understand why
people would give you money. And I

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went, because you don't believe.
Amazing. And the guy didn't get credit

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on the album. Either didn't.
No, no, he didn't. Ordered

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I'd take him a free one.
So I put the record out and and

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then it got going. Ray Benson
met Ray. Through this, I had

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done some touring in LA, I
did some gigs um and I got a

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publishing deal, all because of this, all because of this record, all

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because this record got going. I
mean, I always say like, I

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wasn't the most talented guy on the
scene, but I worked super hard,

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which is probably what keeps me so
that I tell people. I was just

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this morning, literally literally, I
was talking to a young writer and I

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said, man, there's always somebody
more talented, somebody younger, better looking,

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all that, But you can control
being the hardest working some bitch totally.

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Man. You can always outwork them. If you can out hustle them,

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you will, You'll have a career. You know, but but the

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thing is it like, so what
did what had made a soul cost all?

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All told? But what did you
make from it? You got the

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publishing deal, you got all those
gigs right, change your life? Yeah,

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told you. It got me going. And uh but then like to

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finish up while we're here at the
Broken Spoke, is like, so,

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then I get this publishing deal.
Ray Benson produces some demos from me yea

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and Ray, Um everything I owe
Ray everything. I got the Wheel rolling

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Without Ray, I could have had
a job by now and um. But

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uh so Ray kind of set up
a deal, a record deal with with

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Epic Records. And so the first
south By Southwest out of these shows they're

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watching me. Um they show at
the Continent Club. Then we came here

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and I played I kind of opened
for the Wheel here at the Broken Spoke,

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I'm walking across the dance floor and
Rick Blackburn, who was the head

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of CBS Records in Nashville at the
time, says, Hey, Dard,

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and I'd like to talk to you. So we came and sat in this

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booth and he offered me a record
deal right here in this wow. And

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he's like, yeah, we really
believe in. You know, I'm like,

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wow, I can't believe that I'm
getting a record. I stand up,

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I'm walking across. I walked back
into the dance hall part and I'm

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walking across the dance floor and who's
who was the guy who was ahead of

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our Cia Joe Glani walks up to
me and he goes, hey, Dardan

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puts his hand like Patsman on the
shoulder and goes, I'd like to talk

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to you. Oh boy, oh
boy. We came in. We sat

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in another booth and he offers me
a record deal and mister Galani just got

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inducted in the Country Musical. It
was like, so I got offered two

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record deals right here. Then strikes
twice, I know, and I go

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home. In the morning, Patrick
Clifford, another guy that we both know,

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Patrick Clifford, calls me up and
who was working. He was A

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and R at A and M.
He was an Epic at the time.

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Oh this is before okay, yeah
eighty seven. Yeah, So he was

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at Epic at the time, and
he called me up in the morning,

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first thing in the morning, like
eight o'clock in the morning. He goes,

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hey, Dardan, I just met
Patrick, say Dardan uh A quick

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name me one cool person on our
CIA and I went up and he goes,

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that's your answer, and I went, Epic it is. That's where

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Bob Dylan was. That's where all
these cool people were on EPIC and I

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went, great, I'll do it. But that was that was why,

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literally, that's why I signed with
Epic Records. But a cool story.

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It started here at the Broken Spoke
and that's the only time I ever played.

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Then is it really pretty much?
Well not really? What I do

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is not really well. I remember
you playing the Hole in the Walls every

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time, you know. So I
had a record deal through Nashville, but

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really it was a struggle because I
don't really do that kind of thing.

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It was the end of the sort
of what is Steve Crawl at the post

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truth scare of Yeah, the credibility. Yeah, they were signing all these

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people that were cool, but none
of them sold any records. I was

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signed at the end of that,
so their patience for it was waning very

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fast. How many alms did you
put out on Epic? I'll put out

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one on Epic And then I got
my record deal transferred actually out of Nashville.

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I got it transferred to LA.
It was total fluke. I was

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playing. I was playing fanfare,
actually, and I'd talked to my A

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and R guy, Larry Hamby about
how miserable I was because they wanted me

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to sing other people's songs, and
I knew that at the time, Like,

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I mean, George Straight was rocking. Have you ever heard of George

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Straight? Monty? Do you know
George? Have you ever written a song

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for him? One? And anyway, Yard and I have both written hundreds

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of songs for his adherence. But
I just remember saying that this guy,

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this guy who took over the an
R at epic. I went, there's

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no way that I can out George
Straight. George Straight, I don't know

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how I can do that. And
if you want to seeing other people's songs,

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this ain't going to work. And
so I'd already told my an R

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guy that I was playing, uh
fanfare, and I was like the first

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act on the bill. So I
was playing to the sound the grounds crew

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basically, and um I had a
drum and a bass drum, you know,

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me had a trio, a great
trio. I remember playing, and

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in between songs, some guy comes
up to the stage he goes, where's

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the rest of your band? And
so it was terrible. And but after

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my show, after you know,
it's like this guy. The record guys

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were there from New York. It
was you know, Sony, it just

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become Sony Music, and they said, what's he doing here? And my

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A and R guy goes, actually, he doesn't want to be here.

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They said, let's get him out
of here. Let's take him to La

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Boom. So I was basically I
wanted to leave Nashville, and by a

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fluke, it was a terrible gig, one of the many terrible gigs in

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my life that have changed my career. The terrible gig turned out to be

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this godsend. It got me out, that got me out of Nashville into

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LA and that I did one record
out of LA, which and it became

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Columbia. I went on to Columbia
Records, and then then that that deal

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got transferred to New York, thankfully. So I did three records. All

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told was CBS, you know,
Sony, Epic, Columbia and three records

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altogether. So you didn't a fortune. Nashville Awesome, Nashville, LA,

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and then New York. Yeah,
and the middle in the meantime, in

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the middle of that, I had
a record deal on Chrysalis with Boo Hum

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Redeem, so we at at one
point I had a record deal on Columbia

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and Chrysalis. Because I remember,
like I was out of London. We

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were like the Wagon Ears were like
Rick Blackburn and Larry Hamby that Nashville Cat

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Darkness song about they were fixing to
sign the Wagon Ears. And Patrick Clifford

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had just left Sony to get a
promotion to go to A and M record,

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So now he had left this label. You know, he might have

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already been at A and M because
he was hanging out with Hanby. I

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think they were best friend he'd already
left because Handy's already at A and M.

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Because I know. And the reason
why I think you're right is Patrick

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lost Darden to Hanby, and then
Hanby was gonna sign the Wagon Ears,

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and we were. We were signing
with Hanby. We were, and part

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of the thing was we had Ray
Benson. We had Darden's gonna look like

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Old Home Week in Austin. They
were signing all this Austin stuff, and

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I had one meeting Handy great cat
loves the artist, but he's still a

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record company goon. I mean,
you know, like Lacord, right,

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that's why he didn't work because he
was he was from really an La guy

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and he was brought to Nashville to
kind of la a fine hip it up

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right as it were, and he
lasted about four seconds. So I'm at

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I'm at this meeting with him.
The band comes into Nashville, the Wagon

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Ears, we have a showcase.
It's a loaded showcase, so it's gonna

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be a great gigs. Basically it
was, you know, they had my

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mother, my grandmother, my second
great teacher you know, says it was

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loaded with fans. So and uh
and so Handy said, I don't want

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to make a record with the Wagon
Ears. I have to make a record

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with the Wagon Ears. And then
the next morning Carlon Our our manager of

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Carlin Major, and I just the
two of us, not the other bandmates,

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went over to Hanby's office and he
said, uh, he said,

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man, I love your songs.
I adore your songs. I don't think

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for a second to know what a
Wagon Ears record would sound like more than

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you, but it might be cool. Just sleep on this. I don't

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want to hear y'all. I don't
want you to write with the top writers

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in Nashville. But what would be
cool is like, maybe just two or

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three songs a Wagoneer's treatment written by
the top guys in Nashville. That'd be

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cool. And I was just sitting
there. I was I was twenty years

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old. I said, man,
they yeah, that sea, that could

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be cool. And I'm in the
limo ride back to the hotel with Carlin

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and I said, I can't sign
with that guy. I said, if

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they're pulling that shit before we sign, can you imagine? I said,

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I am not making a record for
those guys. And Carlin looked at me

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and she said, well, honey, it's a band. It's not only

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your vote. And I took a
deep breath and I said, well,

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I would love to see what a
record deal looks like without my fucking signature.

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And you're twenty years old, and
I thought I had started World War

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three. And let me tell you, Carlin Major does not suffer fools,

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and she can come down on you. And she looked at me and she

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smiles. He went, I love
it. She never told the guys and

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we and then she called Patrick Clifford
and Patrick Clipford said, you know who

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the Who's the A and R guy
for the Monty Warden record? No Monty

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Warden. And so Patrick promised us
all this artistic freedom, and so we

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went. We went with them,
But really it was a pissing contest because

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Patrick had lost Darden to CBS,
so Patrick stole us from CBS. Amazing,

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Yes, crazy, great tale.
A lot of a lot of a

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lot of those deals were really really
came down to pissing matches. Yeah,

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because mine too was a pissing match
because Galani was he wasn't really interested in

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me, he was just interested in
pissing off Rick Blackburn. So he just

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wanted to sign me to keep me
from signing with Rick, and that made

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Rick want to sign me even more. Pretty cool stories, right, Oh

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wait till here Part two more with
Darden Smith coming up on part two of

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The Tell's Broken Spoke podcast, and
we're going to post that next week.

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But in the meantime, listen to
other episodes of Tales from the Broken Spoke

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anytime. We're their free iHeartRadio app. But we've got a lot of episodes

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for you to dive into. Tales
from the Broken Spoken. Get ready Part

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two with a conversation with Darty Smith
next week. Tales from the Broken Spoke

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is recorded live at The Broken Spoke
in Austin, Texas, hosted by Country

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Radio Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Pickett
and Monty Warden, recorded, mixed down

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and produced by Mike rivera