Hey, it's Bob Pickett. We are on our way to the legendary Broken
Spoke. Come on, let's get out the truck and head inside. And
damn you're proud of it. Come on, it's going side, getting ready
for another Tale from the Broken Spoke. Welcome back, and we got some
stories for you today. It's Tales from the Broken Spoke. I'm Bob Pickets
sending to Willie Nelson Booth and my friend mister Monnie Warden. Money. We
gotta we're gonna have fun. Today is already fun. Yeah. Would you
like to introduce the guests and to everybody who we have we have right here
on Tales from the Broken Spoke. Mister Leroy Eickler, a drummer, veteran
of the Broken Spoke and famed award winning George straight Buster. You get him
where he needs to be, that's exactly right. How long where he is
today? There? It is? Okay, I don't war about that.
But also we need to say that Leroy is an award winner. You just
picked up a big award this year. It'll be January the twelfth in Nashville.
And what was that award for being the longest driver for the same artist
of anybody in music history. Wow. Okay, and how many years is
that? Forty one? So far? Forty one? You've been George Straight's
bus driver for forty one years. Next year will be forty two money.
That's a lot of mileage right there, isn't it? Huh? God,
I don't even want to think about that. So when George graduated from a
van to a bus, you with a bus driver and still are I actually
hit him up for a job driving a bus before he even had a bus.
Wow. Yeah. He was a good friend of mine from well,
everybody knows him, Johnny Lyons and coy Okay, he was playing George is
playing the Hall of Fame over in Brian one night, and he knew that
I was working the group at that time called Silver Creek, And uh,
Johnny said, I got this guy coming in. I think he's going to
be pretty hot. And so he said, y'all are off that night,
why don't you come on over? So I did, and I wrote up
a little resume on a piece of paper about now, that was just before
or after you saw George? You wrote up the resume four or four?
Right? Four? I went to the club to see him maybe you put
on a napkin or him say wait a minute, And I wrote that I
had played with the guy by the Jimmy Heap and the Melody Masters out of
Taylor, Texas for five years, which we used to play here at the
Broken Spoke. Then I worked. Then I left that band and went to
work with the Moods of Country Music for thirteen years, and we had a
bus, and and Jimmy Heap had a bus also. Then I went to
work with a group called Silver Creek, and that we had a bus.
Well, I go over to see George at Hall of Fame in Brian,
Texas. He pulling a trailer with a van, and I had ridden the
bands and the buses. You know that I'd driven three different bands, three
different buses. I said, I think you're gonna be pretty good. I
said, if you ever buy a bus, I'd like a shot at driving
it. So he said, I actually had one ordered I said. He
said. I said, well that was the day of those four speed Silver
Eagle buses. And he said, I said, well, if this guy
can't shift, he's up here grinding gears, I'd like a shot at driving.
I'm trying to do the math in my head, which I'm terrible at.
So this is about forty one forty two years ago. You did this
right, forty one years that would be nine eight one, so unwound would
have direcked be a hit. Correct. Yeah? Right? Well, now
he hired this driver and he couldn't shift gears. So George called me.
He said, you're still interested in driving that bus for me? I said
sure, but I said, well, I got to give at least two
weeks notice to this group called Silver Creek that I'm playing with. So I
it was one he called me, and I was actually playing with Johnny Lion
a pickup gig in Huntsville, Texas with Johnny lyon. The phone rings over
there. The club owner comes, get Leroy, you have a phone call.
I said, okay. So I didn't know if it was my mother
trying to get a hold of me or what. So I went and got
up the phone. He said, hey, this is George straight. I
said yes, sir. He said, you still want the job driving the
bus? I said sure, so he said kick me and Norma. Norma
his wife wanted to go to Houston to a k I k K radio deal.
You know, back when they do all that promotion. There was a
key I KK radio yeah, and uh, he said, we'll leave.
We want to leave Monday. This was Sunday night. I said where do
you live? I said, yeah, I'll do it. I said where
do you live? He told me San Marcus. I said, well,
duh, we're in St. Marcas. So he said it was Lacey Lacey
Lane. I think. I said it's a bus there. He said yes.
I said, okay, I'll be there. I said, I'll park
my El Camino in front of your bus and you come knock on the window.
Okay, then wait a minute, Wait a minute. So you are
the bus driver, you've never driven this bus, and you've got the most
important person in the back of the bus, and you're open. You had
to be sweating. Well. But also, I've got ken that lives on
a lazy lane and it is a one shot suburban. It's a beautiful,
beautiful street, but there is no spot to turn around. I don't know
how. I don't know where driveway or yard you passed through to do that.
But it's your first time to drive that bus correct and you're trying to
make an impression. I driven the bus quite a year A few years.
But it is every bus the same just about or no, they're all different.
Wow. So anyhow, I said, well, come wake me up.
I'll be in sleeping my old Camino. So he come knocking on the
window at eight o'clock, I'll crawl in the bus. Forty Virgin Norma went
to Houston and I come back and I've been with him ever since. Wow,
that's fantastic, man, that's a heck of an AUDITIONE Have I ever
heard one? He could have been desperate, I don't know, paid off
well. But also you know, it's like what I know. You know,
I don't know George, but I've been around him a few times because
he's. One thing everybody knows about George trade is he is so gracious to
songwriters that have written hits for him. He knows that's where his songs come
from. So he's always treated my family like he's known us one hundred years.
But you know one thing that that I know from the people around him,
and it's the exact same thing that I've always heard from the people that
worked with Elvis is they said Elvis and they said George, it's they're not
real keen on new people and they like their team, and their team's great.
And you look at all those people that have been with straight picking with
him in the band. Wait, wait, there's more to this, because
you're not gonna leave. We've got a lot of people in that band,
right, That's exactly right. And that's my point is is just so just
once you get used to somebody being around, and Leroy drives a bus and
it works, and you you know, and also every artist I've ever known,
myself included, we're a little bit superstitious. And it starts, you
know, Lero starts driving for him and he gets more and more famous.
Why why would you monkey with that math? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah yeah. If it's not broken, I'll fix it. Well.
And also, you know, it's until you go out on the road
with a bus, you don't it's not just a bus driver. It's a
it's a peacekeeper, it's a it's a navigator, it's a it's a guy
who's got his first job is driving George to Houston. And we know what
Houston traffic is like. Well, but it's all that, but it's also
you know, it is snowstorms, it's hurricanes, it's everything. And you
just got it. You have to drive that. You want a bus driver
that just is this even keel? Nothing spooks some tornado warning, that's all
right. We'd be just fine. Never had bad weather. We'll driving the
bus, my gosh, for years. Come on, tell me what's the
worst one. I would probably think. We were in Minnesota and we went
from Minnesota to Fargo. First time, this old boy driving as many years
I had ever been in with a blind I was blind. You couldn't stop
the bus because you'd get run over. So we just you couldn't see six
feet in front of you, so you couldn't stop because sure enough somebody had
to run into the back of you. That was a tough one. Uh
yeah, it was. It was tough. And I never heard of the
thing called meltdown. What's meltdown? Well, anytime I hit the city,
we would always stop and my co driver, we'd always stop and fill up
the bus for fuel whenever we hit town. Sort of waiting to get out
of town to the show, you know. So we pull up to a
Petro truck stop. Sit there, I went in fuel, the bus come
back out and the tires are just warm enough to cause a meltdown. For
under your tires. So we sit there, put it in gear, and
then you said, you just sit there and just you just melt it down
so you can't move. So the guy came out and put some sand on
the tires, got us going, and then I went straight down to the
shop and had him put chains on the bus. Yeah, it's uh,
but I have a theory now I'm never going to chain up a bus.
If it's bad enough to chain up, you don't need to be moving.
Well, that's good, you don't. You don't. Well, look what
happened to Shanaia Twain's bus, I know, just a few weeks ago.
It's unbelievable. I mean, you don't put that thing into Earl's ship and
get it out in two weeks. She rolled it on the side. Well,
I know one time we were going through Lizardhead Pass there in Colorado and
we had to put chains on the bus. And it was you know the
thing about when you buy a chain for your bus, they expect you to
pay for it in it right then it's expensive and and uh then the guy
said, the guy sold me the change. He said, you know it's
gonna ruin your tires, but it's the only way to get through lizard Head
passed, and it was, you know, a couple of grand and chains.
So anyway, so we did. It was the only way to make
the gig, you know. And so uh we got to the filling station.
They ride outside to tell you ride and I'm taking the chains off.
And the guy said, that old boy at the bottom of the mountain,
tell you got to buy new tires. I said, yes, sir,
and he goes, I bet you he's gonna sell them to He goes,
Son, you don't have to replace those tires're just fine. I just
immediately felt like a jackass. Oh yeah, I guess I come down that
hill and he's gonna Thank God. When they started using cables instead of change,
yeh yeah, they didn't much of anything up. How many buses had
you gone through driving George? How many? Oooh? I think it was
a nineteen seventy two Eagle when I started with George and we were all on
one bus, and then eighty four I think it was. We got a
Model ten Eagle and then we got a I'm trying to remember this because I've
got to have this for their award show in Nashville. Okay, all right.
Uh. Then I think we bought a Marathon Praivo back when everything was
a forty footer. Then we got a Neil Plan, a double decker nil
Plan, which is they were made in Lamar, Colorado. I love that
bus because it handled so that gone good. Double decker Yep, yep it
was. It was strange, but it was a cool bus. But he
didn't have a slide out, and then the company wasn't gonna When you say
double decker, I'm thinking like an old greyhound bus, those old double decker
Greyhound buses that used to have. It's the driving compartment was like if you
were this bus was actually forty five foot from tail to the very front windshield,
but that was above the driver, like if you were sitting in in
a suburban. Okay, got you so, and you had doors on each
side just like a suburban for the driver area. Well, I had a
coffee maker down there, I had everything I was. You had your own
little nook down there. That's kind of nice. It did a lot.
Anyhow. Then we then we bought a Pravo H three, then another Pravo
H three, then another Praivo H three, and uh, actually we just
ordered a brand new bus. Now, okay you say that, but I
just saw when this bus is brand new and that was just about what three
years? Yeah, come on, and the way that George and you guys
tour. Now. You don't have a lot of miles in this bus,
do you? Sixty four thousand miles? That's it and it's time for a
new one. It must be time to change the oil or something like that.
Yeah, yeah, what what's why? What's the big thing now with
buses? I mean, what's the big difference between this new bus and the
bus you have now? Oh? You know he puts what whatever you want
you're in a bus nowadays you can get Yeah, I mean like the one
we have now has won two, three, four, five, six,
seven TV's in it, eight counting the one in the bay down below.
But it's it's nothing like the old days where he had all the bunks on
the bus at all, is it. No? This particular bus has the
state room in the back and three three bunks you know, for me and
a co driver and an extra one. Always hear that when Willie came back
home that he would rather sleep out in the bus than sleep in his house,
just because it was the bus was home. Hag was the same way.
Really yeah. Well, and also it's like it's there, like George
does not get a hotel room. Vegas is the only place he ever gets
a hotel room. He had enormous stay on that bus, but why not.
Yeah, it's got everything in it a man or a woman would need.
And you've got your own. You've got like built in security. Yes
on the back are you saying that, leroy security? Yeah, well you're
you're the built in security. But also and when God forbid, should something
happen, you can just started up and drive. That's right. Oh,
you're not going to be hassled also if you stay on the bus. But
I'll say also about you know, the thing been my experience with country fans,
there is so little hassle. Really. They want to meet you,
they want to shake your hand, they want to tell you what your music
means to them, and they really don't want much more than that, you
know, have their picture made in an autograph and then they you know,
it's really a beautiful relationship that I know that it is unlike any other in
other genres. It's like a big family. Let's get back to the to
the the Pure Country Days. Are you in that movie? Yes, sir,
I was driving the first lead bus and those we had two eagles on
that shut that deal. Shoot, I was in the front bus and you
guys film that mainly up and Fort Worth, right, Yeah, because I
remember getting the call to come up there and watch you guys. But back
then it was live radio and we couldn't really get off the air and go
up there and see it. Wow, that's so cool change. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, that was a cool experience. Yeah. My father in
law, Brandy's dad, he's past now, but he wrote the second song
in that movie. He wrote baby Your Baby. Really, yeah, my
father in law did. And when Brooks, that the boy our son you
met when he was little, he was tiny. His grandpa wrote a hit
for George, and his daddy wrote a hit for George, and he just
one day he asked my mother, He said, what did what did you
write for George? Straight? He just thought everybody wrote songs for George.
Wow. Yeah, wow, you wrote a pretty good one. You and
Bruce wrote a pretty good one. Yeah. But you know, baby your
Baby. I always always thought that was I'd had a great beat. Yeah,
saw it, and I still think that that's a better soundtrack than Urban
Cowboy. Oh yeah, absolutely no. Well yeah, and that was the
first Tony Brown record, and that one that kind of I mean, George
was already George, you know, but Pure Country took him to that stratus
fere. Oh yeah, you know, it took him to stadiums, and
not that he wouldn't have gotten there, but that's what put him there.
Leroy, And you said you played here at this spoke. What year was
that? I started in sixty four? Yeah, the year they opened.
Is this place changed any Not much air conditioning, That's what every picker says.
In the day, buddy, those those walls opened up out there and
you did not have a c here. But back then, this was the
outskirts of Austris was actually in the country. Back then, that side of
town. I've passed by this, saying going to the drum shop before and
didn't even realize that I was already passed it. Oh because now because hidden,
Yeah, it's hidden behind the big buildings all the time. Being a
picker, I mean I call all players picks. He's a drummer, well
he's he picked drums. It's like, you know, I got a musician.
I'm a drummer, That's what they said. Picker. When did you
uh you know, because like for us, you know, on up,
it was always like, you know, if the bass player on the PA,
you're gonna fire him or the or if the guitar player on the van
you were going. So when did you get your bus license? And did
you do that for stability in bands or did you do that to supplement your
income? Otherwise I did it for the income. Yeah, And I'm still
playing music now though. Oh yeah, tell the band now that you're with
the I remember with a group called the B Side Boys. We put over
in Granger, Texas at the Cotton Country Club the second fourth Sunday every month,
where they get the name the B Side Boys. I think you know,
David call I think, yeah, David, I think is the one
that came up with that name. He can come up with some weird stuffs,
man. Yeah, yeah, okay, all right, well it isn't
you know, as a songwriter, particularly back in the days of forty fives,
if you wrote the B side, B side pays the same as the
A side. That's right. If you buy a forty five, it's the
same. Nickel whether you wrote the hit or the B side. So thank
god Vinyl is coming back. It Fay's pretty good to be one of the
B side boys. You know, been there a couple of seconds. It's
a great group. Okay, Now we've had members of Ace and the whole
band here, Tommy's been here. But you actually helped. Well, you
were a member of the organization before some of the members of the Ace and
the whole band. You brought some people in, didn't you. I brought
Rick McCrae, the guitar player they call him the legend is a legend,
he is, he's pretty good. He's How did you know Rick, Rick
and I were in that band, the Jim Heap and the Melody Masters that
played here. Yeah, then he was. He and I were also in
the band called Silver Creek, and uh. I knew that George was going
to change the guitar players, and so he called me to the back of
the bus. He said, you know any pickers. I said yeah.
He said, I'm gonna be hiring a different guitar player. I said,
I know the man. It's perfect, Rick, I said, Rick McCrae.
He said, where's he from? I told him? So we actually,
and I'm gonna probably get this wrong, but we were doing a radio
show in Connecticut or some way up somewhere, way up north, and Rick
didn't know these guys. They didn't know Rick. George hired him on my
word, my recommendation, and on the way to I think it's Connecticut,
Rix listened to cassettes of George's on the way to the gig. In fact,
at the gig and I've got it on the what do you call the
ascetate copy? Yeah, on stage George introduces and on guitar Gary McCrae.
Rick is so smooth, he's one of the best. I told him,
I said, Man, if I could just see you move your hand once,
it would make me feel so much bad, just effortless. He's incredible.
And I'd say, anybody that's listening today, Uh, if you go
to Rick McCrae's YouTube channel or Facebook page, he just picks a lot and
explains how he picks it. And I still don't understand what he's doing.
And I'm a musician. It's it is so informative, and it's he's so
inviting, and he's such a gifted guitar player, and he's also you know,
he can play anything, but it's also it's the notes he doesn't play
that make him so great. But he can be he can do all he
can do, all that show boat stuff, but he plays what's supposed to
be playing. Amen. There is not one superfluous note he's ever picked.
And he's just uh he is incredible and and and an even better person of
course, but yeah, just a just a phenomenal picker. And I encourage
people to go check out those two channels online because who else did you bring
to the band? Uh? Let's see uh Gene Elders, the fiddle players.
That all. Okay, okay, now wait, do you ever need
somebody for a band member? I think you know who you're going to ask
right here. Okay, Actually the steel player. Whenever I was playing with
Silver Creek, he and I were roommates in Austin at the time, and
I knew that we were going to change, or George was going to change
fiddle players. So this guy's name is good good buddy man lives in Nashville
right now Tony Paletta's I said, Ben, you know they fiddle players?
He said yeah, So he told me and I called Jean and uh,
And Geen came over. He had been painting houses, you know, and
painters close. He brings this a little cassette. I take it to George.
The rest is history. There boy dang okay, and the other member
there was our dear dear, my dear dear friend, everybody's friend. Uh,
Mike Kennedy, the late Mike Kennedy, late Mike Kennedy, great drummer.
I was, Uh, I was Ricky. Skaggs called me and wanted
me to meet the bus because his driver needed off for his waiting for his
driver's son's waiting. So my wife took me to San anton and I picked
got on the bus with Gags and san Antone. We went to Houston,
played the show, somewhere in Oklahoma played the show, went to Santa Anna,
California, played the show, and Kennedy was playing drums with Skags and
Skaggs had the most kick butt band in the world. Right, Oh yeah,
tight band always had scary good anyhow, so I call, I told
Kennedy, I said, dude, I said, George, is I want
to try out new drummers? I said, George, your name of the
hat? He said, well, hell yeah. So George did it right.
There was about five guys I think that tried out for the gig,
and whenever they did that old tune, their stands of Glass and they all
got to play the same song, which a very way to do it.
They didn't there stands of Glass, I said, and it is our next
cat man. Okay, what is it? Since you've been on the road
this long, you really haven't seen the crowd change that much. It's the
same people that go to all the concerts all the time. Age makes no
difference. Yeah, it's all ages. I made five year four or five
years old of one hundred and five, you know, been like that.
Yeah, boys, it saying about the legivity when you've got and I'm not
poking fun, but you've got somebody and that age group still out there performing
and he's selling out the younger cats. To me, that makes me feel
great because that is country music. That is pure comfort. You know fun
intended with the movie. Well, and George, you know, he's pulling
bigger numbers now than he ever has. He has big his biggest gates have
been in the last five months than anything he was doing in the early two
thousands. And I tell you what it is. It's country music. And
also it's George Strait respects his audience. He loves those people, they love
him. And what is so maddening to me just as a fan, not
as a songwriter. I'm not talking about getting cuts. I'm as a fan.
I'm a music fan. That's why I started picking the guitar, because
music speaks to me. You know. Is how dismissive, Uh, the
industry has become to the fans. It's like, if George Strait can pull
eighty he and Chris Tableten can pull one hundred thousand people at the drop of
a hat part in the pun, maybe those people would like to buy those
records still and have new records to buy. And uh, And I think
it is just so odd that somebody played George Strait's breaking attendance records that were
set by George Straight before and and yet he's not considered a viable radio act
anymore. Well by whom these people would love to hear a new George Straight
hit? I would who? Now when you played that here? What are
some of the other bands that you have actually seen out here on stage?
Leroy and the Spoke, Yeah, oh god, Country Ji groove you used
to play here, which Benny MacArthur who plays sight some old photos of Benning
back there in the Tourist Trap museum, giant ees, the new notes and
God, you can look on this wall a out here. Please come to
the spoke and look around. This is like a museum. Have you ever
had a chicken fried steak out here? Do I you ever had a chicken
fried steak out here? Is a pope Catholic? Yes? And you know
what, I wish they would the kitchen was open right now. I would
love to have one. We'll be here a couple of days, but it'll
be fine. We have got a uh, a pretty important benefit coming up
that we want everybody to attend. And I'm gonna let you tell the date
and uh so we can get a crowd out of talk about the auction and
everything. Uh, it'll be We'll be at the Cotton Country Club and Grader
which school place great? Uh and it's December the third. Gonna be a
lot of music, gonna have a lot of great auction items, one of
them being God, I've already got stupid money for it. And thank God
for that a guitar that George and Willie Nelson sign Now that right there,
George Straight and Willie Nelson. You're not going to find that now you're saying
stupid money. How much of the bid right now? For It's ten thousand
and five d right now. Yeah, and that's before it even goes on
auction. H that's priceless right there right And there will be another one that
George and Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town signed on it, and a lot
of George memorabilia. And there's gonna be some great music group, a very
hot Texas group called the Debonairs. They're playing this playing with us that night.
You talk about taking me back when I first moved Offston, the Devanaires
Man Kick Yeah, oh god. And the band that I'm in, the
B Side Boys, Kenny Ortz who plays here at the Spot Boys, Kenny's
here, I think Friday, I'm not coming up pretty quick. I think,
yeah, great guy, he's a great guy, big heart. And
uh Rick McCray is coming to play some guitar, and uh Benny mack arthur
is coming. I said, bring your fiddle, yeah, And I told
Rick because Rick g loves to play fiddle too. We're gonna have Twin Texas
fiddles out there. Oh heck yeah, I hate to I don't want to
leave out any names. There was a hot, hot group around here called
Texas Pride and then they changed the name of a Chance years later. Mickey
Boris the drummer, he's going to be there. I think a guy that
I used to play with with the Moods. I think David Roski will be
there. Wow, you haven't heard that name in a while while. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And David Latimer, who was with
Silver Creek. He's known David for a long time. Yeah, he's down
still living down there at Lockhart. Oh boy. So this again is set
for the fifth December the fifth, and uh, please tell us the re
and for the benefits. Okay, yes, my wife had she went to
see her mother in Arkansas and she had to have a murder to see pacemaker
put in, and she had some prior health issues. So health insurance for
me is stupid, stupid money. So this is the kind of help pay
down on the hospital bill because it's in fact, I think she's going to
go see your doctor. I hope so, because he's amazing. Doctor z
Leroy Parnell's son in law, Rob Roy called us. Yeah, okay,
that Ron got me hooked up with him. This guy's amazing. Yeah,
she has an apartment with him Friday, well, South Austin, and you're
gonna feel much better. Guy. The guy's amazing. That's what Rob Roy
said. Yeah, yeah, the boy Rob is Rob Really, doctor Z
I think really saved my life. You know about the past history, Yeah,
of course, Rob. We were shocked to hear you had a heart.
There's a lot of people, but Rob Roy Parnell is the one that
kept telling me for you, no, you gotta go see this. He's
married to my niece and thank god I went. And let me tell you,
Shannon's gonna be in good hands. That's what Rob preached to us that
night. He called us last week and he said, I'm gonna get this
set up for you good. So he did, and she's going Friday right
here to see your doctor. It makes I tell you what, he's amazing.
Yeah right, well not NDS And also, I mean, you know,
but that's what the whole deal is about. You know. It's going
to be lots of music, lots of great items for for the auction Silent
and live auction. One are the hours you told us today. Doors that
day are going to be open at I think three o'clock. Music's gonna start
at four, and who knows when they're to end ten or later. That's
great. But there's a lot of music, a lot of great a lot
of great friends of mine and Shannon's and the we're heck, heck, you
know we're all family out here. Yeah, we really are. We really
are. I mean, all these guys said, oh yeah, I want
to be a part of this. I want to be a part of this,
and he calls it, I want to be a part of this.
So that's what's It's just it's gonna be great. It's gonna be fun.
So I hope that everybody listening to us will show up and it's going to
go to a great cause. The third and Granger text. My grandmother was
born in Granger, Texas. Really, my great grandfather is buried in Granger
textas well. Have you ever met anybody from dime Box Texas? I had
met a couple actually at a couple of people. Okay, we're sitting right
here with a guy from dyn Box Texas, Leroy. The pride of dime
Box text is there something named after you in Diying Box. No still,
I left there in fifty nine. But actually I go back and I have
played that SPJST Hall too, Yeah, several more times. The new owners
they came in and redid that whole club and it's a great hall. So
remember the SPGST Hall in Round Rock. Oh yes, of course that was
my introduction to country music when I first moved to Austin. Back to the
Devon Dairs. Y yeah, would overflow that well, I think, you
know, I think it's when the Devon Airs won the the Tally contest and
they got the record label with MGM Records. Not MGM but Mary Tyler Moores,
Yeah MTMTM. Yeah, yeah, yeah, my goodness, that sounds
that sounds rather the very uh. But I will say the first time I
saw the shots and the Chicken dance, it scared the heck out of me
because we didn't have that in West Sexas man, I was looking for the
nearest exit. I thought that the devil was going to spring up and grab
somebody I know telling what was going on. We showed up for soundcheck at
that joint in Round Rock and I'm I don't know, I'm nineteen, you
know, and I got the wagon ears just four piece band, you know,
no, no, just kind of more of a you know, the
rock and thing. And old lady came out and she said, y'all sound
real good. And I said, thank you, ma'am. And she said,
uh, we're gonna need y'all to do the Cotton Eye Joe about ten.
And I said, well, uh, ma'am, we don't. We
don't do the Cottonae Joel. We don't have a fiddle player. She said,
well, we're gonna need you to do that at ten. I said,
well, man, we don't. We don't do that song. She
said, well you have till ten to learn it. Let me tell you.
Did your wagoneers did the Cotnaighte Joe and let me and she was right.
They it was Saturday night. It's the place is back. It's crazy.
They were expecting the Cotton Eye Joe at ten o'clock. And by gum,
you know, our guitar player, Goda Love Brent Wilson. He said,
Ward, and I can pick that on the guitar. We'll be all
right, you know, the the guitar, the guitar, yeah, yeah,
yeh leroy. When it comes to Uh. I mean, you've probably
been more concerts than anybody. Did you sit on the side of the stage.
Do you watch all the shows all the time, especially with the younger
accident are opening? Uh? Uh. I'll go in very little to see
George, because god, I've been here forty one years. Yeah, but
a lot of times I walk in and like, I want to see Stapleton,
which I had never seen. Staple was amazing, isn't it amazing?
It's like going to church and you know, the last show was George,
Willie h Kerry Underwood and Little Big Town and I've got I've seen them all.
Yeah. I went out with Kenny Chesney for about five months one year
back when Georgia took a little break. How was that? I can't talk
about that one, Okay, okay, A little different atmosphere. No,
No, Kenny is great. It was a great camp. Great, took
great four months or so. But yeah, you didn't take George's bus on
that with you, No, Kenny's personal bus. Yeah, my goodness.
This guy knows the stars. Well, he's driven for the stars. He's
getting an award. Now. Did you you remember when the Kenny and Tim
McGraw thing up in Where was Buffalo? Oh? Yeah, were you there
for that? I witnessed Wait a minute, okay, is it okay to
get the real story? Can you tell us what happened so all we know
about it? Is it one of them took a deputy's horse, right,
Kenny? Okay, Well, I'm gonna let you tell the complete story.
This is cool. I mean, well, these deputies are out their horseback
and there and Kenny, you know, being Kenny, he walked out there
and for you know it, she invited, but you want to ride this
horse? So he crawls up on it. Well, I think it was
her. I could be wrong, but I think it was her dad.
This was one of the deputies. Also, Kenny rides off from the horse,
and boy, they chased him and it was he has no idea.
Huh no, No, there was a post thing. And I'm standing in
the front of of Tim McGraw's bus talking to the driver, and we witnessed
every bit of this. Why did the press blow it up and make it
a big deal because he denied that the sure deputy, I mean denied that
that that he was invited to ride it. He he just thought Kenny grabbed
the horse and took off, which was totally wrong. Oh yeah, McGraw.
Uh, he flew me first class from Austin to New York. I
think it was somewhere in New York to be a witness to that trial.
Well I went to trial. I didn't know it went to trial. Well
I got up there. McGraw rented this cool little hotel. It's a real
small, what do you call it, boutique hotel. And he never even
called me. So he fooled me back first class back home, but they
never even called me as a witness. I never knew that you were up
there when that happened. Oh yeah, You've seen a lot of histories back
to the little driving little Very few people know that I put the George W.
Bush bus tour together. That I have no idea. Yeah, yeah,
I was. Uh, of course. We were releasing buses from Hemphill
Bus Company up in Nashville at the time, and and I know how all
this campaign stuff works. Everybody always has a bus, you know, for
several bus So I was up there one day and they were talking about the
something they at least a bus to some NBC or something like that, and
I said, well, let me see what I do here. So I
actually took once again back in my El Camino days. I drove to South
aust where George W. Bush's headquarters were for the campaign, yeah, in
two thousand and So I went in there like I knew what the hell I
was doing, and I didn't you convinced him. I walked in. The
girls said, could help you. I said, yeah, I'm here to
talk to somebody about a bus that mister Bush is gonna need for this tour.
Had worked with another George, you know what's going to work for this
one. I got the first name, right, Yes, So she told
me to go down this hallway, third door of the left or whatever and
go and talk to that guy. So I did. I said, he
said, have a seat. I said, y'all need buses for a presidential
tour, you know. So I said, I'll make this happen. So
he said, I said, get me two days. Because he realized then
that they do need that, So I said, give me two days.
So I called him pill. I said, how would y'all like to have
the Georgia of You bus tour? And asked, and then I wound up
driving. I'm going to ask if you were the driver. I drove his
bus. Yes, sir, he was a cool She was so sweet.
Missus Bush was and every day he would drink olduls, you know, and
of course you got to have a co driver. I'm following highway patrol and
everybody driving eighty seventy five eighty miles an hour. And we stopped one night
and I think it was in Columbia somewhere, and I said, mister Bush,
I said this, I don't like to drive this way. He said,
leroy, you're doing fine. Just drive. Just follow that car in
front of you. You don't even know look in your mirror. You don't
need to look because that guy sitting in that jumps he's going to tell you
one right that made you to move lane. One move to the right or
two to the left. Whatever he tells you. You don't even need to
look at that mirra. He said, we got you covered, just like
two stepping man. You gotta have to us with your partner. But he
never got out of the bus. Every night that we stayed at the hotel,
and she would grab my neck and give me a hug LERO. You
did really great. Then one day we were riding along and mister Bush said,
lero, let that co driver, Let that up guy drive come back
here. So I did. I pulled over and he's the other guy started
driving. He said, so you don't drive for anybody. Listen. Her
name is George, right, But that was a cool part of my life
that nobody and I had no idea until a few minutes ago. You remember
the name Jessica Lynch. I think Yea Lynch was Yeah, the girl,
that first female. I think they got blown up in the war. Yeah,
good buddy. My of ours actually had bought one of Georgia's buses Livesten
Spencer, West Virginia, which she lives in some holler up there on Spencer,
West, Virginia. So this guy that bought our bus, which I
have remained friends with forever, he said, man, let me fly to
Charleston. Then we needed Jessica Liz needs to go to Walter Reed. So
he said, if I fly you here, can we put her in my
bus and you take her to Walter Reed. I said sure, so I
did, and that was pretty cool too, to be able to do that.
Any O, the stories you can share with us, this is neat
we're getting education. I mean I've just remained in fact this Friday night.
But Dickie's Arena. That guy that I became friends with after buying George's bus,
and you know, he's one of the guys giving because George gives away
home every night at the show for the vets for the bench. Yes,
sir, And so this guy that did this decades ago and that I've remained
friends with for decades, he's one of the sponsors on the giveaway home.
They had to be a guy from West Virginia and that's what they're Yeah,
yeah, that's amazing. You don't spend a lot of time on the road
anymore like he used to. Do You miss it? Uh? Some time?
I do? Actually, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get you
don't like being home too long, do you. Well? I stay busy,
I mean, playing playing my music and being on a bulldozer and yeah
I do that too. Yeah, I mean, I ain'd fred to work.
Never has been well. And y'all are I mean, I mean y'all's
in Georgia's organization. Uh, y'all still picked quite quite a bit, you
know, I mean, not like in the old days, but a lot
of I don't know how you went for to all the time. There was
too much touring all the time for you. I don't know how you were
doing. They in the early days, Yeah, my god, we were
well over two hundred dates a year. They don't know what. They couldn't
handle it nowadays, right, two hundred plus days out on the like this.
You don't even know where you are when you wake up in the morning.
No, you know. Well, but that's the whole I mean,
you know. And back when I first started with them, I was the
only driver, and that we were all on one bus. I was the
only driver, and I drive till everybody got a little. See, I
couldn't. I couldn't be crammed on a bus with that many people. I
don't get along with a lot of people. You guys, I love a
lot of drinking. You can sleep anywhere. But I guess that was it
there, Maybe that was it. But I just but also it's so insular
and you and you you very quickly you get with a good bunch of cats,
you know, yea, and very quickly you have your own language,
you have your own jokes, you got your own buck. And I just
stay in my book just that that people know. You tell you tell stories
that crack everybody up. But if you go to tell somebody outside your your
world, outside the corral, it's not funny to them. They don't get
it. It's its own thing where where it. Until you do it,
you haven't done it. And what I what's so weird about tour and particularly
when you when you're touring, you know, one hundred and fifty two hundred
dates a year. That's the thing about about really doing it as a musician
is most of the people with the talent to do it can't handle it.
So you got to have the talent and then you just got to have that
weird deal of waking up in a different town sounds normal to you. Ah,
man, I couldn't do you ever get lost? Ever gotten lost before?
Oh? Yeah I have. He just doesn't tell them for they're lost.
No, I can't remember what now, I'm gonna get this wrong.
Birmingham. I think we were Birmingham, Alabama. And I can't remember the
two deck the states I had the same name, but they're next to each
other, North and South Dakota. No, no, no, no,
it was uh that part of the world. Because I asked a bar turn
to how to get up out of this town. And actually we stopped at
the mall after driving for hours. We stopped up there to eat, and
Terry Hale, our bass player, he kept got looking at the license plates
on there. He said, he found me, he said, buddy,
or we're right city, Kansas City. I was actually stopped at the wrong
to eat at the in the wrong city with the same name. So we
had to scramble every go through this little mall and get everybody together, get
them back and kick their butts back on the bus. And I drove like
a maniac and we it was back when he was doing like little county fair
stuff, yeah, you know. And we got there. We did the
show Lee Roight, what is it about? Used to in the old days
when I was growing up, and probably when Money was growing up. We
would see the name of the artists written on the bus. You don't see
that anymore, do you know. Oh, you can't do that unless you're
Claire Walker. You can't do that. Don't even do you know Klay Walker's
ex bus driver. No, but you're you were You're asking to be rotten.
I used to always see living in sweet Water, Nat Stuckey's bus go
down. I twenty all the time. And well Alvin Crow had it when
I was a kid, I remember, like eight nine years old. Is
that insurance? Is that just keep privacy where people don't fall out? I
think it's privacy now. Yeah. I know Alabama in like eighty six or
something, they went off someone old country road and they encountered, uh,
you know, an armed posse, armed guys really that they're that that trapped
them, got got them in a little box canyon and robbed them. I
never heard that story. Well, no, that's wasn't a real famous story
because that gives a lot of bad guys ideas. But everybody over at RCA
that's all they could talk about for Yeah, but you just never see that
anymore. And that was the last time Alabama ever had their name on a
bus on the side of their bus. Yeah yeah, man, Yeah,
we got pretty good security now. And also it's like, why would you
think you could rob a country band? Stupid move there, very stupid.
Pretty okay. So the benefit December third, yes, sir, Granger,
yes, sir. And if Cotton Club if they want to know more about
it, is there a website that you can go to? I mean,
hell, I'll have it on my website, my Facebook page and everything.
But is there a certain website they need to check out Cotton Country Club dot
com. Yep, okay, so we expect you to be there, behave
yourself to be a big deal right now, raise line money for Shannon,
and Shannon is going to the best heart doctor in the world. I can
tell. And those auction items, let me ask you this, uh,
because I might want to bet on some of those things. Is there going
to be a list of things auction on the website this week? There will
be wonderful, wonderful. We're still gathering things because God air bits. They're
expecting a big, big bunch of folks. Will there'll be refreshments and food.
Oh, it's a dance hall in Texas. What do you think?
Golly, I'll be there. Will there be the chicken dance this shot.
We're gonna have a couple of fiddles. It'll be okay. MONI has blended
again, Leroy Eckler, right now, join us. Tales and Broken Spoke.
You promised to come back, and this is the stories because when you
walk away from the mike, you're gonna think, wait a minute, there's
more stories that I should have told you spoke more than I should. I'm
not a good talker. To the beginning of that, you told me when
we sit down, you said, I don't know what to say. I
don't like to talk. But I think you know we've had a couple of
ye here and you go, oh, you've played with Elvis for ten years.
Yep, you're not a yes or no person. You got the scoops
there. We appreciate you taking Thank you very much. Thanks for inviting me,
appreciate it. Thanks for the friendship after all these years. Wait,
most one more question for you. For some reason, back here in Austin,
back behind Capital Plaza, was that a place to park Georgie's bus in
the early days, back in the eighties, because we used to always get
calls to the radio station. Hey George Strait's back behind. I saw his
bus behind Capital Plaza. No, okay, I can tell you. No,
okay, nothing at all like that. Okay, we'll see there.
After all these years. Somebody lied to me when they called me show business,
that's what. But maybe they just want me to talk about on the
air because I did. Anyway. Teals Broken Spoke continues next week. The
Broken Spoke Amen, thank you. Tales from the Broken Spoke is recorded live
at The Broken Spoke in Austin, Texas, hosted by Country Radio Hall of
Fame broadcaster Bob Pickett and Monty Warden, recorded mixed down he produced by Mike rivera