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 the damn
you're round of it. Come on, it's going side, getting ready for
another tail from the Broken Spoke. Welcome back tails the Broken Spolks. Sitting
in the world famous booth b to the Willie Nelson Engagement Booth. Here the
Broken Spoke. Monnie Warden with us, Bob Pickett in special Guy, I
see guests. We're family and Terry McBride. My goodness. Terry's one of
the first guys that I met to Austin when I moved here back in the
early nineties. I used to follow him around comment on his boots. He
had the coolest pair of boots. Minded it was. I know he doesn't,
but these were cowskin boots, man, And always tell us Terry,
some of my boots, man, where'd you get them? So? Yeah.
I saw Stevie Rayhead air of those cowhides, you know, and they
looks so cool. He always looks so good, you know. I wanted
to try and be like that and a lot of other you know. I
saw George Jones when I was fifteen. I went to Nashville with my dad
and George was stumbling out of the bar there at the hotel. He looked
so good. He had black pat and pointed tow his boots on. Of
course I had to have a pair after that, you know. Oh boy,
I followed him. He was on his way, you know, down
the hallway. But oh man, it was I've always been impressed with,
you know, my heroes and people like that. You want to try to,
you know, try to be as cool as those. You never can
and never will be. But it didn't hurt to try to dress up.
But you know, whoever they wanted to be as cool as they weren't either,
you know. Right, well, let me ride man still as cool.
But he was cool man, Oh well, you know, thank you
man. Well. And I remember, like I remember, i'd go see
you at Ravens. Oh yes, I forgot about it. I remember I
would, Yeah, you I got I'm trying to think. I think Freddy
Fletcher took me down, Freddy Joe and uh and and and he said,
he said, do you know Terry McBride. I was like, no,
man, I know who he is. And he said, you know,
you know Devin Bride's son, and I said, oh, yeah, of
course. So I went there and I remember I was watching you, and
I remember what y'all were playing, but uh, I had never seen,
uh a bass player that could sing away from the beat like you could,
like like you sang like you were playing rhythm guitar, and I just went,
how the hell does that guy do that? Is? You know?
It's like because you played perfect bass, almost kind of behind a little a
little laid back, and then and then you sang it perfect, and I
was just like, damn. And I noticed your boots. I told you.
I was like, I used to get these cool spiderweb top boots from
albums. You know, they were out Ofville Pass so they're like one hundred
bucks a pair. Wow, I watch out back then. It's like there
was some good bargain money price back then. But yeah, you know,
I learned to play back. I've had people comment and session guys will go,
man, I don't know how you know Terry can sing like that and
play bass, you know, in time, But I don't really think about
it. I learned so early on. I think that's the only reason I
can get away with it and do it and my dad was grooming me as
a bass player because he was the guitar player, you know. And I
thought I was going to be the guitar player until he sat me down one
time and said, listen, you know, son, you want to you
know, want to play with me when you get older. I need I'm
always needing a good bass player, you know. So we went to a
little pawn shop over in Copper's Cove, Texas, outside of lamp Passes there
and found a little Ventura Gibson SG copy little bass. I love that little
rid guitar was small and easy to play. You know. I've been playing
this Mexican acoustic guitar my dad had bought down in Madame Morris, you know.
Prior to that, with high action, it was so hard to play,
and I was learning to play it, of course. But once I
got bass, I went, this is so cool. We four strings.
It's felt easier and I could understand it, finding the bass notes, you
know, and and then just playing simple, simple. That's all my dad
wanted, you know, just stay out of the way and playing time,
you know. But that's what a country bass player said. Yeah, you
don't need to play like a frustrated guitar player for country music. And then
I was fortunate to have my dad there to school me and explain things to
me that, you know, he was such an accomplished player and such a
good musician that any question I have he could answer, you know, I
should, I should be way better than I am actually these days. I
had such a great start, you know, there and then in high school
with a great band all the way from my freshman year on the senior you
know, and then then joined my dad's band, hit the road with him
for three years on high school. Well and practically speaking, you know,
of course, you didn't have to worry about this. But a bass player,
a great bass player, is never out of work. If he's not
working, he doesn't want to work, well, especially a singing bass player.
That's how I really kind of made my so called living here in Austin,
you know. I mean it was a struggle, you know how it
is when you were starting out like that. I was a popular kind of
guy, but I just wasn't making a living really, you know. Fortunately
my wife became a nurse and that was helping to pay the bills. But
I mean I was playing with Bill Carter. I was playing with Rosie,
I was playing with Tony Perez down at all these bands at the same time,
and he and Freddy were working again. That's right. Freddy was producing
him, and then Blake Meavis came in and produced him. Mean we we
actually went over to Arlene and cut those first singles. Freddie myself, Stephen
Bruton was the guitar player, and I'll never forget Blake brought this song in
and he put it on our music stand. I saw the lyric and it
was Here in the Real World a Jackson. I thought, wow, I've
never heard of the guy, but boy, it's a good song. Oh
yeah, I was way before, right before Allan had taken off. But
we cut here in the Real World on Tony and a couple other songs.
He cut a song I wrote with Bill Ruth. But that's some bitch could
sing. Yeah. He came out to the Cotton Country Club. I played
a while back with my band with mcbriden and the Ride, and Tony had
come up. I think he's living down like McAllen, why somewhere still singing
some And you know one of my about the bass playing and frustrated guitars that
the The Wagoneers did a bunch of dates with Whalen, and Whalen liked us
to be on the date because we didn't want to talk about whaling. We
want to talk about Buddy Holly like that. And he said they were about
four days in on that last tour and he just came to Buddy on the
bus and his eyes were as big as shot glass and he said, Buddy,
I just figured this out. It's just the first four strings of the
guitar. Four days in with the biggest star in the world. He said,
Holly went Holly went hush. You could have gone all damn day without
telling me. You just figured that out because he had to become the bass
player. How cool man. I lived in Love Book for Gosh, my
wife and I moved up there three different times. It's always had a little
music scene, you know. And this was nineteen eighty the first time I
moved and played in a cool eight piece band called war Horse at a at
a weekly gig. We were the house band for this stardust big Honky to
wait a minute. I used to MC events at the Startist at the same
time. Yeahre in where I first met Paycheck. I met paycheck for some
of that. Jerry Jeff Walker was the start. Yeah off a slide road,
right off of Slide. Yeah, I lived right near Slide off the
slide out there. But yeah, that was our house gig, this big
eight piece band. Two guys that had played in my dad's band, Steve
Williams and Don Wise on saxophone, who I later played with Delvera McClinton.
Don and I went, Don and I left Lubbock. I quit my band
gig that I had, it wasn't that gig, but we got my Forward
pick up and we drove the fort Worth US and Jesse Taylor Wow, and
we drove down to the Fall World. Man, we're gonna go audition for
Delbert. I'd met the but I had been in a band called the c
Notes that Reese Winman put together, and Reese was the piano player at my
dad's studio. Yeah, no, no, I remember that Reese had that
name, the Sea Notes, and it was mainly Delbram Clinton's band, but
me as the lead singer. And then Rees. Of course we were doing
original stuff. We were doing Marvin Gay. It was tough gig, man.
It's like you know, Rees like working for Ray Charles. He was
a demanding guy, but boy, he made me a much better player and
just sort of took me in. He got me the he got me a
gig. He was coming over to my dad's studio and he said, man,
you'd be perfect for this gig that I'm playing. And it was the
Cocktail gig at the Hyatt Hotel on Town Lake. Wow. Yeah, it
was Ernie Drawa and it was a little country band. Carl Hutchins was the
lead singer. He was a school teacher, but he had the gig and
so Reese was in the band and we would eat in the employees cafeteria every
day. It's like, what year was this. This was about nineteen eighty
or so, yeah, but about eighty four because Reese said, man,
you need to know this guy, Leroy Parnell. You know, he's always
looking for a and Reese just went out of his way, man, and
it's like trying to help me, you know. And he was with Delbert
at the time. He hadn't gone to steviean Double Trouble yet. But that
was one of my early influences. I mean, haven't a guy like that,
you know. It was amazing, but I had a lot of those
friends. Ernie was a good friend of my Ernie draw was a good friend
of my father's, and we were talking about Tom Bromley. My dad had
that studio, so we had all these world class players coming over. My
dad would arrange these charts for like a we'd have a four string players,
a little quartet come over and like shape notes or just not shape notation by
hand. Yeah, he could do it four or five lines above the staff.
He was brilliant like that. He learned early on. My dad had
played with this guy, Jimmy Heap over in Taylor, Texas. That's where
I was born. Because Jimmy had the first million seller on release me nineteen
forty eight, wow, way before Ray Price and uh, and he became
a star from that. And and Jimmy Heap had like a big band.
I had a comedian Ken Idaho was this like sort of blue comedian. And
then my dad was the featured vocalist and league and the guitar player for that
band. And that's why I was born in Taylor, because he was he
was doing that gig at the particular time. But yeah, this this area,
as you guys know, I mean, it's just so full of history
and memories. Oh man. The coolest thing is, you know, we
saw you walk in the tourist trap here at the Spoken and you saw a
photo of your dad. Is that you've never seen but in a while,
but you you said, I've got that guitar. I got that guitar.
I don't have that that eight by ten. I have a lot of his
promotional stuff from back in the day, but I don't have that copy.
He looks so good in that photo, and I have that that that sixty
seven eighteen and play. And he bought that an epiphone casino that I have
and I use a lot. The epiphone is a fabulous guitar. I had
Chris Stapleton overriding one day, and he loved to go through these guitars and
this old world it's here that my dad had. And he's just a talented
guy. Obviously, as we know now. I never heard of the guy.
Yeah, back then, he was a struggling No one had heard of
me. Back then. I just met him for like one of the first
time, and he was just I was so taken with him. I went
to see him that night. He was playing a tiny little club in Franklin
where I was living, and I was just knocked out with him. But
he played the guitar and my dad's He's like, man, Terry, this
guitar is like something special, you know. I know, so I put
a little work head it refretted and then I use it. And yeah,
I love having things like that. Not only is it my dad something we
could I can use, you know, it's really special because of that.
Well, and otherwise it's just like a piece of art. And yeah,
and they but they want to be played great instruments. It's a weird thing.
You say it, and it sounds weird, but they want to be
played. It's it's wild. Well, and you know, as a songwriter,
it's a some of the tools that you need to try to inspire you
to a great guitar can certainly help that process for sure. Well, Terry,
have you done anything since you left Austin? I be my god,
you've done a lot with my U haul and Camaro back and can tell the
story that you told us. I want to go about driving to Graceland with
your Camaro and your new Hall. Yeah, you know, well did this?
You know, I've been in Austin struggling, and of course, you
know, I look back struggling, I say, but some of the happiest,
best times of my wife in our lives during that period. I mean,
we have these old photo albums which nobody has anymore, but Freddie is
in there. We look at the times that we had here living here,
but it was struggling, but everyone's just laughing and smiling. We were having
a ball playing and the future was unknown, but we had high hopes,
you know, we're hoping for the best, and so uh, you know,
I finally started making those trips to Nashville and then I fortunately I left
Delbert in eighty six, and that was a great opportunity. Delbert was so
kind to me, but I knew I just didn't want to be a bass
player for the rest of my life, you know, even as much as
I loved that gig. And we were touring with Huey Lewis, and you
know, I met Delbert in his living room and then we went to a
studio to rehearse this new band. Then the next day we were in Miami
opening for John Fogerty. That's how my relationship with Delbert started. We did
a thirty day run with John Fogerty and then Huey Lewis. This is nineteen
eighty six at the top of Hughey. He's had the Tower of Power out
there. It was amazing. So I was learning and I was seeing,
and I was taking all this in and a masterful entertainer. Delbert would rock
every house no matter. We'd play sometimes six nights in a row before we
take a day off. He was just he was unbelievable. I'd never seen
anyone quite like him, really, haven't it since. But I left that
gig as a frustrated songwriter, thinking if I don't focus on my songs,
if I don't try, I could he this gig forever. It was so
comfortable, you know, and I did. I didn't know what I was
going to go to other than I had to start focusing more on writing.
I've been writing at home, making these little home demos. And then my
friend Roddy Colonna, the drummer, said hey, Terry, he had left
Albert prior and said, I got this guy, Bill Carter's putting a band
together and he's going to go on tour with Stevie Ray Vaughan. You should
audition for the band. You know, I went, man, I love
Stevie. It sounds like an opportunity I did. I got the gig during
that tour. We left here in a van all the way to New York
the bottom Line and back, you know. And I roomed with Bill on
part of that run, and I said, Bill, I'm a songwriter too,
and I got a couple of country songs I've been writing, and I
gave him my cassette and he said, man, he listened to it,
and his wife, Ruth came out of New York and he played it for
her and they said, well, we get off this tour, let's get
together and start writing some country songs. You know, we love country music.
And they really they had. They were so steeped and the history of
country songs. Well, he's a carter. We've had Bill on the podcast
before. If our listeners have not listened to our visit with Bill, check
it out. Yeah. He played me songs I had not even heard,
and he influenced me and Ruth did as well. Started going to their home
every day and we started writing these songs, and that led me to Nashville
and that opened every door from me after that. Uh, you know,
they were so well respected they sent a tape to Nashville to Jody Williams at
b M. I. I didn't know him. I wouldn't affiliate it with
anybody. But we were trying to get a George straight Cut. That was
our goal. You know, we're going to go up there. And and
instead Jody said, man, I'll tell you what. Whoever's singing these demos?
Man, he needs a record deal. And we went, that's cool,
get us a record deal. And he got us some meeting with everybody,
including Tony Brown, and then Tony Brown said, I want to fly
to Austin. I want to hang out. I want to. If you're
the real deal, I'm gonna sign you the MCA. And he did,
and and uh that led to my U haul and my Camaro, which led
is a story we talk about my wife. I remember, I'm trying to
get the timeline right. What are we talking about? You've always wanted George
straight Cut to money? I know, rather tell you it's as good as
you think it feels. It feels better with the woman, you know.
But I remember, uh, Bill was telling me, he said, Uh,
do you know Terry mcbriden. I said, I said, yeah.
The bass player, me and me and Ruth been writing some with him,
and I want, really, it's like, what it's like eighty eight is
this about? And it was so funny because because you know, Bill's Bill
and uh and he said, uh, he said, no, these things
are great. He said, I'm gonna I'm going to play you some of
them. Oh wow. And it was just like a it's a just a
cassette on, just just a bullshit one, you know, one speaker you
get. And I just couldn't believe how how great these these songs were.
And I remember one of the songs was a song called every Step of the
Way. And in the Waneers had had a song called every Step of the
Way like a year previous, and it's been been kind of a hit.
And we on the Opery and we did a Bob Hope Christmas special and so
and I said, and I don't even think, to this day, I
don't think Bill had ever heard the Wagonear's version of every Step of the Way.
This is such a great Bill story. So he played with that.
I said, I said, that's cool. I said, uh, you
know, the Wags had a song called every Step of the Way, and
this one's better it was too guys, I just realized I'm the least talented
guy on the microphone. Right now, I'm talking to two songwriters fed very
successful careers. Both of you guys have had cuts by George Tree. Yeah.
Yeah, that's a dream comes That's why I went to Nisville. Like
I said, I wanted that cut so bad and ended up getting a couple.
But it was like a dream come true for someone you held that high
stream and someone you looked up to que like George. You know, I've
waited in the in the forty degree rain to see him and then he cuts
a song of years oh man, Yeah, yeah, so you just go
up. It's cool. Yeah, you know, it's like I think a
comparable cut is like an Elvis or a Sinatra from other eras. Yeah.
Four of the songs that George cut of yours, well I have. The
first song was I didn't even have it on hold, never even though he
was gonna cut it. And Tony Brown calls, hey men, we cut
a song here today on George straight. I went what he said, Yeah,
we were cutting this song and it just didn't work, and George wanted
something else and we brought Jim Lauderdale over and Jim played a couple of songs
and we really like this song here, so we cut a song called Nobody
Has to Get Hurt. This is an album cut, but a really cool
song. And then I had the title cut of his album call Always Never
the Same with Marv Green that I wrote. And then I just went through
an ordeal with George. He's been cutting his new album and they had a
song of mine. They just loved. It's one of my favorite songs called
love Me Some Texas, and George loved it, and Tony loved it.
Everybody loved it, and they it's heartbreaking because we all love George. And
the day before they called and said, man, George is just digging this
song. He loves that melody and you know, he's a melody guy,
and I'm gonna, you know, make sure that song gets cut. And
of course Monday night, after the first round, they went, man,
he didn't cut the song, as it's like, of all the cuts not
to get it's as heartbreaking as it is exciting to get one, you know.
But yeah, I mean, fortunately, that's the name of the game.
If you're a songwriter, you know, you get you get a song
like that and you get something cut, boy, it's a high that you
can't even imagine. And it's a miracle every single time. And I tell
people the cuts that I've been blessed to get and cuts. You know,
I've never gotten two cuts the same way. I mean unless I record my
own song. Yeah, but other than that, no two channels have.
But you know, it's just it's all they're all. It's all a miracle.
It's all a miracle. It all has to line up, and there
are a lot of people involved. You know, you get down to George
straight, I mean, he's gonna ultimately make the decision, but it's a
lot of songs being pitched. A guy like that to even get down close
to getting one and make it get on the album is pretty you know what
Tony's always said, if he hadn't and a singer, George Frait would have
been the greatest an ar man in his ship. He has picked so many
hits out of obscurity, just from the Normandy get through. George Norma is
the one that listens to a lot of his songs to true. That's what
I've heard You're married, Well yeah, yeah, that's just downplaying his talents
because he is actually the voice of Austin. For us who grew up the
Broadcasters Hall of Fame, they just bare ticket. Then there's that. But
I mean for a guy like me, Uh talk about a thrill, you
know, having someone cut your songs, But what a thrill to be riding
down the highway and hearing your song come on Case one on one or cave
that. Back in the day, I got a speeding ticket early on going
to Flugerville. I'll never forget this, every step of the way. Our
first single was on Case one on one, and I'm freaking out. I
mean, I've got it cranked up. I can't believe it's a dream come
true for a guy like you know, us who who always dreamed of that.
I'm on the radio at one of my favorite stations and I'm cranking it
and next thing you know, man, I haven't got the blue lights behind
me, and I'm being pulled over and I don't even care. I'm so
excited, I'm so happy, I don't even care. So the cop comes
up to me and I kid you not, I wrote down the winter.
He goes, hey you in a hurry, I said, hey man,
I'm on the radio. I've got to sing. I'm singing on the radio,
and the guy, without even bagging it out, he goes, yeah,
and I'm Johnny Cash. He was in no mood to care about anything
going on in my world, and he wrote me a ticket right there.
I would I don't even care. It was worth it. It was worth
it. And you get the story, man, Yeah, you get the
story for sure. Terry told me a great story. I was talked to
him a few weeks ago and he said he was going through your studio and
that right, and he found an old cave at belt Buckle. He still
has it, Bob. I bet I have three or four of them,
because a couple were my dad's, then a couple I had, you know,
over the years. I think most of them are gold, but I
think there's a silver one to every one. Was the old one that we
had back. I had a couple of a couple of gold. Yeah.
You know, if you had had them with you when you got pulled over,
that's how we used to get out of We used to that, you
know, That's what we would do to get out of parking tickets. We'd
always carry a couple of them. A secret but they still they have the
rope, they have the yeah, yeah, so funny. It was like
before I got any awards or anything. Seriously, Steve Gary gave me a
belt buckle and it was like a Gold Records. I'm getting a custom one
made because next April is my fortieth anniversary, camead case. Wow. Well
yeah, I know we're not there yet, but I got a We heard
the McBride podcast. You're out of here, But I've got a guy that
makes bell buckles up at Amarillo and he's making me a custom one. Who
is the guy? You know who he is. It's on my phone someplace,
but it's a it's a guy that makes him. For the Texas Music
Awards, we had a couple of guys that are do that sex work.
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 and produced by Mike Rivera