Hey, it's Mom Picket. We are on our way to the legendary Broken
Spoke. Come on, let's get out of the truck and head inside.
And damn you're proud of it. Come on, it's going side. Get
ready for another tail from the Broken Spoke. Hey, it's Mom Picket.
Hope you're ready for part two of our conversation with Michael and Jenny Peacock.
We're going to talk about a lot of things, including chicken shit, bingo,
riff raft tacks, the Broken sp Anyway, hang on, here's part
two of our conversation with Jenny and Mike. Yeah, me and him would
love we'd go play at the World Series of Poker every summer. That was
like our little pilgrimage to go out there. I missed that so much.
I miss going out there with them. But oh when he played poker,
though, he would wear you know, jeans and a regular shirt and like
his red cap, so we'd see it. We'd always see it though we
go there he is with the red cap and hey, he was even on
one of the tables with James Woods at the end for the Super Seniors.
They were the last I think James Wood came in like thirty fourth and my
dad came in thirty seventh or something out there. Oh, the guy that
owned the the Spurs, I believe was on his table, one of the
owners. Yeah that's pretty cool. Yeah yeah, And he loved and mister
Whittt loved it because you know, I enjoy playing poker, but never in
tournaments or anywhere. We could play for hours. I mean you could start.
One time I played when you started at seven o'clock and I got back
to my hotel room at four am to finish, and there was only one
hundred and fifty or something in it. So you can see why the super
Seniors had I think like fifteen hundred. So it's like a couple of days
that you play and it's all day. You get like a little break every
once in a while, but it's like twelve hours of poker. But you
know, but like mister White sounded like he played cards, like like he
lived, like you know, when this place opened, he bought beer a
case. That's exactly right, you know, that's right. You don't over
extend yourself, right right. Oh and he used to also because he he
stopped drinking and when he started having health problems with his heart, he stopped
drinking, and so he would when we would go out to Vegas. He
loved to get up early in the morning and go down and get the money
and cash games off all the drunk young guys that were still playing poker at
like six am. They've been up all night. And he was like,
those are the bat because they just keep throwing money down and they don't know
what's going on, and so you can just you know it. If anybody
has not listening to the first season of the podcast Teals and Broken Spoke,
you need to because we have the stories told by James by mister White,
which I'm so glad that we did that. And then but there's a lot
of stories that you said your dad didn't cover that you're I know, I
asked you the other day. And I don't even know if Monni remembers this.
Maybe he does. But and then in the it was in the nineties.
It was mid nineties, and I was trying to think, like was
I out of high school or where was I Like when I try to remember,
TNN did a live call in show with Willie Nelson here and it was
one of the coolest things ever and very crazy. It was crazy also just
like the amounts or anything. No, this was afterwards. I think I
had the highwayman. I say, it was like ninety five ninety six.
I remember being down here for it with and it was like I think some
other channel had done a live call in. So TNN decided that they were
going to do it, and they talked to Willy about it, and they
said where would you like to do it, and he said, I'd like
to do it the Broken Folk, So we of course accommodated and then but
the best part of it was the night before when they were loading in all
of the stuff for you know, you see that Willie Nelson and family,
you know, stamped on the side, and I mean they had because it
was his whole band that came and played here and along with Bobby Nelson's grand
piano came into the Broken spoke in the back. They had to take the
legs and stuff off, but it did fit, believe it or not,
And it was on the dance floor like him and her were standing on she
was sitting, but on the dance floor. And then the rest of the
band and he had all that was back before anybody had passed away. So
it was Jody. Yeah, it was Paul Jody, all of them.
And I mean and Bobby's. You know, it's a brand of it is
Shimmel. It's a German piano and it's big. It's bigger than a Steinwag.
This is this is the mid nineties. Mm hmm. Is that when
this happened where we're sitting right here now, he's under the Annie. He
and Annie would have I think I think that was already been married. They've
been married because he proposed to Annie right here. Is why we call this
the Willy Nelson Right, Okay, My dad said, yeah, our employees
would call up and say, hey, he's up there, like it'd be
like a Tuesday night or something, and he would bring Annie in here and
eat. Well. See, now we're getting more information that we didn't even
know. So yeah, come on, spill the beans. Yeah. Well,
I don't know too much a ton of it, but yeah, but
I do remember the TNN thing. So the night before they were loading in
all that big equipment, et cetera, and Willie Nelson comes in because they
want to do sound check and they want to run him through his paces sort
of like. So we got to tell Willie what to play. So like
we got to Mike, my mom wanted Hello Walls, so he had to
play Hello Walls or whatever. It was like, you know, because people
were going to call in and he wouldn't know what song they were going to
request, and he had to be on his toes and remember because and you
know, people always try to like name some obscure songs, always always so.
But yeah, so what they did was they I believe they gave away
two lots of tickets and we got to give a lot of our friends,
family, et cetera tickets and there were supposed to be two shows, and
I think what ended up happening is nobody wanted to leave from the first show,
so they had more people kind of crammed in. And I don't even
know if he ever stopped. I think, yeah, I was here for
and we had a big screen televisions out in our parking line, in the
back of pickups. I had a date. I remember trying to impress her,
Oh yeah, you want to go see Willie Nelson, you know,
yeah, And we were either out in the parking lot or we're in here
watching Willie out but that was a you know, so yeah, sitting like
when you are like six feet from Willie and you get to like chat with
him and there's like fifteen people in the whole place. That's amazing. What
song did you request? You remember? But I will tell you Angels Flying
Too Close to the Ground is my favorite Willie song. Great song. I
love that song, so great record. Yeah, amazing, Yeah, I
love that. No, your dad didn't share that story? What other stories?
Yeah? You know what kind of spurred me off is I follow a
ton of country you know, Facebook pages, et cetera, to get content
for the broken Spoke stuff, and somebody had posted it on I think honky
Tonk Times or something. They had posted a video of it, and so
it jogged my memory because there's probably stuff on YouTube about it. Yes there
is, Yeah, and yeah, it was really fun and I think Emmy
Lou called in and maybe he did maybe six or seven songs or something.
But yeah, we'll never forget that night. That was crazy crazy. We
talked about Friday Night Lives being filmed at her. How many movies have actually
been filmed at her? I remember, well Dolly parton the Ravens and yes,
so that was yeah, that was we had a lot of we haven't
really had any big, big like you know at the theater movies. We've
had a lot of made for TV movies, the TV series also, yeah
that too. And the biggest you know, like at the theater movie was
Honeysuckle Rose way back in the day. They did it right here. They
were playing pool, right. I was watching that the other day. That
was a spoke. And yeah, and where the bar the front bar is
that that's a wall. But at the very beginning, it was back when
the bar was over across all the way across the room and that was a
wall right there. So this is nineteen eighty seventy nine, nineteen eighty so
when yeah, because we got that bar like in the eighty five. So
you see my dad tending barb there a little bit like fast go back and
watch. Yeah, and then Terry and my mom are here, and I
believe that like kind of right next to that. Where were you? I
wasn't here. I was baby. I was like five years old or something.
Yeah, I was young, so I wasn't here. I remember they
shot part of that. I found out where they shot part of it.
That the end concert scene was shot out there three sixty before the bridge was
there for the Pennybacker Bridges where they shot the outdoor and I know that the
old out on Bks, the old soap Preak saloon was used as in the
movie three different venues, you know. Yeah, they would dress different clothes.
Oh yeah, that was And at the very beginning of oh I know,
I posted, I posted a clip from it that my dad had filmed,
and you can hear my dad yacking about it like I remember that or
whatever, you know, where he was talk videoing it off the television.
But he's yacking about it at the same time. So I'll have to find
that sent it to you. I would see there was, but that was
back when we had a phone booth on the porch. And at the very
beginning of the scene, one of the musicians are out there on the phone
and and my dad was so mad when they took that, like he was
like phone booth. Yeah, but anyway, so that was done. So
oh but the Dolly and Ray Benson movie with Gary Busey is pure magic.
It's so cheesy good. It's called Wild Texas Wind and she's a singer with
Ray. They've got a band together and his name is Ben Rayson. Yeah,
they shot part of that here and part of it also a dance cross
texts. Dance cross textas theater. We don't talk about us across text.
Okay, that's what it was. But you know what something but you guys
are here, yes, thank god, But just talking about another venue in
ninety my goodness, maybe ninety three. Uh, the old building way out
on Breaker, Lamar and Breaker. They were tearing down the Skyline Club,
and you know, and that's where Hank Williams had his last gig, and
that's where Johnny Harton had his last gig, and Patsy Klein played there,
and Jim Reeves and everybody everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, you know Elvis.
Elvis played the Skyline three times, Yes, and they were tearing it down.
And I didn't even you know, certainly didn't know we were family.
But I didn't know mister White all that well. You know, I was
in the thing about the Wagoneers when we first got started. We were on
tour all the time. We lived here, but we played literally two hundred
and fifty three hundred dates a year, so we would play in Austin like
twice a year. When we were home. We wanted to come to the
Broken Spoken to the Chicken fried Steak now work necessarily, So I didn't know
you did all that well, but he knew how interested I was in country
music history, in Texas history, and uh, your daddy called me and
he said, uh, is this money warding the wagoneers? I said,
yeah, who's this? He goes, this is James White, the Broken
Spoke and I went hello, mister White, and he'd never called me at
home. He said, uh, they are tearing down the Skyline tomorrow.
And I said, uh, yes, sir, And he goes, well,
I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna go get me a piece of that.
I thought maybe you'd like to join me. I never even had lunch
with you that before. So it was me and mister White and George mcjeski.
Uh, and George and Carlin founded Soak Creek Saloon. And at the
second Soap Creek location was the old Skyline Club, okay, and I and
I was inside the building and uh, and there was just and it looked
it had been at one place like a rehab drug rehab placed there. You
can see where there were little cubicles for people to sleep and I said,
mister White, where where was the stage? And uh? And he showed
me right where the stage was and and there was a uh a place where
the musicians the singer's feet had rubbed all the finish off the wood hollowed circle
and it's right right. And I said, I said, I want to
grab me board, and he said, well, get you get your board.
And this is mister White. Get your board right here. Look at
it. I look at it. That that Elvis's feet did that. Hank
William's feet did that right. And mister White helped me pull that up.
And I know he got a board too. Yeah. He says the same
thing about you know the stage here like a tallow ground. It is ground.
And when he does the speech, Bob Wills was right here, you
know, like and he's it's for true. He really was. And I
was talking to mister White just you know. He said, I hate to
see this old building go. He said, boy, he said, I
was, He said, when I was a boy. Because your daddy's born
in forty thirty nine, thirty nine, he said, he said, I
saw He said, I saw the Everly brothers here, you know, and
they were when they were just a country act, you know, before Bye
Bye Love and so anyway, and he said, it's a shame to see
this place go. And then and then he just got kind of wistful and
he said, you know, people think we're in competition. He said,
but horn Stark was the guy that he goes. He goes. Me and
Warren, we're pulling for each other. Yeah, and he said, And
when I started The Spoke in sixty four, Warren said we needed a place
down south, and just that that era of venue owner and club owner where
they're not in competition, they're pulling for one another. One has everything way
up north, one has it way downside. It's totally the same. Really,
we love the Continental. It's like our sister kind of it feels like
sister venues or you know what I mean. Like we're kind of all in
a little club because we've been here for so long and we're the real deal.
The Continental, Socks and Pub and the Broken Spoke We've always and Jenny's
Little Longhorn are always together. You know, Terry that does Jenny's Little Longhorn
calls me with names, you know bands. I do the same for her
when I get a new band. That's not from down here. I tell
them to call the Continental or you know or other yeah, or Genius,
because that's the legacy of your daddy right there. Yeah. Yeah, I
think because if they play, you know, if they're playing other venues,
that that introduces them to other people that will come out here later on,
you know, And we want those venues to survive because you can't be the
live music capital of the world if you know, you don't have any live
music venues. And those guys, the people that own those I was telling
Mike, are are you know, they've been here for so long. They
might not be as well known as my dad because he put himself out into
the front, like he was like literally like the you know, the face
of the broken spokes absolutely and and you know Steve and Joey they don't they're
not it's like out and you know, they're not up on stage doing big
speeches or whatever. But those guys are doing the same job my dad.
Did you know. They're keeping live music going and they're honorable people. Yeah,
Joe's a real good guy. Any thoughts maybe getting chicken ship bingo down
here? Oh my god, I told listen, just jumped up listen.
I told when Dale stopped doing it, out it Jenny's little longhorn. I
told my dad, I said, well, we could still have Jenny's chicken
Ship bingo. It's not a lie. My name is Jenny and it's spelled
identical. I'm a Virginia also, so I'm a g I N N Y.
So I was kidding with Dad, but yeah, he never. We
were worried. We didn't know how we could do it because we have a
health permit, like we sell food, so you can't have live animal chicken.
We worry about the health's apartment. And let me just say this now
that that's the business reason of it, and that makes perfect cance. And
I didn't know that. One time we were settling up and mister White said,
uh uh, you ever picked that chicken ship bngo, And I said,
I said, no, sir, I never have. He goes yeah.
I just don't you know. And mister White called every band leader a
star he goes he goes yeah. I don't know if any star once his
name associated with chicken ship. That's hilarious. I didn't hear to say that.
It sounds exactly would say literally, like that's how he would see it.
That's how he would see it, because he was a promoter at heart.
He was a promoter. It's like to this day, I come and
I hang posters up the friday. We will play here the last Friday of
every month, and I come every Friday before and because when I would come
and hang those posters up, and I don't know if it brings one one
extra person every every month. It is my little hey I Loved You card
to James White, because he would say, he goes, you're the only
star that comes here and hangs his own, but you grab a staple gun
and you put it in there here. The other day it was good enough
for George to stand in front of Sir George's most recent promo shot. It
says a wagoner poster behind it. It's like, look, there's the wagonster.
Something else you do in your shows. Here at this spoke, very
important of your first responder. Go ahead and get all first responders, get
in free to the wagoneers at the broken spoke. And I mean when we
first started it, mister White said, well, it's just out of your
pocket. Whatever you I think it'd be great. I would love it if
you did it and then and he said, so those are cops. I
said, sir, it's anybody that keeps us free and safe. So it
is cops, fire ems active military. And all you got to do is
just go tell Mike at the door you're a first responder. And one time
we were afterwards we'd had like, I don't like fifteen of them that Mike
goes. He goes, I don't think they were first responders. And the
kid comes up to be drunk and he goes, hey, I told them
we were a first responder. We got in free. I said, why
would you tell me that? And he goes because it's cool. I said,
well, it's money out of my pocket. And he goes, how
do you mean he was so drunk, and I said, I said,
buddy, I'm just glad you came. Next time you come pay and see
the wagoneers And he goes, yeah, of course I hadn't seen him since.
But my whole thing is, if you got to lie about being a
first responder to get into a wagon ears show, that's between you and your
god, and I'm not going to come between that. Let me tell you
we're a big plug here this world wide. You don't have to be an
Austin right, No, no, no first responders, the first responders,
any first response. We may need a little proof. Maybe we'll have to
tell Mike to at least like an I or something funny. One day,
the Hey Bail, we're playing in the bank and it was like, you
know, old pool ball and all those guys in the hay Ball, old
class famous musician, and these kids come up to me like five dollars to
go in the pie. Whoa, and I'm gonna pay that. And I'm
like, dude, I said, you realize how much talented man played with
Elvis Prestley, Johnny. But like Jenny said, you know, you could
have a monk keep hanging on a bass drum down sixth Street. But what
did your dad called? What did your dad call dollar cover? In the
seventies, w the riff raft tax? What the riff raft? They charged
a dollar when George was here on Wednesdays charts a dollar cover and mister White
told me, he said, we just had to come up with a riff
raft tax. And Netta came up with that dollar to keep the riff rap
out rap. It's a dollar. That's hilarious. I'd never heard. That
was so great, That is funny, and it's not over yet. Get
ready for the conclusion Part three of our visit with Michael and Jenny Peacock right
here on Tails and Broken Spoke next week. 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 MM