Ron Bill, I know you from all the excellent videos you have produced at the ISGC for years, but I was completely blown over when I saw a video of you with Papa John Hughey.....you’re a world class player! Can you tell me about how you started in music and how you chose the PSG as your instrument of choice? Bill My mother was an excellent pianist. She played only in Church. At the age of 4 (1951), I thought I wanted to play the piano, but that went away in about 2 weeks. I had a brother in law that played rhythm guitar and sang. I always admired him. Sadly he passed at a young age in 1959. In 1961, my sister presented me with his Martin D28 that she bought for him just before he died. Knowing nothing about music, much less an instrument, I began plucking away in the bedroom. After a while, I talked my dad (who hated music) into a Silvertone Electric Guitar and Amp (brand new at that). After trying very hard, I realized that I just could not fret full chords, so I removed the high E & B strings and thought that I had a bass. By this time I was in the 9th grade and wanted to play bass in a band. A few of my friends and I formed a band called the Dynamics and began playing for some school parties and such. (Our drummer, my best friend at that time, went on to play drums with Dion Warwick). Anyway, the guys in the band said that I needed a real bass. So I got me a part time job at the age of 14 working in a filling station and purchased my first bass and amp. As high school ended in 1965, I got the chance to play bass in a local country band, UGH! The steel player, Major Boles, was a true hillbilly player. I could not stand the sound of that contraption he played. I only stayed with that band for a year and then went back to rock & roll music. In 1969, I was asked to fill in on a country gig that paid pretty well. I asked what instruments were in the band and was told, drums, guitar, bass, fiddle, accordion and STEEL guitar. I said no, but was persuaded to go ahead and do the rehearsal. Well, that night changed my life. There was this old coot sitting behind the prettiest red pedal steel guitar. He said he had just finished building it. I told him to let me hear it so that I would know how much I was going to have to suffer through this gig. He hit one, yep just one note and I was hooked. It was nothing like the hillbilly sound I had heard before. I was mesmerized by this new sound I heard. Then he played Waltz You Save For Me (I had no clue what it was). I almost dropped my teeth. It was the prettiest thing I had ever heard. At the end of the rehearsal night, he asked if I wanted to take this new red steel guitar home with me and see if I was interested in learning. Boy did I! He even pulled the picks off his fingers and gave them to me (I still have them). Well after about 2 weeks (remember I had only been married 3 years, had a child on the way and had just opened a cabinet shop with my brother), I was ready to buy a pedal steel. So off we went to the local music store. There were 2 steels in the window. A white Emmons and a blond Sho-Bud. The Bud was the prettiest, so that is what I wanted. I did not have the money, so the music store owner worked out a deal with me to cover the $1000 steel. I had a small boat. The music store owner wanted a table saw. My brother wanted a boat. So I traded my brother 1/2 interest in my boat for his 1/2 of an extra table saw we had. I then traded the table saw to the music storeowner for 1/2 of the Sho-Bud. I was picking bass every Friday & Saturday for $25 a night. The music store owner said I could pay $25 a week till I got the Bud paid off. Wow, what a deal. Two weeks later, the steel player (Danny Spinks) at our club went on the road with Del Reeves. Our bandleader called me on Thursday and said to bring my steel to the club on Friday. Why I asked. He said Danny got a call to go on the road and had already left. The contract with the club owner called for a steel guitar and that he had already hired a new bass player to take my place and that I was the new steel player. Heck, I could not even tune the darn thing, but off I went. Our bandleader said just to sit there and look pretty and if I felt I could strum a chord, go ahead. Well I kept this steel job for the next 9 years. The rest is history. Ron So that Sho-Bud was the first instrument, and thats really cool that you got paid to learn, I would imagine you did a lot of woodshedding after that and a live band is a perfect vehicle to play. Do you remember the first tune you learned and mastered, and who were your early idols? Bill Well I wont say I ever mastered any tune, but the first one I learned was the same one I heard played at the rehearsal. Waltz You Saved For Me It has become my signature song. Oh yes, the steel player from that first night became my very best friend ever and also my mentor. He called me his 2nd son. We remained close, saw each other at least once a week and talked almost every day until he passed about 8 years ago. Ron Would that be Papa John Hughey? I love that video of both of you playing I Love You So Much It Hurts Can you talk a little bit about John......I have to be frank with you, I was never into Papa John until my Brazilian buddy Adair Torres pointed him out to me, and the Time Jumpers entered my life......I knew of his artistry from the Conway Twitty recordings, but I never realized he was that great until I saw the Jumpers. Later on I got to see John with Vince Gill on Youtube, and he knocked me out. Can you talk about John and his influence on your playing? Bill No, that was not John. I did not meet him until the mid 1990’s. My mentor was Mac Atcheson, a local player that all the greats knew and admired. Ron Can you talk about Mac, on how he influenced you? how he inspired you? Bill The first note I heard from Mac was a sound that hooked me on steel. Mac was a true genius at the pedal steel. If he heard something, he could play it. Buddy Emmons even alluded to Macs ability. Mac also worked for WSB TV. He was the art director and hand built all the stage props. Being as I was in the cabinet business, that helped form a bond between us. I would sometimes use his shop and he would sometimes use our shop. Mac played in the Peachtree Cowboys. They played all over and had a weekly TV spot called the WSB Barn Dance in the 50s. Jack Green was a part of this band and this is where Ernest Tubb discovered Jack. I have attached a couple of early pictures of Mac. After getting into steel, I began to learn of the great players. Of course the one that stood out was the Big E. I met Buddy in 1978 at the ISGC. Later I brought Buddy to Atlanta for a couple of shows and we got to be pretty good friends. I really did not know much about John Hughey until the mid 90s. John did not play many steel guitar shows. We met at the Smoky Mtn Steel Guitar Jamboree in Knoxville around 1995 or so. We hit it off immediately and so did our wives. That was the beginning of a much too short friendship before Johns passing. We are still very close to Jean Hughey. And you already know the history of John & I picking together. We did this at 2 separate shows. It was GREAT. Hal Rugg and I also became close friends at the ISGC and we did a set together in the late 90s in Dothan, AL. Sadly that was not recorded. Larry “Wimpy” Sasser and I grew up in the same area, but did not know each other. I met Larry around 1973 and we formed a bond with each other. Being in the sound booth at the ISGC has put me close to most all the pro and non-pro players from the USA and abroad. It has been a great ride for me, albeit, expensive, as those trip to steel shows are not cheap. Ron Now tell me about you video graphics at the ISSG...and all the videos you have created...please feel free to talk about Jimmy Day, The Big E. Papa John, I, as you well know am a person that has appreciated your videos....yes in fact, they are my links to the PSG...can you talk about your videos...and some of the great players you filmed? Lloyd, Gene ONeil, Buddy, John....all the greats that you filmed... Bill Wow, this is a tough question to answer. Let me preface this by telling you how I got involved with the sound at the ISGC. I made my first trip to the ISGC in 1976 and sat in the audience like everyone else. I noticed some people gathered around the sound booth with their tape recorders. I checked it out and found out that they were allowing people to tap into the recording mixer, operated by Dr. Jim (Doc) Stewart. So I asked if I could do the same thing the following year and got a yes. So I did this for a couple of years and noticed that doc sat behind that mixer from the beginning to the end of the show. I approached him and told him that I had been involved running sound since my high school days. He told me flat out I dont let anyone else mix my sound. Well the following year, I told him again and he agreed (with him over my shoulder) to let me mix a couple of the lesser-known players. After listening to the tapes from that year, he conceded that I had a pretty good ear. This went on until the early 80s.Then the mixer that Scotty furnished was dying and I said I have a mixer that I can bring. That was my key. So now, we are using my mixer for recording, which meant I got to sit behind it more often. In the mid 80s, Hollis Calvert from Peavey was handling the live sound. Hollis was another one that did not want to give up any time behind the live mixer. However, he was not feeling very well, so I approached him to let me run the live sound. He really did not have much choice at this point. The people were happy with my mix. Hollis only did the sound for a couple of more years, then they started subbing it out to local sound companies. Scotty and Mike Brown (Peavey) came to me and said, you are now in charge of the sound booth. No matter who is mixing the live sound, the buck stops with you In the early 90’s, Doc Stewart had to retire from working the shows due to health reasons. And I have been at it ever since. In 1989 or 1990, we were at Jeff Newmans June Jam in Watertown, TN. Scotty approached me and asked if I would like to take on the task of video taping the show. I readily agreed. We videotaped until the late 90s, when it was decided to stop. I have videotape of almost all the greats from 1989 until 2000. A few bits and pieces from later years, but videotaping at all shows has pretty much been stopped due to copyright and royalty laws. Being in the sound booth at the largest gathering of steel players in the world, put me in a position to meet and become friends with almost all the players. Many are very close friends even to this day. I stay in contact with the Big E, Lloyd Green, Ron Elliott, Russ Hicks and many others. I also stay in contact with some of the wives of deceased players such as Jean Hughey, Hazel Helms, Elsie Crawford & Fran Newman. Being in the St Louis sound booth also afforded me the opportunity to handle sound for the Smoky Mountain Steel Guitar Jamboree (Knoxville), the Gospel Steel Show (Indianapolis), the Choo Choo Reunion (Chattanooga), the Deep South Steel Show (Gulfport), the Jacksonville Steel Show (Jacksonville) and of course, the Georgia Steel Guitar Jamboree (Atlanta). It has been a good ride all these years. You asked for my copedent. Well in the early years, I thought I had to have 8 or 9 knee levers. Not ever learning much C6th, that went away pretty fast. In 1993, I had Emmons Guitar Company build me a new LeGrande (one of a kind in color, as I sent them the laminate). It is the green one that I still play. It is a stock Emmons setup, 8&5. I did add the Franklin change on the 4th pedal and removed the C6 changes from that pedal. When the Carter Co started up, my long time friend, John Fabian called me about a week before a show I was playing in SC. He asked if I would play a Carter steel on that show. Friend or now, I refused, as I wanted to be able to have a steel in my hands for a couple of weeks before saying yes or no. John agreed and said, ok, I will bring you a new Carter to the show to take home and try. I agreed. That was the beginning of my long time relationship with the Carter folks. The first day I played the Carter at a show, someone wanted to buy it. So I sold it and sent the money to John. Two weeks later, UPS brought me another new Carter. I called John and asked why, because he knew that I would not endorse or did not want to work for a steel guitar company. He replied “We will keep you in a new steel. If someone wants to buy it, we will have you another one in 2 weeks. If you ever decide you do not want to play a Carter or if we decide to stop doing this, then whatever Carter you have at the time is yours”. Hmm, pretty good deal. I went through 21 steels in 6 years. My last one, built in 2004, is the one I currently have. At a show in Tri-Cities, VA, John Hughey, Russ Hicks, Randy Beavers & Doug Jernigan, walked up at stood face to face with me during my last song. John put his hands on this Carter steel and said “That’s a keeper”. Well, obviously, it was and is. I told John Fabian that he could send me more, but I was not selling the 2004 model. He agreed. I am still told at shows, as recently as last week at the ISGC 2014, that I had the best tone on the show. (no one says that I pick good, just good tone. Hehe). My Carter is also a stock Emmons setup with an added 9th pedal in position 1. This is the Franklin pedal. My amp of choice is one stock Nashville 112. I have tried all the devices, racks and such, but keep coming back to this amp. One last note: I always dreamed of playing on the Grand Old Opry, which I knew would never happen. However, there have been occasions during my life that made up for that: “Picking with John Hughey” “Playing the International Steel Guitar Convention” “Playing the Texas Steel Guitar Jamboree” “Playing other steel shows around the country” “Meeting and making GREAT friends (like you)” “Mentoring and helping 3 fine young me take up the steel guitar and helping 2 of them get equipment. Those are Jonathan Cullifer (now in Nashville & helps me in the sound booth at ISGC), Brett Day (now a steel guitar scholar) and Austin Tripp (now a welder and great steel picker). Oh yes, another last note: I could have done none of this without my Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ and the complete love and support of my wife, Linda. She has never said no to anything steel guitar related. Bill…. I want to thank you for your support, and all the films you have published on the web. You’re a very lucky man, Linda is a very luckly lady. Jonathan, Brett and Austin are also very lucky to have you as a mentor. Please count me in as my PSG mentor. Thank you RC
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 18:44:18 +0000
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