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