What does this have to do with Black Oak Arkansas, you ask? Well let me explain. BOA touched this life-changing spot in my soul twice. As eternally grateful as I am to Danny Joe Brown for the major vocal influence he has had on me, it was seeing BOA at a club called Rascals that used to be here in Memphis, that I became who I am. My rites of passage, you might say, or at least the first part of them anyway. I really only went to the show because I heard some friends of mine were to open for them. Whether Jade opened for BOA I can't remember, I was very stoned and drunk when I got to the club. I do remember that when BOA hit the stage, I immediately sobered up. They opened with Jim Dandy, and I remember thinking that Jim was the best front man I had ever seen. I couldn't tell who was in the band at this time, if my life depended on it.* I just remember telling my guitar player, who was with me "I want to be as mesmerizing as Jim Dandy. This is a master showman." This was the first time I had ever seen BOA, and I promised myself that it wouldn't be the last. I tried to meet JD that night, but never got the nerve to approach him. Sadly, not two months later I heard he had broke his back.

* = In February of 1998, Rickie Lee Reynold's lady, Purplems, told me that she was there, and the band consisted of: Rickie, Jim, John Roth (now of the Lost Boys), John Courville Junior, and Artie the bass player.

Skip forward to 1997, I am once again in a band, and I pick up a copy of Hot & Nasty from Rhino. I put it in the CD player, and the second half of my rites of passage took place. For the first time in my, up til then, 25 years, I listened to what Jim was saying, and how he was saying it. Not only had he influenced my performing, but now I realized he had inluenced my writing, all along. I'm a story teller, and so is Jim, and I've been known to write quasi-religious lyrics. I finally had the chance to tell Jim all this at Stage Stop this past fall, and he thanked me for listening and allowing him to be a part of my life, and seemed genuinely glad and still, after all these years, awe-struck that a country boy from Arkansas could influence someone so much.

I had my picture taken with him, and he signed my CD, and Rickie took directions to my practice room, and said he'd try and get by, but if he couldn't, to send him and Jim a copy of our demo, because they'd like to hear it. They went home tired, and I went home as happy as a kid that just proved Santa was real.