had to catch up on all of the other aspects of the music business in order to be taken seri- ously.
I remember Point Blank touring with ZZ Top during those amazing Texas rockin’ days. Did you have a good rela- tionship with Billy and Dusty? What were the pros and cons of the Lonewolf Days and being tied closely to ZZ Top by way of Bill Ham, as you look back now.
Yeah, we all got along great and I have ulti- mate respect for ZZ and already had a bit of a relationship with them from having been on and off the road with them for two years. I knew Frank and Dusty from the Cellar where they had played extensively for years with Dusty's brother Rocky Hill in a band called the American Blues. They were a psychedelic blues band and really good. They also had blue hair so the novelty of their appearance added to their style of music. Some of the pros of touring with ZZ was getting a lot of exposure with large crowds subsequently building a fan base.
Another good thing was that it brought about a challenging competitive element for PB to try and smoke the headliner every time we played in an opening or special guest slot. ZZ was a big target for us to aim at so we had to cowboy up to put pressure on them which I believe made both bands better. Some of the cons were us always having to be the 'lit- tle brother’ within the hierarchy and politics of the production company. We weren't afforded the luxury of consistently getting adequate lights, sound checks, or full volume on the PA - much of the time we were treated like the bastard child when it came to open- ing for them. We were treated much better and shown more respect by many of the other bands we toured with compared to the inter-office politics associated in doing shows with ZZ. Being in the shadow of them became
a very frustrating thing for us but definitely made us play all the harder to take our piece of real estate while on the stage. I don't think they were too crazy about having us opening for them as we turned up the heat and kept the pressure on more so than with some of the other great acts we toured with. Many people saw what was happening and would come to us saying "what's up with you guys getting shafted by your own management when playing shows with ZZ Top?" It was extremely disheartening to be treat- ed that way by management while being denied sound checks, lights, encores, and the full sound system especially when both bands were from the same stable.
Many other bands and their associates would say things like management was inten- tionally holding us back from our potential when playing with the Top. All I knew was that it made us play all the harder to try and steal some thunder where we were generally denied it. This of course has nothing to do with the band ZZ Top as they were and are a class act and great guys - this was all a man- agement issue.
I don’t know if I've ever told you or not, but in the late 70’s, I switched from playing bass to guitar. Since high school, I’d always played in a southern rock group in Arkansas, back when bands played high schools, proms, etc. My good friend, Billy Bob Thornton, was our singer. He had the longest hair I’d ever seen, and he was a Ronnie Van Zant kind of front man. Our band was called Nothin’ Doin, and that’s about what we did! After I switched to guitar, I sank myself into Albert, Muddy, and John Lee Hooker. But I also really took off on Johnny Winter, Gibbons, Keith Richards, and Dickey Betts. At the same time, my life long influence of Johnny Cash still molded into my play-
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