there too. And when they got off stage, whether they made a dime or not, they were very happy. You know, it was a thing of joy. It was church. The music meant something. Back in the ‘60’s if you went to a country show it was the same thing. It’s the essence.
Grease Band and recorded an album on CBS Records called Music to Eat. It was a double album and they called it the second worst selling album ever. (Laughs) They took it off the shelves after about six weeks. Clive Davis wanted to get rid of that record pretty quick. It’s prob- ably the weirdest record ever made. It was the times. There was nothing logical going on, so why should music be logi- cal? You had civil rights, Viet- nam, everything was coming unglued.
After that you hooked up with Frank Zappa and his Bizarre/Straight Records. What was that experience like for you? Yeah, I was lucky. I did the album Lumpy Gravy - and then We’re Only in it for The Money, I’m on that a couple of times. But Frank was al- ways such a gentleman. Such a nice guy, such a down-to- earth guy, and he had more
You either mean it or you don’t. I got to see Red Sovine, Bill Monroe- just the greats. Dave Dudley. I never saw Hank, but I saw Waylon and Willie. They were playing a bar on 10th Street called Hank & Jerry’s Hideaway. You’d walk in there for a dollar, and Jerry Reed would be playing in there every night - you know he grew up about four blocks away. It was all real, and they meant it. Deep country or deep R&B, it was going on. You know what I mean Michael, you grew up there in Spar- tanburg, right? Hank Garland was from there, and he was a monster. I got to see him play a couple of times. There was a Wes Mont- gomery and Hank Garland concert I would have given anything to have seen.
In 1966 you formed The Hampton
energy than anybody I’ve ever seen in my life. He knew what he wanted. He always treated everybody with incredible respect. He was nice 99.9% of the time. He did 50 albums and employed 500 people in his career. He never gets the credit he deserves.
What are your thoughts on the current music scene? Well, I am certainly not on the pulse of what’s going on today. I will say that country music today is ‘80’s Vegas - rock. I love country music, but I like it to be ... I don’t know what country they’re playing now. (Laughs) It’s re- ally, really, really sad. But you know, it can’t get any worse. I feel like we’re on the brink of a renaissance. Something’s gonna turn around and we’re gonna hear real music
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