- [Interviewer] So, Clarence. - [Clarence] Yeah? - [Interviewer] Are you a hillbilly? - Oh yeah, I'm a hillbilly. I'm from the hills, man. From the hill over there
I go up on the hills get a beer and go and have in here like an old gray head
livin' in the middle, man. He ain't really gonna bring that. Hiding in the mountains,
and hiding in the dark, man. Keep out of my kin, man. High up here, that's right. It's like, I made him proud about that. I'm a hillbilly, man. I'm from the Appalachian mountains Hiding in the dirt here. Hillbillies up on a
hill, up on Jesus' hill. Gets on goin' south. Bringing it right here. He was talking about the Lord. He had my hopes up. One time I took a drink
I was hallucinating. I'm a hillbilly, man. I got my same daddy's
song I got used to them. He freezed them up. - [Interviewer] So, Clarence. - Okay? - [Interviewer] Clarence,
where'd you grow up? Where are you from originally? - Well, I'm from Leslie
County, Kentucky, right there. Hyden, Kentucky, right there, and... - [Interviewer] You grew
up with both your parents? - I live with, my grand dad raised me from the time I came from the hospital until I was six, and then my grandma passed on. And went and stayed at
my dad and mom's house until I was about eight, and my mom and dad got divorced, and I went to, I come up here to Boylston,
1418 Boylston Road, Leslie Country, Kentucky right there. And I stayed here until I was thirteen and my grandpa took me
back home right there. And I stayed with him until I got a job when I was about
nineteen at the Sav-a-Lot working as a butcher. - [Interviewer] What kind of jobs did you have throughout your life? - Well, I only, I worked at
the Sav-a-Lot for a few years as a butcher, as the head butcher, the boss of the meat department, and then I worked a little factory job down in Jackson as a line worker there on. I got disabled there, and I started drawing my social security. I just got about seven or eight years in, and I started drawing social security. - [Interviewer] Did you
ever work in a coal mine like a lot of guys do? - No, I never worked in a coal mine, no. They're about gone right here. Yep, yep. When I was a little boy there I wanted me a guitar, and Dad
got me about seven or eight, seven I believe it was. And I been playin' music and writing songs ever since I was about seven or eight. - [Interviewer] Is
there a lot of musicians in your family? - Yeah, yeah, I got a cousin
in Indiana right there. He's got a southern rock band. My grand dad used to be a banjo picker. And he played a banjo, and I got a cousin, John. He's like me. He can hear a song and just pick it up and play it by ear. There's a bunch of musicians in my family. My first thing is
fighting chickens, though. I been fighting chickens since
I was about ten right there. - [Interviewer] So like cock fighting? - Yeah, cock fighting, yeah, and- (clears throat) - [Interviewer] Is that what
you do for a living now? - No, I don't do it for a living. I do it for fun. I raise and sell 'em right there. 'Cause you take 'em by, and Peter, right there. - [Interviewer] (interrupting)
What does a cock fighting rooster get ya? - Well I've sold some for
four to seven hundred dollars a piece right there. - [Interviewer] How much? - For hundred to a thousand, you take a thousand dollars in Louisiana, where it's legal right there. At a thousand dollars each, you sell ten or fifteen, that's ten or fifteen thousand
dollars every weekend. - [Interviewer] So cock
fighting is legal in Louisiana? - [Clarence] Louisiana and Oklahoma. - [Interviewer] But here
in Kentucky it's not? - [Clarence] Yeah, about two months ago they fly drones and over together
and film 'em right there, (chickens clucking) and take 'em to court and
everything for fighting chickens, and they shut 'em down. I used to get a gamecock management, about two months ago they put some in a a magazine
and everything right there. Yeah, they shut it down. It's illegal since 1976 it's against the law to fight chickens. In 1834 right there in England right there they shut it down right there. They outlawed it in England, right there. In 1976 they shut it down over here. - [Interviewer] So you raise and sell? - Yeah, raise and sell 'em. Sometimes if you raise 'em fine, you can send them to the Philippines and Sunset, Louisiana and
Mexico where it's legal at. If they catch you here
you get about 14 months, 14 months for fighting
chickens as a first offense. - [Interviewer] So tell me about what is it about roosters that
they like to kill each other? - That's just like, you know boxers? It's like a boxer or, actually, they have to be like a hound. They can be on the run, and when the start showing, well, that's what they do. They go out. - [Interviewer] Yeah, I've seen it before where if they're just
exposed to each other, they're gonna try to kill each other. - Yeah, that's basically it. They're the dominant male. They dominate. They have to be the boss or die. That's their part, and... - [Interviewer] So how
much schooling did you get? - I went about, I was
on the five year plan, so I was like three
credits from graduating, so I went to the adult
learning center right there. It was an adult learning
center right there. - [Interviewer] So you eventually got a high school education. - G.E.D. General education, yeah. Yeah, and I mostly studied,
I didn't go to college, but I mostly studied anatomy and breeding of chickens and music, guitars and singin' and things like that. And I like martial arts. Karate and stuff, yeah,
that's what I like. - [Interviewer] What do
you do for money now? - I got social security right there and sellin' chickens. That's what I'm doin'. I'm retired. - [Interviewer] How much
money do you get a month? - Oh. About 15,000 a year. About 1200 dollars a month. That's all they give you. - So 15,000 a year? - About 14,000 dollars a year. About 12, 14,000 dollars about, yep. Yeah, social security is down. - So, this part of the Appalachia is one of the poorest
parts of the country? - Yeah, there ain't no jobs out here. If you want to get a job
you got to go like two hours about an hour and a half drive to London or way down to Jackson where all there is is
coal mining or logging, and coal mining is about gone. When Obama started the war coal, a lot of coal companies that were busy, they shut down. They make you put a catalytic
converter on your heat stove if you got a heat stove. Pollution. They pollute the air right there. - [Interviewer] Yeah, so
coal mining is fading away, and there's really no other options. No company wants to open up a factory here 'cause it's so remote. - Yeah, it's so remote here. If we get a factory, people have jobs. Most people, they drive
and hour and a half and there ain't nobody around. 'Cause like right here, it's almost thirty and a half miles down Boylston Road right there, and there's one or two houses next door and there's nothin' out there. I went to the store right there. They made it a game reserve around here, once they get done over there. There ain't nothin' but game and animals. Nobody live round here or nothin', yup. - [Interviewer] So the median income of some of the counties here, it was higher in 1979 then it is today. - [Clarence] Yeah, yeah. - [Interviewer] It seems
like this way of life is just fading away. - [Clarence] Yeah, it used to be that you start workin' at one coal company and the average pay last
time, my dad worked, I was like nine, he made about 11, 11
somethin' an hour right there, and now nobody pays. They start you at like 20, 21
dollars an hour right there, and daddy said it used to
be you could be workin' at one coal company right there, and quite and go down
to the next coal company would hire you and give you a job, but now if you take a job at a
restaurant or a grocery store or somethin' like that,
loggers or a coal company, the opportunities are gone. It takes like 20 years. It takes about 20-25 years before you been impoverished right there. - [Interviewer] What
are your favorite things about Appalachia? - [Clarence] Well, the
mountains, the game, and just the climate here. It's a good place to live there, you know, if you can find a way
make a living right there. - [Interviewer] What are the
worst things about living here? - The snow in winter. It's cold, but you get yourself some wheel chains and put them on, I mean,
you can go anywhere. You can go dig yourself out of here. Just diggin' in ice like snow places. When I started settlin',
they said the first thing I want you to do is go
to get a wheel chain, when it snows, whatever, it don't matter. I got myself a wheel chain, I can pass forward and drive and leave. Now, I worked, someone said, someone said the turbo cans over there, they come by and show me how to place the
piece and everything to do. He checked me out. He got to the store and go up front, he said if you think its on over there. I'll run it. - [Interviewer] Have you traveled before? - I've traveled. I've been up north. Indiana, Ohio, the great
Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, Dollywood down there, you know. I've been over to Virginia. The furthest west I been is Somerset about three counties over. Yup, I ain't been very far. - [Interviewer] Do you see the technology that's
taking over the world is kind of leaving Appalachia behind? - Yeah, well, yeah. It's about an hour and a half drive down I-75 in the hub of
eastern Kentucky, I-75. You go there, and they'll start you off at a factory at 14 dollars an hour
Dow Chemical factory. That's where my cousin, all my cousins, that's what they did. They got a place down
there to be close to work. 'Cause if you drive an hour and a half and an hour and a half back,
right there, you get tired. If you don't get plenty of rest, you feel like hell forever
right there I mean. So, they just moved right there. - [Interviewer] Did you find having, you know, your accent is very thick. The Appalachian accent is so thick that when you go to places like Ohio or Indiana. - Yeah, no, yeah I'll tell ya. A feller like Martin, you go see a southern rock
band up in Indiana right there. They sound like they're city folks, and hey talk real clear and everything. - [Interviewer] So it makes it difficult for you to move to a bigger city. - Yeah. - [Interviewer] To
change your life, right? - Yeah, yeah. So your kind of stuck here. - Yeah, he retired. He'll be 66 the 17th of September. He's the same age right there. He retired from some factory
up in Indiana up there, yup. - [Interviewer] And you have friends here? - Yeah, I got a few friends. I'm kinda quiet and shy,
keep to myself right there. Yeah, I got a few friends. I got a friend named Joe. He started work at Walmart. I see him out there. - [Interviewer] Have
you been in love before? - I was married once. Yeah, I married a girl
named Leslie Jean Bonner on River Road in Clay County over there, and we stayed together about 15 years. I started to get psychosis. They said it was a case of psychosis, but what it was was
schizophrenia right there. Said I was havin' hallucinations and losin' too much weight right there, and I done it forever right there. I thought I was see
things that weren't there. Seeing things over there. I was seeing things and
hearing things, you know, and when I cleared up I went back to here, but I bugged her, and I just left her and never went back. She weren't happy, and we
just got divorced, man. - [Interviewer] The schizophrenia you got is under control now? - Yeah, it really ain't schizophrenia. The doctors, first time,
said it was schizophrenia, but it wasn't. It was a case of
psychosis, is what it was. - [Interviewer] You're fine now? - Yeah, I'm fine now, yaeh. It's cleared up. - [Interviewer] So, Clarence,
do you have children? - I've got one boy. Clarence Dylan Couch. He'll be 20 years old the 26th of August. He was born in 2000. - [Interviewer] You raise him? - I raised him until he was about four when we broke up. We got divorced there. He stayed with his mother, and my father in law. Yeah, he's stayin' with them. - [Interviewer] How old are you? - I turned 44 on the 15th of this month. 15th of August. - [Interviewer] You're 44? - 44. - [Interviewer] What's
the most important lesson you've learned in life? - Get to bed early, when the alarm rings
your feet hit the floor, do your nine to five, and get retired, and stay away from drugs and alcohol. Gotta work. Man don't work you
starve and die out there. Yup, you gotta work. - [Interviewer] All right. You wanna play a little music? - Yeah, all right. Yeah, I write my own songs right there, and this is a... I got about seven or
eight I've got music to. I got about 12 right
there that I've got 'em complete right there. This my single here, lead off single here, like your first song right there. I don't know if you'll like it or not, but I'll play one. All right, all right. (guitar strings strum) This is called Party Town, U.S.A., yup. All right. I need to flesh it out a bit more. This is in the works yet. This is a little demo, okay? All right. (guitar strums) A little juicy or somethin'. (guitar music plays) ♪ Well there's a little bit of liqueur ♪ ♪ We all gonna get down
with home made wine ♪ ♪ Party all the time ♪ ♪ Come on down to the country place ♪ ♪ Party town USA party town USA ♪ ♪ Where the girls are
hot and we'll smoke pot ♪ ♪ We'll party tonight ♪ ♪ And we'll go down to
the picking ground ♪ ♪ And drink and dance and party ♪ ♪ The night away ♪ ♪ We'll come on down
and have a good time ♪ ♪ Party town party town USA ♪ ♪ Party town USA ♪ ♪ We'll all go down to
the picking ground ♪ ♪ And drink and dance and
party the night away ♪ ♪ So come on down and have a good time ♪ ♪ Party town party town USA ♪ ♪ Party town USA ♪ - [Interviewer] Awesome. - Yup, I got one more. You wanna hear one more? This is the best one. This is good. It's about my grandad called Country Boys Hour right there. You wanna hear this? - [Interviewer] It's gonna
be hard to beat that. - [Clarence] Okay, look,
I got a little juice here or somethin'. This is called Country
Boys Hour right here. (guitar music plays) ♪ Right now we've not a lot of ♪
Being from the Appalachian mountains of NC I actually understood almost every word he said! haha