eTown On-Stage Interview - Delbert McClinton

[Music] Delbert McClinton good to have you back on the show we'll be back you got a new record prick of the litter interesting play on words if you ever tried to name a band or anything anymore yeah they've all been taken you got to go you got to go good he goes D yeah and I thanked I've title is gonna be pretty damn hard to be yeah well I can be wrong I was wrong once before yeah I was a long time ago though so almost all the songs on the new record you either wrote or co-wrote a bunch of them with with your bandmates Bob Brit and Mike choice you guys right on the road or just at home both yeah well we don't write so much on the road I don't know why but that's never been something that they've come real easy to me I kind of got to have an atmosphere to write and being on the road it's not the atmosphere yeah is it more like you just invite them over to your house and yeah yeah we get together and and and and set across each other from guitars and try to make stuff up yeah is that like one of your favorite things to do like a favorite pastime we get you know what's your home you're not touring oh yeah may not big stuff well but also I've got a place in Mexico that we go to and that sense where we do the best work that's that's the right side of cause you know it's beautiful down there and yeah got this place and nobody you know you can best best thing that I've always felt about since we've had a place in Mexico's I can go down there and start over I don't have to be I don't ever have to be an again all I gotta be some nice guy you know or if you are people will think it's the first time well I don't even know they go that far I'm just not an ass I never was much of one but no now is that a place that's been faring well your place in Mexico with all the storms and her oh yeah yeah it's it's dead center in the middle of Mexico yeah oh that's cool and so that's the right atmosphere where the creativity can really flow it does quite well yes yeah yeah now you've always been a songwriter and I imagine that for you probably was it was an Emmy Lou cuttin two more bottles of wine was it the first time where you thought man I could really make a living doing this I don't know I don't know I write songs because I have to yeah you know yeah and you know she had that already in the bag and done before I even do anything about it yeah that was in 78 or something I didn't write and are you one of those guys who's always sort of listening for a phrase or a line or as always yeah words I love words you keep a little notepad or son I've got stacks of oh yeah and a trunk at home but I've carried over it started out with those little spiral things about that big my hardest thing was finding a pen small enough to carry him up all right yeah yeah as long as they weren't around yeah you know yeah but sure I've been writing things down forever yeah so so most people know a bunch of your your backstory and I don't want to go to too deep into it oh they don't run much well okay well I want to ask you a couple things like example one of your first bands the straitjackets what what were the club's like in Fort Worth for a band like yours at that time in the early 60s what kind of places could you play well they were dance halls that's that's what they were called and those people came to dance yeah and back in in the early or mid 50s back mid late 50s we're not started doing this if you want to play in the dance halls the beer George you had to make people dance if you couldn't make them dance you're out well so we made them dance yeah and we realized that you had to make them dance so you know we and and besides what we did was what made him glance anyways it's plain rock it wasn't like we had to say boom wonder what they want here yeah and was it where the club segregated all with their white clothes yeah they were very segregated yeah so how is it that you guys could then also back up Howlin wolf and enlighten Hopkins and Joe's guys were brought in to be special guests for the weekend at the dance halls at the dance place yes yeah ok so that the audience was white but the artists could be black yes yeah yeah and and what did you learn from those guys so there you are you're you're in this you know you're a lot of late teens I learned from oh god what's his name she got a did Fannie Mae brown of course when I first heard that song I wanted to play his harp part on it yeah well the first note that he comes up on the harp solo is not on the harp he hollers it and then plays and to find that out gave me great confidence in that because you knew you could you do whatever times hotter than been everything on that harp to ever wish away I could to get that note and you couldn't get any more close to so that's something where you thought you gotta like solve the puzzle you were like like demystifying this thing well I well of course that's that's of course that could could be called that but I just wanted to know what he was doing yeah yeah and then and how how much preparation did you have to do for these things so here comes Howlin wolf Aeneas and then there's these this young man we were so ready farmers yeah you knew all the tunes well we listened to all those guys back there did as much as we could those guys were on the radio every day okay Jimmy Reed Howlin wolf BB and on and on and on they were on the radio and so there must have been a Fort Worth radio station they just now but there was one in doubt yeah and it covered Fort Worth and Dallas KN okay radio oh yeah her the bounds of sounds and stacks of wax for your listening pleasure and and they played all the right stuff later and and they played it all day and all night who told Stephen Bruton told me about that Rhett session yeah and so you heard all those songs so you were ready for him we were yeah absolutely ready yeah the only guy that we work what we were ready but we weren't ready for the way he exploded onto the scene first night we ever played with Alan wolf yeah we hadn't met him we didn't have a rehearsal nothing and when when the bar tourism announced he'd bring him out I did and he just came running out on the shore and flew down on his back and start spinning around and then he jumped up and he started singing and everybody's looking for the key and all he and he turned us in come on BAM and that's it that's how it Wolf's entrance so but we pretty quickly got a grip grip on him cuz he don't I don't think he's saying more than two or three keys yeah you know what I'm saying yeah yeah people have a sound yeah yeah so that's that's pretty wild and then it wasn't that much longer after that I know you started playing with Bruce Channel Chanel or Chanel I'm sorry I used to know yeah that's right sorry man Brunell Shamel I think he got it offer one him perfume perfume bottle yeah yeah Bruce Chanel that's right course it is but he was he was like a country versus tough enough you know you got to give him something to go with after that and Bruce make me midden do it that was his real it destroy him Bruce make memes make memes yeah most spark in that baby yeah yeah the managers would Adam change his name eventually anyway hey uh but he was he had been on the hayride well he was a more like a country guy wasn't he was brand news was at the time I mean you know he yeah he had been doing uh he'd been doing Louisiana Hayride yeah pretty regularly yeah at least for a year or so that's right and but Bruce we were young man we were 21 yeah and then you all of a sudden you have a big hit record yeah yeah he I got called I got there wasn't any play there's one place in town and footwork to record back in those days and that was a recording studio in the basement of a radio station and the engineer that worked in the place was Bob Sullivan he had been the Louisiana Hayride audio engineer from last and he had more stories well in Shreveport so yeah everybody Hank Williams everybody everybody so you know I met him and I just got I had these I didn't get an education that would be plant me ready to make you know I look for jobs a smart monkey could do I look for jobs driving a hot shot truck delivery cycle be by myself yeah I don't like supervision and but they got to where you know I'd go I'd go I go to part of the work that I supposed to do and they're not go down to the studio sit there and listen to Bob tell stories all day yeah and that was the education I was looking for there's a couple of good album titles and what you just said I don't like supervision that would be a good one and it's a love story right and and then smart monkey would be okay too I had yeah hey in case you've just tuned in you're listening to each town I'm here with Delbert McClinton you had some heart surgery not long ago and things went well apparently they did I fortunately didn't have a heart attack I had something we were in for something Florida Augustine st. Augustine I don't know where it was barely into Florida out of Georgia and I felt really strange nothing like you hear somebody says well you feel this if you're having a heart attack I just felt like something was wrong all over so I went to the this was in the morning though our rooms weren't ready yet so we went out to the festivals set up get over you know our equipment so I told the guys I think I need to go to hospital somebody called the EMS all of a sudden here comes as loud as a truck you know coming up there and everybody there of course it's watching what one fellow who's died and it was me you know and they came out and they checked me for everything and couldn't find a thing wrong and they said well what you need to do is if you've had a heart event you should go to the hospital or check your blood because if you have it releases an enzyme I sound like I know what I'm talking about well I do regarding this because it scared the hell out of me anyway I did in ideas I had the enzyme so next morning they or that afternoon they did a calf on me and ran through my hand well sit on my leg and I was 95% blocked in the main artery and the next day they cleaned it out and I feel like I'm 50 again well well thank you well you uh you have always been a guy can sing in just about any key and and now you're even stronger amazing now I know you work a lot you you play a lot do you see yourself kind of like your fellow Texan Willie Nelson who's 7 years old no but he's out there working all the time I gave up compared myself to Willie cusine everybody you know he is the Magi and I'm a mere mortal man with minimal magic so you know but you but you work oh I do yeah I work regularly yeah and as long as it feels good I'll do it yeah I know I want to ask you just a couple more things before we go back to music I know Don Imus is one of your biggest fans people love him or hate him but has his paying attention to you and your music helped people discover your music absolutely yeah how people all the time come up tell ya I found out about you I've done on our show it's interesting because you know in some ways these are kind of divisive times but I feel like you are a guy who can bring people together from any corner of any culture you know seems like you're like oh well you know music can do that and and and and I haven't done it before I won't say I can do that every time but I've done it yeah and it does feel very good yeah I remember Willie talking about on e10 one time he said yeah I could bring I realize I could bring together the dopers and the ropers well you so you see I was a lot nicer about that yeah you're you were much much more yes circumspect but I don't think I bring the meth-heads you know no that's because I've you know you can you can see it yeah they have kind of a nuclear close but Ted you know let's neither here there there's people are wonderful and they come out and they love it and I love them loving it no yeah yeah hey yeah how are the cruisers going the sandy beaches cruisers you've been doing that for a while and how's it doing it for 24 years 24 years how many have you been Jesus laughs to me come on no I'll tell you right now you've missing the best thing you could do for yourself is to go on my cruise and if you go and you don't have the best time you've ever had in your life period I personally come to wherever you are and buy you beer look at all these potential customers out here that's what they are you don't want a bunch of veterans you've been doing this thing for twenty four years you need some newbies that's right you need some fresh blood this is this people these are these people well I've done my part I've told them about it listen you've been at this a long time playing songs writing recording 60 years or whatever almost Louis amazing more than 60 years and 63 63 years you've been doing this that's a long time is is there is there is there anything out there that you kind of still dream of doing somebody you'd like to sing with or record whether any like man someday I'd really like to do this yeah there's only one thing I want to do I want to sing with Gaga she is stuff you know have you have you reached out to her people no I haven't but alright we'll get to work on that okay yeah let me know when okay alright that is not what I was expecting but it's always good to know it's always good to have a dream that's right you gotta have a dream I'd have a tree gotta have a dream well listen congratulations again we're going to get back to music the new record once again is called prick of the litter the ever irreverent and hardworking and fun Delbert McClinton welcome back to E time [Music] hi this is Nick Forester from each town if you want to stay up to date with all the performances interviews and behind-the-scenes footage click the subscribe button thanks

Channel: eTown

Views: 4,139

Rating: 4.9272728 out of 5

Keywords: Delbert McClinton, Delbert McClinton interview, eTown, eTown Hall, Nick Forster

Id: AKXMIwqE7GA

Length: 17min 32sec (1052 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 15 2017