It's Terry McBride! Part 1

It's always to thrill to catch up with Terry McBride. Sit in and listen to our conversation with soon to be Texas Songwriter Hall of Famer Terry McBride.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Bob Pickett. Weare on our way to the legendary Broken
Spoke. Come on, let's getout the truck and head inside the damn
you're round of it. Come on, it's going side, getting ready for

(00:22):
another tail from the Broken Spoke.Welcome back tails the Broken Spolks. Sitting
in the world famous booth b tothe Willie Nelson Engagement Booth. Here the
Broken Spoke. Monnie Warden with us, Bob Pickett in special Guy, I
see guests. We're family and TerryMcBride. My goodness. Terry's one of
the first guys that I met toAustin when I moved here back in the

(00:43):
early nineties. I used to followhim around comment on his boots. He
had the coolest pair of boots.Minded it was. I know he doesn't,
but these were cowskin boots, man, And always tell us Terry,
some of my boots, man,where'd you get them? So? Yeah.
I saw Stevie Rayhead air of thosecowhides, you know, and they
looks so cool. He always looksso good, you know. I wanted

(01:06):
to try and be like that anda lot of other you know. I
saw George Jones when I was fifteen. I went to Nashville with my dad
and George was stumbling out of thebar there at the hotel. He looked
so good. He had black patand pointed tow his boots on. Of
course I had to have a pairafter that, you know. Oh boy,
I followed him. He was onhis way, you know, down

(01:26):
the hallway. But oh man,it was I've always been impressed with,
you know, my heroes and peoplelike that. You want to try to,
you know, try to be ascool as those. You never can
and never will be. But itdidn't hurt to try to dress up.
But you know, whoever they wantedto be as cool as they weren't either,
you know. Right, well,let me ride man still as cool.
But he was cool man, Ohwell, you know, thank you

(01:49):
man. Well. And I remember, like I remember, i'd go see
you at Ravens. Oh yes,I forgot about it. I remember I
would, Yeah, you I gotI'm trying to think. I think Freddy
Fletcher took me down, Freddy Joeand uh and and and he said,
he said, do you know TerryMcBride. I was like, no,

(02:12):
man, I know who he is. And he said, you know,
you know Devin Bride's son, andI said, oh, yeah, of
course. So I went there andI remember I was watching you, and
I remember what y'all were playing,but uh, I had never seen,
uh a bass player that could singaway from the beat like you could,
like like you sang like you wereplaying rhythm guitar, and I just went,

(02:34):
how the hell does that guy dothat? Is? You know?
It's like because you played perfect bass, almost kind of behind a little a
little laid back, and then andthen you sang it perfect, and I
was just like, damn. AndI noticed your boots. I told you.
I was like, I used toget these cool spiderweb top boots from

(02:55):
albums. You know, they wereout Ofville Pass so they're like one hundred
bucks a pair. Wow, Iwatch out back then. It's like there
was some good bargain money price backthen. But yeah, you know,
I learned to play back. I'vehad people comment and session guys will go,
man, I don't know how youknow Terry can sing like that and
play bass, you know, intime, But I don't really think about
it. I learned so early on. I think that's the only reason I

(03:15):
can get away with it and doit and my dad was grooming me as
a bass player because he was theguitar player, you know. And I
thought I was going to be theguitar player until he sat me down one
time and said, listen, youknow, son, you want to you
know, want to play with mewhen you get older. I need I'm
always needing a good bass player,you know. So we went to a
little pawn shop over in Copper's Cove, Texas, outside of lamp Passes there

(03:38):
and found a little Ventura Gibson SGcopy little bass. I love that little
rid guitar was small and easy toplay. You know. I've been playing
this Mexican acoustic guitar my dad hadbought down in Madame Morris, you know.
Prior to that, with high action, it was so hard to play,
and I was learning to play it, of course. But once I

(03:59):
got bass, I went, thisis so cool. We four strings.
It's felt easier and I could understandit, finding the bass notes, you
know, and and then just playingsimple, simple. That's all my dad
wanted, you know, just stayout of the way and playing time,
you know. But that's what acountry bass player said. Yeah, you
don't need to play like a frustratedguitar player for country music. And then
I was fortunate to have my dadthere to school me and explain things to

(04:24):
me that, you know, hewas such an accomplished player and such a
good musician that any question I havehe could answer, you know, I
should, I should be way betterthan I am actually these days. I
had such a great start, youknow, there and then in high school
with a great band all the wayfrom my freshman year on the senior you
know, and then then joined mydad's band, hit the road with him

(04:45):
for three years on high school.Well and practically speaking, you know,
of course, you didn't have toworry about this. But a bass player,
a great bass player, is neverout of work. If he's not
working, he doesn't want to work, well, especially a singing bass player.
That's how I really kind of mademy so called living here in Austin,
you know. I mean it wasa struggle, you know how it
is when you were starting out likethat. I was a popular kind of

(05:06):
guy, but I just wasn't makinga living really, you know. Fortunately
my wife became a nurse and thatwas helping to pay the bills. But
I mean I was playing with BillCarter. I was playing with Rosie,
I was playing with Tony Perez downat all these bands at the same time,
and he and Freddy were working again. That's right. Freddy was producing

(05:27):
him, and then Blake Meavis camein and produced him. Mean we we
actually went over to Arlene and cutthose first singles. Freddie myself, Stephen
Bruton was the guitar player, andI'll never forget Blake brought this song in
and he put it on our musicstand. I saw the lyric and it
was Here in the Real World aJackson. I thought, wow, I've

(05:49):
never heard of the guy, butboy, it's a good song. Oh
yeah, I was way before,right before Allan had taken off. But
we cut here in the Real Worldon Tony and a couple other songs.
He cut a song I wrote withBill Ruth. But that's some bitch could
sing. Yeah. He came outto the Cotton Country Club. I played
a while back with my band withmcbriden and the Ride, and Tony had

(06:12):
come up. I think he's livingdown like McAllen, why somewhere still singing
some And you know one of myabout the bass playing and frustrated guitars that
the The Wagoneers did a bunch ofdates with Whalen, and Whalen liked us
to be on the date because wedidn't want to talk about whaling. We
want to talk about Buddy Holly likethat. And he said they were about
four days in on that last tourand he just came to Buddy on the

(06:33):
bus and his eyes were as bigas shot glass and he said, Buddy,
I just figured this out. It'sjust the first four strings of the
guitar. Four days in with thebiggest star in the world. He said,
Holly went Holly went hush. Youcould have gone all damn day without
telling me. You just figured thatout because he had to become the bass
player. How cool man. Ilived in Love Book for Gosh, my

(06:58):
wife and I moved up there threedifferent times. It's always had a little
music scene, you know. Andthis was nineteen eighty the first time I
moved and played in a cool eightpiece band called war Horse at a at
a weekly gig. We were thehouse band for this stardust big Honky to
wait a minute. I used toMC events at the Startist at the same
time. Yeahre in where I firstmet Paycheck. I met paycheck for some

(07:21):
of that. Jerry Jeff Walker wasthe start. Yeah off a slide road,
right off of Slide. Yeah,I lived right near Slide off the
slide out there. But yeah,that was our house gig, this big
eight piece band. Two guys thathad played in my dad's band, Steve
Williams and Don Wise on saxophone,who I later played with Delvera McClinton.

(07:42):
Don and I went, Don andI left Lubbock. I quit my band
gig that I had, it wasn'tthat gig, but we got my Forward
pick up and we drove the fortWorth US and Jesse Taylor Wow, and
we drove down to the Fall World. Man, we're gonna go audition for
Delbert. I'd met the but Ihad been in a band called the c

(08:03):
Notes that Reese Winman put together,and Reese was the piano player at my
dad's studio. Yeah, no,no, I remember that Reese had that
name, the Sea Notes, andit was mainly Delbram Clinton's band, but
me as the lead singer. Andthen Rees. Of course we were doing
original stuff. We were doing MarvinGay. It was tough gig, man.
It's like you know, Rees likeworking for Ray Charles. He was

(08:26):
a demanding guy, but boy,he made me a much better player and
just sort of took me in.He got me the he got me a
gig. He was coming over tomy dad's studio and he said, man,
you'd be perfect for this gig thatI'm playing. And it was the
Cocktail gig at the Hyatt Hotel onTown Lake. Wow. Yeah, it
was Ernie Drawa and it was alittle country band. Carl Hutchins was the

(08:48):
lead singer. He was a schoolteacher, but he had the gig and
so Reese was in the band andwe would eat in the employees cafeteria every
day. It's like, what yearwas this. This was about nineteen eighty
or so, yeah, but abouteighty four because Reese said, man,
you need to know this guy,Leroy Parnell. You know, he's always
looking for a and Reese just wentout of his way, man, and

(09:09):
it's like trying to help me,you know. And he was with Delbert
at the time. He hadn't goneto steviean Double Trouble yet. But that
was one of my early influences.I mean, haven't a guy like that,
you know. It was amazing,but I had a lot of those
friends. Ernie was a good friendof my Ernie draw was a good friend
of my father's, and we weretalking about Tom Bromley. My dad had
that studio, so we had allthese world class players coming over. My

(09:31):
dad would arrange these charts for likea we'd have a four string players,
a little quartet come over and likeshape notes or just not shape notation by
hand. Yeah, he could doit four or five lines above the staff.
He was brilliant like that. Helearned early on. My dad had
played with this guy, Jimmy Heapover in Taylor, Texas. That's where

(09:52):
I was born. Because Jimmy hadthe first million seller on release me nineteen
forty eight, wow, way beforeRay Price and uh, and he became
a star from that. And andJimmy Heap had like a big band.
I had a comedian Ken Idaho wasthis like sort of blue comedian. And
then my dad was the featured vocalistand league and the guitar player for that

(10:13):
band. And that's why I wasborn in Taylor, because he was he
was doing that gig at the particulartime. But yeah, this this area,
as you guys know, I mean, it's just so full of history
and memories. Oh man. Thecoolest thing is, you know, we
saw you walk in the tourist traphere at the Spoken and you saw a
photo of your dad. Is thatyou've never seen but in a while,

(10:33):
but you you said, I've gotthat guitar. I got that guitar.
I don't have that that eight byten. I have a lot of his
promotional stuff from back in the day, but I don't have that copy.
He looks so good in that photo, and I have that that that sixty
seven eighteen and play. And hebought that an epiphone casino that I have
and I use a lot. Theepiphone is a fabulous guitar. I had

(10:58):
Chris Stapleton overriding one day, andhe loved to go through these guitars and
this old world it's here that mydad had. And he's just a talented
guy. Obviously, as we knownow. I never heard of the guy.
Yeah, back then, he wasa struggling No one had heard of
me. Back then. I justmet him for like one of the first
time, and he was just Iwas so taken with him. I went
to see him that night. Hewas playing a tiny little club in Franklin

(11:18):
where I was living, and Iwas just knocked out with him. But
he played the guitar and my dad'sHe's like, man, Terry, this
guitar is like something special, youknow. I know, so I put
a little work head it refretted andthen I use it. And yeah,
I love having things like that.Not only is it my dad something we
could I can use, you know, it's really special because of that.
Well, and otherwise it's just likea piece of art. And yeah,

(11:43):
and they but they want to beplayed great instruments. It's a weird thing.
You say it, and it soundsweird, but they want to be
played. It's it's wild. Well, and you know, as a songwriter,
it's a some of the tools thatyou need to try to inspire you
to a great guitar can certainly helpthat process for sure. Well, Terry,
have you done anything since you leftAustin? I be my god,

(12:09):
you've done a lot with my Uhaul and Camaro back and can tell the
story that you told us. Iwant to go about driving to Graceland with
your Camaro and your new Hall.Yeah, you know, well did this?
You know, I've been in Austinstruggling, and of course, you
know, I look back struggling,I say, but some of the happiest,
best times of my wife in ourlives during that period. I mean,

(12:33):
we have these old photo albums whichnobody has anymore, but Freddie is
in there. We look at thetimes that we had here living here,
but it was struggling, but everyone'sjust laughing and smiling. We were having
a ball playing and the future wasunknown, but we had high hopes,
you know, we're hoping for thebest, and so uh, you know,
I finally started making those trips toNashville and then I fortunately I left

(13:00):
Delbert in eighty six, and thatwas a great opportunity. Delbert was so
kind to me, but I knewI just didn't want to be a bass
player for the rest of my life, you know, even as much as
I loved that gig. And wewere touring with Huey Lewis, and you
know, I met Delbert in hisliving room and then we went to a
studio to rehearse this new band.Then the next day we were in Miami

(13:22):
opening for John Fogerty. That's howmy relationship with Delbert started. We did
a thirty day run with John Fogertyand then Huey Lewis. This is nineteen
eighty six at the top of Hughey. He's had the Tower of Power out
there. It was amazing. SoI was learning and I was seeing,
and I was taking all this inand a masterful entertainer. Delbert would rock

(13:43):
every house no matter. We'd playsometimes six nights in a row before we
take a day off. He wasjust he was unbelievable. I'd never seen
anyone quite like him, really,haven't it since. But I left that
gig as a frustrated songwriter, thinkingif I don't focus on my songs,
if I don't try, I couldhe this gig forever. It was so
comfortable, you know, and Idid. I didn't know what I was

(14:03):
going to go to other than Ihad to start focusing more on writing.
I've been writing at home, makingthese little home demos. And then my
friend Roddy Colonna, the drummer,said hey, Terry, he had left
Albert prior and said, I gotthis guy, Bill Carter's putting a band
together and he's going to go ontour with Stevie Ray Vaughan. You should
audition for the band. You know, I went, man, I love

(14:24):
Stevie. It sounds like an opportunityI did. I got the gig during
that tour. We left here ina van all the way to New York
the bottom Line and back, youknow. And I roomed with Bill on
part of that run, and Isaid, Bill, I'm a songwriter too,
and I got a couple of countrysongs I've been writing, and I
gave him my cassette and he said, man, he listened to it,

(14:46):
and his wife, Ruth came outof New York and he played it for
her and they said, well,we get off this tour, let's get
together and start writing some country songs. You know, we love country music.
And they really they had. Theywere so steeped and the history of
country songs. Well, he's acarter. We've had Bill on the podcast
before. If our listeners have notlistened to our visit with Bill, check

(15:09):
it out. Yeah. He playedme songs I had not even heard,
and he influenced me and Ruth didas well. Started going to their home
every day and we started writing thesesongs, and that led me to Nashville
and that opened every door from meafter that. Uh, you know,
they were so well respected they senta tape to Nashville to Jody Williams at
b M. I. I didn'tknow him. I wouldn't affiliate it with

(15:31):
anybody. But we were trying toget a George straight Cut. That was
our goal. You know, we'regoing to go up there. And and
instead Jody said, man, I'lltell you what. Whoever's singing these demos?
Man, he needs a record deal. And we went, that's cool,
get us a record deal. Andhe got us some meeting with everybody,
including Tony Brown, and then TonyBrown said, I want to fly
to Austin. I want to hangout. I want to. If you're
the real deal, I'm gonna signyou the MCA. And he did,

(15:52):
and and uh that led to myU haul and my Camaro, which led
is a story we talk about mywife. I remember, I'm trying to
get the timeline right. What arewe talking about? You've always wanted George
straight Cut to money? I know, rather tell you it's as good as
you think it feels. It feelsbetter with the woman, you know.

(16:14):
But I remember, uh, Billwas telling me, he said, Uh,
do you know Terry mcbriden. Isaid, I said, yeah.
The bass player, me and meand Ruth been writing some with him,
and I want, really, it'slike, what it's like eighty eight is
this about? And it was sofunny because because you know, Bill's Bill
and uh and he said, uh, he said, no, these things

(16:38):
are great. He said, I'mgonna I'm going to play you some of
them. Oh wow. And itwas just like a it's a just a
cassette on, just just a bullshitone, you know, one speaker you
get. And I just couldn't believehow how great these these songs were.
And I remember one of the songswas a song called every Step of the
Way. And in the Waneers hadhad a song called every Step of the

(17:02):
Way like a year previous, andit's been been kind of a hit.
And we on the Opery and wedid a Bob Hope Christmas special and so
and I said, and I don'teven think, to this day, I
don't think Bill had ever heard theWagonear's version of every Step of the Way.
This is such a great Bill story. So he played with that.
I said, I said, that'scool. I said, uh, you
know, the Wags had a songcalled every Step of the Way, and
this one's better it was too guys, I just realized I'm the least talented

(17:30):
guy on the microphone. Right now, I'm talking to two songwriters fed very
successful careers. Both of you guyshave had cuts by George Tree. Yeah.
Yeah, that's a dream comes That'swhy I went to Nisville. Like
I said, I wanted that cutso bad and ended up getting a couple.
But it was like a dream cometrue for someone you held that high
stream and someone you looked up toque like George. You know, I've

(17:52):
waited in the in the forty degreerain to see him and then he cuts
a song of years oh man,Yeah, yeah, so you just go
up. It's cool. Yeah,you know, it's like I think a
comparable cut is like an Elvis ora Sinatra from other eras. Yeah.
Four of the songs that George cutof yours, well I have. The
first song was I didn't even haveit on hold, never even though he
was gonna cut it. And TonyBrown calls, hey men, we cut

(18:14):
a song here today on George straight. I went what he said, Yeah,
we were cutting this song and itjust didn't work, and George wanted
something else and we brought Jim Lauderdaleover and Jim played a couple of songs
and we really like this song here, so we cut a song called Nobody
Has to Get Hurt. This isan album cut, but a really cool
song. And then I had thetitle cut of his album call Always Never
the Same with Marv Green that Iwrote. And then I just went through

(18:40):
an ordeal with George. He's beencutting his new album and they had a
song of mine. They just loved. It's one of my favorite songs called
love Me Some Texas, and Georgeloved it, and Tony loved it.
Everybody loved it, and they it'sheartbreaking because we all love George. And
the day before they called and said, man, George is just digging this
song. He loves that melody andyou know, he's a melody guy,
and I'm gonna, you know,make sure that song gets cut. And

(19:03):
of course Monday night, after thefirst round, they went, man,
he didn't cut the song, asit's like, of all the cuts not
to get it's as heartbreaking as itis exciting to get one, you know.
But yeah, I mean, fortunately, that's the name of the game.
If you're a songwriter, you know, you get you get a song
like that and you get something cut, boy, it's a high that you
can't even imagine. And it's amiracle every single time. And I tell

(19:27):
people the cuts that I've been blessedto get and cuts. You know,
I've never gotten two cuts the sameway. I mean unless I record my
own song. Yeah, but otherthan that, no two channels have.
But you know, it's just it'sall they're all. It's all a miracle.
It's all a miracle. It allhas to line up, and there
are a lot of people involved.You know, you get down to George

(19:47):
straight, I mean, he's gonnaultimately make the decision, but it's a
lot of songs being pitched. Aguy like that to even get down close
to getting one and make it geton the album is pretty you know what
Tony's always said, if he hadn'tand a singer, George Frait would have
been the greatest an ar man inhis ship. He has picked so many
hits out of obscurity, just fromthe Normandy get through. George Norma is

(20:10):
the one that listens to a lotof his songs to true. That's what
I've heard You're married, Well yeah, yeah, that's just downplaying his talents
because he is actually the voice ofAustin. For us who grew up the
Broadcasters Hall of Fame, they justbare ticket. Then there's that. But

(20:36):
I mean for a guy like me, Uh talk about a thrill, you
know, having someone cut your songs, But what a thrill to be riding
down the highway and hearing your songcome on Case one on one or cave
that. Back in the day,I got a speeding ticket early on going
to Flugerville. I'll never forget this, every step of the way. Our

(20:59):
first single was on Case one onone, and I'm freaking out. I
mean, I've got it cranked up. I can't believe it's a dream come
true for a guy like you know, us who who always dreamed of that.
I'm on the radio at one ofmy favorite stations and I'm cranking it
and next thing you know, man, I haven't got the blue lights behind

(21:19):
me, and I'm being pulled overand I don't even care. I'm so
excited, I'm so happy, Idon't even care. So the cop comes
up to me and I kid younot, I wrote down the winter.
He goes, hey you in ahurry, I said, hey man,
I'm on the radio. I've gotto sing. I'm singing on the radio,
and the guy, without even baggingit out, he goes, yeah,

(21:41):
and I'm Johnny Cash. He wasin no mood to care about anything
going on in my world, andhe wrote me a ticket right there.
I would I don't even care.It was worth it. It was worth
it. And you get the story, man, Yeah, you get the
story for sure. Terry told mea great story. I was talked to
him a few weeks ago and hesaid he was going through your studio and

(22:03):
that right, and he found anold cave at belt Buckle. He still
has it, Bob. I betI have three or four of them,
because a couple were my dad's,then a couple I had, you know,
over the years. I think mostof them are gold, but I
think there's a silver one to everyone. Was the old one that we
had back. I had a coupleof a couple of gold. Yeah.
You know, if you had hadthem with you when you got pulled over,
that's how we used to get outof We used to that, you

(22:26):
know, That's what we would doto get out of parking tickets. We'd
always carry a couple of them.A secret but they still they have the
rope, they have the yeah,yeah, so funny. It was like
before I got any awards or anything. Seriously, Steve Gary gave me a
belt buckle and it was like aGold Records. I'm getting a custom one

(22:48):
made because next April is my fortiethanniversary, camead case. Wow. Well
yeah, I know we're not thereyet, but I got a We heard
the McBride podcast. You're out ofhere, But I've got a guy that
makes bell buckles up at Amarillo andhe's making me a custom one. Who

(23:11):
is the guy? You know whohe is. It's on my phone someplace,
but it's a it's a guy thatmakes him. For the Texas Music
Awards, we had a couple ofguys that are do that sex work.
Tales from the Broken Spoke is recordedlive at The Broken Spoke in Austin,
Texas, hosted by Country Radio Hallof Fame broadcaster Bob Pickett and Monty Warden,
recorded, mixed down and produced byMike Rivera