Let's catch up with Ginny White Peacock and Michael Peacock of the Broken Spoke.

The late James White certainly left the legacy of the Broken Spoke in great hands. He would be proud of all the work his daughter Ginny, and his son-in-law Michael have done with the legendary Broken Spoke. Let's catch up with them.

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. Damn,
you're proud of it. Come on, it's going side. Get ready

(00:22):
for another tale from the Broken Spoke. Oh, you're gonna love this.
Back at the Broken Spoke. It'sTell's Broken Spoke, Bob Picket, Monty
Warden, and we're ready for somegreat stories. Jenny White Peacock, mister
White's daughter is gonna join us frommy cousin, your cousin. That's right,
that's right. Now, you broughtthat up. She didn't bring it

(00:42):
up. She may not claim youas a cousin. If if you were
kin to me, would you bringit up? Now? Vince? What
day? It is? Right?Come on join us on the microphone.
Jenny, I definitely claim you.Okay, that's a question. Right all
the time, guys, we're veryproud of money. Well look at him
smiling. Well it was just wild. I mean, I've told the story
before, but it's like, Jenny, and now we're talking. We were
talking right over there at that table. Yeah and uh, and we're talking

(01:04):
about the saddle and stuff and TexasRangers and in her ken, I said,
I have Texas Rangers and my kenshe goes, Jenny went like,
bless your heart. She said,well, we come from a very old
Texas family. And I said,oh, I come from a very old
Texas family. And Jenny said,well, like we had like seven ancestors
at Sanga Cino, and I went, I had seven ancestors at san Ja

(01:26):
Cinna. She goes, well,what's your family name? I went burd
It. She goes, Oh mygosh, they say Burdette. We're Burdette.
You know, different pronunciation. Iwant Jesse Birdett. Jesse bird Itt,
and my Jesse bird Itt was this. He was Travis County's first commissioner.
He was at the Battle Centa Centoand Da Da Dah. He had
seven kids and his son Joel ismy direct and his daughter Lavina was their

(01:49):
direct. So that's howd Yeah,okay, now get into family before we
forget this new movie that I watchedthe other night on Apple Plus. What's
it called The Killers of the FlowerMoon. Yeah, there's some broken spoke
connection with that movie. It's ahuge broken spoke connection. It's really a
James White Jenny White connection. Okay, But so Killers of the Flower Moon

(02:15):
are about when the Indians up inthe Osage Indians, they were mysteriously dying.
And so this is the very beginningof the FBI. I believe it's
nineteen twenties, very beginning. JayEdgar Hoover was trying to get people together

(02:35):
for it. But at first allhe had was, you know, pencil
pushers and the guys that wore theshirts, you know, the suits and
ties. Right, So he said, I need some tougher guys than these
guys to go out and do therough work, you know, so you
know, on the ground work.So he came down to Texas and recruited

(02:59):
Texas right to be in the FBI. And two of my uncles were recruited
by j Edgar Hoover. So oneof them was we called him Uncle Campbell.
His name was James Campbell White,and he's the one that was closer
to us, and he actually gavemy dad our ranch. His brother was

(03:23):
my great grandfather, who was alsoa Texas ranger, but he was killed
in the line of duty. Andthen there's the third brother. There was
four boys. But then the thirdbrother was Tom White and he is the
one that was sent to Oklahoma toinvestigate these murders. And so what was

(03:46):
happening was the Osage Indian were givenland by the federal government and it happened
to be sitting on millions, billionsdollars worth of oil, and they didn't
know when they gave it to theseNative Americans. So they these ranchers found
out and they started marrying the womenin this in the tribes, and not

(04:13):
only the women would mysteriously die,but anybody else that could claim, you
know, the land, would die. And they were poisoning them. And
so my great great uncle's he's theone that solved it. He solved that
case. Now, the movie doesn'tshow as much about the book I've heard

(04:34):
shows a lot more about like thebeginnings of the FBI, et cetera,
because that's a big part of itbecause they were using investigative tools that nobody
had ever used or you know whatI mean. And it was a schedile
government looking into something and not justa you know, a state trooper or
something like that way back in theday. But yeah, so he actually

(04:58):
there's so he an FBI agent.I don't know exactly how long I know
that Uncle Campbell, his brother,was an FBI agent, I believe for
almost twenty five years, and thenhe came down here and retired, and
my dad took care of him.And my mom said, oh, she
goes. I was scared of him. He was such a big man,

(05:18):
and and she goes. And hewas no messing around like you know,
he was pretty stern. But anyway, but the Uncle Tom, the one
that's in the movie, he's playedby Jesse Plemons, who live yes with
his wife Kirsten Dunce. And soafter he was an FBI agent, a

(05:40):
lot of times they would put himin like prisons, et cetera, to
do work there, like wardens.So he actually became the warden of Leavenworth
after he was an FBI agent.And while he was a warden of Levenworth,
there was a prison break breakout andthey took him him as a hostage

(06:00):
and in the car. He wasmuch older than I don't know exactly how
old, but he was an olderman and they had him in the car
and one of the guys that hadgrabbed him had a gun and Uncle Tom
thought maybe he could grab it,but he didn't grab it in time.
They ended up shooting him I thinkin the side, and they threw him

(06:23):
out of the car and while itwas going and he survived though. And
then after that they put him inEl Paso. So that's where he was
a warden. And I can't rememberwhat al Tuna. Maybe I can't remember
what's out in El Paso, butthat's the prison he Yeah, he became

(06:46):
the warden down there, and thenhe retired and he's buried out out there.
We don't we're not. I knowthat my dad hooked up with his
son who was also a judge,but we're just we don't know as much
about him as the you know,my great grandfather and my great great uncle,
you know Campbell, those two weknow a lot more about. Well,

(07:10):
Jesse been the in and the spokebecause it'd be pretty cool to throw
out him, so Mike can tellyou about we I kept because I was
trying to. I wanted one ofthose writers or you know, somebody high
up on that film to contact us, because I thought it's crazy that you
don't contact the families when you're doinga film about somebody that's so close.

(07:34):
I mean, that's pretty close inrelations. I don't know if they contacted
his family. I don't know whohe has left in El Paso. But
so we would go on these filmblogs or film you know pages groups that
were about the Killers of the FlowerMoon and we would and I would say
that was my great great uncle,and I would tell him the whole story

(07:56):
about it. And so Jesse Pleman'smom saw one of the things that Mike
had written on one of those groupsand she contacted him. And so we've
been talking to her back and forth. Oh no, that's and we're gonna
doce. Michael Peacock right now,come on in now, get a work
close to the microphone. People havegot to hear your accent. It's South

(08:16):
Austin accent. There's nothing wrong withyour sound. He's British. So you
think Jesse is going to come inhere and you can say, hey,
we're related, so to speak.So that was like a blog like thing
on Facebook on Facebook, and Ijust put on that and I put some
pictures of Jenny's great uncle and toldhim the backstory and everything. And I

(08:39):
was in Sam's one day. Iwas just walking around and my phone went
and I looked on my phone andthere was this woman called Lisa Plumbins and
I'm texted about and she goes,oh, I'm Jess's mom when I saw
you your thing on Facebook, andI just went to introduce myself. And
she goes in a postle this onto Jesse about playing your wife's grit uncle,

(09:03):
and she said, maybe we couldall get together and made up and
the Broke and Spoke we could talkabout in the movie and we could bring
everybody out there and stuff. Ithink they're definitely she lives in Dallas area,
I believe. But I had heardthat Jesse and Kirsten lived here.
I heard they lived around the Austinarea, or they had a house or

(09:24):
something. I have a house here, yeah, because I know she has
a place. And I was justinto Luca Lake working and said, they
said this is one of her houses. I said, yeah, I think
she has a house in Travis Countytoo, So I remember that. Oh
I know what else. And Idon't know if he'll remember. But his
mom also told us that Jesse hasbeen to The Broken Spoke. They filmed
Friday night lights out here. Hewas in Fronday. I had forgotten about

(09:48):
that they filmed out here twice.Are you talking about the movie you're talking
about the TV the TV series theyfilmed up here, and you would not
have known it was the Broken Spoke. They changed every single They had the
television over here on the saddle.The saddle was covered up. They had
little lights on every table. Itwas anyway, was your dad any of
those scenes? I don't think so. And then they did another They came

(10:11):
out another time, and did theyThey phoned in the dance hall and then
they had a fight scene on theback parking lot. You know, I
was, I was so wild.I was on an episode of Friday Night
Lights, the TV show, andthey hired it. They wanted a band,
so they wanted to you know,real musicians. Said they got stuck
with me. And that's my line. It was. We were on this

(10:35):
set in Travis County and the wholetime we were just going. It was
over on like Fifth Street where theyhave sound stages. That's what I mean,
a sound stage. We're just going. This place looks like the Spoke.
They should have just come down here, but they would rather have built
the set. Yeah, for somereason. And they made it look like
a Texas honkey dog, you know, but there you go, yeah,

(10:58):
and you know, and we're oncamera like the forty seconds, I know,
or you go there for ten hours, or they're here and you're like,
you picked the broken spoke, butyou've made it not look like the
broken spoke. Like I don't getthat part. But I remember when they
filmed here. They I mean theywere here all it was, I guess
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or something. And you know, like the amount

(11:18):
of stuff that they bring is crazy. Yeah, yeah, it's insane.
I mean it's crazy. All theeighteen wheelers and then they have to have
all the dressing rooms, and theyhave to have all the you know,
generators and everything else, so theytake over. My mom. We don't
let her come down here on thosethings because it blow her mind. Let's

(11:39):
talk about your dad. Yeah,it's been how many years since we lost
him now, So he passed awayin January twenty one, three r three
years, right. I think thathe would be very proud. How you
guys are carrying on the tradition ofthe broken Spoke. Yeah, nothing has
changed at all. Yes, wetold people nothing would change, but you

(12:03):
know, people get worried because theydon't know us that they know him well
and ought to say from a picker'sstandpoint, nothing has changed, which is
amazing because the I've been picking honkyTonk since i was fourteen, you know,
first time I picked here, Iwas fifteen. You know, I'd
been at it a while, mind, but ugo uh. And the thing

(12:26):
about the spoke is the reason whythey have stayed open no matter what,
including lockdowns for sixty years, isthe musicians love playing here. And we
know we're going to be respected whenwe play here, and we know that
we're going to be well compensated ifthere's a good crowd. If and the

(12:46):
thing about when mister White was alive, if you had seven hundred and fifty
two people show up on your gig, you were paid for seven hundred and
fifty two souls. And it wasit is known through out America as one
of, if not the most honestdoors, because so often clubs that people

(13:07):
get sticky fingers at the door,and you might have seven hundred and fifty
people in there, but you're paidfor seven hundred and where does that fifty
go in somebody's sticky fingers? Andwhen mister White passed, we were like,
well that was James White, andlet's and let's see what happens.
And now Mike is the guy thatpays you. And you want to talk
about a tradition that carries on.You got seven hundred and fifty two people

(13:31):
that come through your door and payYou're paid for seven hundred and fifty two
people. It is the fact thatthe tradition of integrity, because you can't
just go get integrity off the streetand and think about mister White set an
example for Mike and Jenny of justtreat people the way you want to be
treated. Golden rule, you know, walk a Christian path. And at

(13:52):
the end of every night. Youknow what Mike always says with mister White
would say when when after a goodnight he would go, he'd take up
this big old water money. Hegoes, well, we're going to be
here. Why And here's what Mikehas his own line. He goes,
you come through the door and hegoes, well, you've done it again.

(14:15):
Then we start off with podcast talkingabout family. That's what this is.
It's a family the family owned business. That is it is you damn
right. But everybody walks to thedoor, they feel like they're a member
of the family. And because theyare, they're a member of that broken
spoke family. And I always writethat when I like, we think all
of our musicians are they're my yeah, my relatives, my family or whatever.

(14:35):
We treat them like that same thingwith our employees. Amen. Yeah,
I want them to do good,musicians to do good, because then
if they do good, we dogood. You know. Now a lot
of things have happened in the pastcouple of years. Of course, I
guess the biggest thing that happened wasa new plaque hanging outside everybody in historical
Marker. Historical Marker, Boy,was that in the works before James passed.

(14:56):
Yes, it was the lady thatdid the book, the author of
the book. Her name is DonnaMarie Miller, and she is the one
that got that plaque. She's sogreat for She's diligent, she's like my
dad. My dad would get heron all kinds of different stuff, like

(15:16):
she was like his little secretary orwhatever. You know, she would do
anything for him. And so Ithink he's the one that was like,
man, we really need that plaque. So she started working on it and
the first time we got a weweren't approved, but it was in the
final stages they kicked it out becausemy parents' name was on the plaque and

(15:37):
you're not allowed to have anybody's namethat isn't dead, or they have to
be gone ten years, like afterthey're dead. We put it on a
plaque so we could put Ernest tubor Bob Willis, but we couldn't put
James White and Willie Nelson on itor George Strait. So it had to
get started again. And so hedid know that we were going to get

(15:58):
it, but he just didn't knowwhen we were going to get it.
Yeah, so that happened. Now. The reason why it's a fixed on
the building, yep, it's becauseit's on the building, which means the
building is here to stay. Yes, plus the main that helps, of
course. But the City of Austinzoning us historical was the biggest thing that

(16:22):
saved us. It's ginormous. They'venever ever gone against a landowner's right.
Yeah, Usually landowners are dying tohave their property designated, and it was
just the opposite. Well they youknow the guy that was there, he
said they had a representative there andthey the landowners. He said, well,
we're objecting, but it's a quietwhisper. You know like we're not

(16:47):
really but we are so. Butthe guy said, you know what,
when we bought all of that land, we knew the Broken Spoke was there.
So that should make you feel goodabout it, like they knew what
they were geting so and and thatthey're proud to be you know. Part
of it linked. Well, youknow exactly what you're getting when you walk
in the door of the Broken Spaw. Well, and and also like if

(17:11):
you if you come here for supper, you're going to get a good you
know, you know, as theysay in the South meeting three, you
know, good country cooking. It'sfantastic food. And then if you go
on the dance hall, you won'tonly see great musicians doing you know,
exhibiting the talent God gave them.And it is you have to have some

(17:32):
chops to to play the big roomwith the broken Spoke. It's a long
set. Yeah. Well, andand you and you got to be good.
I mean that's the whole thing isyou have to keep people dancing.
Very first time, very first timeI played here with as a as.
It was my gig, not justsitting in with somebody. It's just ninety
one. I think a while ago, last century and last century, baby,

(17:53):
you better know it, man,and uh and at the time,
not now, but at the time, my band was pretty loud and broken
suppokes. It's not a loud gi, it's not a loud joint. You
want people to be able to visitand stuff. And we took a break.
We don't take breaks anymore. Wego nine to twelve thirty and then
we do not take a break.But at the time we took a break,

(18:15):
and I learned mister White suggested tome, why don't you just not
take a break instead of quit atone, just go three and a half
hours straight. And I said,man, you'd be okay with that,
and he because I prefer it becausewhen you take a break, everybody leaves,
yes, exactly, and so sowe just keep going. But anyway,
we're on our break and I said, and he said, boy,
it's a good night in here.And I said, thank you, sir.

(18:37):
I said, mister White, arewe too loud? And do you
know what his answer was to me? What my place is full? I
said, yes, sir, butare we too loud? He went,
my place is full? Answer becauseif we've been too loud, people would
have left it was his point,you know, and people had people had
not people had not left. Buthe was such a such an deer man

(19:00):
and such a a good man.I mean, he's just he just exuded
such such integrity. One one oneof my favorite stories of mister White's is
we we were talking family history whenJenny and I discovered we were cousins.
And uh, for those of youaround Austin, if you've ever left the
airport, there's this little tiny cemeteryon the highway, like right there at

(19:25):
one eighty three and seventy one.It's literally like in the middle of the
media all of these intersecting highways outby the airport, and it's called the
Little Page Cemetery. And your directLavina Bird it is buried there. Yes.
And also the first Austin Police officerkilled on the line is buried there.
He was a little Page what wasthe name and uh and that is

(19:49):
uh mister White and Jenny's direct descendant. But all around there was our branch.
It was called burd It's Prairie,uh plantation and and uh and just
on the other side of that isBurditt's Prairie Cemetery, which is where our
ancestral slave Cemetery was and it's allthe historical markers. So that little,

(20:10):
that little uh uh cemetery that's onthe median has four graves in it,
and the most recent one with somebodythat passed in the eighteen sixties. I
never noticed that. You've seen ita hundred times. It's like we're Callahan's
General Store. It's right. Yeah, my dad when he was he ran
across the road or whatever to goof. And they went to so many

(20:30):
cemeteries when they were doing family history, so many and like and Jesse Bird,
the patriarch uh he's buried at OldMiddle Fiskefield Cemetery, he and his
wife, and there's a two oftheir sons that were at Santa Cento buried
there. And their youngest son,Jesse Burdett Junior, who was killed at
the Battle of Shiloh and the ConfederateArmy is buried there as well. So

(20:53):
we're all around there. My directis this guy named Joel Burditt, as
I said, And at the Battleof San Justo, Mexican general Juan Almonte,
their colonel Juan Almonte surrendered to JoelBird It and it's a very famous
thing because the Texans were killing Mexicansoldiers and one on Monte realized, I'm

(21:15):
going to go get two hundred soldiersand we're going to surrender as a group
to this one, you know,private in the army. You know,
a guy named Joel Burdett, andAlmonte presented h bird it with his sword
and mister White we we were overthere leaning on the bar, and he
said, now do y'all still havethat sword? I said, mister White,

(21:37):
we do not. I said,near as I can figure. The
last place that ever showed up wasin the eighteen seventies and Joel, as
an old man, lost it ina poker game. And all mister White
said was, yeah, it soundslike us. Definitely definitely on the white
side. Your dad loved to playpoker, though, didn't he He was

(21:57):
good at it. He would nothave lost he was did he have a
poker face? He was extremely patientand and very cautious his whole like just
how he live life the same way, like just patient and cautious. Oh
he's he was overly cautious about stuff. So you know, like did you

(22:19):
turn your curly and iron off?Are you sure? Like that, you
know, the the cautious dat.I used to always get all that stuff.
But yeah, but yeah, hewas good at poker, great poker
player. Huh. But wait aminute, that's another tale for another time.
It's a late great James White usedto tell me. Hope you'll join

(22:40):
us next week, Part two ofour conversation with Michael and Jenny Peacock care
on Tales from the Broken Spoke.Tales from the Broken Spoke is recorded live
but the Broken Spoke in Austin,Texas, hosted by Country Radio Hall of
Fame broadcaster Bob Pickett and Monty Warden, recorded mixed down and produced by Mike rivera m