Part 3 of Bob and Monte's visit with Walt Wilkins

Why did Walt leave Nashville and move back to Austin? Here's the story. Anyone you think should be on the podcast? Let Bob know at [e-mail] and thanks for listening!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Bomb Picket. Weare on our way to the legendary Broken
Spoke. Come on, let's getout of the truck and head inside the
land of the Truth and damn you'reproud of it. Come on, it's

(00:20):
going side. Getting ready for anothertale from the Broken Spoke and join our
conversation with Walt Wilkins. Let's getright back to it, Walt Wilkins,
Many warden and your truly Bomb Picketas we contendue your conversation with Walt Tails
and the Broken Spoke. Why didyou decide to leave Nashville and come back
here? Uh? Well, thebusiness started really changing. It was just

(00:42):
almost impossible to get cuts. I'mnot I had a few cuts, and
the ones that I'm proud of forthe most part, but uh, I
didn't have a hit. I'd gottenclose like a couple of times, and
uh and and that's heartbreaking, youknow. And after they'll started adding up,
I was like, all right,if it's not going to happen here.
One, I miss home. Two. I got now a two year

(01:03):
old son. I don't want toraise him in Nashville. Well, and
also I want to raise him inTexas. The live songwriter thing was really
starting to take off here. Butwhen the business changed, because you and
I both were we had like thelast ticket to the fun part. Yes,
I agree, And you could earna good living on album cuts.

(01:27):
You didn't have to have a single. And then once streaming came in and
people used to have to go buytheir groceries, but now they could take
the shit off the shelves for free. Nobody's going to still buy groceries.
Is the analogy I used. Whenyou didn't have to buy records anymore,
people didn't And now it's like nineteenfifty eight, you have to have a
single to make a living as asongwriter, whereas in the eighties and nineties

(01:52):
you could make a good like,you know, an album most albums that
had hits, we're platinum where goldor platinum, and you can make a
good living off of just have analbum cuts and you know, And and
that that completely dried up very quickly. Yeah, it was, it was.
It didn't take long. But peoplelike Kenny Rogers record. Yeah,

(02:15):
I had two songs by Kenny Rogers. The same song was recorded by Kenny
Rogers and Pam Tillis. And thenlater after I left I'm gonna forget her
name. I can't believe it.Uh, And it was. It was
a single that died at fifty one. This is a Monie Warden story.
I love. Uh. This songis called someone Somewhere Tonight. When Kenny

(02:37):
Rogers recorded it, he was thefirst he told I never mane it.
But he told a mutual friend hesaid, tell your friend, this is
gonna be big. This is abig song. And when I heard the
recording, I thought, oh mygod, I'm gonna be up for sem
song the here because the recording KennyRogers is singing and it sounded like that.
It's Kenny Rogers singing a you know, a song that I thought was
a good song and it didn't happen. And then uh, Pam Tillis recorded

(03:04):
it. Yeah. But when thankyou Kelly Pickler recorded it, it was
a single finally and it died atfifty one. And everyone, I mean
I it was a kick in theass. It was hard to breathe.
It was it was. It washard. And one person was honest with

(03:27):
me, and that was Moni Warden. Everyone would be like, don't where
you'll get your chance? And Iwas like, no, I don't probably
not. I'm fifty something at thetime. I'm fifty, I don't and
I don't live there. You know, this hurts and people are like,
oh, come on. Monty Wardencalled me and said, dude, you
know Brandy and I keep an eyeon the charts. And he said,

(03:47):
I saw what happened. Man.He goes, that's a gut punch.
I said, that's a red Wingwork boot kicking the nuts. Yeah,
and he said this, he goes, that hurts. I know it,
he said, And I know youyour seat at the Big Boys table and
he said, and I'm sorry.And it was the most comforting I could's.

(04:08):
It was a beautiful friendship gesture.So someone to be honest and that
called back call. That call meantthe world to me and still does when
I think about it. That hadhappened to me a couple of times,
and you just go, you justwant somebody to go, Man, that
fucking sucked. That just sucked.And it did. It's like it was
something like that and you get close. It's like if you were a salesman

(04:30):
you worked on the same product fortwenty years and then it didn't work out
right, It's like, ah,but but I'd already left Nashville, and
and I and I left because Iwas good man. I was Pat Green's
recording my songs and starting to writewith him. Corey's right with Corey,
I'm getting to know the scene here. I can get my guitar and go

(04:50):
play and up there. You know, you don't make money playing live in
that area. You wish, youwish it would be different. But so
I came home to be home withmy son and my new family. And
and uh, Tina is a Westerner, She's from California. So we weren't.
Neither of us ever felt at homein Nashville. I mean as a

(05:11):
as a region, right, Andactually, yeah, so we came here
and never missed a beat. Imean there's some people we miss in Nashville.
Well, I mean to tell you, honestly, we're blessed to have
you here. Oh. But butwhat I don't understand is if you guys
have been friends for years, whyhasn't he been on the pot. You
should have been on the podcast ayear ago. Yeah, what's up with

(05:33):
that? Well, first, therewas there was a series of an indictment.
Is not a U if I hadknown about that, But there were
some legal things Walt had to getpast. It I thought would not be
the best for the pot. Ilook, Monny knows everyone, Nanni knows
everybody, so you should know.It was just Actually I would love to

(05:54):
take credit for this, but likeany success I have ever had in this
business, it is Brandy going hasthe co host. Yeah, And I
went, no, I hadn't hadWalters like right there. If Monny and
Brandy were doing this together, noone would ever get to do anything.
But we finally had Brandy join hima few weeks ago talk about the new

(06:18):
album, talk about Jackpott, andI thought, wow, okay, I
know who the real talent and thefamily is no surprise to both of them.
Isn't that record fantastic? It isIt's a Summertime by the Pool record.
It's fantastic, And I don't wantto wait four or five years for
another one to come. Okay,just go right one day. Well,

(06:41):
but the song that you guys weretalking about to be perfect for the next
album that you get, that's great. Actually Brandy wrote the bridge was it's
like we were never in the roomtogether. It's a great song. It
just sounds like a it sounds likeit has been a hit. You know,
we have we we haven't written anysongs that are not very good.

(07:01):
No, I've pitched I remember Ipitched something me. You know. What
I learned recently is that you andMatt Hillier had all this great history together.
I'm the reason why he's in showbusiness. That's all my fault.
I'm sorry, he's uh. Ijust did a duet with him on the
new record. Really yeah, yeah, it's fantastic love Matt. I did
excited about this new record now,thanks. It's it's a funky record,

(07:25):
man, I'm telling you. It'sseventeen songs, Waltz's two Polka's. You
know when you're dogs Man in dogsMan and there's your there's your album title.
Well for Waltz is two Polkas anddogs Man Wilkins. That's pretty good.
That's a great title you got,not the title. The artwork's already

(07:46):
underway. But that's not a badtitle. It could be. It could
be a sub right, and yougot to do the like the like the
seventies, Tom t Hall Dot Dotright for Waltz's Comma two Polka Dot Dot
Dot and dogs Man Wilkins. It'sthe new record has eight songs recorded with
the band at the Saxonyle, whichis John Chipman, Scrappy Judd, Ron

(08:09):
Flint and me. It's a neatlittle four piece of starting to play out,
play festivals and stuff. So that'snice. You gave Ron Flint a
bone like that. He needs it. Bless his hard he's the best man.
Well he's a guy we should haveon this show. There you go.
You want to you want stories aboutshow business on American Bandstand, Yeah,
American and MTV and MTV. Yeah, and toured with Petty and all

(08:30):
sorts of guys like that. Reallycool and and his band twenty twenty.
They just finished a record. They'realready they're gonna they got gigs I think
in New York and LA. Theywere great. Oh they were fantastic,
fantastic. But you know as well, like when you know and the part
of your mom will be played byme. Uh. But when you moved

(08:54):
back home, it's wild because youwere already great. You were Walt Wilkins.
You'd had publishing deals for a decade, So how much better can you
get? I'll tell you this much. When you moved back to Texas,
your writing went to just this otherplace. I think it was nice to
be out from under oh because therewas any pressure, right, no pressure,

(09:18):
I mean, you know, andhere's another great money. So I
remember this. The first time WEEKsat at your house. I came over
to write and I said, well, here's I just want to say this,
Money, I've been in Nashville foreleven years. I don't want to
write one more bridge ever in asong. And Money said, that's all
right, man. I like bridgesthe way Hank Williams did, which means

(09:39):
I never had to We didn't haveto write a bridge to a song ever
again never never, never wrote Soyou know, there was so I mean
literally one year when BMG was theyhired a new Karen Conrad, and she
brought in all the writers, liketwenty writers whatever, and she said to
me, and I'd had a couplecuts but no hits. And she said,

(10:01):
you know, we're we got tohave hits. And I said,
yes, ma'am, I understand.She said, we all here know your
time's coming. We know it.The whole town knows it, and which
makes me sound cooler than I was. But she said, we know it,
but for a year, one year, I need you to write verse

(10:22):
chorus, verse, chorus, bridgecourse, can you do that for a
year? And I said no,ma'am. She said, well we can't.
We can't resign you because I needyou do that. I said,
I understand. To me, Iwas like, I'll go home, you
know, I'll go to Texas,go back home to Austin. And what
an odd thing to say, butthat she meant it. And that night
she called and said, all right, one more year, write what you

(10:43):
want to write, try to doit, try to help us and write
a hit. Didn't happen either,But but yeah, but uh, well,
I you know, I don't.I don't know what she thought,
because they could have gotten rid ofme, and they had plenty of hit
makeup John Hye on the roster then, you know, and there were a
bridge should take you somewhere. He'sthe name Bridge and if it's a bridge

(11:11):
to nowhere? Right, But thatwas the formula in Nashville in the nineties.
You know, there's a whole generation, the forty year olds that just
that nineties country is it? Theylove it so much and like I can
barely listen to it because it's everysong is the same, same form,
the same the same way it does, and it's got so boring. And
that's another word. The music wasgetting boring to me up there, and

(11:33):
the music down here was rocking.There were all these bands playing and and
I mean the music down here wasfun, right, and the music there
was just getting to be the same, you know. So right when Brandy
had first started her publishing companies,just like O two, I think she
started Moonkiss, and we were justtalking about the radio and uh, and

(11:54):
she just said, you know,all these fucking songs about doing it creekside
and in the barn she goes,you know how many ants and tics nobody
talks about, because the minute youcan do it inside, you do it.
No one who actually lived out therewas go doing what you're talking about
when they come up here and say, hey, can we need a dance
mix out of this? Can youdance mixes crazy with Yeah, I had

(12:18):
I did not have full creative control. When I was on the Warner Bros.
I was on Asylum, and theydid two dance mixes to one of
my records, and it sounds asgood as you think it. It sounds
as good now as it ever did. Yeah. That was that was an
unfortunate season in country music for thetwo Steppers. Yes, I mean line

(12:41):
dancers, not the line dance.Yeah, we're so blessed to have you
with us today. And again thisshould have happened over a year ago.
Oh, don't look at me.Your your phone doesn't work either. I
could, I could, I can? Could you want? The truth is
I've been asking Walt since we startedthe podcast, and he has refused every
time on moral grounds. No,it's not true. See every every month

(13:07):
Luke and Box every Wednesday, sectionfirst, and I should say about Luke
and Box. We dialed it backto uh the summer months. For my
my audience gets kind of rough.These are not the young. These are
people are in their twenties mostly souh so you know what I'm saying,
They're older people and who don't needto be out in the uh and in

(13:30):
fact, in fact, some ofmy guests aren't. I remember one time
last July it was Larry Joe Taylor, uh to I forget. But everyone
was like I was the youngest andthat's bad, fantastic, and I was
like, I'm going to kill theseguys out here in August, you know,
August. But the next one willbe in October. So now we
do four year, five years,okay October, yeah, October. At

(13:52):
least some Morales is signed right now. Is going to make this Chad Reschard
and then we'll see. Yeah,I love that money. Money is always
fun. But also when you asksomeone to play Lukemark, it's a fraction
of what they make playing just aboutanywhere else. It's just you do it
for the vibe out there is yeah, it is. And you do it

(14:13):
to be on stage with Walt Wilkinsand it's but I will say, you
have your audience extraordinarily well trained.It's great. They will buy the swag,
they listen to every song and whateverthey like. I got good.
I have a great great people,great folks. I love you. Let's
plug your website too well, wilkinsdot com, which has been some besides

(14:35):
having shows, it's been somewhat inactivefor a while. But I'm with a
new record. It'll be redone.I'm going to reinvest in that and and
uh and the record will be outin August. And it's called for waltz
Is. It's called Focus. It'scalled Through the Stars the Stars. Yeah
you went with that title. Yeah, it's a beautiful time U. And

(15:01):
there was a song called on therecord. The song is called walk This
World and it has that been there? Yes, I am so excited you
because, uh, you hadn't putout a record in a little while three
years, yeah, maybe four andthat's it's just fantastic. The last record
I did was during like a lotof us, during the shutdown, and
Ron and I just kept ourselves sayingby making a record, I was in

(15:24):
there every day. This record hastaken months as we've done other things and
produced other records for folks. I'mreally excited about Mike Graham. You there
with him from four Worth Yeah,and uh, and then Chad Reshard is
this just insanely great country soul songwriterand singer from He's originally from over in
the Beaumont area and he's now inthe Hill country. So well, I

(15:46):
would say, anybody listened to ifyou if you're I want to get better
acquainted with Walt's music. I'm sureeverybody knows, but I would say,
listen to Trains have Missed Poetry?Uh it was country? Is that the
name of that song? When itwas country? Oh? What a brilliant
thank you? Uh dogs man thatyou can find that on online. There's

(16:11):
live there's live vers on YouTube.And I would say farm to Market Romance,
that's one of my favorites. Itis, it's one of my fas.
I love singing that song. Yeah, that's one of my favorite songs
ever. I was a I wastelling Walt that this U this chick came
up to me and she didn't know. She had no idea that I had
co written this song. And shesaid, did you just say chick chick

(16:33):
broad skirts anyway, Tomato? Thatreminds me of money David Conrad story.
You know, it's nineteen six,it's not nineteen sixty three, you know,
buddy, did Who am I goingto pitch these songs to h But
she came up to me, shegoes, I love the covers that you
that you choose, you know,because the Wagoners do mostly originals, you

(16:55):
know. And she said, youjust do such tasteful covers. And I
said, I think, she goes, and the fact that you you just
so surprised me when you did farmto Market Romance, which is the song
Walton I wrote. And I said, well, actually I actually I wrote
that. Did she say, henever gives you credit. No, no,
she she said, she said,I didn't know, Walt Co wrote,
she just looked at me like youlines, Yeah, would you got

(17:19):
to take credit? Why would youdo that? Just I gave you a
compliment? Okay, mister man,exactly, how about you just say thank
you and go on? Can Isay one really nice thing about you?
You can say anything. I lovethis about money. If you play music
with the same guys for as longas that core has been together, that

(17:40):
says a mountain about your character,Thank you, man. Or if you
if they're just barely good enough andnot really good enough to go play with
anyone else, you tend to keepthem around two or he's a guy that
signs a check. I'll say this. It is why. It's like you

(18:00):
do have a great You have agreat Those guys are great. Oh they're
great. You know. It's likewe have a like the new guy in
the band and the Wagoneers joined inninety one, right, and that was
Moss, right, Okay, Yes, which we're going to talk to Moss
quickly too, hopefully. Yes.Oh, I bet he's got some good
tales. Just he's a beautiful guy. Those guys are fantastic. And I.

(18:21):
I mean that just says the world. Do you guys love playing music
together or you wouldn't do it?And you treat each other with dignity and
respect, or you wouldn't do it. We picked this thing, and we
had this friend of ours that's ajournalist who's out there, and he goes,
I love the show Wagoner is oneof his favorite groups, he said.
But afterwards it took y'all thirty fuckingminutes to say goodbyes. I love
you. I love you man,I love you bore, he said.

(18:44):
It was the grossest thing. Itit's a beautiful thing. It was cool,
yeah, man, cool? Soh once one more the new album
title, the upcoming album Through theStar, Through the Stars doing October August.
Yeah, I yeah, I reallywant to have for sure have it
because the band will be playing MichaelHearn's Big Barn Dance and Tallis in September.

(19:07):
So are you gonna maybe do analbum released out the Saxon or anything?
Yeah, I mean yeah, we'lljust doing hard people. Yes,
you're doing CD and vinyl. I'mdoing CD of seventeen songs and vinyl of
the eight songs I cut with theband because there's no rules anymore. You
do whatever you want. Everyone said, make two records. I'm like,
that's more money. So I'm gonnado seventeen songs on a CD and the
eight songs. When was the lasttime you had Vinyl out? The last

(19:30):
mister Carrol records? So that's beenseven eight years ago. I guess I
love Vinyl. Oh, it's thebest it can be. CDs were probably
the best as far as sound qualityand how long they last, which is
forever right, and portability, andwhy they went away I do not understand,

(19:56):
and then why they're not why theytook CD players out of a car.
A CD player takes it's this bigwhat it is, you know,
And whenever we go these they're goingto come back because they're the best,
and everybody's bitching that they don't haveit. And I also think that it's
like still to this day, whena mix comes in, I like to
put the CD in my car andlisten to the exactly what I do.

(20:18):
And every d's are fantastic and peopleconvenience sober quality that you know, we
all do it. I gotta Ihave I don't know, fifteen thousand songs
on my phone because it's convenient.But nothing sounds like vinyl or CDs is
that they just kept CDs kept gettingbetter better, and vinyl is beautiful and
it's that what we grew up withand all that. But you also take

(20:41):
him around is insane, right,Well, but if they if I had
a record, if I'd stopped bythe record store on the way down here
and I left it in my trying, Yeah, well they and you can
only play him ten times or beforethey start to degrade, you know.
But if you I found, ifyou do the mac, if you do
one hundred and eighty gram manhole cover, does that help that that keeps the

(21:02):
quality? And yeah, we didone on Misscarros and we we had this
one cat out of the UK masterit just for Vinyl, yes, and
it's just a mother you know.But also but you know, if you
make, if you make that kindof music like we make, that's organic
and it's you know, I thinkvinyl lends itself to that. It does
roots to your music, feuture tracks, all that kind of thing. Yeah,

(21:23):
everybody actually picking and singing. I'mhoping that by the end of the
week we'll transfer the eight songs thatI did with the band. We got
to come up with a name forour band, like now and uh and
but I also hopefully have it inJerry Tubb's hands by Friday, maybe Friday
afternoon. How great is he?Beautiful? He's so great, He's world

(21:45):
class great and he's just right here. And he's a beautiful cat. Oh
yes, great cat. Amazing cat. Speaking of great cats, Walt Wilkins,
Ah, dude, it is justso amazing. This is I think.
I feel this is the first timeyou're doing the show because we'll have
to have you back because I didn'tget the full Grandma girm out on you

(22:07):
that I was wanting to. Idon't I feel I held back as a
Walt Wilkins fan. You did prettygood. That's enough, it was.
It was enough. Money isn't enough, and it's Bob was so good to
see you man. Great to hearyour voice. Man, it's just great.
Doesn't he sound just like Bob Pickett. It's remarkable. It is remarkable.
It's at Cedar Park here every day, That's what it is. Sitting

(22:30):
here, you know, we're sittingat the broken spock. For If I
I'll get out of this, Iwon't even have an ice cold lone Star
and a hamburger. That's what.That's what. I could taste it in
my mouth when I walked in.When I walk in, all these takes
a chicken fried steak and that gravy. I can't eat that anymore, you
know. So that's that's the worstnews I've ever heard. Yeah, it
was tough. It was the Holocaust, and now it's that you can't have

(22:55):
It's it's tough. We'll grab someburgers sometimes, all right. I'm not
even so stat burgers, but wecould. Hey, you know, do
you ever? Do you drink beer? Yeah? Have you been over to
the Good Lot? Not yet?Looks like I'm going. Now, let's
let's go meet at the Good Lot. We'll do that for sure. It's
a beer patio on New Hope.Okay, right across from that the beautiful
Behigh. Because you don't, Ididn't know you like beer. You don't

(23:18):
like you don't drink beer? Beer? You can join us, of course
you can. I can't. Ihaven't had it, haven't. I mean
just sitting They have water and stuff. I love that. That sounds fun.
Broke and spoke. More tales.More stories coming up, very very

(23:40):
soon. Tales from The Broken Spokeis recorded live, but The Broken Spoke
in Austin, Texas, hosted byCountry Radio Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Pickett
and Monty Warden, recorded mixed downand produced by Mike rivera