November 28, 2024 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You got a guitar for fifty bucks. He said, here,
(00:03):
play this. Maybe this will keep you out of trouble,
and I'll show you what I learned.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
See if you know that, then.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
You can run away from home.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Two types of people, both that know, the Bond Brothers
and the Hopes that don't.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
They said, hey, if you're in La, come bine. We
did some recordings. Like a month later they were in La.
Speaker 5 (00:35):
We're here.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We're here a nigar album.
Speaker 5 (00:37):
You just got that thing man, that Texas thing like.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Ford, piss this off. The little hot rod guys are
out here.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Look out for the Horn Brothers because that seriously dangerous people.
Speaker 6 (00:55):
These are two brothers who adored each other. For me,
Stuy was Albert King.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Jimmy was leading a charge. It was pre rowdy. After
tex Flug came out. They gave me a horse.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
When you're in the top ten, everybody wants the Grammys.
Speaker 7 (01:15):
George there are good and Stevie Rayvaugh.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Four years later, the concerts still going on, he went
and got in the helicopter.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
That's how that happened.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Let's uh, let's kind of mirror the documentary and start
at the beginning and talk about Stevie Rayvaughn, and you
can't do that without starting with Jimmy Vaughn who was
the star guitarist while his little brother played the plastic guitar.
Take us up through Jimmy leaving at age fourteen, because
that was all new to me.
Speaker 8 (01:58):
Yeah, this is what I tell people whenever we've shown
the film, you know, in a theater. It's all streaming
right now. But I say, most people have no idea
how big Jimmy Vaughan was. Now, he was big back
in the sixties, before social media and before even cell phones.
But when Jimmy Vaughan was just fifteen years old, he
opened for Jimmy Hendrix in Dallas and he and Hendricks show.
(02:23):
They became kind of mutual fans, and he flew on
the plane with Hendricks down to Houston the next day
to see Hendrix play down there, and the opening night
there was Billy Gibbons band moving sidewalk, but also Jimmy.
This band he was in called the Chessman. They were
huge back in the sixties in Dallas, and they actually
even had a locally produced record that got played on
(02:45):
KLF radio in Dallas, so they had a local record
they were selling it, and they were getting Airplane on
the radio, and they were playing all over Texas and
Oklahoma and the Southwest, and back then, you know, a
lot of bands were really making quite a bet of money.
I mean, the Chessman would get twelve hundred dollars a
night and not even sixty dollars to put to play
(03:06):
a fat party at SMU or a club at Arkansas
or something that. So they were making big money. And
Jimmy was on that, you know, at fourteen when he
joined the band, and he was staying out till two
in the morning and was flunking school and so finally
this one day he said, I'm just going to play guitar,
but his parents wasn't better do that. So he ran
away from home at fourteen and moved out of the
(03:27):
house to you know, to take to Chase's Musical Dreams,
which he did. And you know, really, his younger brother,
Steve was sitting there watching all this and wanted to
do the same thing. But as we're telling the documentary,
Stevie's parents kind of clamped down on it, and they
didn't want him to make the same mistake quote unquote
as Jimmy did. And drop out of high school. And
I've told people this, I don't know anybody that I
(03:50):
knew personally who quit school at fourteen and said I'm
going to be a professional musician and actually did it.
I mean most of them were wound up working back
at Target two weeks later, you know, or something like that.
But both Bond brothers dropped out of school when they
were teenagers and became professional musicians that actually made it.
And I just had never seen anybody do that before,
and so that was part of the amazing story to me.
(04:12):
There are a lot of amazing things about them, but
that was one of the ones right there.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
And that brings us to the development of Stevie Ravaugh.
I mean, everybody knows, even if they can't name five
songs that Stevie Ravaugh was behind, they know he was
a legend.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
At Zilker Park in Austin, I remember just being blown
away at the monument to Stevie Ravaugh that is in
his size. I mean it was he five six, five seven,
but it has the monument that the beauty of the
monument Corey Morrows, the one that first showed me this
for moment, the beauty of the monument is that the shadow.
It has a bronze shadow that goes behind him. I
(04:51):
don't know, maybe thirty feet. That shows, you know that
everybody who came behind it that it was as if
the monument was moving the honey. It was bigger than
just a monument. But Stevie Ray is the star that
we know of. But Jimmy was the one who goes
off and is this you know, starts off and Stevie
(05:12):
Ray is playing his little plastic guitar. He starts learning,
He's coming up and Stevie becomes a star of national acclaim.
Jimmy during all of this is developing on his own
and he is this incredible guitarist doing amazing things people
don't realize and.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
Talk if you would.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
My favorite part of the whole movie was what was
happening at the room in this scene that Billy Gibbons
wrote about. Was it low down in the street and
the vibe of this Monday night. They took Monday, it
was a blues Monday, and then eventually Stevie Ray starts
playing on Sunday. And they said, if there were forty
people there, it was special. But the forty people who
(05:54):
were there were loving that moment and that was kind
of a high point. It was almost nobody experiencing it,
but it was so instrumental, seminal to the movement that
was happening.
Speaker 8 (06:10):
Yes, and that's that's really wherever the vond Brothers played,
And let's be honest, they were playing dumpy little clubs
in Texas. I don't care how much nostalgia you have,
you know, most of those clubs were dumps. I mean
that they had no VIP seeing or bottle service. So
but the thing was, there was such a scene, and
(06:32):
that's what I've tried to do in this film. Because
you can go online and hear every single Sea Gray
Vaughan song, you watch videos of all concerts, but there
was such a there was such a vibe or of
feeling and excitement for me there and I think most
people miss nowadays that when you were there, you were
you thought you were part of something special because they
(06:52):
would just you know, draw these eclectic clouds. And the
thing I tried to tell people is back when I
was watching them and Buddy, there was always somebody famous
in the audience wherever these guys played. I mean, whether
it was Robert Fann or led Zeppyrt, or Dicky Betts
or Dwayne Almond or you know we show in the
film Howard Hessman who was doctor Johnny Fever on w
(07:12):
k RP in Cincinnati, or Billy Gibbons. I saw him
at a gig at FitzGeralds. I would look around these
you know, these gigs, and it was always somebody famous
because even really good guitar players, you know, they wanted
to see these guys, so they'd heard about them to
word of mouth. You got to go see these guys,
and so it was just, uh, Jimmy had a great
(07:32):
quote back then. He said, hey, we're when we're playing,
it's be there or b square, And that's how it was.
You know, if you wanted to be hip or with it.
You we had a Vawn Brothers gig, but they just attracted
an incredibly attracted cloud and always put on an incredible
show and just there's a lot of energy in the
room that, like I say, can't be captured on video.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Kurt Cameron of the famous Growing Pains Man.
Speaker 8 (07:56):
If it worked for Growing Pains, I wouldn't be on
the Michael Bank Show.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Do you have.
Speaker 7 (08:05):
By all accounts, if Stevie and Double Trouble took the
stage to open for someone, they gave it back to
him in shambles. One of the traits that define a
hero is courage, and Stevie had incredible courage because he
fought to overcome the demons of drug and alcohol addiction,
and when he did, he returned to the stage and
(08:27):
even better guitar player for it. The only reason that
I know exactly what sobriety meant to Stevie in his
heart and soul is because he had the courage to
talk openly about it on stage. And so because of Stevie,
I grew up proudly turning down every drug and drink
(08:49):
ever offered to me, because in my mind, that could
bring me closer.
Speaker 8 (08:53):
To being like the man I never met and never could.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
Stevie was the ultimate guitar hero, and heroes live forever
on behalf of every guitar player and every blues lover.
It is the honor of a lifetime to induct Stevie
Rayvaughn and Double Trouble into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Film.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
The documentary is called Brothers in Blues. It's about Stevie
ray Vaughn and Jimmy Vaughan. It's a wonderful watch. You
can see it on every platform, I think, except for Netflix.
Just look up Stevie Ravugh including if you don't have
any of those on YouTube, it is worth watching. And
Kirby Warnock is the filmmaker who made it. I strongly
(09:41):
encourage you to watch it. What makes them so special?
A lot of guys have played a guitar. Clapton talked
about watching them play and how special it was. Billy
Gibbons talked about listening to them and wanting.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
To repeat that.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
What was so special about what they were doing for
a non guitar How do you explain that?
Speaker 8 (10:02):
Well, it's like the guitar became an extension of their body,
you know. I mean, it's they did stuff. And here's
the thing people don't understand or a non guitar player.
If you watch almost every rock guitarist, they've got all
these pedals they step on, you know, to make their
guitar sound this way or that way. These guys did
(10:22):
everything right out of their hands. They stretched and mit
the neck and the strings and got all these sounds
using their hands. And they got that style from Freddy
Kane basically. But they took it to another level. And
just that they didn't need I called it cheating. They
didn't need to cheat with a pedal or sustain or
wild all that stuff. They didn't need all that stuff.
(10:44):
They were able to get that with a Fender strat
plugged straight into a Fender amp. It was just their
guitar and a chord runner that amp. There was nothing
in between it. And just the fact that they were
able to get all these incredible sounds, and both of them.
You know, we all are in all when we see
Steven play on his back about his neck, But Jimmy
was doing that, you know, with the chess Men and
(11:05):
then with the Fabus Thunderbirds before Stevene got big. I mean,
so that really, Jimmy was the first guy I saw
do that. And I know that other people have done it,
like Peter Walker and I that, but Jimmy was the
only guy and Steve the only ones I saw who
could play these incredible, difficult licks behind their neck and
behind the back. But that was the main thing. They
were just so raw. Here's them trying to make it shorter.
(11:27):
If you heard a famous rock man to go play
a concert, they would have to set up do a
sound check and make sure all their equipment's worked the right,
to make sure he's petals and effects working. Jimmy and
Steven you could plug into an outlet behind a dairy
queen and sound incredible. They just they just it was
just such a raw, unfiltered guitar sound that was just
(11:48):
so distinct to them. You know when they when they're playing,
you can tell it's stem just about the sound.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
There was a reference to I believe it was Stevie
Ray playing with Jimmy Hendrix, but I feel like Jimmy
was maybe the one you were interviewing during this discussion.
And Jimmy Hendrix's equipment had his amp had busted, some
piece his pedal had busted, and so they he handed his,
he traded his, and he got a piece of junk.
(12:13):
And it turns out Jimmy Hendrix was playing with junk.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
He was just that good. Can you tell that story again?
Speaker 8 (12:19):
Yeah, this is one of the stories I've heard about,
but I wanted to get on filmed. I'd always heard
that when Jimmy Vaughn opened for Jimmy Hendrix in Dallas,
that they had traded wah wah pedals and so I
asked Jimmy about that. He goes, no, here's what happened.
Kendricks had a wahwah pedal, but it was broken and
he couldn't use it the concert that night, and so
(12:39):
it was a Saturday night. They couldn't go to the
music store and buy a new pedal. So they knew
that I had won with the chess men, and they
came to me and said, we'll give you this much
money for that wah wah pedal, and we'll give you
Jimmy Hendrix his old pedal, and he said sure, So
he did that, and so Jimmy Vaughan got the way.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
It was fifty bucks if I remember.
Speaker 8 (12:58):
Correctly, that's he said. It's either seventeen or fifty dollars
that I can't remember, but he got the broken Walla pedal.
He met Hendrix. They talked to me like that and
they swapped Walla pedals. But he said, basically they needed
minds that works, and his was broken. And Jimmy does
have that pedal, and in the documentary he says, I
(13:18):
think I've got it. He's being kind of coy about it,
but it's on his mantle at his house. I've been
and seen it. You know, he's very proud of that,
as would be anybody, my gosh, you know, but Hendrix
was a big fan of there. He thought they were
really something, that that Jimmy Wahmer's really something. And like
I say, you know, Jimmy Vaughn and to the Chessman
traveled down to Houston with Hendricks on the plane for
(13:40):
the next gig, you know there, so they you know,
and this again, this is at fifteen, you know, I mean,
my gosh, I mean, how many of the office there
would be the peak in our lives if we opened
up with Hendrix and met him, then then we'd go
be it has been. But you know that was Jimmy
just keept on going from there. And as we tell
the documentary, I know, me personally, I don't think that
(14:02):
there would be a Stevie Vonn who wasn't the Jimmy
vaugh And goes. Stevie learned how to play guitar from Jimmy.
They shared a bedroom. Stevie watched Jimmy learning these songs.
They had one record player. They all both learned off
five And I just had always thought that all these
other productions about Stevie Vaughan. They left Jimmy out of there,
and I didn't understand that because what I had seen
(14:22):
with my own eyes was that they both admired each other.
And Stevie told me that Jimmy taught him out to
play his first song of the guitar, I mean when
I did an interview with him, and so I didn't
understand what that was always being left out. But and
that was one of the things that drove me to
do this, that we've got to tell the story both
of them. We can't just tell You can't tell Stevie's
(14:43):
story without telling Jimmy's story first.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And what a great story and the kind of brotherly
love and the rivalry that goes into it is a
big part of this story. And one of the things
you captured was, you know, Jimmy goes off and is
very successful. Stevie comes in later and despite all his demons,
he's very successful and they've.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Both cleaned up.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
They both had terrible, terrible addiction, Stevie first and I
think Jimmy five years later, and then they reconnect. They
get into the studio TikTok is. I guess the biggest
hit to come out of that album. The album is
not yet complete when Stevie dies too early in this
in this helicopter crash, and Jimmy goes back in and
(15:31):
they finish it a month later. So this is kind
of his posthumous tribute to his brother. But all those
years and they had never they had never recorded together,
and how special that was that they would get to
do that. I thought you told that story so poignantly.
Speaker 8 (15:48):
Well again, I'm going back to I was mainly telling
what I saw when I was at Buddy Mage League.
When I was talking to Jimmy, he said, you know,
I want to make a director for Stevie. He told
me that back in line nineteen seventy nine, you know,
he said, and he used to say, the only divers
street Stevie and me and Stevie can sing, and you'r
And now Jimmy started singing. But back being Jimmy never sang,
(16:09):
would have had a sunder version of that. But he'd
always wanted to make a record with Stevie, and he
said that before, and then they finally get to do it.
They're set to make a big tour in support of
the album. You know. Now Rogers produces the LP, They've
assembled a band, they're gonna go on tour like that,
and then Stevie dies in the helicopter crash. So they
had all these, you know, big plans, and they had
(16:29):
the record recorded and just bang, it just all just
ends right there and that and after Stevie and after
they've gotten dried out, and it was like that. So
it seemed extremely unfair that a guy gets his life together,
finally gets to record this album with his brother. It's
gonna the song TikTok is gonna clim the charts, and
you're gonna go on a tour and then he dies.
(16:51):
I mean, uh, And that the the unfairness of all
that has always bothered me. But I don't know what
to do about it. But it all just kind of
crushed me that they were just working so hard, things
were looking up and then then this happens.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
We'll continue our conversation with Kirby Warnock about his documentary
is called Brothers in Blues about Stevie Ray Vaughan and
his brother Jimmy Vaughan, and it is wonderful.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Under about leadership, we will regain energy independence, massive energy
dominant Stabbin and Stabbin and Stabbin and Stalbin and Stabin.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Here we are to Anton's.
Speaker 8 (17:28):
I don't know what year it was.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
We're all standing around this Albert King show.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
It's packed.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
It's like Saturday night. If you ever saw Albert King play,
he's like Goliath with the guitar. He's the meanest, baddest
guitar player you've ever heard of. He looked at Anton
and says, hey, I have this kid that I want
you to. Let's sit in and play with you.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Wait a minute, you know, I often think about the time.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
You would come in Drag and you a little get,
they said, I want to fit in the say Stevens, Yeah,
Albert King's got ten hits. I mean he's hot. Albert
just kind of looks at at Clifford like you're crazy.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
Who is Stevie? Yeah, I would bring him on out.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
He was a little offended, and he said, okay, bring
him up. I think they were he was going to
do a number on him. Stevie plugged in and you know,
and started playing Albert King legs and doing him really good.
So Albert just sort of went okay, and he just
sort of took him under his wing. I wouldn't have
(18:56):
dared gotten up there. I don't think anybody in the
room would have got up there. You don't go and
ask Albert King, can I sit in? It's crazy. He
didn't like anybody else, but he like Steve.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
If you out, Kirby Warnock is our guest. The documentary
is Brothers in Blues. You can find it on almost
every platform except for Netflix.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
It's it's just about everywhere else.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
It's five bucks money well spent. I don't know that
Kirby will ever recover the money that he spent of
his own creating this thing, but it's a story I
think you will.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Enjoy, particularly a Texas audience that you know.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
He describes in the movie the boys watching the the
Beatles and that and realizing then that we can make
that kind of music.
Speaker 6 (19:56):
But it is.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
It was described as here's a a line from it.
But they got to perform with Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton,
Billy Gibbons, David Bowie, Jackson Brown, and Carlos Santana. Their
life was a baby boomer's rock and roll dream come true.
I'm glad Kirby told this story, and I would encourage
you to watch this because I think you will thoroughly
(20:18):
enjoy it. I didn't know most of what I learned.
I just had a very passing knowledge of this. But Kirby,
my takeaway was, I didn't realize what a driving force
Jimmy was. And I've always enjoyed the music of the
Fabulous Thunderbirds, but I never really dug in, you know,
(20:38):
beyond Kim Wilson being this this you know, very good
harmonica player and the lead singer and kind of this
kind of funky vibe, how they dressed and all this,
and I knew Jimmy Vaughan was in the band, and
I kind.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
Of always thought, oh, he's, you know, Stevie ra Vaughan's younger.
Of course he's not. He's older and inspirational.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
But I always thought he's just, you know, the brother
of Stevie Ravaughn. That the only reason his name has
ever known. This was his band before Kim Wilson. This
was him his band, and he was the driving force
behind him. Talk a little bit about Jimmy Vaughan's career,
because I think that's the real one of the big
takeaways from this movie.
Speaker 8 (21:15):
Yes, he created a fab with Thunderbirds, and he told
me years ago when I was interviewing, he said, you know,
I don't need to be the guy out front with
a guitar. I want to be part of a band.
And he always was. He assembled that band and put
it together and like that, and so he always wanted
to do that. And like he said, he said, I
want to fill in all the holes with my guitar,
(21:38):
and he would play rhythm and lead at the same time,
you know, which I've never seen that done before, but
he had put he when he was the Chess Men,
they did all covers. They madly covered you know, Cream
and Hendrix and led Zeppem. But he'd always wanted to
play the blues because that's what he had first heard.
His first songs he learned, were off the Nightcaps album.
(22:00):
In The Nightcaps were a white blues band out of Dallas,
and he's going up listening to you know, Albert King.
And then a friend, Paul Ray, took him to see
Key Boon Walker the Black Club in Dallas, and he said,
I always wanted to play that kind of music, but
I had to play what was on the radio. And
so he moved awsin and just made the decision to
play just the blues and they you know, they like
(22:22):
you mentioned was in a documentary. Sometimes they had pretty
light clouds at their gigs, but they eventually built a
big following. And he just wanted to play the kind
of music he wanted to play. And that's, you know,
that kind of commitment. You hear other artists talk about
it like that, but these guys, they lived it. They decided,
you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna eat out of a dumpster,
(22:44):
sleep on a pool table rather than did a day job.
And they both committed to doing that, and they and
once they made the commitment, they sew it on through.
But yes, he formed the Fabus Thunderbirds, got the band together,
and then after a while he wanted to go in
another direction. And so he's got his own and now
the tilta World band, and also the Jimmy Vob Trio
(23:04):
that plays on at Sea Boys in Austin a lot.
And he's still touring. He's seventy one years old, and
I'm sorry, seventy two. He kind of like the Wilding
Neils on the Blues. He's just still on the road
and playing. And it's incredible to see go see a
guy like this in person, you know, I was very blessed.
(23:24):
I got to see Muddy Waters, FEddi King, Albert King,
you know, and Lighton Hopkins play when I was a buddy.
Those guys are all still alive, and so I would
urge people to go see Jimmy play while he still can.
You know, he got the chance. But back to your question, Yes,
Jimmy was a driving force in all the bands he assembled.
And really the Thunderbirds got a record deal and got
(23:46):
big before Stevie did. Now, they had two albums out
before Stevie got Texas flood out, so they kind of
made it first. But then, as we tell in the film,
Stevie went on and kind of eclipsed Jimmy. He became
bigger than Jimmy, the younger brother, you know. And so
again I hate to keep repeating myself, but it is
(24:06):
just an incredible story that I'd been dying to tell.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Let me hold you right there. Kirby Warnock is our guest.
The movie is Brothers in Blues. You can find it
wherever you watch movies everywhere but Netflix basically, and we'll
continue our conversation about his documentary about Stevie, Ray Vaughn
and Jimmy Vaughan coming up.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
It's Ramon Duck, King of Ding and this other guy,
Michael Barry.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Tar has been very good to me. I don't know
what I'd be doing without that. He made up three
songs the first day.
Speaker 8 (24:39):
I'll never forget that.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
But you know, he didn't have to try. It just
came out. It was really the first thing that I've
ever done that was so much fun that came so.
Speaker 9 (24:52):
Natural or something, you know. I mean, it wasn't like schoolwork,
and it wasn't like it was fun. It wasn't a drag.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
There was a set of drums in the house, and
there was a guitar, and then he got it.
Speaker 9 (25:16):
He got one of those little guitars, those little guitars
with the cowboys on 'em mm and then uh, and
then when he started really trying to play, and I
would put it down and leave and say, look, don't
touch my guitar.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
And I would leave and he would play the guitar
just as soon as I left. And it sort of
went on like that for a couple of years.
Speaker 9 (25:42):
And then as I started getting better and everything I
I we would sort of I would sort of move
up and I I would get a better guitar and
then he would.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Kind of get the hand me down. Yeah, and then
you know, it just sort of went on like that,
just like normal. YEA.
Speaker 9 (25:57):
Brothers And the day he walked into my house in Austin,
I moved to Austin and he was like, you know serious.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I mean I already knew it was serious, but I
mean he was never really serious.
Speaker 8 (26:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (26:22):
I mean I'd already decided I was not gonna be
a dishwasher no more, and I was gonna play guitar.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
You know, the parents got a little mad because I
moved out, and they sort of took it all out
on him, like you can't go nowhere, and you cannot
play the guitar, and you can't do nothing except go
to school. It didn't matter whether they liked it or not.
You know, right out I was gonna do it anyway.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
The documentary is called Brothers in Blues. It's about Stevie
ray Vaughn and Jimmy Vaughan. It's a wonderful watch. You
can see it on every platform, I think except for Netflix.
Just look up Stevie Rayvaughn, including if you don't have
any of those on YouTube. It is worth watching and
Kirby Warnock is the filmmaker who made it. I strongly
(27:06):
encourage you to watch it. Kirby, I want to take
about two minutes before we close and talk about your
first documentary, which was over two decades ago. Everyone knows
the movie Giant, which was James Dean's last film. I
mean you talk about the stars, Dennis Hopper, Earl Holloman,
(27:26):
I mean, some real stars in that and what an
influential movie. It was shot in nineteen fifty five in Marfa, Texas,
and you made your first documentary was returned to Giant.
Speaker 6 (27:39):
Why did you do that?
Speaker 8 (27:42):
Well, I'm My family is from out here in the
Big Band. My grandfather came out to Fort Stotton over
one hundred years ago and started ranch here and every summer.
My father was born and raised on the ranch too.
But he married my mom, who was a girl from
South Mississippi, and as we all know, marriage is a compromise,
so they agreed to live in Mississippi. But every summer
(28:04):
and every Christmas we'd come out to the ranch of
Fort Stockton and stay with my grandparents. And while I
was a kid, while I was growing up here, you know,
I heard about this movie a Giant that was filmed
down in Martha, Texas, and my dad took my family,
me and my brother and my mom down there back
in like nineteen fifty seven, and the remains of the
(28:24):
otta were still standing on the Heavens Ranch. They were
a really good shape, and so we went down there
and that made a huge impression on me. I was
only five years old at time, but it was the
only three story building in the county outside the courthouse.
It was out in the middle of nowhere and then
of a back around it. So I really was kind
of confused what was going on there, but my mom
(28:45):
tried to explain it to me. And you got to
remember that back then, if you didn't see a movie
but it came out of theater and you couldn't see it.
There was no VHS tape, none of that. You know,
once a film played in the theater, it was gone.
And it was years later that I was at Vader
University about nineteen seventy two, s eighty three, and they
aired a Giant on NBC television. They showed it in
(29:06):
two nights because it's a fair movie. Well, I was
speaking of a girl for a date and I was
at her house and her friends, and they were showing
that on the TV, and all of a sudden, Rock
cous Ellis Taytor drive up to the Riata and I
saw that and went, oh, my god, I've been there,
you know. So I was all of a sudden I
got to see that movie and understand what that structure was.
And it took me another few years. So they finally
(29:28):
rebroadcast on Channel eight Dallas, and I stayed and launched it.
I just became totally fascinated by the film because it
was one of the only movies that they were set
in Texas, but they actually filmed it in Texas. You know,
back then dauld the Roy Rogers and Geane Archry movies
and even John Wayne's The Searchers, they said they were
in Texas, but they weren't. And so when I saw
(29:51):
that film, it looked like the Texas that I knew,
you know, out here entered the Big Band. And there
are a lot of things in that film, these little
rituals that I grew up with, like the first ride
of the horse. You know, we got home movies of
my grandfather putting me and my brother of the horse,
taking us on our first ride and these big barbecues
out in the middle of nowhere. The ranchers back then
would throw a huge barbecue, invite everybody in the country,
(30:13):
and we'd go out there and assemble at them. So
there were all these things in the film that looked
like the Texans I grew up with. I just wanted
to make a documentary about that mark our location shooting.
I didn't really care about what they shot at the
Warner Brothers Latin burd Bank. I wanted to talk about
what they didn't mark them. And so once again I
got a camera crew and I tracked a lot of
people and we put it all together. And the fact
(30:37):
that it was James D's last film, you know, gave
it a lot of cachet, so to speak. But really
I was totally enamored by one of the only movies
that was about Texas that was filmed in Texas and
also was shot on an open set. Anybody could come
up and watch them shooting. You know, they had any
security guards, and that doesn't happen now. You know, if
(30:59):
you're in all to make a movie they courting off
that twenty blocks.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Even if you haven't seen Giant everybody kind of has
a sense that this is a legendary movie. I think
of the old Robert Earl Keene line in the Front
Porch song where he's talking about the palace on a
main street in Texas in a sixty two poster that's
almost faded down and a screen without a picture.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
Since Giant came to town. Oh man, what a line.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
I mean, if you don't know of a town on
an old on an old highway in Texas that that describes,
then you hadn't been on a road.
Speaker 6 (31:38):
Trip, that is for sure. Kirby Warnock, this is a
wonderful project you've done. I tell you what.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Before I give you the praise of how well you've
done and how much I enjoyed your film, tell folks
how they can go and watch it.
Speaker 8 (31:51):
Yes, right now, you can get an Apple TV, iTunes, Amazon,
Voodoo YouTube. As we said, we're on about every platform
except Netflix because they always want to buy an exclusion.
But if you just go to Amazon or Apple TV
or iTunes and just do a search, you know they're
Jimmy and Stevie yvon brothers in Blues or on Amazon
(32:13):
if you just search Stevie Yvaugh we'll come up there
like that. So I would urge everybody to watch it
for me that way. And also if you don't have
those streaming platforms, everybody's got YouTube, if you can rent
it on YouTube, but watch it, be it well.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
I will tell you, folks, it is. It is well
worth the time, and you will thoroughly enjoy it. I
stopped it and rewound because I heard them say things
that I was not aware of that contradicted kind of
the conventional wisdom on you know, who wrote this song
and who did this and who did this. It's it's
really really incredibly well done, fascinating storyteller.
Speaker 6 (32:50):
Kirby Warnot, Thank you, my man, thank you.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
Thank you for this opportunity. Mike God greatly appreciate it.
You got a guitar for fifty bucks. He said, here,
(00:03):
play this. Maybe this will keep you out of trouble,
and I'll show you what I learned.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
See if you know that, then.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
You can run away from home.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Two types of people, both that know, the Bond Brothers
and the Hopes that don't.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
They said, hey, if you're in La, come bine. We
did some recordings. Like a month later they were in La.
Speaker 5 (00:35):
We're here.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We're here a nigar album.
Speaker 5 (00:37):
You just got that thing man, that Texas thing like.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Ford, piss this off. The little hot rod guys are
out here.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Look out for the Horn Brothers because that seriously dangerous people.
Speaker 6 (00:55):
These are two brothers who adored each other. For me,
Stuy was Albert King.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Jimmy was leading a charge. It was pre rowdy. After
tex Flug came out. They gave me a horse.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
When you're in the top ten, everybody wants the Grammys.
Speaker 7 (01:15):
George there are good and Stevie Rayvaugh.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Four years later, the concerts still going on, he went
and got in the helicopter.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
That's how that happened.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Let's uh, let's kind of mirror the documentary and start
at the beginning and talk about Stevie Rayvaughn, and you
can't do that without starting with Jimmy Vaughn who was
the star guitarist while his little brother played the plastic guitar.
Take us up through Jimmy leaving at age fourteen, because
that was all new to me.
Speaker 8 (01:58):
Yeah, this is what I tell people whenever we've shown
the film, you know, in a theater. It's all streaming
right now. But I say, most people have no idea
how big Jimmy Vaughan was. Now, he was big back
in the sixties, before social media and before even cell phones.
But when Jimmy Vaughan was just fifteen years old, he
opened for Jimmy Hendrix in Dallas and he and Hendricks show.
(02:23):
They became kind of mutual fans, and he flew on
the plane with Hendricks down to Houston the next day
to see Hendrix play down there, and the opening night
there was Billy Gibbons band moving sidewalk, but also Jimmy.
This band he was in called the Chessman. They were
huge back in the sixties in Dallas, and they actually
even had a locally produced record that got played on
(02:45):
KLF radio in Dallas, so they had a local record
they were selling it, and they were getting Airplane on
the radio, and they were playing all over Texas and
Oklahoma and the Southwest, and back then, you know, a
lot of bands were really making quite a bet of money.
I mean, the Chessman would get twelve hundred dollars a
night and not even sixty dollars to put to play
(03:06):
a fat party at SMU or a club at Arkansas
or something that. So they were making big money. And
Jimmy was on that, you know, at fourteen when he
joined the band, and he was staying out till two
in the morning and was flunking school and so finally
this one day he said, I'm just going to play guitar,
but his parents wasn't better do that. So he ran
away from home at fourteen and moved out of the
(03:27):
house to you know, to take to Chase's Musical Dreams,
which he did. And you know, really, his younger brother,
Steve was sitting there watching all this and wanted to
do the same thing. But as we're telling the documentary,
Stevie's parents kind of clamped down on it, and they
didn't want him to make the same mistake quote unquote
as Jimmy did. And drop out of high school. And
I've told people this, I don't know anybody that I
(03:50):
knew personally who quit school at fourteen and said I'm
going to be a professional musician and actually did it.
I mean most of them were wound up working back
at Target two weeks later, you know, or something like that.
But both Bond brothers dropped out of school when they
were teenagers and became professional musicians that actually made it.
And I just had never seen anybody do that before,
and so that was part of the amazing story to me.
(04:12):
There are a lot of amazing things about them, but
that was one of the ones right there.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
And that brings us to the development of Stevie Ravaugh.
I mean, everybody knows, even if they can't name five
songs that Stevie Ravaugh was behind, they know he was
a legend.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
At Zilker Park in Austin, I remember just being blown
away at the monument to Stevie Ravaugh that is in
his size. I mean it was he five six, five seven,
but it has the monument that the beauty of the
monument Corey Morrows, the one that first showed me this
for moment, the beauty of the monument is that the shadow.
It has a bronze shadow that goes behind him. I
(04:51):
don't know, maybe thirty feet. That shows, you know that
everybody who came behind it that it was as if
the monument was moving the honey. It was bigger than
just a monument. But Stevie Ray is the star that
we know of. But Jimmy was the one who goes
off and is this you know, starts off and Stevie
(05:12):
Ray is playing his little plastic guitar. He starts learning,
He's coming up and Stevie becomes a star of national acclaim.
Jimmy during all of this is developing on his own
and he is this incredible guitarist doing amazing things people
don't realize and.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
Talk if you would.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
My favorite part of the whole movie was what was
happening at the room in this scene that Billy Gibbons
wrote about. Was it low down in the street and
the vibe of this Monday night. They took Monday, it
was a blues Monday, and then eventually Stevie Ray starts
playing on Sunday. And they said, if there were forty
people there, it was special. But the forty people who
(05:54):
were there were loving that moment and that was kind
of a high point. It was almost nobody experiencing it,
but it was so instrumental, seminal to the movement that
was happening.
Speaker 8 (06:10):
Yes, and that's that's really wherever the vond Brothers played,
And let's be honest, they were playing dumpy little clubs
in Texas. I don't care how much nostalgia you have,
you know, most of those clubs were dumps. I mean
that they had no VIP seeing or bottle service. So
but the thing was, there was such a scene, and
(06:32):
that's what I've tried to do in this film. Because
you can go online and hear every single Sea Gray
Vaughan song, you watch videos of all concerts, but there
was such a there was such a vibe or of
feeling and excitement for me there and I think most
people miss nowadays that when you were there, you were
you thought you were part of something special because they
(06:52):
would just you know, draw these eclectic clouds. And the
thing I tried to tell people is back when I
was watching them and Buddy, there was always somebody famous
in the audience wherever these guys played. I mean, whether
it was Robert Fann or led Zeppyrt, or Dicky Betts
or Dwayne Almond or you know we show in the
film Howard Hessman who was doctor Johnny Fever on w
(07:12):
k RP in Cincinnati, or Billy Gibbons. I saw him
at a gig at FitzGeralds. I would look around these
you know, these gigs, and it was always somebody famous
because even really good guitar players, you know, they wanted
to see these guys, so they'd heard about them to
word of mouth. You got to go see these guys,
and so it was just, uh, Jimmy had a great
(07:32):
quote back then. He said, hey, we're when we're playing,
it's be there or b square, And that's how it was.
You know, if you wanted to be hip or with it.
You we had a Vawn Brothers gig, but they just attracted
an incredibly attracted cloud and always put on an incredible
show and just there's a lot of energy in the
room that, like I say, can't be captured on video.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Kurt Cameron of the famous Growing Pains Man.
Speaker 8 (07:56):
If it worked for Growing Pains, I wouldn't be on
the Michael Bank Show.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Do you have.
Speaker 7 (08:05):
By all accounts, if Stevie and Double Trouble took the
stage to open for someone, they gave it back to
him in shambles. One of the traits that define a
hero is courage, and Stevie had incredible courage because he
fought to overcome the demons of drug and alcohol addiction,
and when he did, he returned to the stage and
(08:27):
even better guitar player for it. The only reason that
I know exactly what sobriety meant to Stevie in his
heart and soul is because he had the courage to
talk openly about it on stage. And so because of Stevie,
I grew up proudly turning down every drug and drink
(08:49):
ever offered to me, because in my mind, that could
bring me closer.
Speaker 8 (08:53):
To being like the man I never met and never could.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
Stevie was the ultimate guitar hero, and heroes live forever
on behalf of every guitar player and every blues lover.
It is the honor of a lifetime to induct Stevie
Rayvaughn and Double Trouble into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Film.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
The documentary is called Brothers in Blues. It's about Stevie
ray Vaughn and Jimmy Vaughan. It's a wonderful watch. You
can see it on every platform, I think, except for Netflix.
Just look up Stevie Ravugh including if you don't have
any of those on YouTube, it is worth watching. And
Kirby Warnock is the filmmaker who made it. I strongly
(09:41):
encourage you to watch it. What makes them so special?
A lot of guys have played a guitar. Clapton talked
about watching them play and how special it was. Billy
Gibbons talked about listening to them and wanting.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
To repeat that.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
What was so special about what they were doing for
a non guitar How do you explain that?
Speaker 8 (10:02):
Well, it's like the guitar became an extension of their body,
you know. I mean, it's they did stuff. And here's
the thing people don't understand or a non guitar player.
If you watch almost every rock guitarist, they've got all
these pedals they step on, you know, to make their
guitar sound this way or that way. These guys did
(10:22):
everything right out of their hands. They stretched and mit
the neck and the strings and got all these sounds
using their hands. And they got that style from Freddy
Kane basically. But they took it to another level. And
just that they didn't need I called it cheating. They
didn't need to cheat with a pedal or sustain or
wild all that stuff. They didn't need all that stuff.
(10:44):
They were able to get that with a Fender strat
plugged straight into a Fender amp. It was just their
guitar and a chord runner that amp. There was nothing
in between it. And just the fact that they were
able to get all these incredible sounds, and both of them.
You know, we all are in all when we see
Steven play on his back about his neck, But Jimmy
was doing that, you know, with the chess Men and
(11:05):
then with the Fabus Thunderbirds before Stevene got big. I mean,
so that really, Jimmy was the first guy I saw
do that. And I know that other people have done it,
like Peter Walker and I that, but Jimmy was the
only guy and Steve the only ones I saw who
could play these incredible, difficult licks behind their neck and
behind the back. But that was the main thing. They
were just so raw. Here's them trying to make it shorter.
(11:27):
If you heard a famous rock man to go play
a concert, they would have to set up do a
sound check and make sure all their equipment's worked the right,
to make sure he's petals and effects working. Jimmy and
Steven you could plug into an outlet behind a dairy
queen and sound incredible. They just they just it was
just such a raw, unfiltered guitar sound that was just
(11:48):
so distinct to them. You know when they when they're playing,
you can tell it's stem just about the sound.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
There was a reference to I believe it was Stevie
Ray playing with Jimmy Hendrix, but I feel like Jimmy
was maybe the one you were interviewing during this discussion.
And Jimmy Hendrix's equipment had his amp had busted, some
piece his pedal had busted, and so they he handed his,
he traded his, and he got a piece of junk.
(12:13):
And it turns out Jimmy Hendrix was playing with junk.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
He was just that good. Can you tell that story again?
Speaker 8 (12:19):
Yeah, this is one of the stories I've heard about,
but I wanted to get on filmed. I'd always heard
that when Jimmy Vaughn opened for Jimmy Hendrix in Dallas,
that they had traded wah wah pedals and so I
asked Jimmy about that. He goes, no, here's what happened.
Kendricks had a wahwah pedal, but it was broken and
he couldn't use it the concert that night, and so
(12:39):
it was a Saturday night. They couldn't go to the
music store and buy a new pedal. So they knew
that I had won with the chess men, and they
came to me and said, we'll give you this much
money for that wah wah pedal, and we'll give you
Jimmy Hendrix his old pedal, and he said sure, So
he did that, and so Jimmy Vaughan got the way.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
It was fifty bucks if I remember.
Speaker 8 (12:58):
Correctly, that's he said. It's either seventeen or fifty dollars
that I can't remember, but he got the broken Walla pedal.
He met Hendrix. They talked to me like that and
they swapped Walla pedals. But he said, basically they needed
minds that works, and his was broken. And Jimmy does
have that pedal, and in the documentary he says, I
(13:18):
think I've got it. He's being kind of coy about it,
but it's on his mantle at his house. I've been
and seen it. You know, he's very proud of that,
as would be anybody, my gosh, you know, but Hendrix
was a big fan of there. He thought they were
really something, that that Jimmy Wahmer's really something. And like
I say, you know, Jimmy Vaughn and to the Chessman
traveled down to Houston with Hendricks on the plane for
(13:40):
the next gig, you know there, so they you know,
and this again, this is at fifteen, you know, I mean,
my gosh, I mean, how many of the office there
would be the peak in our lives if we opened
up with Hendrix and met him, then then we'd go
be it has been. But you know that was Jimmy
just keept on going from there. And as we tell
the documentary, I know, me personally, I don't think that
(14:02):
there would be a Stevie Vonn who wasn't the Jimmy
vaugh And goes. Stevie learned how to play guitar from Jimmy.
They shared a bedroom. Stevie watched Jimmy learning these songs.
They had one record player. They all both learned off
five And I just had always thought that all these
other productions about Stevie Vaughan. They left Jimmy out of there,
and I didn't understand that because what I had seen
(14:22):
with my own eyes was that they both admired each other.
And Stevie told me that Jimmy taught him out to
play his first song of the guitar, I mean when
I did an interview with him, and so I didn't
understand what that was always being left out. But and
that was one of the things that drove me to
do this, that we've got to tell the story both
of them. We can't just tell You can't tell Stevie's
(14:43):
story without telling Jimmy's story first.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And what a great story and the kind of brotherly
love and the rivalry that goes into it is a
big part of this story. And one of the things
you captured was, you know, Jimmy goes off and is
very successful. Stevie comes in later and despite all his demons,
he's very successful and they've.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Both cleaned up.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
They both had terrible, terrible addiction, Stevie first and I
think Jimmy five years later, and then they reconnect. They
get into the studio TikTok is. I guess the biggest
hit to come out of that album. The album is
not yet complete when Stevie dies too early in this
in this helicopter crash, and Jimmy goes back in and
(15:31):
they finish it a month later. So this is kind
of his posthumous tribute to his brother. But all those
years and they had never they had never recorded together,
and how special that was that they would get to
do that. I thought you told that story so poignantly.
Speaker 8 (15:48):
Well again, I'm going back to I was mainly telling
what I saw when I was at Buddy Mage League.
When I was talking to Jimmy, he said, you know,
I want to make a director for Stevie. He told
me that back in line nineteen seventy nine, you know,
he said, and he used to say, the only divers
street Stevie and me and Stevie can sing, and you'r
And now Jimmy started singing. But back being Jimmy never sang,
(16:09):
would have had a sunder version of that. But he'd
always wanted to make a record with Stevie, and he
said that before, and then they finally get to do it.
They're set to make a big tour in support of
the album. You know. Now Rogers produces the LP, They've
assembled a band, they're gonna go on tour like that,
and then Stevie dies in the helicopter crash. So they
had all these, you know, big plans, and they had
(16:29):
the record recorded and just bang, it just all just
ends right there and that and after Stevie and after
they've gotten dried out, and it was like that. So
it seemed extremely unfair that a guy gets his life together,
finally gets to record this album with his brother. It's
gonna the song TikTok is gonna clim the charts, and
you're gonna go on a tour and then he dies.
(16:51):
I mean, uh, And that the the unfairness of all
that has always bothered me. But I don't know what
to do about it. But it all just kind of
crushed me that they were just working so hard, things
were looking up and then then this happens.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
We'll continue our conversation with Kirby Warnock about his documentary
is called Brothers in Blues about Stevie Ray Vaughan and
his brother Jimmy Vaughan, and it is wonderful.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Under about leadership, we will regain energy independence, massive energy
dominant Stabbin and Stabbin and Stabbin and Stalbin and Stabin.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Here we are to Anton's.
Speaker 8 (17:28):
I don't know what year it was.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
We're all standing around this Albert King show.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
It's packed.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
It's like Saturday night. If you ever saw Albert King play,
he's like Goliath with the guitar. He's the meanest, baddest
guitar player you've ever heard of. He looked at Anton
and says, hey, I have this kid that I want
you to. Let's sit in and play with you.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Wait a minute, you know, I often think about the time.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
You would come in Drag and you a little get,
they said, I want to fit in the say Stevens, Yeah,
Albert King's got ten hits. I mean he's hot. Albert
just kind of looks at at Clifford like you're crazy.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
Who is Stevie? Yeah, I would bring him on out.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
He was a little offended, and he said, okay, bring
him up. I think they were he was going to
do a number on him. Stevie plugged in and you know,
and started playing Albert King legs and doing him really good.
So Albert just sort of went okay, and he just
sort of took him under his wing. I wouldn't have
(18:56):
dared gotten up there. I don't think anybody in the
room would have got up there. You don't go and
ask Albert King, can I sit in? It's crazy. He
didn't like anybody else, but he like Steve.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
If you out, Kirby Warnock is our guest. The documentary
is Brothers in Blues. You can find it on almost
every platform except for Netflix.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
It's it's just about everywhere else.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
It's five bucks money well spent. I don't know that
Kirby will ever recover the money that he spent of
his own creating this thing, but it's a story I
think you will.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Enjoy, particularly a Texas audience that you know.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
He describes in the movie the boys watching the the
Beatles and that and realizing then that we can make
that kind of music.
Speaker 6 (19:56):
But it is.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
It was described as here's a a line from it.
But they got to perform with Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton,
Billy Gibbons, David Bowie, Jackson Brown, and Carlos Santana. Their
life was a baby boomer's rock and roll dream come true.
I'm glad Kirby told this story, and I would encourage
you to watch this because I think you will thoroughly
(20:18):
enjoy it. I didn't know most of what I learned.
I just had a very passing knowledge of this. But Kirby,
my takeaway was, I didn't realize what a driving force
Jimmy was. And I've always enjoyed the music of the
Fabulous Thunderbirds, but I never really dug in, you know,
(20:38):
beyond Kim Wilson being this this you know, very good
harmonica player and the lead singer and kind of this
kind of funky vibe, how they dressed and all this,
and I knew Jimmy Vaughan was in the band, and
I kind.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
Of always thought, oh, he's, you know, Stevie ra Vaughan's younger.
Of course he's not. He's older and inspirational.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
But I always thought he's just, you know, the brother
of Stevie Ravaughn. That the only reason his name has
ever known. This was his band before Kim Wilson. This
was him his band, and he was the driving force
behind him. Talk a little bit about Jimmy Vaughan's career,
because I think that's the real one of the big
takeaways from this movie.
Speaker 8 (21:15):
Yes, he created a fab with Thunderbirds, and he told
me years ago when I was interviewing, he said, you know,
I don't need to be the guy out front with
a guitar. I want to be part of a band.
And he always was. He assembled that band and put
it together and like that, and so he always wanted
to do that. And like he said, he said, I
want to fill in all the holes with my guitar,
(21:38):
and he would play rhythm and lead at the same time,
you know, which I've never seen that done before, but
he had put he when he was the Chess Men,
they did all covers. They madly covered you know, Cream
and Hendrix and led Zeppem. But he'd always wanted to
play the blues because that's what he had first heard.
His first songs he learned, were off the Nightcaps album.
(22:00):
In The Nightcaps were a white blues band out of Dallas,
and he's going up listening to you know, Albert King.
And then a friend, Paul Ray, took him to see
Key Boon Walker the Black Club in Dallas, and he said,
I always wanted to play that kind of music, but
I had to play what was on the radio. And
so he moved awsin and just made the decision to
play just the blues and they you know, they like
(22:22):
you mentioned was in a documentary. Sometimes they had pretty
light clouds at their gigs, but they eventually built a
big following. And he just wanted to play the kind
of music he wanted to play. And that's, you know,
that kind of commitment. You hear other artists talk about
it like that, but these guys, they lived it. They decided,
you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna eat out of a dumpster,
(22:44):
sleep on a pool table rather than did a day job.
And they both committed to doing that, and they and
once they made the commitment, they sew it on through.
But yes, he formed the Fabus Thunderbirds, got the band together,
and then after a while he wanted to go in
another direction. And so he's got his own and now
the tilta World band, and also the Jimmy Vob Trio
(23:04):
that plays on at Sea Boys in Austin a lot.
And he's still touring. He's seventy one years old, and
I'm sorry, seventy two. He kind of like the Wilding
Neils on the Blues. He's just still on the road
and playing. And it's incredible to see go see a
guy like this in person, you know, I was very blessed.
(23:24):
I got to see Muddy Waters, FEddi King, Albert King,
you know, and Lighton Hopkins play when I was a buddy.
Those guys are all still alive, and so I would
urge people to go see Jimmy play while he still can.
You know, he got the chance. But back to your question, Yes,
Jimmy was a driving force in all the bands he assembled.
And really the Thunderbirds got a record deal and got
(23:46):
big before Stevie did. Now, they had two albums out
before Stevie got Texas flood out, so they kind of
made it first. But then, as we tell in the film,
Stevie went on and kind of eclipsed Jimmy. He became
bigger than Jimmy, the younger brother, you know. And so
again I hate to keep repeating myself, but it is
(24:06):
just an incredible story that I'd been dying to tell.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Let me hold you right there. Kirby Warnock is our guest.
The movie is Brothers in Blues. You can find it
wherever you watch movies everywhere but Netflix basically, and we'll
continue our conversation about his documentary about Stevie, Ray Vaughn
and Jimmy Vaughan coming up.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
It's Ramon Duck, King of Ding and this other guy,
Michael Barry.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Tar has been very good to me. I don't know
what I'd be doing without that. He made up three
songs the first day.
Speaker 8 (24:39):
I'll never forget that.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
But you know, he didn't have to try. It just
came out. It was really the first thing that I've
ever done that was so much fun that came so.
Speaker 9 (24:52):
Natural or something, you know. I mean, it wasn't like schoolwork,
and it wasn't like it was fun. It wasn't a drag.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
There was a set of drums in the house, and
there was a guitar, and then he got it.
Speaker 9 (25:16):
He got one of those little guitars, those little guitars
with the cowboys on 'em mm and then uh, and
then when he started really trying to play, and I
would put it down and leave and say, look, don't
touch my guitar.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
And I would leave and he would play the guitar
just as soon as I left. And it sort of
went on like that for a couple of years.
Speaker 9 (25:42):
And then as I started getting better and everything I
I we would sort of I would sort of move
up and I I would get a better guitar and
then he would.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Kind of get the hand me down. Yeah, and then
you know, it just sort of went on like that,
just like normal. YEA.
Speaker 9 (25:57):
Brothers And the day he walked into my house in Austin,
I moved to Austin and he was like, you know serious.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I mean I already knew it was serious, but I
mean he was never really serious.
Speaker 8 (26:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (26:22):
I mean I'd already decided I was not gonna be
a dishwasher no more, and I was gonna play guitar.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
You know, the parents got a little mad because I
moved out, and they sort of took it all out
on him, like you can't go nowhere, and you cannot
play the guitar, and you can't do nothing except go
to school. It didn't matter whether they liked it or not.
You know, right out I was gonna do it anyway.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
The documentary is called Brothers in Blues. It's about Stevie
ray Vaughn and Jimmy Vaughan. It's a wonderful watch. You
can see it on every platform, I think except for Netflix.
Just look up Stevie Rayvaughn, including if you don't have
any of those on YouTube. It is worth watching and
Kirby Warnock is the filmmaker who made it. I strongly
(27:06):
encourage you to watch it. Kirby, I want to take
about two minutes before we close and talk about your
first documentary, which was over two decades ago. Everyone knows
the movie Giant, which was James Dean's last film. I
mean you talk about the stars, Dennis Hopper, Earl Holloman,
(27:26):
I mean, some real stars in that and what an
influential movie. It was shot in nineteen fifty five in Marfa, Texas,
and you made your first documentary was returned to Giant.
Speaker 6 (27:39):
Why did you do that?
Speaker 8 (27:42):
Well, I'm My family is from out here in the
Big Band. My grandfather came out to Fort Stotton over
one hundred years ago and started ranch here and every summer.
My father was born and raised on the ranch too.
But he married my mom, who was a girl from
South Mississippi, and as we all know, marriage is a compromise,
so they agreed to live in Mississippi. But every summer
(28:04):
and every Christmas we'd come out to the ranch of
Fort Stockton and stay with my grandparents. And while I
was a kid, while I was growing up here, you know,
I heard about this movie a Giant that was filmed
down in Martha, Texas, and my dad took my family,
me and my brother and my mom down there back
in like nineteen fifty seven, and the remains of the
(28:24):
otta were still standing on the Heavens Ranch. They were
a really good shape, and so we went down there
and that made a huge impression on me. I was
only five years old at time, but it was the
only three story building in the county outside the courthouse.
It was out in the middle of nowhere and then
of a back around it. So I really was kind
of confused what was going on there, but my mom
(28:45):
tried to explain it to me. And you got to
remember that back then, if you didn't see a movie
but it came out of theater and you couldn't see it.
There was no VHS tape, none of that. You know,
once a film played in the theater, it was gone.
And it was years later that I was at Vader
University about nineteen seventy two, s eighty three, and they
aired a Giant on NBC television. They showed it in
(29:06):
two nights because it's a fair movie. Well, I was
speaking of a girl for a date and I was
at her house and her friends, and they were showing
that on the TV, and all of a sudden, Rock
cous Ellis Taytor drive up to the Riata and I
saw that and went, oh, my god, I've been there,
you know. So I was all of a sudden I
got to see that movie and understand what that structure was.
And it took me another few years. So they finally
(29:28):
rebroadcast on Channel eight Dallas, and I stayed and launched it.
I just became totally fascinated by the film because it
was one of the only movies that they were set
in Texas, but they actually filmed it in Texas. You know,
back then dauld the Roy Rogers and Geane Archry movies
and even John Wayne's The Searchers, they said they were
in Texas, but they weren't. And so when I saw
(29:51):
that film, it looked like the Texas that I knew,
you know, out here entered the Big Band. And there
are a lot of things in that film, these little
rituals that I grew up with, like the first ride
of the horse. You know, we got home movies of
my grandfather putting me and my brother of the horse,
taking us on our first ride and these big barbecues
out in the middle of nowhere. The ranchers back then
would throw a huge barbecue, invite everybody in the country,
(30:13):
and we'd go out there and assemble at them. So
there were all these things in the film that looked
like the Texans I grew up with. I just wanted
to make a documentary about that mark our location shooting.
I didn't really care about what they shot at the
Warner Brothers Latin burd Bank. I wanted to talk about
what they didn't mark them. And so once again I
got a camera crew and I tracked a lot of
people and we put it all together. And the fact
(30:37):
that it was James D's last film, you know, gave
it a lot of cachet, so to speak. But really
I was totally enamored by one of the only movies
that was about Texas that was filmed in Texas and
also was shot on an open set. Anybody could come
up and watch them shooting. You know, they had any
security guards, and that doesn't happen now. You know, if
(30:59):
you're in all to make a movie they courting off
that twenty blocks.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Even if you haven't seen Giant everybody kind of has
a sense that this is a legendary movie. I think
of the old Robert Earl Keene line in the Front
Porch song where he's talking about the palace on a
main street in Texas in a sixty two poster that's
almost faded down and a screen without a picture.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
Since Giant came to town. Oh man, what a line.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
I mean, if you don't know of a town on
an old on an old highway in Texas that that describes,
then you hadn't been on a road.
Speaker 6 (31:38):
Trip, that is for sure. Kirby Warnock, this is a
wonderful project you've done. I tell you what.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Before I give you the praise of how well you've
done and how much I enjoyed your film, tell folks
how they can go and watch it.
Speaker 8 (31:51):
Yes, right now, you can get an Apple TV, iTunes, Amazon,
Voodoo YouTube. As we said, we're on about every platform
except Netflix because they always want to buy an exclusion.
But if you just go to Amazon or Apple TV
or iTunes and just do a search, you know they're
Jimmy and Stevie yvon brothers in Blues or on Amazon
(32:13):
if you just search Stevie Yvaugh we'll come up there
like that. So I would urge everybody to watch it
for me that way. And also if you don't have
those streaming platforms, everybody's got YouTube, if you can rent
it on YouTube, but watch it, be it well.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
I will tell you, folks, it is. It is well
worth the time, and you will thoroughly enjoy it. I
stopped it and rewound because I heard them say things
that I was not aware of that contradicted kind of
the conventional wisdom on you know, who wrote this song
and who did this and who did this. It's it's
really really incredibly well done, fascinating storyteller.
Speaker 6 (32:50):
Kirby Warnot, Thank you, my man, thank you.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
Thank you for this opportunity. Mike God greatly appreciate it.
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