In 1975, Junior and I had been playing with Hank Williams Jr. I was playing bass and fronting the band, and Junior was playing lead guitar. Along about the first week of August, Hank Jr. wound up in Montana on a hunting trip with some of his friends. He slipped on a snowdrift and fell several hundred feet head first into the rocks below. Although Hank survived the fall, it was almost two years before he could perform again. Now the band was without our fearless leader, so we booked a series of jobs out west in New Mexico and Arizona.

We had the jobs booked but did not have the funds to get to the first gig. We were the typical road musicians, living from one payday to the next. Our old friend and country legend Faron Young gave the money we needed for the trip to us at the last possible minute. It was hot in New Mexico in August and one of Junior's favorite things to do was to hang out at the motel swimming pool. He was always looking for that great tan. He was asking around about the best thing to use to get a really good and even tan, when he finally got around to asking me. I told him the best thing in the world for a good even tan was 30 wt. motor oil.

I never thought he would really do it without a few more opinions, especially since my experience with the sun was to turn red, blister, and then peel. Freckles never did tan very well. The next night just before show time, I got the word that Junior was not going to be able to play. He had actually bought a quart of motor oil and lay out by the pool the evening before. He had spread it all over his body and accidentally fallen asleep for about three hours. When he did wake up, he was very evenly fried all over. His feet were swelled so bad that he could not even think about getting his boots on. He did not speak to me for several weeks after that, but we were then, and continue to be the best of friends. 

PREVIOUS STORY     NEXT STORY     STORIES INDEX