Thursday, August 20, 2009

Booted Out of the World's Largest Honky Tonk!

This past weekend was spent in Fort Worth, TX celebrating my Aunt Carla's
50th....um...I mean........40th birthday. We stayed in the stockyards. From my hotel window I could see the huge Billy Bob's Texas sign in the distance.

Back some years ago I worked as the Program Director at KRPT radio in Anadarko, OK.
We had a trade with Billy Bob's, which meant we ran ads for them and they gave us free general admission tickets to all their shows. Back in the day, we thought Billy Bob's was pretty cool. I've since come to realize that it's no more than a Texas sized tourist trap. I've seen some good shows there, but unless you've got reserved seats its just not that cool. Anyway, one weekend a bunch of us from the radio station went down to see The Charlie Daniels Band. I had also managed to get us backstage passes. The CDB put on a kick-ass show!! We were all pretty pumped to go backstage and meet a legend! The backstage meet-and-greet area at Billy Bob's is a big room with cement walls. The walls are painted with band logos and such and the bands/artists sign the walls. Well, Charlie was taking his own sweet time getting to his meet-n-greet. By this time we'd all had our fair share of adults beverages to drink, myself included. I was getting bored. I asked my buddy Aaron for an ink pen and proceded to sign my name on the wall. Hey, I was on the damn radio! Does that not make me a celebrity?? Anyway, Aaron took the pen after me and signed his name too. Before too long, most of the group had signed the Billy Bob's Wall 'O Fame! My buddy Zac's parent's, Mike and JayDena were with us on this trip. Before I know it, Mike is telling me its time to go.
"But Mike, we haven't met Charlie yet!!"
"I know but we have to go."
"But Mike.........."
"They say we have to GO!!!"
"Why???"
"You can't write on the walls."
"Shit."
So, we are escorted out of the backstage area WITHOUT meeting Charlie Daniels. I had even spent five friggin' dollars on an 8 x 10 glossy specifically for autographing! In my depressed state, I went and sat on a step out in the club area. Pretty soon here comes Mike again.
"They say we have to leave the club."
"What!!! Why????"
"They say you've had too much to drink."
"Shit."
So, we leave the world's largest honky tonk in pissy moods and minus a Charlie Daniels autograph. I still maintain that if his old ass would have gotten out there a little quicker, we would never have gotten bored and this incident would have never happened! But no!!! Thanks a ton Charlie.
Also, JayDena was so distraught by what us little heathens had done she called the owner of Billy Bob's (Pam Minick) bright and early Monday morning and ratted our asses out and apologized profulsely for what we had done. Pam said it was fine....they were about to re-paint that old room anyway.

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