In the spring of 1989, as a 19-year-old boy from the bayou, I made my way from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Norcross, GA. I was leaving behind a wild upbringing in a broken home, misspent youth, and virtually everything I had ever known. Georgia was the promised land, a brave new world where I could pursue the dreams I dared not dream during my turbulent and tumultuous childhood. I never dreamed I would end up with connections to folks who would become Southern Rock royalty, but it happened.
My first job was working for my big brother, Doug as a helper on his hardwood flooring crew. We installed, sanded, and refinished hardwood floors in the mini-mansions sprouting up around metro Atlanta like ragweed in a rolling meadow.
My introduction to Atlanta’s thriving music scene came from my roommate, my brother’s business partner, Rick Seals. Rick was an accomplished musician who crafted beautiful wood floors in the daytime and played hard-hitting southern rock with his band Southern Speed on most nights. I became the band’s roadie and sound tech, which was awesome, even if I had no audio or video skills.
Read about how Lynyrd Skynyrd got their iconic name here
We set up a practice space in the basement of the home we rented in Northeast Atlanta. The partying that went along with practices could last all night. When it was time to gig, we would pack everything up and head off to Buckhead, Roswell, Hickory Flats, or wherever we could get the band on stage.
I enrolled in the Art Institute of Atlanta for the spring semester of 1990, where I learned that I was more talented with words and writing than sketching, painting, and the artistic pursuits that brought me to AIA.
As I pursued my art and education, I went to work at Manuel’s Tavern in Norcross. There I met a few more fledgling musicians, artists, and characters of all sorts. The stories I could tell of nights at Manny’s (as we called it) and the after-hours bar hopping tours that we engaged in could fill a few chapters in a book and probably did fill out more than a few police reports.
One of the people I hung out with during my Manny’s days was Donald “Ean” Wayne Evans. We called him Dwayne back then. Years later, he became known as the Mississippi Kid touring with Lynyrd Skynyrd, but in the early ’90s, Dwayne was in a band called “Cupid’s Arrow.” They were managed by Jay Jay French of Twisted Sister and played gigs in and around Atlanta while working on their debut album. The band asked me to design the cover. The band played for numerous record executives and had lots of promise but never quite made it.
Evans, who had played with Five Miles High, Babe Blu (recorded an album at Doraville’s Studio One), and Humble Pie, was disappointed and working as a studio musician and apartment maintenance tech to support his family. Hughie Thomasson invited him to join the Outlaws, which Thomasson soon left to join Lynyrd Skynyrd. In 2001, Thomasson recommended Evans to step in for the late Leon Wilkeson. He joined the band, toured, and recorded with Skynyrd until his untimely death from lung cancer in 2009.
A new documentary aims to tell the tale of Atlanta’s Studio One, where classics Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama were recorded
During my twenties, I could attend (and even worked a few in various capacities) some great concerts. From local spots like Eddie’s Attic to 96 Rock Summer Music Festival, Piedmont Park (famous for Allman Brothers concerts there in their early years), the Fabulous Fox Theater, the Omni, and Lakewood Amphitheater; shows at these and other venues introduced me to artists like the Black Crowes, Ozzy Osborne, Bad Company, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and more.
A fluke circumstance led me to the best concert I ever attended. It was one of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s last appearances before his untimely death in 1990. In 1989, after camping overnight at the Turtle’s store near Gwinnett Place Mall to buy Rolling Stones “Steel Wheels” tickets, I scored two fifth-row seats for about $30 each. This was the Stones’ first tour since 1982 and was thought to be their last at that time. During the long wait for the sold-out November 21st show at Georgia Tech’s Grant Field, people kept offering me a small fortune, up to $500, for my prized possessions. Three days before the show, which I had been waiting on for over six months at this point, a neighbor offered me two tickets to see Stevie Ray Vaughn (with Jeff Beck) the next night and $400 for my Stone’s tickets.
I had to do it. SRV was the best guitarist I had ever heard to that point. After that November 19th, 1989 “Half House” show at the Omni with Jeff Beck, I can say I’ve never seen a better concert. Jeff Beck is an excellent musician, and his set was terrific, but what Stevie Ray Vaughn did with that guitar in his hand (in his teeth or on the floor with his feet) is by far the best display of musical talent this bayou boy has ever witnessed. Beck joined SRV on stage for the final encore and a smoking rendition of I’m Going Down to close the set and bring down the house.
