Carl's Scrapbook: The 70s: The Bellamy Brothers Band

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When Howard and David bought that old MCI bus from Ronnie McDowell (who bought it from Barbara Fairchild, who bought it from Faron Young...), the whole idea of bein' on the road changed. We went from sleeping sittin' up, or on the floor, or right up next to Dannie's infernal snoring — to our own little semi-private two bunk cubicles. We could play those cow-pasture concerts and still have an air-conditioned, private dressing room, without leaving home (the bus). We could leave a venue at midnight or one in the morning, drive 18 hours and still get "some" sleep before the next gig. And, it was oh so smooth a ride.

Unfortunately, the buses toilet had problems and was not something you wanted to flush while the vehicle was in motion. And, there was no shower. You'd be surprised how ripe a body can get after about three days. So we still looked forward to the overnighters at a motel, or at least a large venue that had shower facilities. The only other problem for me personally was that the bunks were six feet in length and I was 6 feet, 2 inches. Now that may not sound like much, but I could never stretch completely out. And... the Brothers were not quite up to springin' for the big bucks that most of the professional bus drivers demanded, so quite often our drivers were ex-fruit haulers that sometimes lacked a certain amount of finesse in starting, stopping, and cornering. In any event, even considering those minor flaws, we were in high cotton when they got that bus.

In the wake of the success of "If I said You Had A Beautiful Body", the Brothers bought the bus and signed with "United Talent, Inc.", one of the larger traditional country act booking agencies of the time. The Bellamy Brothers, it seems, was United's first dip into the more contemporary end of the country pool, but it allowed the Brothers to be exposed to and develop a good base of traditional country music fans. Chip Peay was the agent in charge of the Bellamy's account at that time and would later play a big roll in my career as a songwriter.

One of United's most successful acts was Conway Twitty. The first real extended tour we went out on, was as the opening act for a series of Conway Twitty shows (most of the time, the package also included the Ronnie McDowell show). Of the short time I was with the Bellamy Brothers, the six weeks or so we spent chasing Conway around the country, will always be one of the highlights of my road career. Conway's organization treated both the Brothers and their band with respect and we had a lot of fun.

As the hits kept comin', the jobs got better and better. We were the opening act for many of the day's top stars as well as headliners at fairs, theaters and smaller concerts. The club jobs became less and less prevalent and the ones we were playing were the bigger, more prestigious venues. We did shows ranging from "Knott's Berry Farm" in California to the legendary "Lone Star Cafe" in New York City as well as every "Opry" show from Nashville, Michigan to Panama City, Florida. In 1979 we covered just about every state in the Union except a narrow band of Rocky Mountain states that I to this day have only seen from 30,000 feet (we always flew when we'd play the west coast). We played Maine, South Florida, Southern California, and Washington state. We were reasonably well received in Texas, although we were neither from Texas nor had a fiddle in the band.

We did a live television taping on Ronnie Prophet's show in Canada as well as a special with Jerry Reed that was taped in the Grand Ol' Opry House (if anybody knows where a copy of our performance on either of those shows might be obtained -- I'd sure like to have one). We did numerous "live" radio tapings for King Biscuit type shows -- but there again, I never actually heard any of the broadcasts. Another high point for me personally was when we played a Saturday night show on the Grand Ol' Opry (although I'm not sure that the Opry was quite ready for us at the time).

I saw my first snow (that didn't melt before it hit the ground) on the way to Roanoke, West Virginia, got white knuckle fever from dodging semi-trucks comin' down the West Virginia turnpike in the dead of winter, sweated out tornadoes that were jumpin' over Hot Springs, Arkansas, slipped and slid at 5 mph on a 3 inch sheet of packed ice from a hail and sleet storm from Pinebluff, Arkansas almost to Lake Charles, Louisiana.

One afternoon, in a motel room in Evansville, Indiana, where we'd been layed over for a couple of days, I wrote the song, "Close Enough To Perfect". As far as songs go, it came fairly quickly. I probably worked on it for a couple of hours while layin' around in bed suffering from a little physical problem (wasn't serious -- but somewhat painful). The whole thing had probably erupted from the stress surrounding the treatment that my new wife was getting at home, in my absence. I was feeling guilt and anger over the situation and penned the song from those two emotions. It's funny, but I don't think anyone's ever picked up on that from that song. Nancy and I had come up with that "hook line", a few weeks earlier while we were working to cover the formica walls of the bus with thin strips of cedar wood. She'd fuss about some of the small gaps I was leavin' and I'd just say it was, "close enough to perfect for me." I think we both knew then, that it was a hit. I just needed to write it. I wish I had managed to keep the original guitar and vocal demo cassette that we made that afternoon in Indiana. I'm sure today it would be a priceless keepsake.

In November 1979, we flew to New Zealand for a 6 city, 10 day tour that geographically covered the entire country. Unfortunately, the problems at home were escalating by that time, and much of the joy of my first and only international tour (except for a couple of ventures into Canada) was lost in depression. By the time we returned from New Zealand I had gotten so unhappy that I was becoming a problem to the Brothers and they let me go just before January, 1980. My position in the band was filled by Winter Haven guitarist, Randy Ferrell.

While I have often regretted how that situation ended -- I'll have to say that it was all for the best. That time was exciting and informative and set the stage for the rest of my life. For better or worse, it was an unforgettable experience and any success I have had or will ever have in this business can probably be traced back to that year and a half I spent pickin' in the shadow of Howard and David -- the Bellamy Brothers.