Bob Wayne Recruits Red Simpson for Muddy Roots
The annual Muddy Roots Festival held over Labor Day weekend announced their initial lineup last week (see below) and at the top of the list was the name of legendary Bakersfield Sound songwriter Red Simpson, chiefly known for his devotion to the story of the American truck driver. Living on the outskirts of Bakersfield in an old trailer park, Red was recruited for Muddy Roots during a chance meeting with Century Media recording artist Bob Wayne who was touring through town.
In a strange turn of events, Bob Wayne found himself sitting in Red Simpson’s trailer at 6 AM, swapping songs and stories with a man he considered a hero, and who country music has so unfortunately forgotten over time.
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Bob Wayne: When I first started touring with Hank3, mainly Andy Gibson (Hank3 steel guitar) turned me on to him. Basically when we’re on tour and rolling down the road, we’re listening to music that we love, and turning each other on to music. Andy was like “Man, you’ve got to hear Red Simpson,” and he has all his CD’s. As soon as I heard it, I immediately fell in love with it and we would constantly be listening to it. He’s always singing about truck driving, or being a highway patrolman. We just thought it was so funny that was his only two topics pretty much. We obsessed over him for years. I was a huge fan, but I never looked him up to see what he was doing. I knew he was still alive but I figured he was really old.
Trigger: He must have been a big influence on your music as well. Your 2nd album was 13 Truckin’ Songs and since then you’ve put out even more trucking songs.
Bob Wayne: Definitely. When we we’re recording (with Andy Gibson), he was one of the guys we would go to to get the sound we were looking for. We’d listen to Johnny Paycheck, Red Simpson…just pull up these records and listen to them, and we really listened to Red Simpson’s guitar players. In fact we gave him a little tribute in the song “Mack.” It’s kind of subliminal, it’s in the background, but there’s a little guitar lick in there about Mack the truck driver. Red’s sound is just amazing.
Trigger: So how did it come about that you were hanging out with Red Simpson in Bakersfield and all of a sudden you’re helping book him at the Muddy Roots Festival?
Bob Wayne: It goes back to my guitar player Ryan (Clackner). He’s got a really big beard. He was in downtown Nashville–this goes back to last summer I think–and he was just sitting there hanging out, and this woman came up to him that was probably in her 60’s, and came up to Ryan out of the blue and said, “I just love your beard, and your aura.” She told him, “I work at the Crystal Palace in Bakersfield.” It’s a famous museum and restaurant down there in Bakersfield, and she gave him her number and said if he was ever in Bakersfield he could have a free tour or whatever.
This was all before Ryan joined my band. So he joins the band now, and we’re in Bakersfield and he ends up calling this girl and she comes to our show. We get to talking and I mentioned Red Simpson, not knowing she knew him or anything like that. I said, “I love Bakersfield, this is where Red Simpson is from.” And she said, “Do you like Red Simpson?” and I said, “I love Red Simpson, you don’t even know.” About 15 minutes later she walks over with the phone and says, “Someone wants to talk to you.” I’m like “Okay?” And I get on the phone and it’s like, “Hey, this is Red. How’s it going man?”
We started talking. Ended up he knew Donnie Herron of BR549 who now plays with Bob Dylan and whose played on all of my albums. Donnie used to live in Bakersfield. So we had that connection. And then Red was like, “Why don’t you come over tomorrow morning and we’ll drink some coffee? We’ll trade songs.” Just listening to him talk, I’m such a fan of his–like the way he laughs, he gives a little “heh” like he does at the end of some of his songs I was like, “Oh my God this is really him.” I was a little star struck. This is one of my heroes. He says, “How about 6 AM?” and I’m like, “Oh my God.” He’s 78 I think, so he’s up there. So I got up early, none of the band wanted to go that early.
He lives in a trailer park in Bakersfield, right in between the cemetery and the dump in this old ass trailer park. He’s got two old Cadillacs sitting out in the front, just like my old Cadillac limo. We ended up sitting there talking for hours, drinking coffee. He showed me all his demos, he played me all the unreleased Red Simpson songs that he’s just written. He’s just sitting in his trailer writing all these songs. He said, “Man, I’d really like it if you’d cut this one.” He gave me a couple of songs he really wants me to record. I asked him, “Do you still play gigs?” And he said, “I play down at the nursing home every Monday night for a free meal.”
So anyway we ended up hanging out all day until I had to leave. We we’re driving up to the next gig and I thought, “Man, I wonder if he would want to play Muddy Roots?” So I called Jason (Muddy Roots promoter), and Jason said, “Oh hell yeah.” So I called up Red and he said, “Well, I don’t have any band up there. And so I said, “We’ll learn your songs and do a good job.” Andy (Gibson) was really excited too. He said, “One minute we’re driving down the road listening to Red Simpson, now we’re going to be playing with him!”
Red is also going to do a show at the Country Music Hall of Fame February 23rd, and I’m actually going to pick him up in my limo and give him a ride to it. We’re going to hang out, he’s gonna come by the house, and we may do some recording and stuff. So Red Simpson is gonna be going to the Country Music Hall of Fame in my limo, and I’m gonna blow the big bullhorn for him and open the door and everything!
Trigger: This is all so appropriate because the Country Music Hall of Fame, their big exhibit is highlighting the Bakersfield Sound, which of course Red Simpson was a part of as much as anybody. It’s all about finding these old guys that time has forgotten, and giving them the props that they deserve.
Bob Wayne: Yeah, and it was funny because after I called him, about 10 minutes after he called me again and said, “Hey man, thank you so much for doing that. And uh…if you can get me any more gigs…” (laughing). So I’ve been putting out some feelers for him. Now I’m friends with him, it’s weird. We call, I talk to his wife and stuff. It’s crazy. — Purchase Tickets to the Muddy Roots Festival
January 17, 2013 @ 3:47 pm
Very cool. The Bakersfield sound is the essence of honkytonk music. It’s good to see guy’s like this get some much deserved props.
January 17, 2013 @ 4:04 pm
I can’t wait to have Red at MRMF!! I saw him speak at the CMHOF at the opening of the Bakersfield Sound Exhibit. Let our booking history show all of you that we revere and respect our elders and they ALWAYS have a home on our stage. So get your grandpa off the couch and get him touring again!
January 17, 2013 @ 4:22 pm
way to go bob…
January 17, 2013 @ 4:29 pm
This is really mind-blowing how it all worked out in the first place. Months back I remember a photo Bob Wayne posted on his fan page on FaceBook of Ryan Clackner, stating he found him walking on the side of the road with a guitar. So he asked him to come to his studio and play for him. He liked him so much, he asked him to join them on tour. Now this article is saying completely by chance Ryan Clackner knew a woman that KNEW Red Simpson and introduced him to Bob Wayne?
Now that is a textbook example of synchronicity. Life can be too fucking weird!
January 17, 2013 @ 4:48 pm
Deeper in the interview, Bob was reflecting on how everything had to work perfectly for him to get a chance to meet and hang out with one of his heroes, how if he hadn’t decided to go on a West Coast tour or play Bakersfield, or take Ryan with him on tour, it never would have happened.
The other crazy point of synchronicity here is how just like Don Maddox last year, here is a bona fide country music legend that most of the country music world has forgotten about, picked out of virtually nowhere and put out on center stage. And both times the two entities that have stepped up and made sure that these artists are shown respects are Muddy Roots and the Country Music Hall of Fame. The power of the HOF’s Bakersfield Sound exhibit has been enormous, with the tentacles helping shine new light on a lot of deserving country greats in the twilight of their lives and careers. The timing of that exhibit has been absolutely perfect.
February 1, 2013 @ 3:16 pm
I was lucky enough to be at Bob’s show at B Ryders the night this happened . . .
January 17, 2013 @ 5:48 pm
Yawn.
January 17, 2013 @ 5:55 pm
Up your nose with a rubber hose.
January 17, 2013 @ 5:54 pm
What a great story! And kudos to our very own Bob Wayne for being the guy we know and love.
January 18, 2013 @ 5:32 am
He sounds like a somber, serious version of Unknown Hinson. Bad ass!
January 18, 2013 @ 6:37 am
This is a totally awesome story!!! Life sure is funny. Pandora turned me on to Red not too long ago. I was listenin to the Dale Watson channel and Diesel Smoke came on and blew the socks right off my feet. I did a little searchin since that song itself remained in my head all day and uncovered a wealth of information on a true country music legend. Red Simpson is the real deal and one who won’t be around for much longer. How great of an opportunity for all!!!
January 18, 2013 @ 7:58 am
Thats one of coolest stories I’ve ever heard.
January 18, 2013 @ 12:13 pm
I really hope I can make it to Muddy Roots this year. Red Simpson is worth the trip alone.
January 18, 2013 @ 1:53 pm
lets hope experiences like this becomes a trend.
January 19, 2013 @ 12:09 pm
I was the woman that met Ryan Clackner in Nashville, I was 59 not IN MY 60’s (that could sound like 68 or 69). I told Ryan he had a nice (beautiful) face. I don’t work at the Crystal Palace but I love the place that Buck Owens built. I have known Red Simpson for more than 30 years and I attended the opening of the Bakersfield Sound Exhibit in Nashville last March. My heart was full of pride watching these entertainers from Bakersfield on stage at the Country Music Hall of Fame. I wished Don’s sister Rose and brother Fred Maddox could have been there as well. Just to think that I would have not had the please of Bob Wayne if I didn’t step up to Ryan that night to compliment him!
January 19, 2013 @ 4:17 pm
Carol,
Let me just say in Bob Wayne’s defense that in the transcript of the interview he’s says after he mentioned your age, “I hope she doesn’t read this and get offended.” I think the reason he included your age (or an assumption of what it was) was because it is yet another interesting part of the story. Not because of how old or young you are necessarily, but that you are not the same age as Bob or Ryan Clackner, yet still something about Ryan made you feel the need to reach out to him, and how a mutual appreciation for music bridged that age gap that so often exists in music. This comes up again when Bob met Red Simpson. You could have looked at Ryan as some bearded, disheveled punk, just as Red Simpson could have looked at Bob as some foul-mouthed punk. But these similarities brought from the love of the music bridged these differences. I think that is what Bob was trying to say, and that is why I saw it as important to include in the story.
And like all stories, especially when they’re being told 4th hand (which is where it was by the time it got to me) there’s gonna be innocent inaccuracies. We’ll get it right eventually. The important thing is that you tell it, and you keep that moment in time alive.
January 19, 2013 @ 12:19 pm
To correct the previous comment last sentence: I would not have had the pleasure of meeting Bob Wayne. We just may come back to the Muddy Roots Festival in Sept.
January 20, 2013 @ 7:48 am
I just wanted to let you all know I wasn’t offended about the age stated, I found it funny and shared this on my facebook page. I am proud to be 60 and when I met Ryan my body looked like I was 18 (not my face though it looked 40) now I look the 60! LOL! Also you have it right I love many different music venues.
August 29, 2013 @ 8:10 am
What a great story!! And what an awesome gig for Red!! Thank you Bob Wayne, for being so cool as to take time out (especially at Red’s 6am hour) to sit and talk with him. To share your love of music with him. I’ve know Red for all of my 50+ years, as he was a friend of my parents. My Dad was a truck driver, and guitar player, so of course, a huge Red Simpson fan. 🙂 Bakersfield being what it was back then, and still is, the musicians and the fans are one and the same. We’re family. I see Red fairly regularly, and he may be getting up in years, but his mind is sharp, and his music (old and new) is alive and well. We love, and are proud of our “Bakersfield Sound”. I’m constantly amazed at the bands that admit to being influenced by it. Rock, Blues, Punk, etc. Amazed, but not surprised. And in talking with Red, I’m sure he informed you that there are still several of the older players still living here, still writing and performing when they can. We’re Blessed to have them still with us, and we still hold them high in our praise, and close in our hearts. Again, great story..thank you. And Carol, I just love you!! Keep on keepin on girl!! 🙂