Barry Billings

We were just packing it out every Saturday night. If you wanted live music you either went to the bowling alley and they played country music, or you came over and listened to us and we played the rock and the blues and the soul. That was it, those were your choices on a Saturday night in Florence Alabama. We were just a 3-piece band, so we had room to expand. It wasn’t long before Chris Tompkins came in asking if he could sit in. He sang a little for us on a break and had a nice voice, so we got him up on the last set. He came up to me after and said he had a friend that plays guitar, if I get him down here next week would you let him play? The next week, in walks Jason Isbell. You know, he’s 15 and his mama had dropped him off. He had his game face on, he was not there to kid around. He would just solo all night. He would solo over the vocals; he would solo over everything. I hated to do it, but I had to tell him, don’t play when she’s singing. He was a quick study, he figured it out pretty quick. Me and him would go at it for long extended solos. It was tough on me. I’m grown and here’s this kid just smokin’ so I would go home after LaFonda and practice because, you know, I didn’t want to get ate up by a 15-year-old. He was great for me. He was as good for me as I was for him.