I guess I will start with my song "Daddy got drunk" There is not a song more true. I was twelve years old when it happened.
Daddy was a hard working man, but he really liked drinking. Mama would give him hell every time he went off drinking. Listen to the words. Shreveport was the take-off point. Big Springs,
Texas was the place where we left the train yard to get something to eat. The song says beef stew, but it was really chili because I had to make the song rhyme, doncha know. We left again.
Next stop was El paso where we went to the mission and ate again. They also gave us some clean clothes. After we left el-paso, the train stopped in the middle of the desert for some reason.
It was really hot and we didn't have any water, but I noticed a windmill about a hundred yards from the tracks. Daddy said where there is a windmill there is water and we noticed an old mason
jar. Well, Daddy took off for the windmill while the train was stopped. He got the water and was headed back when the train started to move. Bam,Bam,Bam, you know how it does. Well,
daddy started running. A train starts out kinda slow so daddy made it. Man, that water was good! The next place the train stopped was Yuma , Arizona . It was there that daddy got arrested.
for public intoxification. Daddy went to jail and they put me in the reformitory for safekeeping. Meanwhile, back home the whole family was freakin' out! They even had the whole church praying
for us, Any way, Mama wired some money to the Sheriffs dept. in Yuma . and they took us to the bus station. By the way, daddy stashed that gallon of wine before we were arrested. I waited
at the bus station while daddy went back and got that gallon of wine. He had stashed it between two bushes and it was still there. Well, we got on the bus in Yuma and in two days we were
back in louisiana . Well I guess thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
Sometime in the late seventees or early eighties, I was working the "Turf" Lounge on the strip and a fiddle player joined my band. His name was Joe Spivey..Prior to that, Joe had been
working the Louisiana Hayride. While he was at the Hayride, he met John Anderson. He told me at the Turf lounge that he was joining John Anderson's band. I congratulated him and he
moved to Nashville . After Joe left, I replaced him with a cute blonde named Pam Robinson. She did a great job and somewhat changed the sound of my band. Not better, just different.
Joe is still in Nashville doing session work. He still plays with John Anderson, plus he is playing with the "Time Jumpers"
It was the late seventees, I was at the Stork Club, Dawn Glass was in the Sho-Bar up front, and the fabulous "Helene" was in the "Hidaway Lounge" in the back. I played 45 minutes and
the strippers did their thing 45 minutes. I was used to seeing the strippers every night, and quite frankly, I would get bored. So I would go in the "Hidaway" and sit down beside Helene
at the piano. We both played and had fun. There were a lot of rich people going to the Stork Club. The tips there were very good! I started dating one of the waitresses and this is where
the song "Boycott" came from and I'll leave it at that. Next door was the Beacon Manor motel by the same owner. I had a free room with my pay, and that's all I'm telling!!
I guess you could say this song is kinda auto-biographical. I joined the Army in 1964. My MOS was telephone lineman. I was in Viet Nam in '65 and '66. I was in Ft. Hood , Texas in '64
where I married my first wife.. I got orders for Viet Nam and my wife was getting an allottment check from the Army while I was gone. When I got back home, I got a divorce and was married
again inside 3 months. After I got out of the Army, I was an electrical lineman and ended up in Detroit . You could say this bio covers X-wives, also. I got the name "diamond jim" while in
Detroit . Listen to the words.
In 1993, I met John Wayne Parsons. I didn't know whether to call him "preacher" or "Duke" He was a young lineman or apprentice at the time and he became my best friend. We still get
togrther on storm work. In 2005, we were on "Katrina, Dennis, and Wilma" It was that year that I met "John Boy" Turner. We've also been doing storm work since then.
Around 1998 I wrote a song called "Doo Dah" It's a novelty song. This one ain't true, Folks!!! It's pretty funny, though. Mel Tillis is one of my favorite singers. Robin Vosbury is my producer
and his kids were singing on this one. I wrote the songs "Hurricane , Diamond's Blue, and Ice Storm Blues about this time.
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