After we returned from our last road trip, Billy visited his home town of Hartshorne, Oklahoma.
On August 3, 1978,
he dove into a swimming hole and hit his head on a submerged tree branch, breaking his neck.
He was paralyzed from the neck down for some time,
and it wasn't likely that he would play the fiddle again, much less walk.
He did heal, though, and he has been playing the fiddle for the last thirty years.
Thanks to Brett Hodges,
who contacted me on 8-2-2006
with the following comments to fill in some information I had forgotten (if I ever knew it):
who contacted me on 8-2-2006
with the following comments to fill in some information I had forgotten (if I ever knew it):
"As I recall, you and Buddy were leaving the
band to play R&B and
Bob was going to Colorado (to play with Dusty Drapes I think). There
may have been more going on here but I was 19 and not asking any probing
questions. The new line-up was going to be Billy, Jimmy, Lisa [Spears] on steel,
Clint [Spears] on drums, and me on bass. We were rehearsing daily while you guys
were playing out a few remaining local gigs. I remember going with the
band to sit in at Good Times in Olathe and the Coyote Club in Wichita.
You were even helpful coaching me not to do anything particularly stupid
on bass. Had Billy not broken his neck, the new band would have debuted
at the festival in Kalamazoo."
"The short conclusion of my history with the Spears band of that era:
After Billy's injury, I knocked around Lawrence for a few months playing
pick-up gigs before loading up and moving to Hays, Kansas. About a year
later, Bob and Jimmy came through Hays with a band from Denver called
Swing Shift featuring Lynn Morris. A few weeks later (December 1979?)
Bob called and told me Billy was ready to play again and asked if I
would come back to Lawrence and play bass. This time the line-up was:
Billy, Jimmy, Bob, Clint, and me. We played a disastrous week long gig
at a bar in Watertown, South Dakota, over New Years. Complete with a 15
inch blizzard, about four customers, and I had a bad infection earning
me a nickname I will not repeat. The promoter canceled the rest of our
gigs. A few weeks later, Dwight told me that things weren't working out
as planned and let me go. Billy played gigs with Lonnie and Debbie
Fugate(sp?) and I went back to Hays."
Bob was going to Colorado (to play with Dusty Drapes I think). There
may have been more going on here but I was 19 and not asking any probing
questions. The new line-up was going to be Billy, Jimmy, Lisa [Spears] on steel,
Clint [Spears] on drums, and me on bass. We were rehearsing daily while you guys
were playing out a few remaining local gigs. I remember going with the
band to sit in at Good Times in Olathe and the Coyote Club in Wichita.
You were even helpful coaching me not to do anything particularly stupid
on bass. Had Billy not broken his neck, the new band would have debuted
at the festival in Kalamazoo."
"The short conclusion of my history with the Spears band of that era:
After Billy's injury, I knocked around Lawrence for a few months playing
pick-up gigs before loading up and moving to Hays, Kansas. About a year
later, Bob and Jimmy came through Hays with a band from Denver called
Swing Shift featuring Lynn Morris. A few weeks later (December 1979?)
Bob called and told me Billy was ready to play again and asked if I
would come back to Lawrence and play bass. This time the line-up was:
Billy, Jimmy, Bob, Clint, and me. We played a disastrous week long gig
at a bar in Watertown, South Dakota, over New Years. Complete with a 15
inch blizzard, about four customers, and I had a bad infection earning
me a nickname I will not repeat. The promoter canceled the rest of our
gigs. A few weeks later, Dwight told me that things weren't working out
as planned and let me go. Billy played gigs with Lonnie and Debbie
Fugate(sp?) and I went back to Hays."
| Billy Spears continued to play until shortly
before his death on July 6, 2013. There were many other configurations
of the band, a couple of which I played in, the main one being during the
"Billy Spears Country Playhouse" era in the early 1980s (think mashup of
"Urban Cowboy" and "Boogie Nights"). His last band was Billy Spears
and the Beer Bellies, which played at Johnnie's Tavern on Wednesdays for
at least 15 years. Click here for a few photos of the Billy Spears Memorial Shindig (my name for it), August 10, 2013. But the 1975-8 band was the one which spread Billy's music to a big part of the whole country and had the best shot at making the "big time." And, if I do say so myself, it was the best. I've had the honor of showing up and playing with the old band for Billy's 60th, 70th, 78th, and 80th birthday parties. Click here for video and here for photos.. Here's a 1990 article from the Lawrence Journal-World on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. |
