an interview by Laura Rojo-La Rue

I wanted to thank you for all you have done for the music scene in Austin. The first time I ever saw you was in a photograph of you with Stevie, Jimmy and Kim Wilson.

I have millions of them

When did you open Antone’s
On July 1975 with Clifton Shenear. We just to do all our of our shows for five days, Tuesday through Saturday.We were the first club on Sixth Street, there was nothing else going on, Sixth Street was absolutely deserted.

And you have had some big name people coming, sitting in and playing with the band on stage
But it is not about the big names, it is about Blue’s Boy Hubbard and all those other who have play forever. Blue’s Boy Hubbard is the real star. When his drummer who died three years ago, he was the best drummer and best singer in Austin, and he did not get any recognition whatsover. That is what Antone’s is all about. It is not about the stars. The best musicians are hardly even known. The best musicians in Texas like Hobbard, Clarence Solomon, Milton Hopkins, Wayne Bennett, and Luther Tucker, all of them great musicians but success and fame does nothing to do with music. Anything they call music today has nothing to do with music whatsoever. Because the great musicians in America always were unknown. And there is one out there. There is no one who can play the guitar like Blue’s Boy Hubbard. He is playing and has something to say. And that is what is all about. We like to have starts and we like to have everybody.

I think they like coming here. The name Antone’s is recognized all around the States
That is because of the musicians and especially in the early years, having people like Sunny Lan Slim, the great Chicago piano player; Walter Hart, the great harmonica player; and Jimmy Rodgers from the Muddy Waters band, who is coming here in May, Luther Tucker and having here all the time, and then the young players who when we started in 1975 were not known, guys like Stevie (Ray Vaughn) and The (Fabulous) Thunderbirds, seen them grow up and having other generations of young musicians come through here. That is what is all about. It is not about me, is about the music.

One thing I have noticed whenever talking to musicians, whether they are very well known, or just starting, is that they do have a lot of respect for you, and what you have done. Anybody in the business talking about Cliff Antone always say you are a really nice guy

That may be true, but the thing is that I love music, and I have loved the Blues ever since I was a baby. We knew when we were on our early twenties that kids like Stevie and his brother Jimmy, Eric O’Brien, Danny Freeman, Bill Campbell, Angela Sterling, we knew they were great when nobody wanted them. We knew that, and we knew we wanted to hear Moody Waters, Cliffton Shenear, Eddie Tyler, Jimmy Leigh. When they made 2 o’clock drinking in 1975, me and my friends opened it just to hear music, that is, and I am still that same person. So obviously I have respect for musicians, and viceversa. And not just me, but all my staff for twenty two years almost, have respect for musicians. I have had a great, great staff. They come and go, but all were nice and have respect. So when you say Antone, that is my name, but it covers so many people who work really hard.

Where were you born?
Port Arthur, Texas. In the lowlands where the Blues came from. I never could hear anything but Blues. I am a Blues man, period. The Blues has been good to me, and it has been good to a lot of people. I will never turn my back on it. I have never said: ‘I am not a Blues man, this is not a Blues club’ like some bands would say they are not a Blues band but all their life they play just the Blues. You have to give respect, you have to say ‘without the Blues, we are all nothing.’ These older cats, men and women taught us over the years.

And we have to remember that music like Rock’n’roll came from the Blues.
For example, Dan Dyer from Breedlove is a good singer and has talent. I like Breedlove and a lot of the young bands. Johnny Mowlan and his band, The little Mike Keller and the kids he plays with. And then there are young musicians like Sue Foley who is a really, truly, authentic Blues player and also Teddy Morgan, . We have also multi-talented people like Toni Price who is great, but it is not entirely the Blues. We have been associated w Jake Andrews, Johnny Lang who is a young guy, who is really good. We have also multi-talented people like Toni Price who is great, but it is not entirely the Blues. We have been associated with so many great players and it is good to see that we have youacross the world. We get a lot of people from Europe who just came for the weekend because they wanted to hear music. They had money, and nothing they could do over there, so they fly over here. It is crazy. But I wish I was able to do more of the lesser known Blues artist than I can do. That is where the real great music is, the lesser known cats. There are some really great ones out there.

Papa Mali with Clifford Antone

But, even though you would like to do it for all of them, we cannot ignore the fact of all you have done for so many, without any recognition whatsoever.
That is true. But I don’t think of what I have done, but what I haven’t done. And that is what drives me crazy. I don’t know if you have ever met anyone like me, but I am possesed with this. It is my passion, it is all I am. All I care about is the Blues. It is not like a hobby, where I like this or I like that. No, it is me. I know where these people are, and I know that they are the greatest in the world, and I have known it for 20 years and I want to get them recognition. But still, the world doesn’t care. They want money, so you are stuck on only being able to do so much because of the financial burden, where major labels can come in and get a kid in a garage band, and get him two or three hundred thousand, and if they don’t like it, they just throw it away. Well, I can record about 10 people with that money, great artists. Just like we did Labelle White. Labelle and I have been friends all our lives, and it took me the last four or five years to get her recorded. But now, she has got the recognition, she makes money and she goes all around the world. And we are doing that with Pete Maze from Houston, TX. He is one of the best guitar players and singers that ever lived. He played with Junior Parker, the great Junior Parker Band. Played with T Bone Walker. This guy is a legend. And I mean this from the bottom of my heart. The world should know about all these people before they are all gone. And we are loosing them every year. And that is what I worry about. Not what Ing ones coming out all over the place. That is good to see too. There are some really great musicians who just need a break like a Sue Foley who can really play. She could have played in the old Chicago Blues Bands with the masters. She used to walk oked out there with them. I haven’t seen many people ever who could do that. But she can, she is great.

If you don’t mind, I would like you to tell me a little bit about your growing up
I grew up in a town which had a lot of music in the area. Port Arthur has a lot of Louisiana influence. Great bands like the Boogie Kings, Johnny Winters grew up there, and used to play the skate rink with Edgar Winters. You had not just Black music or not just sadico, but Black sadico music all mixed into one. Frenchman, you know, a Cajun city, even though it is in Texas, Port Arthur has nothing to do with Texas, it is all Louisiana. It is probably the second biggest Cajun population there is outside of Lafayette. That is where Janis Joplin came from, and you can see how her Blues was just tearing her up. It is a Blues kind of town, and you have the lowdown. And then you have the "Swamppa" the white blues singers doing a Louisiana thing, like a jan and Jin bojeaux in Port Arthur like Key Kay Julan, The Boogie Kings, Jerry Lacroix. And I grew up with that. My daddy had liquor stores and the office and warehouse was in the black part of town, there were no white people at all. And that is where I grew up, working with black people from Louisiana. I never knew anything but the Blues. I listened to KJET radio in Beaumont. Blues is all I could ever understand. Later, when I was on my later teens, I found the Chicago Blues. Emor James and Ottis Band? records. That was it, I have spent the rest of my life trying to study the history of it, and trying to teach it to other people. And I am still learning too. I can spend the rest of my life, and I will never get through it.

Have you ever thought of writing a book?
I want to but I have never gotten the chance to actually do it. I probably have a hundred people ask me to write. Not only do I know the history of the Blues, but I know the people personally. Moody Waters and Albert King would come to my house, and my mother would cook for them. Everyone of the Blues guys came to my house when they came to town. We would sit around all day, talking and playing guitars. Moody Waters adopted us all. The Thunderbirds got their first tour because of him. He lined them up with some people on the East Coast. We would go up in the hotel room at night and Louisiana man ‘High Tall Parkins’ would fried chicken for him, Moody Waters and me. We would drink champagne, and eat fried chickend.

You need to write and share all these wonderful memories you have. People need to know about it.
I also need someone to come up with the money to back up the project, because its a hell of a story. If there would be a museum of the Blues, I would be the curator. When I talk about me, I am also referring to all my friends, we are like a team: Derek O’Brien, Kim Wilson, Angela Strailey, Jimmy Vaughn, Paul Ray. We have been together for all these years, and no one knows the Blues like us. We have all been together and study it just as hard. We are a good team, all of us together.

Charlie Sexton plays great Blues. I would love to do a Blues record on him so much. Just straight Blues. That is how he got started. He is so good at it. And so is Doyle Brahamhall Jr. He played here the other night and it was a special show. It was not like your regular show. It was great. Dan Dyer from Breedlove can also sing the Blues.

Eddie Wilson is ahead of his time. He is one of the truly innovative people and geniuses I have ever met. He is a good hearted guy. He wants to appear tough, but he is a good hearted guy… that should make him mad. We have been friends since before the Armadillo. We used to sit at Virginia’s cafe in South Austin, the best little eating place I have ever been in my life. One lady did all the work. Past Oltford in South First. It was a little bitty cafe. She was the greatest. Home made cooking which was legendary. Everybody from old Austin knows about Virginia. She was like my mother. I used to eat a lot over there.

How long were you at the Guadalupe location?
We were first o over Sixth Street. From there, we went to Anderson Lane, where New West is. That building was a furniture sre. I opened a big Antone’s there. We had James Brown, B.B (King), Ray Charles. We also did all the country acts like Tanya Tucker, Hank Jr, Alabama, Freddy Fender. I did all of them out there.Then we moved to the Guadalupe location in September 1982. The Thunderbirds opened that club. And now we have moved back downtown. I love this place and I feel very lucky about having it. It is a great building. It has all that old wood, and has great acoustics. I like it very much. I want to bring the Blues here, andn?
We were first open in 1975 over Sixth Street. From there, we went to Anderson Lane, where New West is. That building was a furniture stoo all kinds of music here.

One night, we were trying to record Lazy Lester back at the other club. We had Jimmy Vaughan, Stevie Vaughan, Doctor Johh, Lou Anne Barton waiting for him. Lazy Lester got stuck in Michigan because of the weather. As we are waiting, U2 came that night with the whole camera crew and tried to play Blues with all these incredible people and couldn’t keep up with them. They are good and very talented at what they do, but thhhhhlues is another matter.

Your family sounds great.
I was very lucky growing up. Both my parents were wonderful. As far as my family goes, I was very lucky. It was like a dream having your parents, grandparents and your family there. We are partly Lebanese (Nick, Greek??) , and we grew up the old fashion way. It was a very lucky way to grow up. I had it too good. It made hard to learn how to live on the streets when I first move to Austin. I didn’t know the bad side of life because I only saw good people growing up.

That gave you a good foundation
I had good parents. They were not prejudist. You are just as nice as you can be, without worrying about what anybody says. Just don’t hit me… (laughs)

Do you play an instrument?
No, I never had a chance to practice because I have been doing the club all these years. But I always play bass with Albert Collins, Luther Tucker and all those guys. We always play together. Bill Campbell, a guitar player from around here, taught us a lot when we were really young, before we had the club. He showed me things on the bass. I have the feeling to play it, but I don’t have the practice and skill to be a professional musician.

But a lot of it comes out from here, from the heart.
I can play Blues all night with anyone. But I never considered myself a professional. I am amateur, and I have fun doing it. But I got to play with the best, and that is what I have enjoyed. Specially Albert Collins and Luther Tucker. They both died the same year, and it has never been the same either. I buried Albert Collins, and that was heavy because he was one of the dearest, nicest person you could ever meet. I have never been the same since Albert Collins died. And it will never be the same. One of the greatest joy of life was waiting for him to get here and play because he came without his band, and play with our band: Derek, Sarah and all those people. So he came any time he wanted. He didn’t have to be on tour. He would just fly in here. It was special.

All those memories and special moments make your life so much richer
And they were gigantic things. Being friends with Albert Collins was unbelievable. If he walked in, and talked to you, you walked away feeling better about yourself. They don’t make them like him very often. I am a kid in the street who loved music, and I was the only one who was sober and didn’t drink or used drugs. I was sober through the whole thing, and that is why I have the club still, because I stayed sober through it and fought the battles to keep it open. And I am still fighting unbelievable battles everyday, and it never ends. It is hard, you don’t get help.

part 2 will come as soon as Laura finds it on her hard drive.