Did you ever hear an album that grabs you by the throat and won’t let go? I mean, an album that’s so unbelievable that you say to yourself, “They don’t make music like this any more”? Six Minute Century’s forthcoming album Time Capsules hit me like that. From the first song – “Under the Moonlight,” which opens with an atmospheric church organ (reminiscent of Rick Wakeman circa 1973) and features a killer riff, stratospheric vocals, and an infectious hook – the CD never let up. Time Capsules is a juggernaut of everything I like in my music: stunning guitar solos, jaw-dropping vocals, intelligent lyrics, and riffs up the wazoo. Even the production is crystal clear and bottom-end punchy. (I’m listening to track three, “One Man’s Dream,” as I type this thinking, “Holy shit this is good.”
Guitarist Don LaFon is no stranger to making great music. Nor is he a stranger to performing live. As part of Krucible, Don and company wowed the audience at last year’s ProgPower USA metal fest in Atlanta. Now, as part of Six Minute Century, he’s poised to become one of the most talked-about guitarists in power metal. My prediction: if SMC can keep up this level of songwriting, it’s going to be the band to watch in the years ahead.
Don recently had a lengthy chat with Bill Murphy about the origins of the band, the killer songs on Time Capsules, the band’s upcoming appearance at the Nightmare Metal Fest, and (believe it or not) raising horses in the great state of Texas.
This is Part Two of Two Parts.
DL: ...times here and there that we’ve had malfunctions with the sample where we’re playing a song and all of a sudden some piano part from another song starts playing. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
DL: And we just have to stop the player, but we can obviously just play through the song without the keyboards. But it’s always kind of an adventure just making sure we’re all on track and on time with the keyboard player. Which we would like to probably have a full-time keyboard player, if anyone might read this and be interested. [laughs]
BM: Yeah. That would make it a lot easier for you.
DL: Yeah, it would. But we’ve talked to a few different people and nothing’s really worked out. And you know, sometimes I like the keyboards to be, for “Zero Hour” has a whole piano part that I’m not playing guitar on. So I like keyboards in the music, so we’re not gonna take them out. But it would make it easier sometimes to have a full-time keyboard player.
BM: [laughs]
DL: And also, since you asked, sometimes some of the notes in there, you know, they’re always pretty close, but the difficulty of it is fairly hard.
BM: Well it sounds like it would be hard. I haven’t heard anybody sing with that kind of range in a long time in metal. It’s not as common these days. In fact, you hear a lot of those Cookie Monster vocals that seems to be more popular.
DL: Yeah, I mean, if we were going for the popularity, there would be no guitar solos, or maybe, these days it seems like guitar solos are coming back, but there would be no guitar solos maybe, and the Cookie Monster vocals, like you said.
BM: Wouldn’t that suck?
DL: Yeah, we would rather play the music that we like, than conform and just be popular.
BM: Yeah, what do you think about metal these days? You mentioned something, that guitar solos aren’t there anymore, sort of wall-of-sound, chord-riffing, and growly vocals. To me, that doesn’t seem like a very high standard of musicianship, frankly. But I’m glad you said guitar solos are coming back, and I’m glad you said you like to play them, because those are my favorite parts of songs.
DL: Well, I teach guitar lessons six days a week. And the students that bring in a CD, I would say five to eight years ago, they might bring in Green Day or something else, but it’s kind of progressively moved to where, a few years back, kids would bring in Shadows Fall. They don’t really bring that in that much anymore, but that was one of the bands I thought that started doing a few years back some guitar solos. And then in the last couple of years, Sevenfold, they definitely play leads on their stuff, and Children of Bodom have leads. You know, some of those bands, I’m still not jazzed about the Cookie Monster vocals, but at least the guitar’s coming back anyway. [laughs]
BM: [laughs] Yeah.
DL: And probably part of it has to do with the recording industry, that if you sing the way that Chuck does or some of the other power prog bands, they’re not going to put it out. Because that’s not what they think is popular at this time. So you’re not only fighting what does somebody want to listen to, but what does somebody want to put out.
BM: Yeah. Well, what do you think about the music industry these days? Is it harder or easier to be a metal band in 2008 America?
DL: I don’t know that I have a whole lot of experience. I mean, I’ve played in bands like I said, since the ‘80s, but I’ve never been into a signed band situation. But I don’t know. It’s probably just reading stuff, I’m sure it’s probably worse, with downloading songs and not having the sales that maybe once were. But I couldn’t probably tell you that first hand.
BM: [laughs] Yeah. Well, that’s true.
BM: Tell me about your gig with Krucible at Prog Power. What was that like for you to play there?
DL: Oh, it was great. To be the, I would say maybe the fourth gig that Krucible had ever played, in front of, I’m not exactly sure how many people the venue holds – a thousand? Twelve hundred? – and we really thought that the band got a very good reception. It seemed like everybody enjoyed the band.
BM: Oh, it was great. I thought it was a killer set. Everybody that I heard or talked to out in the lobby afterward thought you guys just blew the roof off. I mean, they were amazed.
DL: Yeah, it seemed like it went really well. We’re trying to finish up the writing for the CD within the next, I mean, we don’t really have a timeframe to say we have to be done with the writing, but we’re moving ahead with finishing up writing for the CD that we’re hoping maybe could come out by the fall, maybe.
BM: Yeah. That would be cool.
DL: But once again, there’s no timeframe at this point, nothing is set in stone yet.
BM: Your gig with the Nightmare Metal Fest is coming up. What can audiences expect from Six Minute Century? If they’re not familiar with you, what can they expect from you guys live? What kind of show do you put on?
DL: That’s another thing that we try to maybe buck a little bit of the, we try to put on a show. We don’t actually just stand there and say, “Hey, we’re going to play this exactly the way the CD goes. We actually try to, unfortunately, doing that some of it might not actually sound the way the CD does. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
DL: But I come from maybe more of a Zakk Wylde school, where you’re getting up there to rock out, and not necessarily to play everything exactly the way it was recorded. And that’s pretty much the philosophy live, that we play. We’re there to play, and a lot of people have forgotten that you are an entertainer, not a CD jukebox. So we try to entertain as well as just play the songs. [laughs] To a certain extent. We won’t be wearing makeup or any kind of costumes, but we will be there to hopefully entertain everyone.
BM: How long will your set be? Do you know?
DL: I have not gotten the final, the set times or stuff like that from Nightmare yet. But the last I heard, it was gonna be maybe 50 minutes.
BM: 50?
DL: 45-50 minutes.
BM: That would be great.
DL: And I don’t even really positively know what the times are, but I believe that we’re gonna be the first of the Nightmare bands, starting at 6:00 on Saturday.
BM: Yep. You kick off the Saturday night lineup, followed by Pownd, Dimension, Warmachine, and others.
DL: Yeah, and I believe there are going to be four or five, maybe six local bands starting during the daytime, like at one or 2:00.
BM: You’ve been doing this a long time, you probably don’t get nervous. Does this kind of metal fest make you nervous. Like, do you think, “Man, we’ve got to be good. There’s all these metal fans. We could win some new fans if we play it right”? Or do you just take it all in stride?
DL: Well yeah, you’re always going to have, I don’t know. I mean, for a local show, no it wouldn’t be the same, because to me, same thing with ProgPower. You have the musicians and all the critics there. That makes it a little bit different than playing a regular show. So yeah, there are certain parts of it like, “Wow, there are 12 other bands sitting here watching us, going, hopefully they like it.” But at the same time, you’re not always there to maybe please every other band, but hopefully there’s plenty of fans there as well. But to be honest with you, the nervousness for me comes more from talking to you than it does getting on stage and playing. [laughs]
BM: Does it really? [laughs]
DL: The playing I’ve been doing for a long time. The interviews and stuff, I’m still not really 100% used to.
BM: Well, you should probably get used to it, because with albums like this, you’re going to have a lot more journalists and media people talking to you.
DL: Well, cool. And just so people will know if you put it in the interview, we will be doing two brand-new songs as well, for the set.
BM: Oh really?
DL: Yeah. We’re lucky enough that we all live in the same town. Whereas some bands, they might be all spread out in different places. So we’re constantly writings, so even though the release date for Time Capsules is March 18th, we’ve already got three or four songs that when we play here and get to do an hour and a half, two hours, that are new songs, in the set.
BM: Really? So these couple songs you may play at the Nightmare Metal Fest, they could be on the next album?
DL: Yeah, if we’re lucky enough to have a next album, then they definitely will.
BM: [laughs]
DL: But right now, we’re happy to have one coming out.
BM: [laughs] Yeah. So music is your life essentially, right? You have three bands, guitar lessons. Is your goal ever to like, have one band that just hits the big time, and you tour with that, you give up all other jobs and just be behind one band, or do you like the kind of life where you’re in three bands, doing guitar lessons, living life as a musician that way? Are there pros and cons?
DL: First off, in Mindcrime, like I said, we do cover songs, and we might not even play once a month. And right now with Krucible, we don’t even have a CD out yet, and Lance lives in Minnesota, and we’re all from Houston, so yes, I do go to practice on a weekly basis for Krucible, but it’s not that time-consuming at this point where two bands are taking a lot of, you know, two different times. So I mean, if that time ever came that one band took off to where, yeah, it could pay me to go to that, then I guess that would be everyone’s goal. Maybe the goal would be that both bands would take off that well. [laughs]
BM: Oh, I see.
DL: And then I would be very lucky.
BM: [laughs] Well, this is really an amazing album. I told Lance that, too. I said, “Dude, this is one of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time.” It’s just got such a fresh sound. I love that style of singing, for one thing. I love your guitar playing, riffing and soloing. It’s got all the stuff I like in a CD. So I’m looking forward to seeing you guys play live.
DL: I hope more people have the same opinion for the CD.
BM: Yeah, I hope so too. I think when they hear it, they’re gonna be amazed. And if your live show has as much power and presence as this CD, they’re gonna be blown away.
DL: Yeah, well to be honest with you, I think the live show is very comparable to what you would hear on the CD.
BM: Wow. Well, sounds like it’s gonna be really good. I do appreciate your time tonight, Don..
DL: No problem. Me and my wife have 11 horses here, outside of Houston, so before too long I’m gonna get out and help her start feeding and stuff.
BM: [laughs] Yeah, I can imagine.
DL: Believe me, whether or not we’re doing this for any part of the interview, my day starts at 7:00 in the morning to get up and feed 11 horses before I actually have to go to work. [laughs]
BM: Is it true that the phrase, “Eats like a horse?” Is there truth to that?
DL: Well—
BM: Do they eat and eat and eat? Are they big eaters? Is that the general rule?
DL: They would be if we would feed them that much, but you have to watch their weight and stuff.
BM: [laughs]
DL: But you know, it’s not a money factor, but you have to regulate what they eat, or they would just weigh, I mean, we have one that weighs about 2400 pounds, and he’d weigh 5000 pounds if we fed them as much as they would eat.
BM: What do you do with 11 horses, Don? Do you race horses? Or what?
DL: No, they’re riding horses. My wife rides.
BM: I see.
DL: And my wife and I were married seven years ago, and for Christmas that year, I bought her the first one.
BM: Really?
DL: And we didn’t live at this place, we lived in another place, and then within about a year and a half or two years, we had accumulated three more that we were paying board for at a stable.
BM: Really.
DL: So we decided, we’d better buy our own place so we can save the money for the board and just have the land. So we’ve got 11 acres, and our house with the 11 horses, and lots of different animals.
BM: Wow.
DL: We’ve got probably almost 50 animals here.
BM: Wow. Well that would keep you busy just in itself, just tending to all the animals.
DL: Yeah, well my wife works at the Zoo.
BM: Oh, I see.
DL: So we have lots of animals.
BM: [laughs] Well, it’s been a pleasure chatting with you, Don. I really appreciate your time tonight.
DL: Oh man, it’s been very much a pleasure for me. We’re gonna be driving in probably that Friday, probably around noon or so.
BM: You’re driving from Texas to Florida?
DL: Yeah.
BM: That’ll be a haul for you.
DL: Yeah, it’s gonna be about 14 hours or so.
BM: Wow. That’s gotta cost a lot.
DL: Hopefully we’ll get some CD sales and maybe some t-shirt sales, and different things that might help it a little bit better. But even if not, the publicity, talking to you, I’m sure people will read the interview and as long as the name is getting out there and it’s promotion, that’s the main thing. And the other thing, as far as when you asked me about going on tour, whatever. You know, it’s one thing if you’re 22 years old, but being 40 years old, and having a mortgage and stuff, I couldn’t pick up and go on a tour.
BM: [laughs]
DL: You’re in Michigan, right Bill?
BM: Yeah, and I’m freezing my butt off over here. Do you get a lot of snow in Houston?
DL: We get no snow in Houston.
BM: Oh man.
DL: Believe me, if it snowed here, there would be wrecks all over the freeway, and all kind of stuff. When we barely get ice, the whole city shuts down.
BM: Well, this last, today was I think the coldest day of the year so far. It was two degrees, with a wind chill of -23.
DL: Wow.
BM: Yeah, it’s snowing, blowing.
DL: I don’t wanna say it, but right now it’s about 65, 75 degrees outside here.
BM: [laughs]
DL: But the only bad part on the flip side of that is in July it’ll be 105.
BM: Yeah, that would be bad.
DL: Personally, I like the heat better than the cold, though. [laughs] So I’m ok.
BM: Yeah, me too. I don’t know why I’m still here. You know, Michigan in the wintertime is like living in hell. [laughs] You might as well forget it, you can’t do anything. You can’t even go outside without dying.
DL: I got to see that with Lance, you know, living in Minneapolis, I was like, “Man, -13 wind chill?” Or maybe that was the regular degrees. I was like, “How do you even go outside?” For us here, it gets down to freezing, I think maybe the coldest night we’ve had here was maybe 25 or so, and I mean it’s hard for me to get up and go outside to feed the horses and stuff when it’s below freezing. [laughs]
BM: Yeah, Minneapolis, I’ve heard is one of the coldest cities in the US. It’s just frigid temperatures. In fact, they built a series of walkways between buildings there, so people didn’t have to go outside.
DL: Right? Wow.
BM: Yep. But such is living in the north, Don. I tell you what. [laughs]
DL: Yeah, my wife always, she doesn’t like the heat, but she’s freezing all the time. So she’s like, “Why don’t we move somewhere where it’s not so hot?” I’m like, “Because then it gets to be too cold.” [laughs]
BM: Were you born and raised in Texas?
DL: Yeah, I was born here, and my step-dad worked for a construction company, so I went to about 18 different schools in the 12 years through high school.
BM: Wow. You know, I used to have a friend who lived in Texas. It was about 20 years ago. His name was Johnny. One day I asked him, “Johnny, do you Texans consider yourselves southerners or westerners?” He said, “Bill, we consider ourselves Texans.” [laughs]
DL: Yeah. Well what I was gonna say is, from here in Houston, I can drive 16 hours to the east and be on the east coast, Jacksonville. I can drive 16 hours to the west and still be in Texas.
BM: Oh man. [laughs] Wow.
DL: Yeah, well the last time I did that, one of my bands back in the late ‘80s, we played in El Paso. It was a 16-hour drive then. But these days, the speed limit has gone up, being that it’s a 70 or so speed limit, it might not take that long, but still, you get the idea. One way, you’re in Jacksonville on the east coast, the other way you’re still in Texas.
BM: [laughs] That just seems weird, man.
DL: Yeah.
BM: [laughs]
DL: Alright Bill, it’s been good talking to you.
BM: Same here, Don. Bye.
Recommendation: Waste no time buying Six Minute Century's Time Capsules CD. And tell your friends about it. You won't regret it. And they'll thank you for it. It's a win-win situation!
Guitarist Don LaFon is no stranger to making great music. Nor is he a stranger to performing live. As part of Krucible, Don and company wowed the audience at last year’s ProgPower USA metal fest in Atlanta. Now, as part of Six Minute Century, he’s poised to become one of the most talked-about guitarists in power metal. My prediction: if SMC can keep up this level of songwriting, it’s going to be the band to watch in the years ahead.
Don recently had a lengthy chat with Bill Murphy about the origins of the band, the killer songs on Time Capsules, the band’s upcoming appearance at the Nightmare Metal Fest, and (believe it or not) raising horses in the great state of Texas.
This is Part Two of Two Parts.
DL: ...times here and there that we’ve had malfunctions with the sample where we’re playing a song and all of a sudden some piano part from another song starts playing. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
DL: And we just have to stop the player, but we can obviously just play through the song without the keyboards. But it’s always kind of an adventure just making sure we’re all on track and on time with the keyboard player. Which we would like to probably have a full-time keyboard player, if anyone might read this and be interested. [laughs]
BM: Yeah. That would make it a lot easier for you.
DL: Yeah, it would. But we’ve talked to a few different people and nothing’s really worked out. And you know, sometimes I like the keyboards to be, for “Zero Hour” has a whole piano part that I’m not playing guitar on. So I like keyboards in the music, so we’re not gonna take them out. But it would make it easier sometimes to have a full-time keyboard player.
BM: [laughs]
DL: And also, since you asked, sometimes some of the notes in there, you know, they’re always pretty close, but the difficulty of it is fairly hard.
BM: Well it sounds like it would be hard. I haven’t heard anybody sing with that kind of range in a long time in metal. It’s not as common these days. In fact, you hear a lot of those Cookie Monster vocals that seems to be more popular.
DL: Yeah, I mean, if we were going for the popularity, there would be no guitar solos, or maybe, these days it seems like guitar solos are coming back, but there would be no guitar solos maybe, and the Cookie Monster vocals, like you said.
BM: Wouldn’t that suck?
DL: Yeah, we would rather play the music that we like, than conform and just be popular.
BM: Yeah, what do you think about metal these days? You mentioned something, that guitar solos aren’t there anymore, sort of wall-of-sound, chord-riffing, and growly vocals. To me, that doesn’t seem like a very high standard of musicianship, frankly. But I’m glad you said guitar solos are coming back, and I’m glad you said you like to play them, because those are my favorite parts of songs.
DL: Well, I teach guitar lessons six days a week. And the students that bring in a CD, I would say five to eight years ago, they might bring in Green Day or something else, but it’s kind of progressively moved to where, a few years back, kids would bring in Shadows Fall. They don’t really bring that in that much anymore, but that was one of the bands I thought that started doing a few years back some guitar solos. And then in the last couple of years, Sevenfold, they definitely play leads on their stuff, and Children of Bodom have leads. You know, some of those bands, I’m still not jazzed about the Cookie Monster vocals, but at least the guitar’s coming back anyway. [laughs]
BM: [laughs] Yeah.
DL: And probably part of it has to do with the recording industry, that if you sing the way that Chuck does or some of the other power prog bands, they’re not going to put it out. Because that’s not what they think is popular at this time. So you’re not only fighting what does somebody want to listen to, but what does somebody want to put out.
BM: Yeah. Well, what do you think about the music industry these days? Is it harder or easier to be a metal band in 2008 America?
DL: I don’t know that I have a whole lot of experience. I mean, I’ve played in bands like I said, since the ‘80s, but I’ve never been into a signed band situation. But I don’t know. It’s probably just reading stuff, I’m sure it’s probably worse, with downloading songs and not having the sales that maybe once were. But I couldn’t probably tell you that first hand.
BM: [laughs] Yeah. Well, that’s true.
BM: Tell me about your gig with Krucible at Prog Power. What was that like for you to play there?
DL: Oh, it was great. To be the, I would say maybe the fourth gig that Krucible had ever played, in front of, I’m not exactly sure how many people the venue holds – a thousand? Twelve hundred? – and we really thought that the band got a very good reception. It seemed like everybody enjoyed the band.
BM: Oh, it was great. I thought it was a killer set. Everybody that I heard or talked to out in the lobby afterward thought you guys just blew the roof off. I mean, they were amazed.
DL: Yeah, it seemed like it went really well. We’re trying to finish up the writing for the CD within the next, I mean, we don’t really have a timeframe to say we have to be done with the writing, but we’re moving ahead with finishing up writing for the CD that we’re hoping maybe could come out by the fall, maybe.
BM: Yeah. That would be cool.
DL: But once again, there’s no timeframe at this point, nothing is set in stone yet.
BM: Your gig with the Nightmare Metal Fest is coming up. What can audiences expect from Six Minute Century? If they’re not familiar with you, what can they expect from you guys live? What kind of show do you put on?
DL: That’s another thing that we try to maybe buck a little bit of the, we try to put on a show. We don’t actually just stand there and say, “Hey, we’re going to play this exactly the way the CD goes. We actually try to, unfortunately, doing that some of it might not actually sound the way the CD does. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
DL: But I come from maybe more of a Zakk Wylde school, where you’re getting up there to rock out, and not necessarily to play everything exactly the way it was recorded. And that’s pretty much the philosophy live, that we play. We’re there to play, and a lot of people have forgotten that you are an entertainer, not a CD jukebox. So we try to entertain as well as just play the songs. [laughs] To a certain extent. We won’t be wearing makeup or any kind of costumes, but we will be there to hopefully entertain everyone.
BM: How long will your set be? Do you know?
DL: I have not gotten the final, the set times or stuff like that from Nightmare yet. But the last I heard, it was gonna be maybe 50 minutes.
BM: 50?
DL: 45-50 minutes.
BM: That would be great.
DL: And I don’t even really positively know what the times are, but I believe that we’re gonna be the first of the Nightmare bands, starting at 6:00 on Saturday.
BM: Yep. You kick off the Saturday night lineup, followed by Pownd, Dimension, Warmachine, and others.
DL: Yeah, and I believe there are going to be four or five, maybe six local bands starting during the daytime, like at one or 2:00.
BM: You’ve been doing this a long time, you probably don’t get nervous. Does this kind of metal fest make you nervous. Like, do you think, “Man, we’ve got to be good. There’s all these metal fans. We could win some new fans if we play it right”? Or do you just take it all in stride?
DL: Well yeah, you’re always going to have, I don’t know. I mean, for a local show, no it wouldn’t be the same, because to me, same thing with ProgPower. You have the musicians and all the critics there. That makes it a little bit different than playing a regular show. So yeah, there are certain parts of it like, “Wow, there are 12 other bands sitting here watching us, going, hopefully they like it.” But at the same time, you’re not always there to maybe please every other band, but hopefully there’s plenty of fans there as well. But to be honest with you, the nervousness for me comes more from talking to you than it does getting on stage and playing. [laughs]
BM: Does it really? [laughs]
DL: The playing I’ve been doing for a long time. The interviews and stuff, I’m still not really 100% used to.
BM: Well, you should probably get used to it, because with albums like this, you’re going to have a lot more journalists and media people talking to you.
DL: Well, cool. And just so people will know if you put it in the interview, we will be doing two brand-new songs as well, for the set.
BM: Oh really?
DL: Yeah. We’re lucky enough that we all live in the same town. Whereas some bands, they might be all spread out in different places. So we’re constantly writings, so even though the release date for Time Capsules is March 18th, we’ve already got three or four songs that when we play here and get to do an hour and a half, two hours, that are new songs, in the set.
BM: Really? So these couple songs you may play at the Nightmare Metal Fest, they could be on the next album?
DL: Yeah, if we’re lucky enough to have a next album, then they definitely will.
BM: [laughs]
DL: But right now, we’re happy to have one coming out.
BM: [laughs] Yeah. So music is your life essentially, right? You have three bands, guitar lessons. Is your goal ever to like, have one band that just hits the big time, and you tour with that, you give up all other jobs and just be behind one band, or do you like the kind of life where you’re in three bands, doing guitar lessons, living life as a musician that way? Are there pros and cons?
DL: First off, in Mindcrime, like I said, we do cover songs, and we might not even play once a month. And right now with Krucible, we don’t even have a CD out yet, and Lance lives in Minnesota, and we’re all from Houston, so yes, I do go to practice on a weekly basis for Krucible, but it’s not that time-consuming at this point where two bands are taking a lot of, you know, two different times. So I mean, if that time ever came that one band took off to where, yeah, it could pay me to go to that, then I guess that would be everyone’s goal. Maybe the goal would be that both bands would take off that well. [laughs]
BM: Oh, I see.
DL: And then I would be very lucky.
BM: [laughs] Well, this is really an amazing album. I told Lance that, too. I said, “Dude, this is one of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time.” It’s just got such a fresh sound. I love that style of singing, for one thing. I love your guitar playing, riffing and soloing. It’s got all the stuff I like in a CD. So I’m looking forward to seeing you guys play live.
DL: I hope more people have the same opinion for the CD.
BM: Yeah, I hope so too. I think when they hear it, they’re gonna be amazed. And if your live show has as much power and presence as this CD, they’re gonna be blown away.
DL: Yeah, well to be honest with you, I think the live show is very comparable to what you would hear on the CD.
BM: Wow. Well, sounds like it’s gonna be really good. I do appreciate your time tonight, Don..
DL: No problem. Me and my wife have 11 horses here, outside of Houston, so before too long I’m gonna get out and help her start feeding and stuff.
BM: [laughs] Yeah, I can imagine.
DL: Believe me, whether or not we’re doing this for any part of the interview, my day starts at 7:00 in the morning to get up and feed 11 horses before I actually have to go to work. [laughs]
BM: Is it true that the phrase, “Eats like a horse?” Is there truth to that?
DL: Well—
BM: Do they eat and eat and eat? Are they big eaters? Is that the general rule?
DL: They would be if we would feed them that much, but you have to watch their weight and stuff.
BM: [laughs]
DL: But you know, it’s not a money factor, but you have to regulate what they eat, or they would just weigh, I mean, we have one that weighs about 2400 pounds, and he’d weigh 5000 pounds if we fed them as much as they would eat.
BM: What do you do with 11 horses, Don? Do you race horses? Or what?
DL: No, they’re riding horses. My wife rides.
BM: I see.
DL: And my wife and I were married seven years ago, and for Christmas that year, I bought her the first one.
BM: Really?
DL: And we didn’t live at this place, we lived in another place, and then within about a year and a half or two years, we had accumulated three more that we were paying board for at a stable.
BM: Really.
DL: So we decided, we’d better buy our own place so we can save the money for the board and just have the land. So we’ve got 11 acres, and our house with the 11 horses, and lots of different animals.
BM: Wow.
DL: We’ve got probably almost 50 animals here.
BM: Wow. Well that would keep you busy just in itself, just tending to all the animals.
DL: Yeah, well my wife works at the Zoo.
BM: Oh, I see.
DL: So we have lots of animals.
BM: [laughs] Well, it’s been a pleasure chatting with you, Don. I really appreciate your time tonight.
DL: Oh man, it’s been very much a pleasure for me. We’re gonna be driving in probably that Friday, probably around noon or so.
BM: You’re driving from Texas to Florida?
DL: Yeah.
BM: That’ll be a haul for you.
DL: Yeah, it’s gonna be about 14 hours or so.
BM: Wow. That’s gotta cost a lot.
DL: Hopefully we’ll get some CD sales and maybe some t-shirt sales, and different things that might help it a little bit better. But even if not, the publicity, talking to you, I’m sure people will read the interview and as long as the name is getting out there and it’s promotion, that’s the main thing. And the other thing, as far as when you asked me about going on tour, whatever. You know, it’s one thing if you’re 22 years old, but being 40 years old, and having a mortgage and stuff, I couldn’t pick up and go on a tour.
BM: [laughs]
DL: You’re in Michigan, right Bill?
BM: Yeah, and I’m freezing my butt off over here. Do you get a lot of snow in Houston?
DL: We get no snow in Houston.
BM: Oh man.
DL: Believe me, if it snowed here, there would be wrecks all over the freeway, and all kind of stuff. When we barely get ice, the whole city shuts down.
BM: Well, this last, today was I think the coldest day of the year so far. It was two degrees, with a wind chill of -23.
DL: Wow.
BM: Yeah, it’s snowing, blowing.
DL: I don’t wanna say it, but right now it’s about 65, 75 degrees outside here.
BM: [laughs]
DL: But the only bad part on the flip side of that is in July it’ll be 105.
BM: Yeah, that would be bad.
DL: Personally, I like the heat better than the cold, though. [laughs] So I’m ok.
BM: Yeah, me too. I don’t know why I’m still here. You know, Michigan in the wintertime is like living in hell. [laughs] You might as well forget it, you can’t do anything. You can’t even go outside without dying.
DL: I got to see that with Lance, you know, living in Minneapolis, I was like, “Man, -13 wind chill?” Or maybe that was the regular degrees. I was like, “How do you even go outside?” For us here, it gets down to freezing, I think maybe the coldest night we’ve had here was maybe 25 or so, and I mean it’s hard for me to get up and go outside to feed the horses and stuff when it’s below freezing. [laughs]
BM: Yeah, Minneapolis, I’ve heard is one of the coldest cities in the US. It’s just frigid temperatures. In fact, they built a series of walkways between buildings there, so people didn’t have to go outside.
DL: Right? Wow.
BM: Yep. But such is living in the north, Don. I tell you what. [laughs]
DL: Yeah, my wife always, she doesn’t like the heat, but she’s freezing all the time. So she’s like, “Why don’t we move somewhere where it’s not so hot?” I’m like, “Because then it gets to be too cold.” [laughs]
BM: Were you born and raised in Texas?
DL: Yeah, I was born here, and my step-dad worked for a construction company, so I went to about 18 different schools in the 12 years through high school.
BM: Wow. You know, I used to have a friend who lived in Texas. It was about 20 years ago. His name was Johnny. One day I asked him, “Johnny, do you Texans consider yourselves southerners or westerners?” He said, “Bill, we consider ourselves Texans.” [laughs]
DL: Yeah. Well what I was gonna say is, from here in Houston, I can drive 16 hours to the east and be on the east coast, Jacksonville. I can drive 16 hours to the west and still be in Texas.
BM: Oh man. [laughs] Wow.
DL: Yeah, well the last time I did that, one of my bands back in the late ‘80s, we played in El Paso. It was a 16-hour drive then. But these days, the speed limit has gone up, being that it’s a 70 or so speed limit, it might not take that long, but still, you get the idea. One way, you’re in Jacksonville on the east coast, the other way you’re still in Texas.
BM: [laughs] That just seems weird, man.
DL: Yeah.
BM: [laughs]
DL: Alright Bill, it’s been good talking to you.
BM: Same here, Don. Bye.
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