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Classic Posters - Interview with Eddie Wilson of Armadillo World Headquarters

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Classic Posters - Interview with Eddie Wilson of Armadillo World Headquarters Classic Posters - Interview with Eddie Wilson of Armadillo World Headquarters Classic Posters - Interview with Eddie Eddie Wilson: All of the hippies of Wilson of Armadillo World course were very suspicious of me. Headquarters Michael Erlewine: Yeah [laughs]. by Michael Erlewine Eddie Wilson: I didn't have long hair yet, [email protected] and for their money, I was from the Finding the Armadillo straight world. Eddie Wilson: I've got a lot of practice Michael Erlewine: Yep. telling the story about taking a leek, the Eddie Wilson: So, went to the Cactus story about finding the Armadillo. Club and during the intermission, I went Michael Erlewine: Oh no, tell that story to pee and the bathroom was backed out and floating out into the little room. again, that's just so great. Didn't know it for 20-something years Eddie Wilson: Yeah. The purpose of the later, but Jimmy Dale Gilmore and John Armadillo was to have a place to play, Reed told me that they were standing on because I had been hired to manage either side of me, while we were out in Shiva's Head Band. And there wasn't a the parking lot taking a leek. I looked up place in town that was hiring hippy into the dark over some trees and saw bands playing their own material. some broken windows real high up over Michael Erlewine: Yep. a cinder block wall and realized (somehow or another) just snapped that Eddie Wilson: And we went to Houston there had to be a giant empty room on a lot and Dallas occasionally, but we the other side of a wall that high with were basically without a place to play at, windows broken, way up at the top. because the Vulcan Gas Company had closed just before they had hired me. An Michael Erlewine: Wow. old guy had a country joint, beer-joint, Eddie Wilson: They went back in to play next to the Vulcan for years, called and I went around this old dark building George's and George had another place and found a garage door and a called the Cactus Club sitting between residential door and picked the two other little beer-joints on the south residential door lock and went in and it side of the river, and he started letting was just pitch black, like walking into hippy bands, because of his experience Carlsbad Cavern, except for the at the Vulcan, he knew that hippy's windows, the same broken windows I would drink beer. So he invited… could see across the room way up high. somehow or another a relationship So I raised the garage door and pulled came together where the Hub City my 1968 Dodge Charger into the garage Mover's were playing there every door and shut it behind, and then got Thursday night. Spencer went one night into the car and turned on the lights. to play fiddle with them and sit down. I One of the most shocking visual went to Joe, the new manager of Shiva's experiences of my life was to find myself Head Band. We had a contract and a sitting in a room that big. record coming out on Capitol Records. Michael Erlewine: Wow. Michael Erlewine: Wow. Classic Posters - Interview with Eddie Wilson of Armadillo World Headquarters Eddie Wilson: I got pretty excited, pretty Eddie Wilson: Pretty obviously, we quick. I've always been kind of excitable. wanted to be an alternative to what we I searched out the landlord, who turned thought the world offered. We wanted… out to be a school board member, community was the big word. We were terribly worried about his reputation. going to be of the community. We were Made a deal to move into the place, rent going to be very community-minded. the place and part of a compromise was During my research, digging up the that I wouldn't sell beer and maybe that bibliography, it's pretty interesting to would protect him. Of course the Vulcan look back now and see even The Rag, hadn't sold beer and it had the worst the alternative newspaper of the time, reputation in town. very political, very shrill… was running Michael Erlewine: [laughs]. editorials admonishing the community to support the Armadillo. The Armadillo Eddie Wilson: I'd been working for the was more community minded than the brewer's association, so getting away community itself seems to be. from beer for awhile wasn't that scary for me, and I was taking LSD almost every Michael Erlewine: Whoa. day by then. The Armadillo Image Michael Erlewine: [laughs]. Eddie Wilson: There was a lot of vain Eddie Wilson: We pursued a lot of visual glory. There was a lot of humorous… fantasies and a lot of cultural fantasies. you know [laughs]… We were trying to We had a record deal with Capitol figure out how to do something different Records, which meant to everybody in and we had a couple of really good town that we were rich. things going for us. Of course the band was a Whole Earth Catalog kind of Michael Erlewine: Right. perfect hippy band in some ways. The Eddie Wilson: Well you know we had fact that Jim Franklin, the artist, had been given 15 grand… maybe … for the already been doing Armadillos in covers record and 10 grand in order to call of The Rag… For a couple of years Jim ourselves Armadillo Productions and had been the major visual influence in find other groups to produce and what the friggin' city. He was an incredible now. You know, with no place to play on artist and here's this ugly little a very regular basis, it turned into newspaper with these gorgeous covers. minimum wage pretty quick. Michael Erlewine: Right. Michael Erlewine: Yep. Eddie Wilson: Jim had the alternative Eddie Wilson: Dividing it all among a community eating out of his hand and, band, you know, like every band buying as I see it now, we have a genius artist a bunch of Peavey speakers [laughs]. who made a genius decision about adopting a symbol. And the quality of Michael Erlewine: Yep. that symbol was so perfect that it made Eddie Wilson: I didn't know what we all that weirdness possible. And the fact were doing and now I'm working on a that the Armadillo was so much like the book and still trying to figure it out. hippies, maligned though it was… though it was a benign creature. I think Michael Erlewine: [laughs] Classic Posters - Interview with Eddie Wilson of Armadillo World Headquarters it's because people can't cuddle an Eddie Wilson: You know, let's, by golly, armadillo. have one of those [laughs]. Michael Erlewine: Right. Michael Erlewine: Right. Eddie Wilson: They have a hard time Art Laboratory accepting the symbol. It still puts people Eddie Wilson: The Armadillo has the off, and I think it's because you have to perfect symbol, coupled with Jim's make an intellectual decision to interest in art of all sorts. He's a multi- associate with the symbol. talented artist of performing arts as well Michael Erlewine: Right. as visual arts, coupled with the fact that Eddie Wilson: And most people in the we were adopted by a lawyer about my world of animals are thinking cuddly. age, out of SMU, and he had done all of the blues people, you know Jimmy Michael Erlewine: Right. Vaughn and Tinsley Ellis, people in Eddie Wilson: Something that can Dallas. And he was already a big fan of appreciate our attention. their scene and he had been… He had spent a year at Oxford working on an Michael Erlewine: And you don't want to economics book for a rich Mexican and hit them on the road. had come back with visions of and Eddie Wilson: Well [laughs]. There's all stories of something that I've still never kind of aversions to them. seen called an "art laboratory". Sounded great. Michael Erlewine: Right. Michael Erlewine: Right. Eddie Wilson: They're hard to peel . You wouldn't want to have to try to eat one. Eddie Wilson: You know, let's, by golly, have one of those [laughs]. Michael Erlewine: No. Michael Erlewine: Right. Eddie Wilson: The Armadillo has the perfect symbol, coupled with Jim's Eddie Wilson: We didn't have any interest in art of all sorts. He's a multi- money, but we had this huge space and talented artist of performing arts as well we had this wide-ranging vision of as visual arts, coupled with the fact that inclusiveness… What is an art's we were adopted by a lawyer about my laboratory, but it means that if you call age, out of SMU, and he had done all of your thing art, I ain't going to make fun the blues people, you know Jimmy of you. Vaughn and Tinsley Ellis, people in Michael Erlewine: Right. Dallas. And he was already a big fan of their scene and he had been… He had Eddie Wilson: I'm willing to take spent a year at Oxford working on an seriously anything that you put your economics book for a rich Mexican and energy into. So right off the bat, we had had come back with visions of and a little store selling crafts. We had a stories of something that I've still never bakery. At the time, it was really another seen called an "art laboratory". Sounded age.
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