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| Photo ©2001-2002 Beth Amber |
Texas Terri...the first time I ever heard of her was back in early 1999 when I saw she was going to play the Expo Of The Extreme II event in Chicago in May of 1999. The picture and description of Terri on the Expo website had me highly interested. The picture had a photograph of Terri covered in what, supposedly, was her own period blood. That plus the red hair and tattoos made her very pleasant to look at and made me very curious as well. This woman looked fun and dangerous. So off to Chicago I go and I remember first seeing Terri when I was in line for the event. She exited a car and walked into the venue. Her presence was very strong. She walked with total confidence and I knew I was in for a treat. I later found Terri upstairs at her merchandise booth. Her husband at the time was displaying photos he took and some included her. The period blood photo was there and I wanted it...but it was not for sale. What a tease. I chatted with Terri and she was a nice person to talk to. Social and intelligent.
Her performance that night was amazing to say the least. I videotaped the show. I wanted to leave Chicago the next day because she was playing the first of two nights in my hometown of Detroit. My friend, however, really wanted to see the bands that were playing the 2nd night of the expo though so we stayed in Chicago.
We did get back to Detroit to see Terri perform the 2nd show in Detroit though. Yet another great performance and yet another video was produced. We took lots of PICS with Terri and got the necessary merchandise. Over the next couple years I played the Eat Shit CD hundreds of times and was always craving for more. I would rent movies Terri made appearances in, I would buy magazines she was in, I would write her, I would obtain special gifts from her.
I couldn't get enough Texas Terri.
It took from May 1999 to March 2001 till I would see her again. A gig in Cleveland would be the first time I saw her in a couple years. I ran into Terri before her performance and told her about the Killer Crows website that my friend Russ had started up. I asked her to do an interview with me and she agreed. Another great performance from Terri that night and she promised an interview the next night in Detroit.
The Detroit show took place on March 31st 2001. It was the Drunk On Rock intoxication weekend II show which marked the release of the Drunk On Rock II CD which Terri has a track on. Terri and I hooked up and she glanced at the questions that Russ had sent over the computer. Terri was up for it and she headed towards the back dressing room with myself and soon to be girlfriend in tow. I videotaped Terri as she was reading and answering the questions that Russ had sent. I threw in some questions on my own as the interview progressed. My soon to be girlfriend snapped photos. Terri was really getting into the interview and she was a pleasure to do it with. The Chickenhawks were on stage as we did this interview and sometimes the music was drowning out Terri talking. The interview was a success though and it only ended because The Trash Brats were taking the stage and she didn't want to miss them. The interview was 28 minutes, but It could have lasted much longer. Terri has many stories to tell and the info was extremely helpful as far as learning more about her former band- THE KILLER CROWS.
Terri's performance was amazing that night in Detroit. It always is and I'm sure it always was since the early days of the Killer Crows. Enjoy the interview.
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| Photo ©2001-2002 Beth Amber |
CASEY: Whenever you're ready, Terri.
TEXAS TERRI: Alright! So you wanna know about my band in L.A. that was called the Killer Crows. Well, how all that came about was; I was a...taking guitar lessons from Roger Flores, Rosie Flores' brother. He saw me do this one show live. I did this show with this band in The Central, which is now the Viper Room, in L.A., and we just threw together this band for a wedding party. It was everybody in the building ended up in it and it was, you know, thrown together and we did a bunch of cover songs.
So Roger came to the show and he saw me and thought I was a great front-person and I wouldn't do it (the band playing in the background overpowers her voice, but it has something to do w/ guitar lessons). So I got him to play me some songs he wrote and thought they were really cool, so I was just like, "fuck it, why don't we just do a band together?" He agreed.
And TD, he had a band in San Diego called the Killer Crows. Which is alright. I said, "I don't give a rat's ass what the name is". So that's how it was called the Killer Crows.
But he (Roger) had all these songs in this green notebook, so we were always laughing about "the green notebook," it was "digging the green notebook".
We got two guys who lived in the building to play bass and drums. That was Tom Slik and Rob Klonel. So we were playing shows. I don't even know how long the band was playing together. But anyway, then we started writing songs together, like about my cat! And...see, what else can I tell you about?
C: You kinda have a underground legendary status as far as the band...
T: Yeah.
C: ...and there's nothing out there that we could seem to find and why is this? And how big, as far as the underground, do you become?
T: We were very, very popular, cause...it's almost the same situation I have in every band I'm in. I'm like the social one that goes out all the time, so there's a million people that want to see my bands.
I have like a shitload of videos from those days and we recorded, I can't remember, 12 or 13 songs. We were gonna put out a record. This guy, Nick Murray, he still got the original tapes and shit like that.
And the band broke up after that though, because of...lots of reasons.
C: As in?
T: As in...drug addiction; uh...outgrowing each other, going in different directions. I got clean and sober right in the middle of recording. And I had to move on.
It took me 3 years from when we broke up; I think we were together for 4 years. It took me 3 years after we broke up for me to forget what a pain in the ass to be in a band. And I would do, we would actually get together, like every year on April 6th, which is coming up everybody, and that happens to be the date Wendy O'Williams blew her brains out too. But we would do like a Killer Crows' reunion show every year.
And then I got asked to do this big street fair in Sunset Junction St in L.A. and I didn't have a band! And even tho' the Killer Crows had always rehearsed at this rehearsal studio that had this one stage at the street fair they never asked us when we had the fucking band together. So when they called me I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity; they gave me this amazing slot. So I just got some friends; I got the rhythm section of the Killer Crows, and I got a guitar player and we called it the Crow Killers and when we did the show it was amazing.
And then it was time for my birthday again, so it was time for another Crow Killers' deal. Because I didn't want (here the band playing in the background drowns out Terri's voice) ...so I just did a bunch of cover songs and everyone would have a good time. And then I started getting the itch to be in a band again. I had the old rhythm section so that they would come play with me, and this guy Loren Molinare, who used to play in Little Ceasar, said he was interested in playing guitar. So that's when we put together Baby Bird. We did that for several months. And we recorded like 12 or 13 songs together because the guys were getting; like the rhythm section...um...Tom Slick plays with Harry Dean Stanton and now he plays with Dennis Quaid, so he's getting all these paying gigs.
So that was starting to interrupt...uh, I was gonna have to start canceling shows and rearranging, you know, he was having to cancel on me, and that the drummer was in 3 or 4 different bands because he's a really hot drummer. And he gets paid for his thing, so it was hard to work around everybody's stuff. And Loren didn't want to be in the band if these guy's weren't gonna be in the band, and so I just decided to dump that, uh...like the drummer, the bass player, they always believed in me, or they wouldn't have been in the Killer Crows for that long, um...they wanted to make sure that I had a tape, so we went into the studio and recorded 12 or 13 songs of that, so I would have something to continue going on with.
And that's when I ran into De...I went to Austin for a couple of weeks and came back and I had; like I decided that I was gonna take 2 days if I could come to a solution cause I didn't want to cancel a show at Hell's Gate with Zeke and Spunk. So I thought, "well, OK; I'll give it another couple of days, see what I come up with something. And that's when I ran into Demon Boy. And I gave him a tape of my stuff. And that's how the second Texas Terri's Baby Bird started.
C: And the new lineup was?
T: Paul Black and Dicky...I can't remember his last name...like Paul Black used to be in L.A. Guns. He used to play drums. He used to play drums with the Mau Maus.
Dicky Rae! He used to play in Broken Homes or something like that? So that was a really great lineup. And that was the original lineup with Demon Boy.
Then, you know, we kept on changing rhythm sections and then that guy from England had that band called Baby Bird, so I got sick of people going, "there's already a Baby Bird," and I'm like "yeah, but mine's "Texas Terri's Baby Bird!" So I, uh, then we changed the name to Texas Terri And The Stiff Ones and now it's 6 years later.
C: So you have lots of Killer Crows' footage?
T: Lots of video footage of Killer Crows and the studio thing we recorded.
C: Which will ever be released?
T: Well, you never know. I mean I'd be into releasing it. I guess. I mean it doesn't really represent...that, that, I loved; I noticed on this list, you wanted to know some song titles. There was "When You're Rocking And Rolling," there's "In Pain," which was a big hit. "Rumplestilskin". What was it called? "Shake It Up?" No, no, that's a Car's song! What was that one called? "Shake It Up, Shake It Down?" I can't remember. "Shake It Down," I think it was called. I have to go thru and find a tape and then maybe read them all off to you.
C: When was the exact year that Killer Crows were formed?
T: I cannot remember that part. I would have to see when that was recorded at Raji's, Live At Raji's, and figure it out from there. I'm not real good at keeping up with the years.
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| Photo ©2001-2002 Beth Amber |
C: Is it all kind of a blur now? Those years?
T: Yeah. I mean it's like, I don't even know what year...I just know it's been 6 years so I'd have to figure that out. Like what year I got together with Demon Boy, you know what I'm saying? 6 years ago, let's see...what was that? '95? So I would say that...I had 3 years before that...would be '92?
I tell you what. I can tell when it ended. Let's see, I've been sober for 10 years. So I would say that...see that would be to 1990; 1990...that must've been from 1985 to 1989. Or '86 to '89, something like that was when the Killer Crows was around.
C: Hard to believe, Terri. You're looking like you're 22 years old.
T: I feel 22.
C: Lookin' good. What kind of cover tunes did you guys do during the early days?
T: I remember in the Killer Crows we did "Boom Boom," by John Lee Hooker. A really cool Rolling Stones one that nobody does. What was that? Oh, "Empty Heart". We did that. No Stooges. Everybody...I guess we were just kinda ahead of our time, cause we were...now everybody's doing like '70's type of style. We were kind of like a '70's type of style band.
So, um...but we were really popular. And why we never got signed? I don't know. Maybe we were too real. Maybe that's the same reason why the band I'm in now hasn't gotten signed. I don't know. Who's to say? Right place in the right time, I guess you gotta be.
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