Gatlin Brothers ‘come home’ for Billy Bob’s Texas 40th anniversary show
Forty years ago, a dressed up, VIP-filled crowd packed a sprawling conglomerate of former livestock pens in the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards.
Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers opened Billy Bob’s Texas in front of a standing room only crowd of more than 6,000 on April 1, 1981. It was so packed that the fire department kept tabs on the overflow crowd.
Robert Gallagher was one of 1,300 VIPs that night — in fact, he was VIP No. 461. At the time, Gallagher was a 35-year-old proprietor of the Music Exchange, a record store in the Stockyards. He also dabbled in booking music acts around town. Later, Gallagher became Billy Bob’s Texas’ entertainment director.
“We knew this was going to be a big deal and we were friends with everybody so we made sure we were involved,” he said. “It was unbelievable. It was like something no one had ever seen. It was bigger than Gilley’s.”
The Gatlin Brothers will hit the Billy Bob’s stage at 9 p.m. Thursday, officially marking the 40th anniversary celebration, which continues and into May, including performances from Hank Williams Jr. (Friday and Saturday), Midland (April 8-10), Dwight Yoakam (April 15-17), and Miranda Lambert (April 22-24, May 1-2).
Thursday’s Gatlin Brothers show will serve as a Billy Bob’s reunion, with original club owner Billy Bob Barnett and many former employees expected to help celebrate the anniversary.
Billy Bob’s Texas has become a famous nightclub over the years, while hosting anyone and everyone in country music, as well as acts beyond country and western, including Tina Turner, Ringo Starr, The Go-Go’s, Ray Charles, Bob Hope and B.B. King.
Gilley’s, the original honky tonk mecca that had opened 10 years earlier in Pasadena, outside of Houston, had just hit its zenith after playing a starring role in John Travolta’s film “Urban Cowboy” in 1980.
A honky tonk opening with no dancing
The Gatlin Brothers were one of the biggest acts in country music in April 1981 after a string of hits including “All the Gold in California,” “Taking Somebody with Me When I Fall,” and “Take Me To Your Lovin’ Place.”
There was only one snag, however, with booking the Gatlin Brothers to open Billy Bob’s Texas: dancing.
Since the beginning of his career, when Dottie West brought him to Nashville in 1972, Larry Gatlin had it in his contract that dancing was not allowed at his shows. From his early days as a solo artist to when brothers Steve and Rudy joined him in the late 70s, the Gatlins requested no dancing.
For Gatlin, dancing simply didn’t mix well with his music. Two-stepping didn’t fit with the smooth harmonies and “Countrypolitan” ballads and heartfelt love songs he had mastered writing.
“When we started out, even though we worked a bunch of beer joints and clubs, we had it in our contract that we were not a dance band,” Gatlin said by phone. “We had a steel guitar and every now and then we had fiddles, but we did not play dance music. Back then, we didn’t even really do a lot of Texas swing. I love Texas swing, we all loved it. It just was not what we did.”
Of course, a few years after opening Billy Bob’s, the Gatlins scored one of their biggest hits with the Texas-swing classic “Houston.” Another song on the 1984 album “Houston to Denver” basically begged fans to get up and dance, “The Lady Takes the Cowboy Every Time.” The video for the song takes place in a dance hall while the Gatlins sing:
“‘Cause she’s just dyin’ to do the Texas 2-step
And she just can’t wait to strut her stuff
Dancin’ to the ‘Cotton Eyed Joe’
So she’ll come dancin’ till the band stops playin’”
‘Texas is in my veins. It’s part of my DNA’
Gatlin was born in Seminole. Steve and Rudy were born a few years later in Olney. Larry Gatlin played quarterback at Odessa High School and receiver at the University of Houston. He turns 72 on May 2. He released his first solo album in 1973 and had huge hits with “Broken Lady,” “Love Is Just a Game,” and his first No. 1 with “I Just Wish You Were Someone I Love.”
He has lived outside of Nashville for nearly 50 years, but his Texas roots run deep.
“Texas is in my veins. It’s part of my DNA,” he said. “I tell people I’m American by birth and Texan by the grace of a merciful, loving God.”
During his 50-year career, Gatlin has performed on Broadway, hosted radio shows, written and performed 33 Top 40 hits, served as one of Johnny Cash’s pallbearers and, since 2010, has been a contributing political and social commentator for Fox News.
‘Sing your own songs’
How serious are the Gatlins about discouraging dancing during their shows? One night early during a show in Las Vegas, they walked off stage after politely asking the crowd to stop dancing.
After leaving the stage, Gatlin handed the club manager a check and said, “Here’s your money. Didn’t you read the contract?”
“We were raised in the church. And in the Pentecostal church, that dancing deal, that didn’t go over,” he said. But they weren’t against dancing during their shows because of religious reasons, Gatlin said.
He bristled against record company executives keen on him singing other people’s songs early in his career. For one, it just didn’t feel right to Gatlin. A lesson from songwriting legend and friend Mickey Newbury during his early days in Nashville hammered home that ethos.
“He told me one night, ‘sing your own songs,’” Gatlin said. “’You don’t have enough great songs for an album yet. But I know your heart. If you have a hit with a song you didn’t write, it’s going to break your heart for three minutes every night for the rest of your life when you have to go out there and sing it because you’re going to have to leave one of yours out.’”
“That was mystical and he knew it,” Gatlin said. “These are songs I bled and wept over.”
“[The record company] challenged our artistic integrity about that,” he said. “There are other great songwriters, but I’ll tell you right now, I may not be the best songwriter in the world, but I’m the best songwriter in the world for Steve, Rudy and Larry Gatlin to sing. And that’s just the way it is.”
And that’s the way it has remained. Gatlin continued to write songs and after his brothers officially joined his band, the group exploded in the late 1970s.
Billy Bob’s Texas’ setup works perfectly, Gatlin said, with the large dance floor stationed in the middle of the club, back behind tables and chairs for fans right in front of the stage. The Gatlins recorded a live show at the club in 2004.
Gatlin says he might even ask fans to stand up and dance at their chairs when the group sings some of their swinging tunes Thursday night.
“We’re making an exception because we love Fort Worth and love the people and we are Texans,” he said. “I don’t expect them to act like it’s church. Billy Bob’s is the best damn beer joint in the world. And we love it. I know there are going to be people drinking beer, and talking and laughing a little bit. But the way I feel about it is, the people who love to come and hear Gatlin music — our fans — they don’t want people to talk either. I usually don’t have to police the crowd. The crowd will usually police itself.”
Besides, Gatlin said, it was an honor to open the club 40 years ago and it’s an honor to be asked to return.
“They paid us a great honor,” he said. “There were a lot of contemporaries and friends they could have chosen.”
In April 1981, George Strait was still five months from releasing his first album. Willie Nelson was in Hawaii, Gatlin joked. He credits his 52-year marriage through the ups and downs of show business to wife Janis Ross.
“She’s an incredible human being,” he said. “We married each other’s soulmate. I absolutely adore her.”
How many songs has he written about her?
“All of ‘em. Even the ones that aren’t really about her,” he said.
Concerts during COVID-19
Billy Bob’s general manager Marty Travis said the club’s backstage crew will continue to adhere to COVID-19 safety precautions, including requiring face coverings. The club remains limited to 50% capacity — 3,000 attendees — after resuming live shows last month. Gov. Greg Abbott allowed businesses to open to full capacity on March 10.
Travis prefers take it slow than have to roll back capacity if state officials change their minds in the coming months.
“My fear is if a month from now the world implodes and the governor says we need to crank this back,” he said. “In June, we possibly could go back up to 3,500 [capacity] just depending on how it goes with the pandemic. Hopefully, the vaccine outruns the virus.”
Gatlin tested positive for COVID-19 after he and Janis received their second vaccine shot in early March. “I started feeling a little funky, achy,” he said. “Sure enough, I tested positive. It hung around a couple of days. If a hot bath, a Diet Coke and the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t fix me, there’s something wrong.”
But a few days later he felt better, joking that after 50 years on the road, he has “tour bus immunity.” Rudy Gatlin also recovered from a mild bout with COVID-19 and Steve Gatlin tested positive for the antibodies.
“Backstage we will probably exercise a modicum of restraint and caution,” he said.
Billy Bob’s Texas Day
Mayor Betsy Price’s office is declaring April 1 “Billy Bob’s Texas Day” in honor of the occasion.
City council member Carlos Flores is expected to be on hand to represent the city and mayor, who is out of town.
For Travis, it has been nearly a two-year process of wrangling agents and artists to line up the celebratory shows. Most artists, he said, were on board when they learned of the special significance.
Hank Williams Jr., for example, was noncommittal until “Out of nowhere, I get a phone call,” Travis said, relaying the message from a manager: “You’re not going to believe it. He wants to do it.”
Fans attending Thursday’s show will get a rare look at Billy Bob’s memorabilia dating to 1981, including images of Johnny and June Cash, Tina Turner concert posters, and vintage Billy Bob’s clothing. Many of the items have been collected from the back offices and hallways of the club.
At some point before Larry, Steve and Rudy: The Gatlin Brothers, as they are now called, take the stage, an anniversary cake will be cut while a house band will help spur on the memories shared between former staff and attendees.
“We are looking forward to coming home,” Gatlin said. “We are grateful for this career, for our music, and the fact that people will still come hear us sing and play these little ol’ songs about doggies and horses. We are the Lou Gehrigs of country music. We’re the luckiest men on the face of the earth.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 11:45 AM with the headline "Gatlin Brothers ‘come home’ for Billy Bob’s Texas 40th anniversary show."
