Tour Stories: Show Me Your Willie Nelson Tattoo

By Dave Hyde

There is an interesting thing that I assume bands do that I never really knew happened until we had to do it. At least in the moment in history when we had to do it. We had to fly city to city and be shuttled radio station to radio station to meet, greet, and acoustically perform a few songs from our upcoming major label debut. Not on the air. In conference rooms with executives in suits and ties. Yes, this happens.

In early 1999 Showoff was months away from our self-titled major label debut from being released. Our first single, Falling Star was to debut about 2 months before the release. We had shot a video (which is an entirely different story for me to tell you all about sometime) and the record label and us were all primed up and ready to get this thing out into the world.

We learn there is going to be a 2 week run of us going to multiple radio stations to meet their executive teams. Seems interesting, but odd. What do we know though? Just a bunch of very young adults in a new world, so whatever. We’re ready to get after it.

The tour we were on comes to a close and we end in Los Angeles with a couple days off. Then we’re off to the airport to begin this radio station run. The itinerary is insane. I don’t recall the specifics, but it went more or less like this. On the plane at 6am. Fly from LA to San Francisco. Shuttle to the station. Do our thing. Shuttle back to the airport. Fly to Portland. Shuttle to the station. Do our thing. Shuttle to the airport. Fly to Seattle. Shuttle to the station. Do our thing. Shuttle to the hotel. Get some sleep. 6am we’re back to the airport…. So on and so on. We were in 3 or 4 different cities and states daily. It was exhausting with the travel alone, not to mention the meetings at each stop.

So let’s discuss these meetings we had at each radio station. They were all basically the same. We arrive and are escorted into a reasonably sized conference room where we unpack some guitars and my little practice amp for my bass. We set up at the end of the room. Usually as we are doing so, people start to filter in, offer handshakes and smiles. Everyone is always so pleased to meet you. I quickly began to wonder if most of these suits even listened to music much. Most I fear did not. Radio, like music, is essentially a business though. So you manage to reconcile this concept one way or another.

It’s time for the meeting to officially begin. A quick trip around the table for introductions followed by an onslaught of questions for us. Who are we, what are our influences, why do we do what we do. The usual.

Now anyone who knows me well knows that early on in my professional music career I got bored with the same run of questions you get almost daily. So I always tried to mix in a healthy amount of believable bullshit. My goal was to someday have enough of it out in the world that when people started to compare notes, they would only then realize how contradictory my answers were and in turn, never really know the truths. Not because I had anything to hide. Just to entertain myself and maybe others who would just get it.

Around and around the tables we go. Same questions, same answers (somewhat) and on and on and on. 3 or 4 times a day! Day after day! Then we play the same 2 or 3 songs for them. Then each visit we have to take everything we have already done through this visit and combine it with a big finish. There is always a big finish, no?

The big finish. The reason we have to do all of this? Simple. We have to sell the radio executives the idea that playing our song is worth it to them. It is hopefully in part considered based on the song itself, but appears it is more about playing ball, kissing ass, shaking hands, kissing baby’s blah blah blah. You want your music to be out there though, so not too horrible to do. You believe in your product, so why not go a little thick with the smooches to help it into the world. Still, you do this multiple times a day, day after day… you quickly start to feel your compromised integrity gnawing at you. This game is not why we play music nor is it how we want to find fans for our music.

We are barely adults. Punk rock kids. We got a super lucky break and made the choice to go for it. This is what we’re reduced to. Mix in those conflicting emotions with lack of sleep, airports, shuttles, new places… Something has to give. 2 weeks was quickly feeling like months. All of this and there was one more giant, horrible black cloud lingering over us. Our friend since childhood was with us. He served Showoff as guitar tech and all around backbone to keep us going day in and day out while on the road as far as I’m concerned. He eventually filled a role in the band just after we released the Self-Titled record. Anyway, his amazing mother had been diagnosed with cancer and from what I remember, it was really aggressive. It was moving fast. We were always on the road at this time, so it felt even faster with gaps in time when any of us would see her.

We are on the last couple of days of this radio event and he is told he should head home to see his mother and that things are not going well. Of course we got him a flight booked immediately. The rest of us had a bit of an internal conflict because some of us wanted to go home with him, to support him, whatever, just to be there with him in any way. Some of us felt we needed to complete this radio run. It makes me absolutely sick to think about to this day, but we somehow made the choice to finish our obligations and sent him home… alone. I have so few legit regrets in my life, but this is one of them. I was very upset over it all and couldn’t believe we were pressing on when more important things were going on. Unfortunately, we moved forward.

We all feel the weight of our poor decision along with the exhaustion and damn near disgust at what we are doing with these radio executives. We arrive at the last stop. Back to LA. KROQ. Literally the one station that can and will make or break careers based on anything other than the music itself. I don’t know about the rest of the guys, but I had had it with what we were doing. I know at least one of them felt the same if not all of them. Kind of a shame that the most important stop would be the last stop. Knowing people no longer make the best choices due to exhaustion alone. So be it. We are in one now.

The usual events unfold at KROQ. The great importance of this particular meeting seems to not register at all for me. We do our thing, play our few songs and engage in conversation. One of the suits comments on tattoo’s some of us have. They then start to ask the other guys if they have any tattoos and as quickly as they ask I tell them that one guy has a Willie Nelson tattoo. They are completely, or maybe shallowly intrigued.

“Show us your Willie Nelson Tattoo!” they say. He says no shyly and maybe embarrassed slightly. They keep asking. Of course I keep encouraging him to just show them the tattoo already. Decline after demand after demand after decline. It wasn’t going to happen. It couldn’t. There is no Willie Nelson Tattoo. Fact is, it is somehow a joke only we are in on along with the occasional interested innocent bystander. I know you want to know how this plays out. It probably only played out because of our frustration with everything in our lives in this moment. We are finding ourselves dangerously hilarious in the most self-sabotaging way possible. So my encouragement, everyone’s overtired laughter in our camp and his willingness to not give a shit all come to a head and he stands up, pulls his ass out, pulls his cheeks apart and shows them Willie Nelson.

Needless to say, KROQ did not pick up Falling Star for rotation. KROQ sets the standard, so almost no one else picks it up either. How the song still managed to make it to number 36 in the Billboard Charts that year is beyond me. It was against the odds. It was with very little support. I would like to think what little it did do, it did because of the music. Not the ass kissing. Not the shaking of hands. How the Willie Nelson tattoo. It worked all on its own with the support of people who truly loved what we were doing musically.

Everyone should be respected for the paths they choose to take or avoid in this business. There is no right or wrong way more or less. In my opinion though, it should always be about the music first. Serve your songs and they will end up where they belong. Even if it is through a journey like ours. Even if it isn’t the path you ever saw yourself willfully taking. Serve your music. Stay pure in your relationship with the music you make.

The other takeaway from this… never ever send your friend home alone especially when the situation is grim. People in our lives are so much more important than anything else. It’s an absolute bummer to learn that lesson too late. It is a disgrace to make the wrong choice in this situation.