1978 Innerview with Billy Jones and Hughie Thomasson of the Outlaws

1978 Innerview with Billy Jones and Hughie Thomasson of the Outlaws.
Photo/Art by Ben Upham III
See more at: www.magicalmomentphotos.com

[@rottenapple6109]

I'm not a southern rock nut by any stretch. I grew up on my father's jazz collection. But a buddy of mine talked me into seeing a concert by The Outlaws back in 1977 or 78, and I thought I was going to see time-wasting goofiness. But Billy Jones, my God! He absolutely floored me. I mean he wrecked the whole arena. Just spectacular blues-based guitar playing on every song. Terrible loss when he died. God bless and rest him.

[@smokebury4624]

well said Billy was so brilliant~

[@joemarucci3917]

Billy was a very underrated guitarist

[@allencollins9951]

@joemarucci3917 I never heard of Billy being underrated alls I ever heard about him is him being a virtuoso

[@sonofbarnsey]

To hear Billy doing much of the talking is a pleasant surprise, as he's the one I've seldom heard any interviews with besides this one. I miss Hughie & him everyday

[@tone-glide2402]

Two of the best musicians that ever walked the earth.

[@jesseroggio7260]

There's a lot of guitar players in my family. I don't have ten percent of Hughies talent on guitar, but I didn't start until I was 12. Maybe someday.

[@johnmandas3488]

First concert i ever attended in 1978!!!!!! Hughie Thomasson and Billy Jones were phenomenal guitarists!! I had the great experience of meeting Hughie Thomasson in 1985!!! Great person and truly down to earth for a guitar hero!!! RIP Hughie Thomasson and Billy Jones!!!!!

[@jesseroggio7260]

My birth name is Jesse Samuel Thomasson. Due to circumstances beyond my control I ended up with the last name Roggio. Hughie is my fifth or sixth cousin, I found a common ancestor on Ancestry. We're music makers, that's our calling.

[@Clrwatrtom]

Thanks for posting this interview. I heard it in 1978 when it was first released and once again a few years back. Billy and I became friends in 1990 and I got to play with him very briefly after his departure from the Outlaws. He was an amazing talent and I can relate to the demons he dealt with. Love and miss you Billy. I hope to see you again when the role is called up yonder.

[@Lost-xl6im]

what demons ? he walked away from an outstanding band at it's peak .It was essentially the end of The Outlaws . I never heard why he quit.

[@mikeellis6206]

Billy and Hughie were and still are the greatest guitarist singers of all time RIP My Brothers

[@Partsunknown426]

I was lucky enough to see these two when the were not famous yet and on into their journey. wasn't a song that I didn't know, they were two of the most creative people of the 70's. thank, you both for all the great tunes....you were the greats.

[@seeburg220]

I thank GOD I was able to see Hughie perform in 2005 and 2006. What great shows ! RIP Hughie.

[@jesseroggio7260]

You're truly blessed. I never got to see him play. My Dad met him about 1970. He was my fifth cousin.

[@sarahjamiesonn]

no way i was listening to Waterhole right when this video started playing and then it just.... continued.... such a good guitar jam

[@fredesmit6854]

These guys changed my life .. got me hooked on guitar forever . I never heard their voices before .

[@BENNIEDARRELL]

the outlaws blew me away since day one, still do, all the southern rock groups did and still do. outlaws, blackfoot, skynard, almond brothers, marshal tucker and many more. the breeze by skynard was mt theme song ride'n my panhead chopper in the early 70's. i'm 66 now and there's no better music.

[@seneca7312]

RIP Southern brothers you are greatly missed, 2 for the show!!!

[@listairgin]

thanks for posting this, Billy and Hughie astounded me when I first heard stick around for rock and roll, on the live album Bring it back alive, best wishes from N,Ireland.

[@troutvoice]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it listairgin

[@rosalynarnold3937]

Oh, my - wow - it's something else to hear these two! So missed

[@spectryl6681]

This is a really rare gem of an upload! I was thrilled to listen to those two supreme masters speak. Thanks for sharing! Once an outlaw....

[@troutvoice]

I wish there was more. But this is very cool! RIP Hughie & Billy...

[@theoldengine1]

Was at 2 of the New Year's Eve shows at the Lakeland Civic Center with Molly Hatchet. What a rockin ass show. By for the best rock guitar duo ever. Long live The Outlaws. RIP Hughie and Billy.

[@obbor4]

I was at both of those shows too!

[@bigstick5278]

At the advice of a friend of Billy's that owned a music store in Clearwater Saw Billy and him play a show at some club i think it was called the porthole off the causeway in Tampa back in late 80's. It was a a freaking good show for such a small place and it was packed. Around that time I saw Roy Buchanan play at Skipper's Smokehouse off Highway 41, that was a kick ass outdoor show my girlfriend and i sat on a picnic table right up front, and I mean "Roy, Here can you watch my beer"? right in front. A few weeks later Roy was dead.. So many great people have passed, what do we have today? I know I sound like y Dad.. (o;} R.I.P. Billy and Hughie..

[@nickcarpenter1196]

I sat at the pool in the apartment complex across the street for that Roy Buchanan show

[@nickcarpenter1196]

Fountain Palms it was called

[@bigstick5278]

@@nickcarpenter1196 You're correct as it had a sort of Cheesy look to it. I think the Porthole was in Daytona Beach where I saw Greg Allman's band. But it could have been the Shipwreck lounge, confusing decade it was.. Greg tried to steel my Bic lighter, I said hey Greg give it back it's the only one I have.. Some Greg worshiping Groupie chased me around the bar wanting to buy the lighter because Greg touched it..She wound up buying my drinks for the night an I gave it to her at closing.

[@zackyoder7359]

Im 30 and i discovered them when. I was 13 and i learned to play lead playing along to them

[@patrickfrancis33]

Hughie Thomasson is the greatest musician to ever pick up a guitar in my opinion, a pure genius, master of tone the GREATEST, GG & HT, There Goes…, etc

[@JohnTheBaptised]

Thanks for posting this Ben. The Outlaws were Billy and Hughie. Billy died way too young and so did Hughie for that matter. And a big fuck you to that grave robber Henry Paul.

[@troutvoice]

+Fukingruven - My Pleasure. I always Love to hear my Musical Heroes speak....I can't believe how little there is of Allen Collins.....Maybe Henry should get together with Mr. Rossington :)

[@rexfelton4373]

Fukingruven a big fuck off to you regarding your fool ass comment regarding Henry Paul. You weren't present on the inside and absolutely do not know the truth. The Henry Paul Band first two albums were his songs that had been rejected by the Outlaws so Paul and the Outlaws separated mutually. I was present and signed as witness on the documents.i was forced out of my share of the the Outlaws at that time. I was not involved with Henry Paul and the latest Outlaws management.

[@TheOrdonje]

Not all of the songs on the first two HPB albums were rejected by the Outlaws.. Henry was out of the band by September 1977, when the first recordings that were to be "Bring it back Alive" were done. Skynyrd's plane crashed in October. It was IMPOSSIBLE for Grey Ghost be written while Henry was still in the band,.. unless Henry borrowed Doc's Delorean and went into the future...which I'm sure some HP fans might believe. My sources have told me that one of the big reasons that HP left is that Billy and Hughie wanted to go in a more rock direction, where Henry wanted to stay more Country. If the next releases from the Outlaws and HPB were any indication, that seems to be true.

[@TheBigjohn527]

@@TheOrdonje ... Agreed. They rocked harder as you say when Harvey & Freddie joined them. Harvey brought that great bass sound & well, Freddie is Freddie, what more can you say?

[@toneyisaiah3556]

It's a good thing that I began listening to the music of The Ventures. Without them, I would not have been able to listen to Clapton, Page or Beck.

[@soheyman1]

Absolutely.

[@jesseroggio7260]

I'm very proud to say that my cousin made it in the music industry. I come from a long line of musicians and writers. Fay Wray, Judy Garland Glen Campbell Hughie Thomasson and Taylor Wilson (nuclear scientist) have all made their marks in the last 100 years. I hope to be the next. I'm working on album number 8 at the moment.

[@Lost-xl6im]

what is the name of the albums ?

[@jeffcollins9995]

RIP Billy. I met Henry Paul one afternoon at a Fan Fair event during an interview with Big 98 DJ Jamie in Nashville. She told him of how when my brother Jay and I were teenagers in NC who were guitar/writer proteges of the Outlaws. He looked around at me during the interview and said "say hello to your brother". Classic

[@sylviafoster9093]

Awesome interview.

[@brucegwynn8509]

I always have been curious why billy jones killed himself, it really bothers me to this day, he was very intelligent, college educated and on top of that living his dream in a great band, he was so young ,

[@MrStarlight1980]

Yes - nobody knows really - probably Depressions

[@johnmandas3488]

When he was asked to leave the band, he sank into the bottle. He eventually lost the ability to play. RIP Billy Jones!!!

[@richardweigle1687]

@@johnmandas3488 Yeah how could it be any thing else, I would have loved to see billy come back for the Diablo canyon album in '94 but for those 2 reasons not to be, and following year he's gone,so sad for family, similar situation with frank O'Keefe being on first 2 albums, broke his neck, had to quit band, got hooked on pain medication for neck rest of his life died same year as billy from the to much meds,sad or what?

[@richardweigle1687]

@@johnmandas3488 What makes this sad to, is those last 2 tracks on the ghost riders album were written and sang by billy jones, "sunshine and "freedom road " really great songs and guitars 🎸 playing imo

[@edwardhenry3158]

Billy also had a heroin addiction. That is why he had to leave the outlaws you we hated doing it, but they had no choice once that happened. It was so sad for Billy. He just went down a dark road by the way that song was called freedom walk and there’s another song Which he predicts his demise it’s called I’ll be leaving soon very eerie. Saw Billy about six months before his death playing in a local band in Clearwater Florida. It was some type of I don’t know city or town Fourth of July picnic. It was not pretty my heart hit the ground seeing this one time bad ass guitarist, fill up outdoor stadiums and arenas, sell gold and platinum records, reduced to what I saw it broke my heart

[@toneyisaiah3556]

Hughie and Billy the original members of the Outlaws started the group early on.

[@robertbryant3805]

Two class guitarist.

[@BrianKlobyGuitar]

Cool interview :)

[@user-jd2yp8jg6b]

Rock on❤

[@robertreeves6311]

I cannot to this day understand why the outlaws aren't in the hall of shame

[@bojangles713]

Great STuff!

[@Rational_Mind]

Don’t forget Billy Jones was a super smart math major/talented multi instrumental musician who was offered a scholarship to Juilliard but decided to go to University of South Florida and pursue a math major where he graduated near the top of his class and could have been a math professor. These guys are talented way beyond the average person. Don’t matter how much you practice if you don’t have the talent you’ll never be this good. Just the sad reality of it.

[@networth9151]

I also understand that Billy lived in Boulder CO for a period of time in high school and set the 440M record running track and field. I have no details but have heard this from a number of sources.

[@BuckeyeInNC]

@@networth9151 i have for some length of time been asking digging wondering why was Billy in Boulder and what was he doing while there (i was in Boulder then too)... i have some suspicions and please do a Google search {STP Family Boulder) for i have seen him in a photo with members of the STP Family ... i also am hoping to discover if Billy and Tommy Bolin knew each other and maybe even jammed as they were both in Boulder at the same time... no one so far has any certain specific and concrete knowledge of Billy's time in Boulder including why he went there....

[@frankloscutoff6553]

😊

[@zackyoder7359]

The best

[@johncrane5412]

I first saw them at the Concord Pavillion opening for Marshall Tucker Band. THEY BLEW TGE DOORS OFF THE PLACE. When MTB came on, the audience started leaving! It Was Obvious that they Stole The Show!!

[@troutvoice]

I saw them open for MTB at Winterland in 1976 and they were amazing, but so was MTB. Toy came out to play pedal steel with them on "Man of the Hour" which was Wonderful !!!

[@ZoSo1973]

Who is doing most of the talking?

[@Dogl50]

Billy Jones is doing most of the talking.

[@smokebury4624]

Good~

[@suekillip]

did they know tom petty? same timeframe

[@Katy-ye1zr]

why and when did the Outlaws break up?

[@seeburg220]

Katy D Billy Jones and Frank O'Keefe both committed suicide in 1995. Hughie died of a heart attack in 2007. Henry Paul and Monte Yoho are the only two left from the golden years, and they are touring as The Outlaws.

[@roberta.elliott2208]

billy jones was excused from the band in 81 it ended for me then. hughie was a great guitarist and well loved by fans but besides diablo canyon and the unreleased recordings made shortly before hughie's death the music just wasn't that great without billy jones.

[@robertelliott3320]

seeburg220 Harvey Dalton Arnold still playing the blues in North carolina

[@nightwines]

Katy, I’m a gigantic outlaws fan and depending on whose telling it there are all different sides of the story. I would say they certainly lived there name as a band… outlaws. It’s a complicated answer with absolute but I’ll do my best here along with some other thoughts as well. The original band from the release of there first album stayed together through there second album (Lady in Waiting). At some point Frank O’ Keefe parted from the band. From what I understand it was due to heavy drinking. In an interview Henry stated (paraphrasing here) that it was a mistake and they should have helped him instead of just replace him. After the release of there third album (Hurry Sundown) Henry Paul parted from the band. As I understand it he was forced out due to musical differences in the direction the majority of the band wanted to go. Enter Freddie Salem along with a 2nd drummer David Dix for there fourth album (Bring it back alive) which was obviously a live album of there previous songs with the addition of one new song by Salem. OBTW the version of stick around for rock and roll on this album is out of this world. WAY better then the studio version. For there fifth album (Playin’ to win) you can clearly hear the new direction of the band. Gone is Paul and the vast majority of the southern rock sound. Not completely however. For instance you can still hear it in some of there riffs and there voices and in the song by Jones “if dreams came true”. It was at this point back in 78 that I was in shock even more so at just how incredible this band was. Not 1, not 2, not 3 but now 4 incredible albums chucked full of unbelievable songs. And this time around they changed there music and still managed to come up with some fantastic tunes. Salem’s song “falling rain” with the backing harmonies is mind blowing. “A real good feelin’” by Billy is… is… incredible! Cry some more, you are the show, dirty city… simply unreal. To this day I still can’t wrap my mind around them. How have they gotten so overlooked!!?! And this is coming from a guy who LOVES the likes of Zeppelin, Seger, Aerosmith, Styx, Foreigner etc. Anyway I digress, there sixth and final album (in the eye of the storm) from the band that had been together since there forth album. And once again, unbelievably, they didn’t disappoint. Absolutely chucked full of superb songs. Most notably “Comin’ Home” which one could argue is one of Billy’s and the outlaws best all time songs. The way he sings it (it fits him perfectly) the guitar work fits it incredibly. Simply can’t believe it isn’t played to this day and is lost in music space. Not to mention a lot of outlaw fans. I’ll be leaving soon, too long without her, come on and dance with me and miracle man all fantastic. Then came there seventh album and different band members, Rick Cua played bass for the departed Harvey Dalton Arnold and Monte Yoho left leaving only David Dix on drums. For me however, this album was nowhere near as good as the others. My favorite “Angles Hide” is a song that so many artist only dream of coming up with. Although I liked G.R.I.T.S., certainly wasn’t my favorite by them by any means. By this time it was 1980 and the garbage 80’s era was ushering in and Jones left. Don’t know what Robert Elliott means by him being “excused”, but as I understand it he was burnt out and left. It wasn’t until 82 that they did there next album Los Hombres Malo that had some decent songs. But there where many break up’s with different band members coming and going so in reality there was no real one break up and they lived up to there name… outlaws. Other songs I love that you may want to check out or you may already know about… Whatcha Don’t Do. Off of the album Soldiers of Fortune Steam on the blacktop. Off of Diablo Canyon South Street. Off of the album So Low Kansas City Queen. Off of anthology This Town, Once a Cowboy, Full Circle. From the album Once and Outlaw And many of the songs off of the new outlaws album It’s about pride. Also love a lot of the songs from the Henry Paul Band. It's amazing to think just how talented they were/are. Still going strong with HP and the current line up...

[@TheOrdonje]

Just adding about what I know and have heard about Billy's departure. Billy was having issues with Alcohol.. I witnessed two separate shows where HT had to sing some of the lyrics because he was too blitzed...I "heard" of a 3rd show where his mike was turned off, but that is hearsay. I did sneak into a sound check for a show in '82.. they thought I was part of the college set up crew.. I noticed Billy gone and asked HT where he was?, he said he was "sick"..I heard from a pretty good source that he was offered his spot back in the band in the late 80's, but he never showed up for rehearsal..I really wish he did...HT was my favorite, but him and Billy together were unbeatable.

[@Lost-xl6im]

All these guys are dead .

[@Clrwatrtom]

Wrong! Henry, Monte and Dave are still alive.