The star power was low wattage for a red carpet party, but last night’s 30th anniversary celebration at Billy Bob’s Texas was a hoot nonetheless.
Who needs a parade of A-listers when you’ve got Steve Murrin, Hub Baker, Don Jury, Robert Gallagher and assorted Stockyards characters around to provide color?
The first person I ran into was Cowtown Coliseum executive director Baker, looking cool in his cowboy hat, shades, and…er…Billy Bob’s pants.
“Check this out,” he said, lifting his jacket to reveal a back pocket emblazoned with the bar logo.
Baker and Billy Bob Barnett partnered on retail sales inside the club after it opened in 1981, and they sold jeans with pocket logos. Baker still owned an original pair he’d rarely worn because he gained about 100 pounds over the years. But he had a stomach band installed a year ago and now he’s a changed man.
“I weigh 10 pounds less than I did in 1981,” he said.
Nashville songstress Janie Frickie was there and still looking quite fetching in her 60s. Thankfully she’s no longer wearing those Olivia Newton John headbands of yesteryear. Frickie had a bunch of hits back in the 1980s but I haven’t heard of her in a long time.
As it turns out, I’ve heard her plenty and didn’t even know it. She does a lot of jingles these days and even sang a snippet of one last night: “Red Lobster for the seafood lover in you… .” Yep, that’s her.
The biggest celebrity on the scene was Texas Music singer (and Fort Worth resident) Pat Green. I asked him to pose for a picture beside his portrait and he said, “It doesn’t really look like me — it looks like Jack Nicholson. The jaw’s right but the eyes aren’t.”
While we were talking, country musician Kevin Fowler walked by. We looked at his portrait, which resembles him well. As a joke, Fowler reached out to his portrait and pretended to pick its nose. So Green pretended to pick Fowler’s real nose, and I got the best photograph of the evening.
