Razorcake Issue #19

Let’s go with it. We doing it this way.” Hesaid, “I ain’t ever done this before.”Bradley: Mr. Adkins, is there any way Icould get you to play me a song? I ain’t everseen you play. I’ve just heard you on recordsand stuff.Hasil: No. Have you seen this album anyplace?Matt: No, no.Hasil: It’s off the market. Come out inEngland with that. They done a good job onthat. A real good job. You lay that suckerdown any whichways, you can see it whenyou walk in the shop. I think they done thebest job on that than what they did on anyalbum I got out. I got all kinds of them outbut I think that’s the best one they done. Ithirty years old now and he’ll be dead beforeI see him. I said, “You’ll be dead beforeyou’re forty, drinking like that.” I mean,buddy, it’s like this. [Hasil sizes out a cupwith his hands.] Big ‘ol cups. He’s worsethan Hank Williams drinking. And JackDaniel’s, he loves it. I said, “Oh, I got sickon that. I can’t look at it no more.” I can’tdrink no liquor. I was drinking five fifthsand four liters in twenty-four hours. Ofvodka. That vodka will kill you, too. I talkedto the doctor. He said, “Don’t you know youcould get sick?” I said, “Why do you thinkI’m in here?” He said, “You can’t do that!” Isaid, “I’m trying.” Drink beer or wine orsomething – anything. I ain’t drunk novodka in over two years now.what I could get out of it today.”Bradley: Did you get to talk to her?Hasil: Yeah. She tried to sell me one ofthem records. I said, “I ain’t got no money.”I didn’t have none. I said, “We’re out heretrying to win everything we can to get by.”Eating hamburger, hotdogs, anything we caneat.Bradley: What did she say to that?Hasil: She didn’t say nothing. She knewhow it was ‘cause she was hungry, too, overthere, trying to get someplace. I was on thatsame label. They never did get nothing out.[pauses] We never did get the tape to themis what it was. We tried to, but we couldnever get nothing cut. A recording, man,you had to go miles and miles here beforeI’m mostly working on this big room with a twelve to twenty piece band. Buddy, that’s afull-time job trying to figure out how to play it all and that’s all at the same time.sold all mine and had a time trying to getthat one. My girlfriend had to get that. Shesaid, “I’ll get you one.” You have to buythem off people. You can’t buy them off themarket.Bradley: This is the only one you got?Hasil: That’s the only one I got.Bradley: I just got The Lonesome Sounds ofHasil Adkins. It’s got the drum on the cover.Hasil: You got Drinking My Life Away?Bradley: No, I don’t.Hasil: It’s a CD. People likes that one, theydo. I like that one, too. That one there’s gotsome good ones on it. “DPA Up on theMoon.” [In a high voice] “I like peanut buttertoo.” That’s how it goes. They come outwith that back in ‘85, kept it on the marketuntil ‘92, then took it off. The contract wentout. They’re getting ready to come out withit again. That’s been a long time ago.Bradley: That’s been about 10 years. Thesame people gonna put it out again?Hasil: Nuh uh. You remember the mannamed Sting? He’s the one that designedthat. Out of London, England. He’s the onethat designed that, laid it out. I think he donean awful good job on it.Bradley: Was it one of the guys in Sting’sband that did it?Hasil: Yeah, Sting. The band Sting. Theymade all kinds of money. They made allkinds of hits.Bradley: One of the albums I’ve got, MoonOver Madison, sort of reminds me of HankWilliams, Sr. Did you ever get to see himplay?Hasil: Who, Hank Williams?Bradley: Yeah.Hasil: No. Got close but I never got to seehim, though. Hank III, I know him. He’s abig fan of mine. [He points to an autographedHank III picture on his wall. Hasil’swalls are full of autographed photos andrecords. It seems strange that this manwould be the one asking for an autograph.]We were gonna try to tour some together.He’s tourin’ all over the country. Buddy, ifhe don’t drink that Jack Daniel’s, man. He’sBradley: Congratulations.Hasil: That vodka will kill you. My girlfriendstopped that. She said, “No morevodka.” I said, “Is that right?”Bradley: So she sent you that turtle to tellyou to slow down? Is that why she sent youthe turtle?Hasil: Yeah. [laughter] From Minnesota.Out in that cold country. I said, “Well, itgets cold here, but not like it does up there.”Man, it gets cold up there. She said it wasreal pretty today, though. She said, “Oh, it’sbeen warm,” and this and that. “I went andwashed the car.”Bradley: Yeah, last night it got in the ‘50s.Coldest I’ve seen it in a while. I don’t getcold in LA.Hasil: I know. I know.Bradley: It stays too sunny.Hasil: I was out there in 1956. LA. I almostwalked out there. Well, I didn’t walk outthere. I almost walked back. [laughter] Onthat desert I almost burnt up – Arizona andLos Angeles, all through out the territory –trying to get a break.Bradley: Were you playing out there?Hasil: Yeah, we took all them. This fella, hewas helping me. He was twenty-nine and Iwasn’t old enough. And he said, “Well, theman wouldn’t let us in.” The man said, “Idon’t care what you got. Ain’t either one ofyou old enough to get into this club.” Thisfella that was helping me said, “I know I am.I’m 29!” We didn’t get in. The man said, “Idon’t care if you’re fifty-nine. You ain’t gettin’in here ‘cause you ain’t old enough.”The ones we did get in, they had contests forwho was the best and all that. We took allthem, every one we could get in. We winevery one of them. He said, “They got a bigone going on here. If we get in, we’ll winit.” I met Pasty Cline at that Town HallParty. There’s that dance party they had onTV. I was on it. I didn’t have no money tobuy no record with. She was selling them45s of “Walking after Midnight.” That’sbefore it become a big hit. I said, “Boy, ifI’d had the money to buy that, just think ofyou could find a studio or anything.Matt: What was the closest one from here?Hasil: Lexington, Kentucky, and that’s apretty good ways from here, you know.Back then it was.Bradley: Have most of your recordingsbeen done here?Hasil: Most of them, yeah. Oh, I’ve donethem all over the country now, but wayback, most of them were done here. I’ve hada lot of people say, “I like all them, man.You go a way back. They were raw, and,man, I like that raw sound you got.” I cutthem on a tape recorder, most of them. I hada wall recorder. Boy, you get that stuff in atangle and it’s just like a string of your hair.It gets to tangling up and then it goes into awhole ball. And I get a ball that big around[sizes it with his hands], about that high, andon each side of the reels, you know – rollingup – get it tangled so you couldn’t use it,and that was it. You’d have to throw itaway. Boy, it was clear as a bell, to be thatfar back. If I had them now, I’d play yousome. Way back in ‘48, ‘48 and ‘50 and ‘55and ‘60 and ‘57, ‘58, all through them years.This album that’s coming out with themgirls behind it, the title of it is I Dreamed ofMy Amy Last Night. I played it on the pianoand I said, “Oh, I’m gonna sing it on theguitar now.” [Hasil gets up and puts anothertape on.] Watch this. [What follows is themost bizarre version of “I Walk the Line”anyone’s ever heard, followed by ten minutesof shouting and trebly guitar lines whilewe work on the case of Budweiser.]Bradley: How much land you got aroundhere?Hasil: Twelve acres.Bradley: What’s the listing of the songs wejust listened to?Hasil: “Baseball Bat,” “Leigh Anne Baby.”I’ve done got lost myself. I have to back offand get the first one.Bradley: “Coco the Dog?”Hasil: “Coco the Dog.” Yeah. “9-1-1Bubble Gum.”Bradley: “9-1-1 Bubble Gum!” [laughter]