Joe Ely Quotations

I (think) he was trying to find some hint of his childhood. He struggled with the memories. That may be why his songs were so dark: He was looking into a well.

He handed me a record out of his backpack that he'd just made in San Francisco. We played that record for the next days, months and years. It was an eye-opener. We were just beginning to write songs, and Townes set a whole new standard for how songs should be written.

This time, we kind of took the inspiration from the old Wolfman Jack border radio and how he influenced a whole generation of musicians with everything from blues to all kinds of hillbilly music and gospel music. It reached all the way to California, and I've heard people tell me they got it in Chicago.

He was not only a great drummer but our favorite person to hang around with. He was this big, lovable bear with tons of great stories.

T.J. was crazy for the blues. We were in a band together back in the eighth grade, and T.J. would listen to Jimmy Reed almost nonstop. He got his drum style from that old country blues and then later applied it to Western swing.