Mark Benno, of Nightcrawlers, spoke with William Michael Smith of Lonesome, Onry and Mean about Doyle Bramhall, who died on November 12th of heart failure. Benno and Bramhall formed the Nightcrawlers after the break up of Texas Storm, Jimmie Vaughan’s band that included Bramhall as drummer and vocalist.
“I didn’t fully realize until I was at the funeral what a big part Doyle had played in my life,” Benno said. “It was a very moving service.”
Benno recalled rough and tumble days in Austin in the early 70s “when we were all strung out and running wild.”
“Doyle could be this gentle guy, but he was one of the best street fighters ever. Bramhall gentled over the years, according to Benno, but there was a lot of fighting and hell-raising before that happened.
“Doyle, Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray and I played the first Willie Nelson picnic and we just got all into it and played too long. Someone told us later that Willie had ’em pull the plug on us after an hour and a half,” he laughs. “So we got off the stage and there was this big cowboy standing in the back of his pickup, and he started mouthing off about how much we sucked, how we played too long and how we weren’t even country, and Doyle said why don’t you mind your own business.
“So cowboy starts cussing at Doyle and Doyle tells him to f%$#! himself and the cowboy — he must’ve weighed 250 pounds — jumps off the pickup at Doyle. But Doyle had a full unopened can of Budweiser in his hand and he hit that dude in the face with it and it just exploded all over.”
Read entire article HERE.