The Kip Attaway Interview is featured on The Paul Leslie Hour.
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It’s our extreme pleasure to present this interview from the archives with Kip Attaway. This interview went out on the radio back in 2007 and since that it’s been sitting on a disc. It’s our pleasure to bring it out to you all on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, and everywhere else.
Kip Attaway is one of the artists who is not so easy to categorize. Some folks know him as an artist with a comedic side. His songs can be quite hysterical, and some songs could be considered offensive to some. He’s known for and has a cult following for his comedy, but many may overlook his tremendous songwriting.
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Kip Attaway, musician and songwriter, discusses his nomadic lifestyle, Wyoming, and his humorous song “Lord I Wish Harley Made a Wheelchair.”
The Official Transcript
Kip Attaway’s Journey from Texas to Jackson Hole
[2:35]Paul Leslie: I’m here at one of my favorite restaurants, Spondivits, with Mr. Kip Attaway.
So welcome to the program, Kip.
Kip Attaway: Hello there.
My first question is, on one of your songs, you say you were born in Texas?
Yep, Mount Pleasant.
Mount Pleasant. So how’d you end up in Jackson Hole? Wyoming, for the listeners.
I moved up to Idaho to paint houses when I was 19 years old, and I started playing in the bar, their drinking age at that time was 19 so I started going around all the bars and playing guitar and singing and then we put a little band together and they told me about Jackson Hole, went over there and fell in love with the place so like everybody else that wants to move to Jackson Hole I actually did so I’ve been there for almost 30 years.
Falling in Love with Jackson Hole
What’s it like?
[3:26] In the summer it’s the most incredible place in the world. Forbes magazine wrote an article about Jackson Hole and said it was the most desirable place to live in the free world. I agree, except the winters can be a little chilly, like 40 below for a week in a row or two.
A Wandering Soul Living on the Road
[3:46] And one of the songs, you’re talking about all the different places you’ve been. Are you kind of a wandering soul?
Absolutely. I live in a car, sleep in a car. I love it. I actually have a house, and every now and then I go see if my stuff’s still there, but I travel all the time. I’m playing here tonight, and then I head for, fly straight to LA, go on a seven-day Mexican cruise on a ship, and then fly right back here, get in the car, drive to Wyoming, and do a bunch of one-nighters. I’m moving all the time.
I wanted to ask about there is one of your songs that you talk about, “The Lord I Wish Harley Made a Wheelchair” and I’m wondering are you a Harley man?
No but I do a lot of work for for some of the bike groups and I don’t own a motorcycle because I like to drink a lot and the thought of me falling in faster than I can walk scared me a bit.
The Idea of a Harley-Davidson Wheelchair
[5:00] But my daughter, you met my daughter a little while ago, she’s in a wheelchair and I was just thinking how cool it would be if Harley would make a wheelchair because her little electric chair is so quiet and buzzes around and I was just thinking how cool it would be if she had a Harley-Davidson wheelchair, she could make a statement cruising around.
[5:16] on it. And then I was doing some work at a veteran’s home playing for some of those guys and I met a guy in a wheelchair that used to own a Harley and that was the one thing he really missed the most was riding his Harley and that’s where the song idea came from.
Mixed Feelings about Key West and the Florida Keys
[5:35] In the song you talk about uh in the one song when you’re talking about all the places you’ve been, you talk about how you’d uh you went to Honolulu once or twice and you had to admit it was awful nice and then you went down to the Florida Keys and you drank the rum in the ocean breeze, so I was wondering as I got kind of mixed messages do you like the Keys?
[5:57] I don’t particularly care for Key West, I found it very, very, very commercial and I’m, sure at one time it was the coolest place in the world to live and probably still is to the people that live there.
Of course I live in Jackson Hole so this would be pot calling the kettle black to say, well Jackson Hole used to be a great little western town and now it’s all screwed up with all the chain stores and the McDonald’s and you know all that stuff and that’s true too, but you can’t stop progress and anytime you go to a really neat resort area sooner or later it’s going to get discovered. There are still resorts that are pretty good hideouts and I look for those and seek them, out and spend as much time as I can there. I don’t spend a lot of time in Key West.
But part of my not enjoying performing there was, it’s real hard to get in there to play, and it’s pretty locked up and the local guys don’t like out of towners coming in and playing their gigs, which is understandable, same thing in Hawaii and almost anywhere you go.
Challenges of Performing in Key West
[7:07] The Hawaiians accepted me because I’m a songwriter and they really liked the kind of stuff that I wrote.
And Key West, if you want to play in a bar there, you got to play Margaritaville, play Brown Eyed Girl, play maybe one or two Skynyrd songs, maybe American Pie.
[7:26] Go back to Margaritaville, Brown Eyed Girl.
Yeah.
I mean, it’s just, you don’t have to have a very big repertoire to play a lot of resorts. I spent all winter in Vail, Colorado, last ski season: the same mentality. They don’t want to listen or hear anything new. They want to hear insane three or four songs and they’ll party to those and they’ll enjoy them but you try to play something new or something that besides those several songs you’re not going to go over very, well because your attention span is not on what you’re doing it’s what they’re doing.
Right.
The Influence of the Beatles and Pursuing Music
[7:59] So how did you start out in music?
Beatles, Sir Paul. I could have a normal job but I saw the the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show and I was a goner from then on.
I said, “that’s what I want to do.” Have really pretty girls, getting excited when you sing songs.
I watched the Beatles and I watched the girls go crazy over the Beatles and said, that’s what I want to do. So, I’ve been playing guitar since the fifth grade, and I still am not very good as you’ll see in a little while.
Are you married?
I’ve been divorced for 25 wonderful years.
A Special Bond with My Daughter
[8:39] But I have a 28 year old daughter that I love more than anything.
She’s traveling with me right now full time. She got spinal meningitis when she was two weeks old.
And, she’s been living up in Wyoming with me, but I’m doing so much traveling, and she was bored there, so I said, I went and bought a, I’ve got a 40 foot tour bus, I went and bought a 16 passenger bus that has a wheelchair lift.
I bought it from the Riverton Wyoming Senior Citizen Center.
And it’s got a big wheelchair lift on the side. so I bought that and set it up like a little mini motorhome and, It looks like a geezer rig going down the road, so I don’t ever worry about I just blend in really well I don’t write my name on the side or anything and I just cruise right through town nobody even notices me, and I got her in the back. She’s got her computer or DVDs, and it’s a good way to travel.
And I noticed that you had an album for her, and it’s called. I like a really nice title, I thought it’s really clever, “Jess – For You.”
Exactly and my first album back back on 78 RPM, It’s on a 33+1⁄3 vinyl and, it actually had two songs that charted on the top 100 on the country charts.
Music and Chart-Topping Success
[9:52] One song that I wrote which is currently being played fairly regularly right by Mickey and the Motorcars. Have you heard of those kids? They are phenomenal. Reckless Kelly’s little brothers, and they’re one of the top bands in Texas right now, and they just recorded one of my tunes, it’s getting radio airplay, and then one other song off of my first album charted in the top 100, it’s called “Wild Western Windblown Band, and Reckless Kelly recorded it.
The kids are carrying on the flame for us old geezers, it’s pretty exciting.
[10:23] I wanted to ask about, you mentioned that you, you know, like so many people, you saw the Beatle, and that was kind of an inspiration because of the Beatlemania and the effect that it had, on the many young women of that era. But I wanted to know what other kind of stuff did you listen to growing up?
Well, of course, all rock and roll. I’m a rock and roll fanatic.
When Willie Nelson came back from Nashville to Texas and started playing all around Texas and I started listening to country music. I didn’t like country before that because I thought it was corny, and the guys that listened to country music wanted to cut my hair with a pocketknife and, you know I didn’t enjoy their company. So because of Willie Nelson I started listening to country and then I got into Jerry Jeff and of course Jerry Jeff and I’ve become friends since then.
And I introduced Jerry Jeff to the song “Trashy Women,” a friend of mine wrote that and we were doing a show one night and Jerry Jeff said, teach me that song, it’s a great song.
So I did. I said, here’s a copy of it.
And so he started doing it. He was the first person to actually release it nationally and then Confederate Railroad, who are also buddies of mine, they live down the street here.
They heard Jerry Jeff do it. They recorded it and then it became the number one hit song and now you hear it everywhere.
Collaborating on Songwriting and Merchandise
[11:45] They’ve done quite well with that tune.
The song, “If You Won’t Leave Me Alone,” it’s written by you and two other guys.
Let’s, Pinto Bennett, I think, maybe?
Bennett and Walker.
It’s Madeline Walker who’s sitting in there.She’s doing my merchandise. She sells little CDs for them. Oh, I see.
And that’s actually about her ex-husband.
[12:11] She gave me the song title, the song idea and everything and Pinto Bennett and I write songs together all the time.
The three of us sit around and write that song.
I hope her ex-husband is listening.
The one thing that’s unfortunate is I’ve got to drive home after this gig and so you won’t be able to cook my goose, as they say in that one song.
You’re lucky.
Drinking and Performing on Stage
[12:34] I can’t imagine listening to what I do sober, so I apologize in advance.
[12:40] So how long have you been a drinking man since before it was legal for you to do so?
19. I started drinking when the drinking age was 19 and I started drinking and I liked it. Actually, my first job was 20 bucks a night and all I could drink, so I decided I was going to turn that into a profit deal and I did. I drank the poor guy out of house and home.
So just out of curiosity what What do you, what’s your pleasure?
[13:06] What do you like to drink?
It varies. I used to drink scotch a lot, but I behave myself when I drink scotch.
So I’ll be on stage and I won’t say anything goofy or rude. And if you drink tequila or something, I’ll say anything.
So I tend to drink more whiskey or tequila on stage. And if I’m sitting at home in the hot tub with a really good cigar, I’ll drink scotch.
Because I don’t have to think fast and do anything silly. But that’s how I started doing the comedy routine was I had a band, and the band split up.
Transition from Band to Comedy Routine
[13:40] I started playing at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in Jackson Hole, which is where Jerry Jeff was coming in.
And I noticed that I’d play a nice song, people would sit there and I’d play a really silly song, people would start having fun.
Kind of like the theory back to Key West, they want to hear their songs that they like to party to.
So I started developing this large repertoire of comedy-type songs, of course, I do parodies, rewrite.
We rewrote, Jerry and I rewrote two songs, the before yesterday.
We rewrote, what was it, Gary Puckett and Union Gap. Young girl, get out of my, we rewrote, “fat girl, get out of my car.
I got real drunk and picked you up at the bar. You better run, girl,” you know, get the drift.
All the people in that song.
I like fat girls, by the way, so it’s okay.
No offense. Actually, I like all girls, see?
Drinking with American Heroes: Merle Haggard
[14:36] In the song you mentioned about all the people you’ve drunk with and I was like man this guy has, has really knocked back with some some uh some American heroes. Merle Haggard is that right?
Yeah uh I won the Marlboro national talent certs about a few years back when it was okay to smoke, and was okay for for Marlboro to sponsor smoking type things and uh we won the contest and we got play at the Oakland Coliseum with Merle Haggard. Who else was there? Ricky Skagg, Merle Haggard.
Not Ricky Skagg.
Early Days in the Comedy Scene
[15:15] He was a very nice guy. He was really cool. He comes back to the dressing room at the Oakland Coliseum and settles out and he comes back to the dressing room and says, you know how long I played before I made $5,000 for 15 minutes? Because that’s what they paid us, for doing 15 minutes. You guys are congratulating us. He was really a nice guy. And the headliner was Hank Williams Jr. and that was a lot of fun. I like playing big big venues, it’s great.
And I’ve worked with Merle since then, of course Merle won’t remember me, but that’s all right.
So are there, is there anything on the horizon with Kip Attaway?
I’m going to retire as soon as I win the lottery.
The Powerball.
Yeah, there’s only one Powerball ticket keeping me from retiring.
I’ve been slowing down a little bit lately having my daughter with me because it’s a, tremendous responsibility. But I love the traveling and I love playing music and meeting new folks.
I was just in Alaska twice this summer and really enjoyed that.
Reckless Kelly: A Phenomenal Musical Group
[16:21] Who out there, musically anyways, whether young or old, would you have to give the respect to, as far as performer or songwriter?
Well, Reckless Kelly, you need to look those guys up, recklesskelly.com, are a phenomenal group. Their dad and I grew up together and these kids, when the oldest of the Braun family, Cody, there’s four boys, the two youngest boys in a band called Mickey and the Motorcars. And those two bands are just on, they’re on the way up. And I really, really enjoy their music and you will too as soon as you check them out. As far as old-time songwriters, one of my favorite songwriters would be John Prine. I really like his wit, but you know, I like funny songs. I like story songs. John Prine is one of my favorites. Guy Clark is a phenomenal songwriter. There’s some great, great… I was hearing something the other day that Bob Dylan was voted the number one songwriter of all time. I don’t know if I agree with that or not, but I sure like a lot of of his stuff.
[17:31] I was wondering, per the one song, the “Jimmy Buffett, You Can Stuff It” song, is there any animosity there?
No, no, not at all. I love Jimmy Buffett.
Really?
I’m just not crazy about Key West. It’s really crowded and I just didn’t enjoy myself. And I was driving a 40-foot tour bus with equipment, sound and light trailer, just going to go down and hang out for a few days, and check out the bars. I went in Margaritaville, and I think I could do very well in the right venue in Key West, because when I go to resort towns, I do very well. And I went in Margaritaville, and there was a band playing, and the next night it was dark. And I said, well, how about if I come in and play tomorrow night for free? and then as an audition, and, see if you’re interested in music. No, they weren’t interested at all in it. But I go around town and look at all the people that are playing and everybody’s doing the same three songs. They’re all pretty average. I mean there’s some great players down there too, but most of you hear everything’s the same in every bar. I mean, and the same thing in Vail.
[18:38] Walk up the street in Vail, Colorado to Opera and Ski at five o’clock and you’re going to hear Margaritaville three times in three different bars. So there’s no question about what great music it is. I didn’t care much for Key West, per se. I liked the Keys.
[18:56] I just thought it was crowded and I didn’t enjoy myself.
So other than your music, what kind of stuff do you enjoy doing, with your spare time, should you have any?
I like to fish.
I like to fish in the ocean. I like to fish in the pond. I like to fish in the lake.
That’s what I like to do. I like playing guitar and make up songs.
[19:17] This place, Spondivits, believe it or not, has a very strong connection to our, program, some of the original ideas behind the start of our program started in Spondivits, some five and six hour lunches we used to have here. So I was wondering how did you meet Andy Camp?
Jackson Hole. Yeah, he spends a lot of time up in Jackson. And we’ve been friends for a long time. He’d come up there and see me play at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar and we’d have a few, cocktails and he kept inviting me to come play one of his restaurants. Back then he had the original one down south.
Yeah.
And finally he taught me to come through and play and I had so much fun.
And of course then my old, when I have a band, it’s the drummer and the bass player were with Chris LeDoux forever. And if you look on the credits there on there, and some of the albums have credits.
That one’s a compilation, so it’d have to be 10 pages of people that played on that album, but KW Turnbull and David Lyle Evans, who toured with Chris LeDoux forever, are the guys singing at the play with me.
LeDoux was doing a show here down in Atlanta, I called the band up, I said, go to Spondivits, and they went, Andy beat them within an inch of their life.
Swept them out the front door, and they still talking about how much fun they had, and that was down at East Point. Is that at East Point, technically?
East Point, yep.
Fun times on the South Side
[20:45] Okay, so I had a lot of fun down the South Side.
Me too. Do you know what a spondivit is?
I have no idea. I do, I’ll tell you off the air.
So my last question to you, Kip Attaway, given that our program is broadcast all over the world.
Really?
Yes. What would you…
You’re recording this?
This is recorded.
Uh-oh, hi mom.
Kip Attaway’s Message to the World: Buy my CDs!
[21:11] What would you, Kip Attaway, like to say to the world?
I’m speechless.
That’s the toughest question anybody’s ever asked me. Go buy all of my CDs and then I can retire.
KipAttaway.com
High five!
Thank you, my friend.
All right, thank you.
