LORD TRACY Lord Tracy had their beginnings in Memphis, Tennessee in 1985 when I got in touch with Chris Craig, who had recently moved back to town from Dallas, Texas, where he had been playing with the band Lightning, the powerhouse band led by guitarist Rocky Athas. I had just been through a break-up with my long-time band Southern Creed, and was looking to begin anew. Chris and I had been talking about starting a band for years, along with Chris’ best friend and fellow Memphian Kinley ‘Barney’ Wolfe, who was still playing with Lightning back in Texas. After an abortive attempt at a band in Memphis, we decided that we’d both move to Dallas and steal Kinley from Lightning and get something together. That’s pretty much what happened, although not as instantly as I had figured. Rocky and Kinley talked Chris into re-joining Lightning, so I was left looking for a gig. I did a few pickup gigs, and briefly joined a lesbian band (don’t ask…), but nothing was really working out. Several months later, in early 1986, Chris and Kinley called and said they were ready to jump ship on Lightning and start something new. Great news! So, we started rehearsing and putting it together. With Kinley and Chris as the rhythm section, there really wasn’t anything I could screw up as long as I had a decent tone and kept within the limits of my blues-rock abilities. Only one big problem, however: none of us were really lead vocalist material. Kinley and I traded off on vocals, but it was pretty evident that neither of us had the lungs for it. Hey, this was the 80’s when powerful singers ruled. We also couldn’t think of a band name. I think I came up, jokingly, with Doctors of Death and Demonology. A commercial name if there ever was one…. One night, Kinley and I went to see Pantera, who at this point was a local/regional band that had 3 self-produced records out and was packing them in wherever they played. The combination of “Diamond” Darrell’s guitar pyrotechnics (years before “Dimebag”) and Terry Glaze’s vocals and showmanship was killing ‘em dead. Kinley knew Terry and introduced us. Terry asked about what we were up to, and when we told him we had a band going, he asked, “What’s the name?” Kinley said, “Uh…Doctors of Death and Demonology.” Terry replied, “Oh yeah…3D!”
So right then and there, we decided that
was the name of the band: 3D. Still not the greatest, but…. It was a different story in Memphis. When we’d play there, the place would be packed and rockin’. The club owner, Nita Makris, was den mother to a lot of heavy metal bands, and we had a relationship with her from way back. She knew a guy who had a spec deal with a major label to develop talent, and he was using her club to showcase for various labels. She told him, “My boys will blow anything you got off the stage.” He wasn’t really interested, but Nita put the screws to him until he agreed to let us open, and sure enough, we did exactly what she said we’d do. What followed were several go-rounds of demos done at Ardent Studios in Memphis. While Chris, Kinley, and I now resided in Dallas, we became in fact a Memphis band as we were making the trek up there roughly every two weeks. It was at the end of one of those recording sessions when we were discussing the various attributes of several porn stars that this producer suggested that we change our name from 3D (which we really were excited about anyway) to Tracy Lords. We said, “I don’t know about that….” But that is the name he put on our demos and that is the name of the band that the record companies came to hear. We showcased for several labels and in the end chose the Uni label, which was going to be a boutique label under the MCA banner. The story was that it was going to be a small label with their own reps, few artists, but lots of care taken with those artists to guide their career. Sounded good to us! We acquired a manager from New York by the name of Peter Leeds, who had managed Blondie up through their Parallel Lines album, so we figured we were ready to roll. We “auditioned” several potential producers for the album before settling on an English guy by the name of Mark Dodson, who had produced Suicidal Tendencies and several other hard rock acts. We had decided to do the album in Los Angeles. Working on the record was to be a high point in all our lives, as not only were we fulfilling a dream, but we basically did what we wanted to do and had fun doing it. Mark was a hilarious guy who fit right in with us and we spent a lot of free time carousing around Hollywood at all the famous bars like the Rainbow, and pulling stunts like crashing rental cars through the gates at the Oakwood where we were staying. Of course, we ran into a little snafu over the band’s name. No sooner had we begun to record than we were slapped with a “cease and desist” order from a certain entity that took issue with us using her name. We looked at it legally, and decided that it was best just to change it. After tossing around possible band names (The Intergalactic Thunder Banana comes to mind), we settled on Lord Tracy. Problem solved! The record was released in October 1989, the day after the earthquake in San Francisco, if I remember correctly. However, between the time we signed our deal and the record release, a shake-up at MCA happened, and Uni as an independent label was scrapped. While the record was released on the Uni label, we were basically put in with the rest of the MCA acts and thrown up against the wall to see which ones stuck! We weren’t strictly heavy metal, and we weren’t the upcoming grunge either, so no one really knew what to do with us. We played a few big shows opening for some established acts, and made quite a few solo tours in Florida, where we were getting plenty of of airplay, but besides that it was mostly Memphis and Dallas. By this time the word had gotten around about us in Dallas and we would completely sell out the Basement every time we played. The concert biz was taking a hit nationwide at this time. Normally, as a new band, we’d be the third act on a major tour, but there was nothing really going on. Later in 1990 we landed a tour with Ace Frehley of Kiss. Oh man…where do I start? Ace was a hero of ours and turned out to be one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. We particularly bonded with his co-guitarist Ritchie Scarlet and the crew. We had more fun on that trip than is possible to relate! Even today, we say if that tour was still going, we’d still be on it! Most bands that land record deals already have a pretty good regional following, but the day we left to record we were only known in Memphis, and to a much lesser extent in Dallas. So we really didn’t have the built-in market when the record dropped. Add to that not getting a big tour to spread the name around, we realized that if we were to get a second shot, we needed to do some serious road work. Back to “Mama” Nita at the Stage Stop in Memphis. She was aware of our plight and hooked us up with some booking agents who were happy to have a label act to play with. In 1991 we virtually lived on the road. We would play anywhere - one night we’d play to 10 people in a dive club, the next night at a place like the gigantic HammerJacks in Baltimore to thousands of people. We did our own driving, and the booking guys routed us as best they could. Still, I remember one week we were in Miami, Florida and the same time the next week we were at Rock-n-Roll Heaven in Toronto Canada! We left the day after the Super Bowl that year, and didn’t come home until the band broke up at the end of August of that year. I was the only one that got an extra week off when my appendix exploded in Pittsburgh and I spent 5 days in the hospital! Why did the band come to an end? It’s tempting to say management, the record company, creative differences, blah blah blah. But the truth is, when you’re hitting it that hard day after day, you just get worn down. You stop communicating, and start finding enemies where brothers once were. You let things get out of hand without talking it out for too long, say things you wished you hadn’t, and take a stand when maybe you should have reconsidered. That’s the breaks.
In the ensuing years, we have gotten
together now and again, rekindled the love we had for each other,
and had a blast. We look back on what may have been, sure we do. But
what we have ended up with are great memories, life-long
friendships, and respect for the differences in each of us. Jimmy R
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