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From: Jason Odd
Date: December 17, 2002
Well, it was surely a matter of survival as much as anything. The Southwest circuit had been drying up for years and by 1964 ol' Hank had already trimmed his band to one horn and he took care of the lead guitar himself. If you look at the time, circa 1964 a lot of the Oklahoma and Texas swing band were folding, not just trimming, but completely folding. By the end of that year there wasn't a Wills Brother leading a band, although Bob kept performing until his health problems curtailed that. I personally think that Thompson held on well during the honky-tonk 1960s and even weathered the country-politan 1970s quite well. Still, he was along way from his roots and his hottest swing, although he never seemed to be one to let his group go too wild. The bandleader thing is a mystery, it doesn't seem like it was a role that was needed after the mid 1960s. On a side note I have swapped quite a few emails with Gene Jones who did a couple of stints with Merle Lindsay's group in OK. Gene eventually went on to retire from music (although he's back at it now), and worked as a fireman for many years. (he was on clean-up/rescue at the aftermath of the OK bombing). Anyway, he mentioned at one point that other sidemen from various swing bands also joined up as firefighters, including one of Thompsons in the mid 1960s. In his autoboigraphy the late Waylon Jennings mentions taking his little combo and playing the dancehall circuit in the mid 1960s. A little four piece combo trying to cover a massive bandstand once reserved for the big Southwestern swing bands.