The Story

GALLERY

SCHEDULE

HISTORY

RATES

“This is the West Sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Maxwell Scott, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. On a sweltering hot West Texas day, in the oil fields outside of Wink, near where Roy Orbison was born, a hapless group of would-be musicians met while wildcatting – and looking for something a little more profitable. Their resulting sound would later become musical “black gold” but meanwhile the boys were living and sleeping in the back of old pickup trucks. Singer and guitar-player Dan Simonis had driven up from Langtry, a dusty little town on the Mexican border with an old drilling rig borrowed from his shiftless but sometimes enterprising Uncle Zane. After shaking hands on what would later become a hotly contested deal with a local rancher they began to drill. By the third day the boys hit a pocket and were smothered in oil. In a flash the world had changed. Cadillacs, Nudie suits, fancy cowboy boots – and with plenty of money to burn, the boys soon became known as the West Texas Millionaires. They lit out for the road playing honkytonks, country fairs and rodeos across the Southwest, eventually hightailing it to Las Vegas where they promptly squandered their windfall gains. “90 percent of it went to wine and women,” said lead guitarist Roger Thoreson, “the rest we wasted!”