Died A Long Time Ago’ and ‘I Let You Down.’ I kept telling him, ‘we
can’t do that one dude, No, we can’t do that one either.’”
“By the second song, we had ‘em crying,” said Houston.
“We’ll go anywhere to do a gig,” said Zollo.
Ron Houston kick-started Sickstring Outlaws in 2004 with his sister,
brother-in-law and a few others. There have been some lineup
changes since then.
Drew Zollo is the second longest surviving member. He answered
Ron’s ad on Craigslist. “I had this vision in my head of who I was
talking to on the phone,” said Zollo, “Some big, Texan looking,
country dude. Then Ron comes walking in looking like he just got
out of prison in cut off-shorts and says, ‘Tell me about yourself,’ I said
Man… we could be here all day. Proof ’s in the pudding. Let’s just
jam.” After jamming with the band for a while, Drew walked out for
a cigarette, leaving them with the words, “You guys talk.”
“We never looked back,” said Ron.
Third in line for the longest standing Sick member award is
harmonica player and back-up vocalist Lance Dieckmann. He met
the band at the Harp in Ocean Beach about a year and a half ago, sat
in with them, and he hasn’t left since.
Dieckmann has genuine road warrior credentials, having opened for
the likes of Foghat, Blue Oyster Cult and Pat Travers. Later in his 40s
Lance started playing the blues but always had that rock background,
as does everyone else in the band. As mentioned in the last issue of
“This is it,” said Houston. “It took me
eleven years to make up this band and
this is the year we make it happen.”
Boogie Magazine, drummer Gavin Glenn, who also drums for
Black Market III, has a history of playing in punk and heavy metal
bands.
Ben Zinn and Lisa Winston are the latest members to join the
line-up with Ben on lead guitar and Lisa singing backup vocals.
“This is it,” said Houston. “It took me eleven years to make up
this band and this is the year we make it happen.”
As much fun as it may seem, it’s been a hard road for this country
band. San Diego is not well known for it’s country music but the
band prides itself on hard work and perseverance. Houston prides
himself in the fact that if he isn’t holding a beer, he’s texting or
messaging on the phone, “drinking or networking,” and has been
known to do both at the same time.
Years of networking and messaging for the band has resulted in in
a growing fan base both online and in the flesh.
“One thing I got to say about Ron is that he has a big heart,” said
Dieckmann. “He will write back to anyone who contacts him.”
Ron has been known to go on line and thank each person
individually for their following. “I want them to know that we’re just
like they are,” he said. “We want to party and we wanna provide the
music.”
Their fan base is a large demographic. While they’ll play Waylon or
Willie, which brings out the older crowd, they’ll also play Hank 3 for
the younger country fans or any other cover that fits the band. “We
even play a Blake Shelton cover and I don’t like him,” said Houston.
“I don’t like “The Voice”, “American Idol”, or any of that,” he
continues, “because they take away from the band aspect and make it
all about the singer and the choreography and the dancers and there’s
no band. However, we do cover a Blake Shelton song called ‘Kiss My
Country Ass.’ Gavin came up with that one. When I heard it, I said
we gotta do that.”
Ron’s influences stem back to heavy metal rock n’ roll. Every now
and then you might hear a little GG Allen influence or a Black Flag
song turned into a country song. His parents were country fans and
his dad even sang in a country band called Sam Houston and the
Country Rebels.
“They used to call him Singing Sam.’’ said Ron. “Buck Owens
recorded a song called “Sam’s Place” that was written about my dad,”
he said.
Ron didn’t actually get into country until he was older when his
brother-in-law got him to listen to Johnny Cash.
“My dad used to tell me, ‘You can play country ’til your dead,’ said
Ron, “because your alway gonna have fans that like country and…
spandex ain’t gonna work after you’re fifty years old. No one knows
how the Rolling Stones do it.”
I asked Ron to describe the difference between pop country and
outlaw country. Brad Paisley and Waylon Jennings was the answer.
“Pop country is a rock show that Garth Brooks started,” said
Houston.
For the Sickstring Outlaws, pop country is a rock show with a
Southern vocalist.
“Keith Urban, I don’t even call that country - that’s just pop rock to
me,” said Ron.
Many of the lyrics in the song that they sing make light of drug
and alcohol use. The song “I Like Merle Haggard (and I like to get
stoned),” “One More Round” and so on. “I don’t think it’s the answer
to all problems,” said Ron, “but I do it.”
“We have a new song called “Cocaine, Cigarettes and Lone Star Beer”
written by a friend of ours and nobody wanted to touch it. We said
‘We’ll touch it… with both hands.’”
We put outlaw into Outlaws,” said Drew.
“I don’t see nothin’ wrong with smoking pot,” said Houston. “I’ve
written some of my best songs on pot. I’ve done cocaine. I not saying
you should do it, but I’m not saying you shouldn’t.”
Constant gigging and being in the wrong place at the right time has
also landed them their newest CD deal. They credit local prod