Part 3 with Ginny White Peacock and Michael Peacock

I love stories of the Spoke. Here's some more you may not be aware of. Let's continue our visit with Ginny and Michael.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Bob Pickett. Weare on our way to the legendary Broken
Spoken. Come on, let's getout the truck and head inside the damn
you're proud of it. Come on, let's go and side. Get ready

(00:22):
for another tale from the Broken Spoke. Now, welcome back to Broken Spoke
On Bob Pickett. Let's continue ourconversation with Jenny White, Peacock and Michael
Peacock about the Broken Spoken. Sharesome more tales of the late great James
White. Hey, let's talk aboutwhat happened the other night. It was
at the Americana Music Aripolitan. Whathappened the other night? It was so

(00:44):
cool. They had a big awardshow there at the Moody deal at a
Clive, a Clive at the Moodyand uh and they uh, they paid
tribute to two people that had justpassed. I led the tribute to Charlie
Robinson who passed in September, andthen Day Watson and Alvin Crow let a
tribute to mister White, and they'all came out and the wheel came out,

(01:06):
right wheel. So listen, wehave a little yeah, we have
a little backstory. And Mike cantell you more. But Dale was like
they had They were like, hey, we think we want the wheel,
so we're gonna do like you know, so it looks like it broke and
spoke, and everybody would be surprisedthat we had the wheel up there.
And so Mike was like, that'sI told him. I said, that's

(01:27):
fine. They could take it everywhatever. Well, we have two wheels
up here. One of them issmaller that we use all the time.
The other one is really large.My dad had got it, but he
never used it because it was toobig. And that was actually the wheel
though that went to the Country MusicHall of Fame and it was on in
the exhibit, so it's more fame. It's pallowed. Yes. So anyway,

(01:53):
there's two up here. Mike showedthem the correct one. But when
Heidi came out, that's cow girlHeidi, the wheel roller my dad named
her. She had it was upto her chin. It was the ginormous
wagon whe ginormous. It was notthe small one. And I thought,
oh lord, poor Heidi. Andthen I was kidding around on social I

(02:15):
was like, well, at leastwe had a professional doing it. Those
wheels are actually very hard to roll. They're slick and like like heavy and
they're heavy, yes, very heavy. I don't know how much that big
one weighed, but that's pretty coolthough. But I got on Saturday night
after Dale played. I mean,so, Dale came up to me and

(02:38):
he goes down it. He goes, we've got to get that wagon wheel.
I forgot all about it. Sonext minute Dale was like, oh,
well, I'm in my truck andhe goes outside and Swayin's took his
truck and he's like, oh,so are we going to get the waing
wheel? So the drama said,well, don't worry, I'll get it
in the van somewhere and Dale waslike, okay, well you're just so

(03:00):
no no. So that was thelast thing we knew about it. And
I talked to Jenny and she's didthey get the wagon wheel and I said
yeah, the Dale said he sawit out, so I guess they picked
the first. It got the wrongone. It was, it was right.
It was way back there by thestage, I believe, the big
one. Usually they didn't get theone and the weather guy rolls, you

(03:20):
know when he comes out tea,so I guess they took. But we
were laughing and I did not knowHeidi was going to be there. So
that just made my heart like seeingbecause I was like, my dad would
have absolutely loved it and kidded herso bad about doing it because he made
her roll the wheel at the PerformingArts Center. The Big Bass was like,

(03:47):
I will only do it for you, James, you know, like
I'm only doing it because I meanthat's a big deal, like in front
of all those people. So whenI saw her, I thought, oh
my god, that's like a littlebit of James White and Dale Watson where
he got her down there to rollthat wheel. And you know, my
dad has a group of friends thatare, like I said, they're Ride

(04:11):
or Die James White fan Club.I mean they do anything for us.
And the spoke it's Alvin Crowe,Don Green, Jeff Edens, Heidi Heinen
and Stephen Crowe. All of thoseare like you know, along with the
Bobby Dan and all of those andWinker. But those guys, they were
all down there at the thing andthey were backstage and we were up in

(04:35):
the mezzanine. We were backstage.We got there late. A Bobby Dan
about that she was too busy.No no, no, no no,
no, he was gidding it washim. Well, and I gave Don
one of our backstage actually I gavehim mine green Yeah, and he goes,
well, this is yours. AndI said, are they really you

(04:57):
think they're gonna kick me out?Don? Yeah, I'm fixing a saying
take my past. You know,that's another name that we need to get
on the show. We need tohave Don. Uh, you really do,
because he's really so funny and heknows a lot of stories that I
don't remember, guess from the seventiesand stuff, and he is so hilarious
when he talks. He's yeah,he's such a great nice person. Just

(05:20):
to really, you know, mydad, all of his close friends are
those kind of people he does nothave, Like he never had some big
stars his best friend. He hadthe regular old folks that came out here,
you know that played, you know, did the nine to five jobs
or what. Those are his friends, you know, but all good men,

(05:40):
all good men. But you knowwhat I mean though, it was
he never was like, didn't haveto be seen with a group of big
stars like he He liked real youknow, these real people that come in
here and and they're just customers forso long that they become friends. You
know, I want to share astory with you. You all probably don't
know about, but just before Christmas, there was a girl who wanted to

(06:04):
do a thing for Uto. Itwas like, you know, just that
she had a journalism course. Shewanted to do a thing about the Broughton
Spot. And it was a sadI think a Saturday afternoon. We were
in a film in it and Iknow your dad probably would have loved this
as well. But this lady camein and she was walking around, she

(06:24):
was just looking at all the exhibitsand she had another guy with her and
I just went over to her andsaid, can help you And she was
like, oh yeah, she said, I'm General Patton's great granddaughter. And
so she found out I was fromEngland and she started telling me all these
stories. But we've like shared alot of stories since she came in about

(06:49):
two weeks ago. She's become agreat friend of mine and General Patton's granddaughter,
yes, and she was so shefound out that I was from Aland.
And now this is I don't knowif I could was it the accent
they gave it up? What wasit? Now? I don't know if
I can officially share this story orit's actually out there in the news.

(07:11):
But she was telling me about thepreparations for D Day and the landings for
D Day, and they smuggled herGeneral Parton over to England for the D
Day preparations because he was part ofthe under and first airborne going into D
Day from the Normandy landings and everything. And she was telling me that General

(07:35):
Patton was stationed in this little housenewbody knew about, and all he had
with him was a little batman likefootman guy that looked after him while he
was there, and he disappeared andthey couldn't find him, and they were
like, where's he gone? Likethere was this big panic that he disappeared
and nobody knew where he was.And it turned the backstory if this was

(07:58):
he turned out him and the guylooking after him took a little airplane and
they decided to fly over to Franceand go over all the beaches and look
at the plans for the landing.And he went over there on officially and
didn't tell anybody. So could youimagine if he captured or anything. So
anyway, she's in charge, sheknows the guy that's in charge of the

(08:22):
hundred and first Airborne Museum in Bastonewhere the Battle of the Bulge took place,
and she invited me and Jenny andAnna to go over to France and
Belgium lived there. She's I mean, she does a lot of history stuff
over there. He's going to moveto a house in Austin and what she's

(08:45):
doing, she's doing it's I don'tknow if you're realized, but it's the
atieth anniversary of D Day this thisyear, so she's doing this. They
put a big song together and they'redoing this D Day song about there for
the under first Airborne and she's askedso Dale Watson said he would get involved

(09:05):
and sing on it. So youwant to get involved? How could it?
And you know my father in law, Brandy's dady was one hundred and
first Airborne in the sixties, buthe was a streaming eagle. Chill thing
was when she was outside the Broughtonspoke. She got me to send a
message that she recorded and she sentit to the guys in Band of Brothers
that played all those guys and theyso how many left, They're all passed

(09:28):
away, but this was the guy. These were the guys that actually filmed
the band. That's right, youtold me so. She said she's going
to bring all those guys out tothe Spoke. Make sure it's the last
Friday of the month. When theydid, they'll get in free. Yeah.
Yeah, it's the first responding.But how did she find out about

(09:48):
the Spoke? What they were in? And lives in Austin, up in
I think it's Lakeway somewhere, andshe's wants to buy her aunt's house in
US. Then, so well,she was in Austin looking at this place.
She came into the Bronx. Itlooked for the most famous, found
it, found it. She gavea Nutter Medal from the Patton Museum and

(10:15):
bustone and oh yeah, and meand Mike don't drink anymore, but she
has patent beer and champagne and it'sreal champaign because it's over from France.
It's really cool. So yeah,we've become great friends for the Bronx Spoke
and she you would not have thoughtlike this, you know, just some
lady that comes in and and that'swhen I always say, like, it

(10:39):
pays off when you're nice to peopleyou don't know who that lady is,
but he was nice to her andspoke to her, and then you find
out and it's you know, yeah, well it's you got. That's why
my dad used to always like whenI was up here, because he's like,
you got to talk to people.She goes he would talk to a
lamp post if he stood still longer. My dad the same thing. My

(11:03):
mom used to say. He talksmore than five women about my dad as
well, but he loved it.Customers are still coming to me now that
I mean people came up during theMarrow Partner Awards because you know, that's
like a lot of people from outof town and out of the country,
and they were all like, youknow, this spoke special that James White

(11:24):
stood there and he went round andhe greeted everybody when they came in,
and he after he sang on stageand he went round every table in the
downsill and shook everybody's arm and welcometo the Brokens Course, you know.
And that restaurant next door that's seenthat three times go empty. The barn
on that side is the same thing. And then people say to me,

(11:46):
like, what's the story, andI say, you know, yeah,
it's James White. You have tobe nice to your customers. You have
to welcome them in. You haveto go around and see if they have
any proper that's the up them.Nowadays, they don't get that personal services.
You walk and you get your food, you pay your bill and you
leave. You know, but misterWhitet, you know when he instilled that,

(12:09):
and y'all you've got that mic,you've got that. I was going
to say, I was like,you know that integrity, you have it.
But but when he's gone, youhave to keep that. You have
to pick up that mantle. Notlike I can just ride it out,
you know what I mean, Nordo I want to. But it's a
if you mistreat that, you know, the reputation. So you have to

(12:33):
be so you have to treat peoplelike you would like to be treated.
To talk to you guys, itcomes natural. Well. And also I
know mister White and now we're wewere talking in the kitchen one night back
then he would so often he'd payus in the kitchen always yep and uh,
particularly after a big night because theyhad that big cutting board in there,
so he would count out. He'dcount out stacks, you know,

(12:54):
two hundred stacks not to erupt youreally fast, but I'm I have a
d D. I forget what I'mgoing to say, so I always interrupt.
But sorry. But after my dad, Oh, one time when my
dad was out of town, hehad showed me because I was gonna have
to pay a band for the firsttime or whatever, so he I went
to the James White School of payingbands and the band was Chris Wall and

(13:20):
he gave me so much crap,like he was like kidding around with me,
like, oh, you gotta doit like James does it. And
he would do like the licking thethumb right, you know, like,
oh, let's see what we gothere, and he'd and but he would
count out and he would do littlepiles of twenties like hundreds, and then
he would count it all. Butyou know what, that way, all

(13:41):
the money's there. He could seeit. Dad could see it. Everybody,
you know what I mean, andyou know what you got and and
he didn't make any mistakes, souh but yeah, So anyway, I
was just laughing about the Chris Wall, like, well, did you are
you sure you know you know howto pay the bands? Well, and
a couple of things. One whatI was gonna say about mister White,

(14:01):
is he was. I mean,he imparted to me one of the greatest
lessons I've ever heard, well severaltimes he did that, but one of
the greatest lessons I've ever learned.And he just saw that. I was.
I was talking to the fans asthey were after the end of the
night, and I said, misterWhite, you know they're fans. I
enjoyed talking to him. He goes, yeah, but I he goes,
I see that. He said.You know what I've learned is if you're
nice to somebody, they'll tell fivepeople, and if you're not nice to

(14:24):
them, they'll tell fifty people.That's right. And I was like,
wow, what a great you know, I'm glad I'm paying attention. But
one of the very first times Ipicked here and when you when you when
you picked the spoke it's an eightytwenty split. The band gets eighty percent
of the door and the house getstwenty percent for you know, staff and
everything, and that's a that's agood split, like advertising, et cetera.

(14:46):
Right, right, and it's agood fair split. So anyway,
so mister White goes to pay me, and it'd have been a real good
night. The wagoneer's blessed. Weusually have great nights here. And he
pulled out just pretty good water cash, you know. But I was like,
he goes, well, see whatwe got. He goes, oh,
that's mine, and then he pullsout you know. So he would

(15:09):
he enjoyed monkey and with the withme anyway. Yeah. Yeah, he
was always like yeah, and hewould put all the money in his boot
throughout the night. Yeah, itwas grubbing out. Now four, wrap
up, Mike, And you toldthis, mister White service, but tell
the story because you know you're fromEngland and you got that accent when the
group of the big group of touristscame and it was just you and James.

(15:31):
Yeah. So when I came overfrom England, I mean, my
style of trust wasn't like the bestthing you could ever see in the world,
you know. And that White waslike, Mike, she gets you've
got to go to Cavendus and gotsome Judge Straight stuff. And I'm like,
okay, she goes, but youcan only buy what Judge Straight was

(15:52):
and I'm like, okay. SoI think she gave me either five or
six hundred dollars and I went offto Cavenders and I bought some ice jeans
and some boots and some George Straightshirts and I put them all on.
I came here one day and Isat at the front bar and there was
not a soul in the place.And James come in and he'd got one

(16:14):
of his sparkly shirts on that Ginnyhad made for him, and he was
all dressed up. I guess he'dbeen dan like a TV interview or something
somewhere, and we just got talkingat the bar about He's like, ah,
so you've got to George Straight stuff, and like he does start laughing,
and next minute, of course,front door bursts open and there's like
tourists outside and all these people arerunning in. They're taking pictures of stuff.

(16:38):
This lady comes up, like thirtypeople. They've got to be like,
yeah, thirty or forty. Youknow, it's a good crowd.
And you know, they were alllike excited and you know, bustling around.
And this little old lady comes upto James and she's like, hey,
can I get I'm not very goodaccent, so this is my She
goes, hey, can I getmy pitch? You're taken with you two

(17:00):
Texas cowboys, and James like looksat me and he grabs my knee under
the thing and he squat and hegoes Mike, he goes, don't say
a word, like like they hadjust stood everything around and all and taking
all these pictures quiet stor cowboys.He loved such a kick out of like,

(17:26):
like even for years later on,he was like when it tricked his
mind, he would like, Iremember those people that took those pictures.
Yeah, he was. He wasas he always got such a kick out
of stuff, and he always gotso much joy out of everything. I
mean, it's like when we hadlike a real every night Adale Watson the

(17:48):
derailers back in the day, andJames would all be sat at the front
bard he was all sat in thatmiddle seat and he'd be like laughing and
looking and stores everybody. It waslike the last and he saw that we're
like we've been like we look likewe've been like you know, lying,
and we were like wowing out.We're not our asses on the tours.
And I would always turn around andI say, you know, well,

(18:12):
I blame that James White for this. And he looked at me and he
goes I guess if you want builtthis place, we would have just had
our asses under Oh yeah, yougot that right. You know the way
he ended every every episode of thefirst season, it's a bob and there

(18:33):
was this time but wait, that'sthe story for another time. And that's
the way he ended all of theshows. If you have a listen to
the first season, you want tomaybe I don't know, cut some of
those into some of the you know, I wish I wish that he had
done more of stuff like that voiceovers, and because he was so talented,
like like or like acting stuff,I think he would have been amazing.

(18:57):
When the man worked twenty hours aday, but we were getting ready to
come back and do more stuff thanCOVID hit, and then his health problems
hit and we were getting ready tocome back, and that's when I thought,
Okay, it's I guess it's it'sthe end of the podcast. And
then watching you at his funeral,going wait a minute, mister White's pointing

(19:17):
me to this guy right here whohappens to be family, Thank you,
thank you well. When Jenny askedme to give his eulogy, I it's
one of the biggest honors of mywhole life, you know, of all
the people that could have been asked. And I told Brandy, I said,
boy, I got to get thisright. He did, and you
did. You got the sunshine thatday, everything just that day, January

(19:44):
twenty fourth, and it was likeseventy gorgeous, gorgeous, and those pictures
that are like there's like a sunbeam. Oh, it's amazing, right.
It was just I remember, likeyou know, one of the like about
a year before all that ridiculous,useless lockdown crap happened. Uh uh.

(20:07):
I came here and George Strait hadjust released Honky Tonk time Machine and we
had a big party here and theWagoneers were playing, and I brought one
of the gold records that George gaveme for desperately, you know, and
I wanted to give it to theWhite family, and uh and I was
talking to mister White and he said, he said, well, you want,
we'll put this on display for you. I said, no, sir,

(20:27):
I'm giving you this gold record.He goes, you can't do that,
and I said, mister White,I don't have a gold record.
If not for the broken spoke,I learned how to write songs keeping the
audience happy here and he said,well, I'll take it then, you
know. Oh he was so proudthat. I just saw some of those

(20:48):
pictures of him, like holding thatrecord, and yeah, he was very
proud and he was it was heartfeltwhen people gave and people give him,
would give him stuff like that becausehe was so nice and they knew he
would take care of it and thatreally it meant everything to him and you
wouldn't And I, as a songwriter, I would not have had that without

(21:10):
James. And what James and NettaWhite have built and what y'all are carrying
on. It's amazing. Thank y'all, Thank you very much. Now,
thank you for allowing us to comein here and do the podcast. I
got to tell you also, Ilook at the stats of the podcast.
People from outside us listening to thisall the time. Awesome. So we
want to give me hours in casethey ever come over here, the hours

(21:32):
of Broken Spoke. When can theysample the world famous Broken Spoke Chicken front.
Okay, so Tuesday through Saturday startingat four pm, got you,
that's when our kitchen opens. Weopen now, yeah, we do not
open during the day, So anytimeafter four and if they want to get
Broken Spoke merch, they will sellit to you here at the Broken Spoke.

(21:53):
You got to get here the andthey can come here Tuesday through Saturday
at nine o'clock and hear the besthonky talk music on the face of the
earth. And the last Friday ofevery month they can hear the world famous
wagoneers and all first responders get infree, all of them. But you
got to talk to Mike, youtalk to listen. That's this Friday.

(22:15):
That's just Friday day after tomorrow.And we're gonna bring Vonn in as well.
My son Van will always And Ijust want to say something before we
go. Since I've been doing allthis stuff that James used to do and
running the bron Spoke, Jenny andDale Watson and Monty Warden, I've all

(22:37):
paid me some compliments that you know. Dale said to me, Goes,
I could see the spirit of JamesWhite inside you, and I think that's
probably the best compliment anybody can evergift to. Jenny said to me,
She said, my dad would havebeen so proud for what you've done for
the Broker Spoke. And every timeand Monthy got together Brandy and everybody else.

(23:00):
I will say the same thing.And I just want to say thank
you to everybody. Well, thankyou. Yes, Well, I tell
you know, he didn't do anyof these jobs before, uh, before
my dad passed away. He'd neverdone any of the things that I had.
Because he's doing all the things Iused to do, plus all the

(23:22):
stuff my dad used to do,and so he is busy all the time.
You'll have no idea. He's uphere at least twelve hours a day
and he doesn't have to do likehe's my husband. But I mean it's
not his family, but it is, you know what I mean. But
it's hard to find somebody that willlove something like you love it like that.

(23:48):
I mean, I grew up here. That's why I love it.
I don't know anything, and you'reyou're a part of the Broken Spoke history.
He's so good. I mean he'sfrom England, but he's more Texan
than a lot of Texans. Heloves this, he loves our culture,
he loves the Broken Spoke and heloves this music. So yeah, we're

(24:11):
very blessed. I just thought itwas a Southman check accent. I have
no idea. Yeah, yeah,it's very East East Texas. Well,
I will say this when we pullup with Van and in our oldest boy
Van, he's he's like the mascotof the Broken Spoke. He's a thirty
four year old man with Down syndrome. So the way he talks, he
talks if you've ever been around peoplewith downs, very much like that.

(24:32):
And when we pull up and youknow, coming the back for a Wagoneer
show, he'll first thing, firstthing without fail. Oh, let's go
see mister Peacock every time. Let'sgo see you love that. I love
that, And that's not on accident. You know, it's amazing. Come

(24:52):
after the Broken Spoke visit with misterPeacock, you call him Mike. You're
gonna fall in love with him.You go fall in love with place.
Oh yeah, I've never met I'venever met anybody that's just been the Spoke
one time. Yeah, everybody comesback, Yeah, yeah, come back
your family. More tales coming up. Where As mister Why would say it's
a tale for another time, whata great show. Tales from the Broken

(25:17):
Spoke is recorded live at The BrokenSpoke in Austin, Texas, hosted by
Country Radio Hall of fame broadcaster BogPickett and Monty Warden, recorded, mixed
down and produced by Mike rivera