Everybody's Daddy: A Tribute to Col. Bruce Hampton 1947-2017
“If the girls come in and sing the lyrics, the band is going to last. And if the band grooves and plays a heartbeat it is going to last.”
It's with deep sadness to learn upon the passing of Col. Bruce Hampton yesterday during his 70th birthday show at the Fox Theatre, Atlanta. Speechless is the only thing that comes to mind to lose such a talented, profound, eclectic soul that shaped so many others. We pay tribute to the Col. with some snippets of fan memories over the years shared during Couch Tour. RIP Col. Bruce, we are glad you and Mikey get to jam on once again.
“The Colonel is a clairvoyant. He's also a sober guy who's naturally and wonderfully weird (and apparently always has been). We were having dinner one night this summer with my brother and he told me about how he'd fantasized forever about having a game show. On the game show, the guests would only be small children and the host would only ask serious questions to them and you could see the kids reactions-- like asking a 2 year-old if the debt ceiling debacle was a prudent thing for Congress to be doing.” A. Chiles
“Not long after I was introduced to Panic sometime in late 1990 someone turned me onto ARU Live on Planet Earth. After much listening and getting hooked on Panic someone told that JB was introducing ARU at the beginning. I immediately flipped out and said "holy shit, that's JB's dad? That's awesome!" Several years later I met Col. Bruce at a Codetalker show in the "green room" (on a couch in a tent outside). I told him what I once believed and he laughed so hard he invited me as his guest to the next show.” G. Miller
“I was walking backstage at the 20th anniversary of Xmas Jam a few years ago and went to rest the dogs for a spell. As is the case normally, Bruce was holding court on some couches and I eased myself into an open spot to listen and observe. As the crowd thinned a bit, Bruce looks at me quizzically and says I look familiar. He then asks if I’m related to Sally Kellogg. “She's my mom's sister” I respond. I knew that my aunt knew Bruce back in the 80's as he and her longtime boyfriend, pretty much my uncle, used to run around together. He chuckled heartily with the onslaught of some raucous memories and proceeded to tell me about the boots I was wearing that he went and bought at a shoe store in Atlanta with my "uncle." And he was right. The snakeskin boots most certainly were a gift from this fella. Shock only covers part of my reaction.” J. Stack
“When I worked with him at Smith's olde bar, I said I'm from Oklahoma. He said nobody is from Oklahoma. Pegged me for a Leo on the spot. Everybody's daddy.” J. McKinney
“He's the king of guessing not just people's birth signs, but he can get birth days, usually. I went to see him play the night I started massage school. I needed to give three massages a week while in school, he was a willing volunteer for those 6 months. I ended up on his guest list when he played weekly at the Brandy House in Atlanta, so I could massage his arms during and after the sets.” S. Gates
“I saw a Col show at Alley Katz in Richmond around 02 I think where he announced during the show that it was his birthday and he was playing the next song as a present for himself. The band noodled the happy birthday song as the crowd went wild and then the band launched into some song I can't even remember. I've talked to the Col a bunch of times over the years and after the show told him I didn't know it was his birthday. He looked at me sideways and then this smirk formed on his face and he said "awww man its not my birthday, that's just an old trick to get the crowd hyped up, you know like telling the crowd at a wrestling match that they're all dirty rednecks just to get them riled up & into it. We then talked about pro wrestling for about 30 minutes. He told me I had an impressive level of knowledge of wrestling.” C. Davis
*Photo of Col. Bruce: Copyright Dave Vann
