Another tall tale from JamesJM

Only this isn't really 'tall'...it's true. Wrote about this on this board some time back. In 1978 they made a "made for TV movie" called "Standing Tall". They used my cousins ranch near Weed, Ca. for some of the scenes... plus we provided the cattle for the movie... plus - they hired our band to entertain the movie crew during breaks in filming.

In that movie were Robert Forster, Will Sampson, L.Q. Jones, Buck Taylor, Chuck Conners, Linda Evans, several others. We spent about 3 days with them, and nights. I heard some great stories... especially from Buck Taylor. It was heaven, for me, having been brought up on old western movies and TV shows.

The 3 day experience ended at a bar called "The Shamrock Inn"... between Yreka and Weed. I wrote about that as well.... the evening ended in a total brawl, a real one. We broke every mirror, every bottle, every chair, pretty much everything in the Inn. Some actors involved, ALL the stunt men and women, many locals. I'm not sure any 'filmed' western bar brawl was more devastating that ours. I don't remember, don't think I ever knew, exactly why the fight got so out of hand but I do know how it started:

Our rhythm guitar player, still playing with him today, had/has a short temper. He had hired a 'local' to join our band playing the fiddle. He wasn't any good... terrible in fact. Gary, (my cousin the rhythm guitar player), decided to fire him on the spot... doing so by a round-house right knocking him off the stage. It was on.

My memory of the brawl is sketchy, at best. All I remember clearly is waking up under a table, my head on some guys leg, and thinking a bomb must have hit the Inn.