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‘I made him play guitar for eight hours each day,’ Newcombe recalls of the criminally shy Hayes, who toured with BJM in the mid to late ’90s. ‘Every day, I made him go to black neighborhoods and play country music on a corner while people walked past. It was just to get him used to singing and playing–whether people liked it or hated it–and just standing there and saying, “This is what I do. If you like it, fine. If you don’t, go home and watch TV.”’
Of his relationship with the other musicians who’ve passed through BJM, he says, ‘When you’re in my band, you’re like a sharecropper until I set you free–or you run for your life.’
” —Robery Cherry, No Ropes Attached, c.2001 (via checkthemeaning)