Jones was Dylan's different drummer.....
He plays Peter Bilker on Home
Improvement. He won parts in Sling
Blade, Tin Cup and Total Recall. And
he became a household face as the
burly biker in a long-running Breath
Savers commercial.
But Mickey Jones' most valued role is
one that brought boos and catcalls.
The musician-turned-actor was Bob
Dylan's drummer during the historic and
controversial 1966 tour, when Dylan
brought his newly electrified sound to
often-hostile folk fans. That volatile era
is resurrected by this week's official
release of a long-treasured bootleg,
Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall"
Concert.
"We did get booed off the stage in so many places,"
Jones, 57, says from his home in Simi Valley, Calif. "Every night, we'd
go back to the hotel and listen to the tape of the concert. When the
stomping and boos started, we laughed it off. "People said, 'Didn't it
hurt your feelings?' No. We knew we were making good music. The audience
just didn't get it."
Jones was 24 when he and the Hawks backed Dylan on May
17, 1966, in Manchester, England, the night immortalized on Live 1966.
He didn't hear a fan yelling "Judas!" until the post-show replay.
"It didn't stand out. The jeers and foot-stomping,
people shouting 'Traitor!' and 'Sell-out!' — it was so commonplace. But
when I look back, I'm thrilled to have been a part of musical history.
The music was tight and right on target. Bob's singing style was so
different, and his phrasing was perfect. There was nothing subpar about
those shows."
Jones owns a tape from their Liverpool show but had
never heard the Manchester bootleg until last year, when invited to
speak at a Dylan convention in the U.K. Billed as a "legend and enigma,"
Jones was stunned to find that fans there "knew more about me than I can
remember."
The music industry frowns on bootleggers because they
deprive it of royalties and artistic control, but Jones says the
bootleggers "kept that concert alive and are responsible for hounding
Columbia into finally making it public."
The native Texan started his career with Trini Lopez,
then played with Johnny Rivers. In early 1965, Dylan watched a Rivers
show at Los Angeles' Whisky A Go Go and sent a waitress to fetch Jones
during a break.
"You're the best rock drummer I've ever heard," Dylan
told Jones. The drummer was playing in Detroit months later when Albert
Grossman, Dylan's manager, left frantic messages at his hotel urging
Jones to join Dylan's new electric band.
"When Bob called, I had a speech ready to say no,"
Jones recalls. "I was getting $500 a week and all expenses paid with
Johnny Rivers. That was serious dough. But Bob offered me $750 a week,
and it took my breath away."
He accepted until Dylan mentioned that Jones would have
to pay for hotels and meals. Jones declined. Dylan's counter-offer: He'd
cover travel and lodging but not food.
"I said OK," Jones says. "Bob tells me, 'Keep this
quiet because the other guys are paying their bills.' I got the best
deal."
The Hawks were Robbie Robertson on guitar, Rick Danko
on bass, Garth Hudson on organ and Richard Manuel on piano. Jones was
their fourth drummer. Weary of the road, original member Levon Helm had
returned to Arkansas and was replaced by Bobby Gregg and Sandy
Konikoff before Jones stepped in.
"I've got a great song for you," Dylan told Redding as
he picked up a guitar and began singing Just Like a Woman.
"I'd record that in a minute," Redding replied
enthusiastically. The soul legend was killed in a plane crash before he
had the chance, but he warmly recalls the encounter with Dylan in the
liner notes of a 1968 live album recorded at the Whisky.
The tour launched April 9 in Honolulu. Jones says, "We
kicked a - -." It ended on May 26-27 with two legendary shows at
London's Royal Albert Hall, attended by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones
and Prince Charles.
Jones decided not to follow Dylan and the Hawks to
Woodstock, N.Y. "I knew what would happen," he says. "Every day, it
would be, 'Let's get loaded.' I was never into drugs and alcohol. It's a
crutch I didn't need."
So Jones headed to Hollywood and found work as a movie
extra. He agreed to rejoin Dylan in August to rehearse for upcoming
shows at Shea Stadium and in Moscow.
"But then Bob called me from the hospital," Jones says.
"He had flipped his motorcycle and broken his neck. He was in traction
and couldn't move. Everything was canceled."
Except Jones' paychecks. Dylan kept him on salary for
another year. "I had a two-year deal, and Bob never tried to renege,"
Jones says. "He's a man of his word."
Jones teamed with Kenny Rogers & the First Edition
until 1976, then turned his sights on Hollywood, playing mostly "bikers,
killers and bad guys." Seven years ago, he joined Home Improvement.
He occasionally bumps into Dylan; they sat together at
a recent kick-boxing match.
He seldom drums but is thrilled about Live 1966's
release. "It validates what we did," he says. "And I'm proud that my
name's on it."
The six jelled during all-night rehearsals at
Columbia's Hollywood studio. One night during a break, Jones took Dylan
to the Whisky to see Otis Redding's midnight show and introduced the two
singers afterward in a dressing room.