That's How I Remember It
Chris McCaaIt was in the spring of 1983 when I first met Rob Mahoney, aka Rob Noxious. I had driven the 90 miles from Shreveport to Ruston, Louisiana to do a college radio interview on KLPI-FM to promote an appearance by The Red Hots at Louisiana Tech University . A deejay by the name of Rob Noxious was to interview us. Rob was a tall, lanky kid who, as it turned out, possessed the two essential tools for radio - a great voice and a quick wit. He asked all kinds of crazy questions about rival bands and bands my guy's used to belong to. It was a great interview because Rob knew so much about the music scene. We really stirred it up that day and had a great time and that night the club was packed with listeners. 
Rob and I stayed in touch over the years and after he moved to Austin, I would come to town and be playing some shit-stain dive on sixth street or some UT frat house with my band, The Insatiables, and he would pop up with some new gig he was doing or a tape of some new project he was working on. Once he sent me a postcard from the road of Jesus driving a convertible Cadillac through the desert. I really liked that picture. I kept it for a long time. One day my friend and mentor, Michael E. Johnson, called. Michael told me of a falling out with his keyboard player, Stan, in the Killer Bees and he wanted to know if I was interested in the gig. Michael and I worked on A-Train's first album together. His tracks really made my cuts come alive, especially on Puerto Rican Hotel, which got air play all over the south largely, I think, because of his performance. I explained to Michael that day over the phone that I had just won the MTV Basement Tapes Award and the video was in lite rotation. Now was not the right time for me to give up pork and do the bubble. I was scheduled to be in Austin that weekend and I told Michael that if he would come see me play I would introduce him to someone down there who I thought might be able to cut the gig. Well that weekend, as scheduled, both Rob and Michael show up at my gig. Like a big shot, I open a tab for them on my account. By the end of the night, they were both drunker than Eddie Collins and I was eighty bucks lighter. I knew Katz' never kloses, so I made them take me for coffee and blueberry cream cheese pie (see photo). Afterwards we sat in the van and jammed Michael Johnson songs a capella until four in the morning. Rob went on to tour Europe with the Killer Bees. I went back to the piney woods and continued to play the crawfish circuit. I never did get to work with Michael again. His life was cut short by kidney disease. Michael was a great musician. He taught me a lot about music and life. The next thing I hear Rob has designed and built a house nearly by himself. Then he's hosting What's The Cover, a television show in Austin about music, mucking it up with Willie and the boys. Now, he's creating web sites, metal sculptures, and beautiful paintings in acrylics on canvas. Whatever he does, Rob attacks it with enthusiasm. You will see that when you go online to visit his website at www.RioGUMBO. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for one of a kind art by a one of a kind artist. that's how I remember it, Ken SchafferI first became aware of Rob Mahoney from watching his show, What's The Cover, on the original Austin Music Network TV station. On the night that my band, Turtle Creek, was to perform on the show I was sure I knew where the studio was. I thought I was sure because I had co-hosted a show on the station some time back. It was a show similar in nature to Rob's show, hosted by Jenn Garrison. Jenn wasn't in the studio for this particular show, instead I was co-hosting with the station director. I thought it went well and at the end I got to close the show with one of my songs. So when we arrived for What's The Cover at the West Second Street location where the studio had been before, we realized that AMN was not there anymore. We were told they had moved to a new studio on East Seventh Street in downtown Austin! We ran back to our cars and barely made it to the studio on time - no sound check time - we got in tune and boom we were on the air. Unfortunately we never got another opportunity, but it was a real pleasure to be in the AMN studio and on Rob's show. What have I been doing since then? In December, 2005 after 35 years together I resigned from Turtle Creek and, I thought, retired from live performing. That is until my good friends David Hoffpauer and Connie Gatling asked me to join their duo and make a trio, with me on bass guitar. They have two CDs out and are great friends and musicians. As a matter of fact, they were a part of Ken Schaffer's Safety In Numbers Showcase in the past and David actually played on the Continued success to Rob and his endeavors. All my best. that's how I remember it,Ken Your Story HereDid you enjoy the story? Others might enjoy hearing your version of the events or your own tale of days gone by. You know who you are. Get to writing. Send your stories to RioGUMBO and help get our history online. 
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