Well Loved by his fellow Musicians > JACK TUCKER.

LJ Eiffert · Post by **LJ Eiffert** » 9 Nov 2008 10:46 pm

Jack Tucker was well known as a Bandleader in the L.A. area. Jack Tucker is one of the pioneers of Country Music on the West Coast.He was well loved by his fellow Musicians for his unending efforts in helping. Thanks for the years of Music Mr.Jack Tucker.RIP: Leo J.Eiffert,Jr.

Jim Bob Sedgwick · Post by **Jim Bob Sedgwick** » 10 Nov 2008 8:11 pm

Not to mention the fact that he FIRED every musician who ever worked for him. And that's all I have to say!!!!

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 10 Nov 2008 8:48 pm

He fired me before I ever PLAYED for him!!! LOL!!!

I was in-between gigs from the Ronstadt band in 1969, and I went down to the Local 47 bldg. on Vine St. and Beverly and looked on the gig board. Jack had an ad up there for a steel player so I called. Jack told me to show up at a club somewheres in South East LA called The Frontier.

Bear in mind, it was mid-1969 and I had just come off the Stone Poneys, and a rock band with Al Anderson in Connecticut. I was pretty "hippied-out" as they say.

Long hair, bell bottoms, etc.

I went down to the gig; Jack and the bass player met me at the bar and were in sorta cheesy polyester uniforms and hairsprayed pompadours. I was definitely the "marshmallow in the raisin box," as we say here in TX.

Anyway, I hadn't gotten my gear out of the car when Jack met me out in the parking lot and said his old steel player had just showed up.

I was actually naive enough to believe him until I got about a mile from Hollywood.

LJ Eiffert · Post by **LJ Eiffert** » 10 Nov 2008 10:18 pm

Well Jim Bob,he gave everybody one shot at it in the music business. I don't know how I got 7 years out of it at the Pioneer Room in Norwalk,California with him. But I did. Leo

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 11 Nov 2008 3:12 am

Don't sound like he was well-loved.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 11 Nov 2008 4:38 am

Leo, you're correct... it was the Pioneer Room, not the Frontier. Like I've said before, at times the memory grows dim over the decades.

Billy Tonnesen · Post by **Billy Tonnesen** » 11 Nov 2008 5:01 pm

Worked quite a bit with Jack in the 60's at the Pioneer Room, The Round House, and Harmony Park Ballroom on Saturday nights in Anaheim. Jack never seemed to know just what he wanted in a band and was always changing the mix. You usually fared O.K. with Jack unless you crossed with one of the customers and then you were toast. Jack had a knack of remembering the customers names, what they did for a living and who their relatives were. As soon as they came in the front door (in the clubs) he would announce them over the P.A. This created his following. I first met Jack and his Brother Herb in the early 50's when playing with Ole Rasmussen at McDonald's Ballroom in Compton, Compton, Ca. They had arrived from Oklahoma in their Cowboy Hats, Boots, and fringe jackets. I think possibly Jack thought they could become singing cowboys in the Saturday matinee westerns, but those days were already starting to be long gone. However, back to playing for Jack, he always had gigs that paid Union Scale (that was a joke} usually six nights a week. Even with some of Jack's ways you still liked him. Getting fired by Jack put you in club of special musicians, there were many of us.

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 12 Nov 2008 3:44 am

I did a stint with Jack in the sixties at the Pioneer Room on lead guitar. I think the steel player was Zed Dixon?...he played a Fender 400 and sang as well. Jack let me go when Lou Martin wanted to come back as Lou was kinda Jack's "right hand man" for a good while. Lou sent me to the gig he'd left which was cool.....

Second to what Billy T. says about Jack's knowing who the customers were. Someone would come through the front door and he'd call out their names over the mike and seemed to know everyone's anniversary and birthday. At break time when everyone else in the band would be sitting down or in back smoking and drinking a little, ol' Jack would be going from table to table and doing his club "politics"... He wasn't the greatest singer in the world and played rhythm or bass even worse but you'd have to give the man credit, he could draw a crowd as well as any of 'em.........JH in Va.

LJ Eiffert · Post by **LJ Eiffert** » 12 Nov 2008 5:18 pm

So Jerry,Billy,how many others of you was in local 47 picking with Jack Tucker at The pioneer Room. It's very funny when you look into it with the union. I did 7 years and no paper work. Yet I was a member. Who name did you work under. Leo J.Eiffert,Jr.

Jim Bob Sedgwick · Post by **Jim Bob Sedgwick** » 12 Nov 2008 6:23 pm

I remember one time Johnny Davis (well known super picker in SC) was playing steel for Jack. Jack told Johnny he didn't like what he was playing on a particular song. Johnny asked him " Jack what do you want." Jack said " I don't know, but I don't like what you are doing." Johnny told him, well sit down here and show me what you want, and I'll try to lay it down for you. Jack FIRED him. LOL

LJ Eiffert · Post by **LJ Eiffert** » 13 Nov 2008 7:13 am

Now you know why so many Sidemen are bandleaders.LJ

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 13 Nov 2008 8:07 am

Ya know, this conversation got me thinking about the bandleaders I worked with back in the relatively short time I was playing clubs there, basically 1968 through mid-72.

My two favorites were Jimmy Lawton and Garland Frady. Garland was a redneck with the heart of a hipster, a great singer and songwriter, and a good soul. I moved to TX and he to TN and then back to GA; but we kept up with each other until Garland's passing a few years ago. Though two people could not have come from backgrounds farther apart, we were close pals.

Here's shot from the 1972 Country Music Show put on at MacArthur Park by Local 47. I had just moved to TX and was back in LA for a few days when Garland called to have me do the show with him. Archie Francis is on drums, it looks like Norm Kass on lead guitar, and I can't identify or remember the other players. Also on that show was Jimmy Lawton, and I played with him also. He had Thumbs Carlisle on lead guitar, and that was the only gig I got to play with Thumbs.

Jimmy Lawton is a true gentleman who wanted his band to be professional and have fun at the same time. With Jimmy, I ultimately dug wearing the same type cheesey uniforms I mentioned Jack Tucker wearing!

Jimmy moved to Europe a couple years after I moved to TX, and he's still performing over there, has a website, et al. We still stay in touch a few times each year when he comes to see family in Arkansas. A good friend.

Jimmy did *fire* me once, and for good reason, but here's how he did it. He found me another gig before letting me go.

Here's me and Monte Paul at the Holiday II in good ol' El Monte, with Jimmy Lawton and the Lawmen, 1971. The Fender bass is being held off-camera by Richard Trees. I haven't seen RT in years, I think he's in Nashville.

LJ Eiffert · Post by **LJ Eiffert** » 14 Nov 2008 6:45 am

Hey Herb,That looks like Rod Culpepper on Bass Guitar. Monte Paul still looks like that picture. Them was the good ole days. Leo!

Cleat Wooley · Post by **Cleat Wooley** » 14 Nov 2008 7:41 am

Before my time ?????

LJ Eiffert · Post by **LJ Eiffert** » 14 Nov 2008 12:12 pm

No Cleat,not before your time,just a different state! Leo

Rusty Reese · Post by **Rusty Reese** » 4 Aug 2013 10:43 pm

I played a little bit with Jack Tucker in the late 70's. I was 19 and I showed up at after hours at the Imperial Inn. Lou Martin befiended me and really helped me learn to play bass. Then I thought I wanted to learn to play steel. At that time, Zed Dixon was only playing weekends, so I asked if I could sit in weeknights for free and they let me. I remember sometimes I would be playing away and Lou would walk over and gently nudge my left hand a little to the left if I was sharp

But RE: Jack - This might make you laugh... at the time Waylon had a hit song "I don't think Hank did it this way". One night at After Hours I sang that song but I changed the lyric to "somebody told me when I came to Norwalk, son you finally got it made. Old Jack made here, were all sure that you will, but I don't think Jack did it this way..." Lou Martin said "Don't let Jack hear you sing that".

Besides sitting in on steel, my dad was promoting some country music shows at that time and on a few those he hired Jack's band on I got to play bass at those shows so that Jack could just play rythym guitar.

I liked Jack, but it was his band, especially Lou, that really befriended me and actually my sister ended up marrying Zed Dixons son. Later Zed and I played over at the starlight ballroom with Jimmy Wooley but Jimmy fired me because I wouldn't play the bass the way he wanted it.

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 5 Aug 2013 8:12 am

Hey Rusty, wasn't that the "Skylite" in Compton? I played steel there for awhile with Jimmy Wooley myself. He was a pretty good guitar player and singer as I recall. He had those big ol' buck teeth. I asked him once about them (being nosy) and why he didn't get 'em fixed and he said he always thought it might mess up his singing...... I liked the Skylite as it was a big old honky tonk for sure........JH in Va.