Interview with John Timmons, July 20th, 2015

Carrie Neumayer: So, when and where were you born?

John Timmons: I was born in Evansville, Indiana in 1955. Spent a few years of my childhood there. We moved to Scottsdale, Arizona in the late 1950s, and I spent the late 50s through 1969 in Scottsdale, Arizona. And then my family moved back to Evansville, Indiana where I stayed for – let’s see, if we moved back in 69, I was there until 1976 – in 1976 I moved to Louisville, Kentucky to work in a record store on Bardstown Road called Karma. It was “karma” that I ended up here in Louisville. I had never been to Louisville before, and Louisville felt like home the first day I was here. So, I’ve been here ever since. Something about the city, the culture, 1:00Bardstown Road – which is where I first worked, my first experience here in Louisville – at that time in my life it just felt right, it felt like home, it still does. But it was kind of amazing to come here for a job having never been here before, and to have it feel so comfortable and so right, right off the bat.

CN: So, you didn’t go to high school here, I guess?

JT: I did not [laughter]. The typical Louisville question is “Where did you go to high school?” No, I went to Harrison High School in Evansville.

CN: When you first moved to Louisville, where did you live?

JT: I lived in the Highlands. My first apartment was on Cherokee Road. So, a basement apartment with no windows, but it was furnished.

CN: What was the neighborhood like back then?

JT: It was not unlike it is right now, it’s just a lot of the older homes were divided up into smaller apartments. A lot of them have been restored to 2:00single-family homes now. But it was a great mix of people, which it still is. That’s another thing that I found really interesting about Louisville, I’d just never been in such – what felt like to me – an eclectic mix of folks. If you’ve ever been to Evansville, Indiana, you might know what I’m talking about. It’s just kind of boring and not all that interesting. And I just found Louisville, especially the music scene, and I moved here to work in a record store so obviously music is important to me, but just the live music scene I found that very appealing here.

CN: So that was in the 70s?

JT: That was 76 when I moved here.

CN: So, who were some of the bands that you saw when you first moved here?

JT: I never saw Tim Krekel’s band, Dusty, but I heard about them a lot. There was a lot of bluegrass music going on on Bardstown Road, and a lot of singer-songwriter folk artists. One of the first people I saw, music-wise, 3:00was a guy that’s still playing to this day, Mickey Clark. I remember seeing Sam Bush, the early version of New Grass Revival.

CN: What were they like?

JT: They were like, well, I was not familiar with “bluegrass music,” but they were not your traditional bluegrass. They were taking it in a little bit of a different direction. More progressive, they weren’t sticking with traditional bluegrass, they were kind of expanding the boundaries. Newgrass is what they were talking about, they were taking it in a new direction. I found that very interesting. There were some rock bands that, honestly, I can’t remember the names of them. Just the whole music scene on Bardstown Road. Pretty much my first two years here I spent all of my time in the Highlands and on Bardstown Road. I never had much time to explore the city. There 4:00was a great– a couple of great clubs downtown. I think the great Midwestern was one of those clubs. I lot of the national acts were coming through. I was busy managing a record store, managing Karma, and was also the buyer, so I was there pretty much all day, every day. So, there wasn’t a chance for me to get out and see a lot of the artists I wanted to see.

CN: What sort of national acts would come through?

JT: Well, and a lot of bands from overseas. I know that just a lot of the classic rock bands. Boy, I’m trying to jog my memory. I’m drawing a blank here right now. It will come to me. If I think of things, I’ll shout them out. Just a good music scene here in Louisville. 5:00Bardstown Road had a few clubs. And downtown I think there were a few music venues as well.

CN: How large of audiences in the 70s were coming to shows?

JT: Well, it just depends on the venue. There was a small little bar on Bardstown Road, kind of in the vicinity of where Mid-City Mall is, called Mason’s Jar. Just a tiny little blues, folk, bluegrass club you could probably get maybe 150 people in there. I think the Great Midwestern and clubs like that could hold hundreds. Maybe the size of what Headliner’s is now, maybe a little bit smaller. Crowds seemed good. Phoenix Hill Tavern had just opened when I moved here, and the only room that was there was what’s the upstairs now: the taproom, a very tiny little room. That’s all the Phoenix Hill was. There wasn’t the 6:00outdoor patio area, the whole downstairs was just filled with antiques. The only music that was going on at Phoenix Hill at the time was a little tiny room upstairs that could probably hold maybe 50 people at most. That’s where I first saw Mickey Clark. Saw a lot of singer-songwriters there.

CN: Do you remember a lot of local characters from that era? Or any?

JT: Well… Robert Nedelkoff. He’s a colorful character. He’s very good with not only the history of Louisville bands, but he can map out family trees of bands and artists. He’s just kind of a walking encyclopedia. Wikipedia before Wikipedia was around. But he’s an interesting character. So, 7:00he’s one of the people that I met through working at Karma. He’s a big music guy and seemed to know pretty much everything about not just Louisville music but about music in general.

CN: How many other people worked at Karma?

JT: At the time there might have been 10 or 12 employees at one time. One of the more interesting folks I ran across there is Jim Adams, James Adams. He was definitely an interesting person as far as music goes. He’s still involved in music; he founded a band in the early 80s that was pretty much an improvisational band called Stutter. He got together a group of 8:00likeminded people to create music with- you know it was totally improvised. And I was a part of that band for a while. But Jim moved to Washington D.C. years later and he’s still doing that sort of music and projects along with incorporating visual art along with it. That was one of the more interesting people I had working there at the store.

CN: What did it look like walking into that store? Can you describe it?

JT: Well, it was a headshop. Karma at that time was located at Bardstown and Bonnycastle, where currently Café 360 is now. The building hasn’t really changed that much. I mean, you walked in and the counter was to the left, all the paraphernalia – “smoking accessories,” if you will – was along that wall. At that time, vinyl was the format. 9:00I think we sold 8-track tapes and maybe some cassettes at the time, various hippie-type books, and beads, and incense. But it was a great record store. It was a really, really good record store. It carried lots of imports and things that you just couldn’t find anywhere else at the time. So, I worked there for a couple of years before jumping ship and working at other records stores here in town.

CN: What were some of the other record stores here in town?

JT: Um, the store that I went to after Karma would have been Vine Records. And at the time it was a locally owned, independent company that had been in business at the time for maybe 30 years. They had eight stores at the time in Louisville when I went to work for them. And I opened up a store, I went to work for them and opened a store on Preston Highway at Indian Trail in a shopping center. I worked there 10:00for maybe a year before they moved me to the main store in downtown Louisville, which was in the 500 block of 4th Ave. That was their main location. In the basement they had a wholesale business. They were what was called a “one-stop,” supplying other record stores with inventory. So, I became the manager of the downtown store and eventually became the general manager of all eight stores. And Vine Records was predominantly an urban store. A lot of stores downtown or in the West End, there was a store on the UofL campus, and they had a store in the East End on Shelbyville Road. But at the time there were eight stores total. So, I was managing the store, and was the general manager of the stores, and was the buyer for the warehouse. 11:00And after that I went to work for Phoenix Records, another locally owned record store chain. They had two stores, one on Preston Highway near Fern Valley Road, and the other store was on Dixie Highway at Greenwood Road. And they were similar to Karma in the fact that they carried a lot of the mainstream things but then they carried a lot of the things that you would not normally find in a chain record store: imports, things you couldn’t find normally in stores. They were good stores while they lasted.

CN: In the 70s, would you say there was a certain age group that tended to come into the store more than another?

JT: Oh yeah. It was mostly a younger demographic, not unlike a lot of record stores 12:00now, I guess. But I think that, especially with Karma Records, we were not appealing to the masses; we were appealing to a younger demographic. Not only the fact that that was the type of music that we were carrying, we weren’t carrying a lot of the mainstream stuff, but also the fact that we were carrying drug paraphernalia, if you will. No beating around the bush, that’s what it is, that’s what it was.

CN: What would have been considered outside the mainstream?

JT: Basically, a lot the things you wouldn’t hear on commercial radio, top-40 radio. But at the same time, we were carrying things that, you know, there were radio stations at the time, WLRS here in town, was a very progressive radio station. It was what you call an album-oriented radio station, to where they would play, you know, it wasn’t necessarily formatted, but 13:00they could pretty much play-- if they wanted to play a whole album side, they could do that. Or if somebody like Pink Floyd put out a new album, they would play it start to finish. So, you know we would carry a lot of artists like that that you normally wouldn’t hear on a top-40 radio station. You could almost call it an alternative record store at the time. Nobody was calling anything “alternative” I don’t think, but that’s kind of what it was. It was out of the mainstream.

CN: When did the sort of punk rock scene begin to emerge in Louisville?

JT: I saw that happening probably late 70s. That’s when I first became aware of it.

CN: Who were some of those bands?

JT: First and foremost, would have been Babylon Dance Band, the Endtables. I was in a band that kind of associated with some of these bands, but it was more of a pop band, so 14:00we were not taken very seriously, even though it was a popular band, called Jil Thorp and the Beat Boys. And I was with them for a couple of years. I think we did a few shows with Babylon Dance Band. I think it was a showcase for Hit a Note Records. Jeff Carpenter started a record label called Hit a Note, and our band was on that. And we did a showcase one night at a music venue on Bardstown Road, not far from Karma, called Armando’s Palace, which previously was a movie theater. But we did a show with Babylon Dance Band and a couple other local bands. Frosties, they were another kind of preppy pop band. And a few others. But as far as the punk scene goes, most notable to me were Babylon Dance Band 15:00and the Endtables. No Fun was around at the time, I think we did a show with them at Lexington at one point. That was a mismatch but it was still an interesting evening. Circle X, another band, and Blinders. Blinders were very popular at that time.

CN: What did it feel like to be at some of those first shows?

JT: The energy was incredible, especially Babylon Dance Band. I remember I think we played before they did, and I think that was one of the first time I had seen the Babs, and just the energy coming off that stage was really, really amazing. I mean, I think I was in a good band with Jil Thorp, I thought, but some of the other bands were just miles beyond what 16:00we were doing at the time.

CN: What was the crowd like then?

JT: It was a mix of folks. There were obviously music fans. But you could kind of see the punk scene evolve in kind of a slow way. Everyone was looking to other cities and other scenes as to what was going on. And I think one of the turning points was when the Babylon Dance Band went to New York and they were featured on the cover of the Village Voice. That was a big deal. I mean, at the time that was a huge deal. Not only for the band, I think, but for the scene here in Louisville. It kind of made things seem more legitimate, and like we actually had something here that other people recognized as being pretty spectacular. So, for me that was a turning point, seeing that. And there seemed to be more bands coming along at that time. That’s when you started to see a lot of 17:00fanzines coming about.

CN: And what date would this have been when you started seeing zines?

JT: If my memory serves me correctly, it would have been early 80s. Very early 80s, maybe 81 or so.

CN: What were some of the fanzines?

JT: Oh, I couldn’t remember the names of them. Sorry, memory’s bad, memory’s bad.

CN: So, how many-- in the early 80s, what were the venues that were early-to-mid 80s?

JT: Tewligans had just come about. It was a club called Funktion Junktion, if I remember correctly. A couple bought that. I think it was Mary and 18:00Doyle Guhy? I think that was their last name. They bought it and were going to run that. I mean, Funktion Junktion, I had never been in there before, it was on Bardstown Road. It was more of a—it wasn’t really a music venue, it was more of a bar and pool hall and hangout place. And when the Doyles bought that, or the Guhys bought that, Mary and Doyle Guhy, they changed the name to Tewligan’s. And I’m not sure why the name change. And I remember going to their house with the folks I was in the band with – Jil Thorp and the Beat Boys – and I remember talking to them about having live music in the bar. And I 19:00believe we were one of the first bands to play there, if not the first. We had recorded an album, or we had a single out, or an EP, and I think we had an album out or had some recordings. We went to their house one evening and played the music and tried to convince them that having music in their bar would be a good idea. So, we were one of the first bands to play there. Babylon Dance Band was another band that played there. That was the main club for me. There was another club called The Windmill, and I don’t remember the exact location of that. I don’t remember if that was on Broadway or if that might have been downtown somewhere else. There was Dutch’s Tavern on 20:00Shelbyville Road. There was the Bauer Tavern in St. Matthews on Bauer Avenue. Woody’s Tavern was in Old Louisville. So, there were a few places like that to play. And then Armando’s Palace was another place that some local bands were able to play, either opening up for bigger acts or putting on local showcases like we did for the Hit a Note record label, which had a showcase there which is the one we played with the Babs.

CN: How would you describe the way it felt to be a part of a crowd in those shows? Was it intimidating? What was it like?

JT: It wasn’t intimidating until being in a band and just having picked up a guitar for the first time. I mean with Jil Thorp, 21:00Brian Talley, it was him and his wife who formed the band, and Brian was the drummer, and Jil, or Kathleen as she’s known, she was a keyboard player. So, they didn’t need a drummer, so I went out and bought a guitar and amp and learned all 4 chords and that’s how we got our start. But being in a crowd just watching a show, per se, was not intimidating. But seeing better bands on stage when you’re in the audience can be intimidating. It can be encouraging on one level and very intimidating on another. I was always intimidated by the Babylon Dance Band, but at the same time I thought they were great.

CN: So, the energy of the shows…

JT: The energy was great. Blinders, that was another band where there was a lot of energy. And the Endtables, also. The few times that I saw them perform they were 22:00pretty stellar in a totally different way from what we were doing.

CN: So, Jil Thorp was your first band?

JT: That was the first band that I was in here in Louisville. I played music in high school and a little bit in college, that was in Evansville, and it was just, you know, no particular band names. We would just get together and play and end up playing parties, frat parties, school dances, and things like that. But Jil Thorp was really the first band that I was in, and that was the first band I was in playing guitar, or trying to play guitar.

CN: And how long were you in that band?

JT: I was in the band for maybe the first three years and then they were kind of changing their musical direction, kind of going to a reggae ska tone. And I was just not into that at all. That was not where my heart was. I was more into loud, fast rock n’ roll stuff. So, after that, 23:00I was able to play in the band Stutter, which I can’t really describe what the music was. We put out a few cassette tapes and one album. Actually, somebody over in Czechoslovakia wanted to release the album, so it came out on vinyl in Czechoslovakia.

CN: How did someone in Czechoslovakia find out about Stutter?

JT: Just hearing reviews or hearing a tape. There was a magazine back in the time, it was a national magazine, called Option. And they would just review all types of music, mostly it was definitely out-of-the-mainstream music. But Stutter was reviewed in there a couple of times, and some guy in Czechoslovakia had gotten ahold of some of the tapes that Jim Adams had done and asked if we wanted to put something out on record. So, we recorded at a local studio 24:00here in town, Artists’ Recording Service over on Barret Avenue. And he put it out on vinyl for us. Only 300 copies made, but they sold out.

CN: What would be the average run of records for a band like Babylon Dance Band.

JT: I can’t speak for them, but I would think it would just be initially a few hundred. At the time, bands were putting out 45s, singles. Back in the day, recording and getting something manufactured, that was a big deal. You had to go to a recording studio. You couldn’t really do it at home. Then you’d have to go to a record pressing plant or have somebody manufacture cassettes for you back in the day. There was more of a financial investment there, so I think the 25:00quantities of records that were pressed were in the low hundreds, maybe.

CN: How did you find out about music?

JT: How did I find out about music?

CN: From that era.

JT: From that era. I did a lot of reading. There was no internet at the time. So it was word of mouth, reading magazines. Stores that I worked in, we would carry import magazines like NME, The New Musical Express, just reviewing albums, a lot of things that were not released here in the states, or reading magazines like The Village Voice – newspapers like The Village Voice – I was always tuned into that because just seeing what was going on in New York was pretty much a clue of what was going on in the rest of the world. Louisville always seemed at the time to be just a tiny bit behind 26:00what was going on. And again, I’ll go back the Babylon Dance Band. Once they made the cover of The Village Voice, that was a huge article and a big deal. I think people here in Louisville in the music scene started to think of what we were doing here, and what was happening here, as being not just a local thing anymore, but it was legitimate now that the scene had a got a little bit of exposure in New York.

CN: How did people find out about shows?

JT: Definitely it was word of mouth and flyers. Every band would make their own little flyers or posters and put them up all around town. Telephone poles were the main target, but store windows and just handing them out around shows or putting them on cars or whatever. But telephone poles were the best advertising vehicle here at the time. 27:00CN: Did the scene in the 80s feel like it had a sense of unity or was it fragmented into different…?

JT: To me it seemed more fragmented just because I was in a band that was not considered cool. You know, we were a popular band, we would be leaning more mainstream than the punk bands, by far. But I think there were a lot of bands that just felt like they were, you know, it seemed to be at the time a much more competitive scene in a lot of ways. There was unity among some of the bands, but then there were always the outside bands. I guess that’s true today, still. I think nowadays, currently, it just feels like the scene is more unified, and as time went on, I think the music scene in Louisville did become more 28:00unified, as it is today. Or it feels that way to me. But early on I think it was more of a competitive thing. And once we all realized we were trying to achieve the same thing, then there was more of a bond formed between a lot of the bands.

CN: Are there any things that were really different about the 70s than 80s as far as the music scene?

JT: Yeah. Yeah, the 70s were more of a hippie scene, more of a 70s rock sort of thing. And then when punk music happened, when people first started to hear that, that’s what made me feel that I could play guitar. Like I could go out and buy a guitar and just play it. It was very much a DIY attitude, you just do it. 29:00And everybody felt like they could do it. And the music was, on one level, incredibly simple. So, it was easy to start that, and nobody told you, “Well, you can’t do that.” It was, “Well, yes, we can. We can do this.” So, I think that’s what really got the scene going. But yeah, the whole music attitude in Louisville, especially in the Highlands, just really changed late 70s into the early 80s. And the punk scene had a lot to do with that. Just bringing a lot more energy and a totally different style in fashion and looks and all that.

CN: What was the fashion like?

JT: Well, Bardstown Road – back when I moved here – was definitely more of a hippie scene, which seems to be coming back strong these days. 30:00You know, a lot of long hair, a lot of beards, kind of like today. And in the 80s it was the much more fashion-conscious, or a lot of times anti-fashion-conscious, but it was just a totally different feel and attitude. Kind of hard to describe. It would be easier to show pictures than to really say, but just the whole fashion scene, people making their own clothes, or ripping up their own clothes or whatever it might be. But the hippie scene was disappearing pretty rapidly at that point, I think.

CN: Who were some of your influences? I mean you’ve mentioned Babylon Dance Band, 31:00but who did you look up to in the scene?

JT: In the scene? Blinders, the O’Bannon brothers. I always felt intimidated by them.

CN: What were their full names?

JT: There’s Wink and Michael O’Bannon. I was always impressed with what that band was doing, what those guys were doing. But, just with the band I was in, I just felt like it was night and day. It was kind of more poppy, not mainstream, but more pop-oriented than punk-oriented, what I was doing. And I always admired what they were doing because of the energy level. The energy level with the punk scene, I always saw the draw to that, and still do with a lot of younger bands now that I just think are 32:00right on par with what was going on back then. But I always felt intimidated by the brothers, and ended up eventually playing in bands with them. Why, I don’t know, but it was very good to be a part of playing music with those guys.

CN: So, the second band, can you tell me that name again?

JT: Stutter.

CN: Stutter. What were the years that that band was active?

JT: It was active maybe from 79 or 80 up until Jim Adams moved to Washington DC, where I think he continued that project maybe under another name. It was pretty much a revolving door of musicians here in town. But I think it probably ran maybe late-70s through 33:00probably mid-80s, I guess.

CN: And then after that band what did you do?

JT: After that band I joined a band with Michael and Tari O’Bannon called Antman.

CN: And how did that band form?

JT: I mentioned earlier a recording studio on Barrett Avenue that was Artists’ Recording Service. It’s location now would be where Regala was, over next to where Lynn’s Paradise Café used to be. Great little recording studio there. A lot of bands recorded there; a lot of punk bands recorded there. Bob Hunter, Robert Hunter, was one of the co-owners of Artists’ Recording Service. So, Stutter recorded there, and that’s where I first really got involved with 34:00Michael and Wink O’Bannon, and Tari O’Bannon, Michael’s wife. They were always playing music and invited me to play on some tracks in the studio. Pretty much all original music that Michael and Tari were writing. Robert Gruber was on bass, Bob Hunter on drums, and Michael and I both played guitar, and Tari was the singer. We might have been together two years, maybe three, playing some shows here in town. We did record one single, recorded a lot of tracks, but played out a fair amount, either it Tewligans or Uncle Pleasant’s, another club that was on Preston 35:00Street which is now the New Vintage. So, we had a good time playing various clubs like that. I think we played Dutch’s a few times, played UofL. It was a great time playing with those guys, but it just ran its course after a few years.

CN: What was the experience of being in that band like? Did you all – were there any memorable shows?

JT: Our last show at Uncle Pleasant’s was great. The thing about Antman was it was an incredibly loud band, it was high energy. One thing that I really liked about it was the fact that it was very energetic with that band, and Michael O’Bannon was in the Blinders, the band that I was intimidated by, or intimidated by him and his brother at the time 36:00in the band. But it was just great to be able to play kind of in-your-face, verging on punk music at some times, but a little bit more melodic than a lot, I think. But it was just great playing with those guys. Tari’s got a great voice and is quite the powerhouse on stage. Just a fun band to play in. I was definitely sad when the band decided not to continue on with it, but we had a very good time.

CN: Any fun stories from that?

JT: It was just always fun to go to rehearsal, and always fun to record, especially playing with those guys. It was always something to look forward to, it was never a chore. But like all things, it ran its course. 37:00CN: Let me ask you one other question about the way you saw the scene change. From the Antman days up until the late 80s/early 90s, what were your perceptions of the scene then?

JT: You know, I don’t really-- at the time I wasn’t thinking about “the scene.” I was glad that there were a lot of bands out there. I didn’t get a chance to get out and see as many as I wanted to, just because I was either working or playing in a band. I just always felt really proud of what was going on here, whether it was popular elsewhere or not didn’t really matter. Kind of like 38:00I felt about the city when I first moved here, it just felt right. I don’t know if that makes sense or not. It felt like there was certainly a very diverse scene, but it just felt like it was kind of pushing ahead, it was moving forward, and it was not necessarily trying to be like other cities, but we were just kind of developing our own musical identity. I felt like there was more of a Louisville “scene” than there had been before. Maybe that’s because I was in a couple of bands, I felt more a part of it. But it just felt like there was momentum going, in my mind. It just felt like it was continuing to expand and grow and become a scene of its own, as opposed to trying to copy what others were doing. 39:00CN: In talking to other people, did it seem like there was this sense of pride in this city, or did everyone hope to go elsewhere?

JT: I think some bands wanted to go elsewhere. I mean, you know, Chicago, seems like a lot of bands wanted to go there. Obviously, everybody wanted to go to New York to play. But I think for the most part, people were really proud of what was happening here. There was always the folks who wanted to go elsewhere, and did. Chicago was always a popular destination for what seems like a lot of Louisville bands. But I just think that the whole thing kind of nurtured what was going on here. While some bands left, they were still Louisville bands. Even though they might be elsewhere, they were still part of the scene here.

CN: Were you playing in any bands after Antman?

JT: No. 40:00I did play in some side projects that I was picked up for. I can’t remember his name, went by the name of Ashtar. I don’t know if you know this guy. I’ll have to come back to that. Very interesting character, very much like a Roky Erickson sort of guy. Great guitar player, just wrote these crazy songs. And he tapped me to join him on guitar and there were a few shows we did at Tewligans, I believe. Robert Nedelkoff would be one who would know all about it, so I’ll have to go to the Tewligans Facebook page and do my research on that one.

CN: Well, I’m going to switch gears a little bit and talk about ear X-tacy. So how did you get started with ear X-tacy? 41:00JT: After working at Karma and Vine Records and Phoenix Records – Phoenix Records closed probably in 1983, so that left me without a job – I had started selling records via the mail while I was working at Phoenix Records. I was also selling records at record collector’s shows, record flea markets if you will. I was travelling, not only doing shows here in Louisville, but doing regional shows on weekends. I would travel to Cincinnati, or Indianapolis, or Lexington and set up on weekends and sell at collector’s shows. There seemed to be more record shows at that time than there are right now. But I started selling 42:00at collector’s shows and was gathering people’s names for a mailing list and would sell through the mail and at these shows. And I kept a lot of my customers from Karma and Vine and Phoenix, they would follow me when I would leave a particular store – they would follow me and buy records from those stores. So, when Phoenix Records closed, they were calling me to get records because there was not at the time any stores that were carrying a lot of the oddball stuff, things out of the mainstreams or import records that other stores weren’t carrying. So, I got tired after about two years of people coming over to my apartment in Old Louisville at all hours of the day and night to buy 43:00records. I decided to open a record store and the first location I looked at was on Bardstown Road next to the Great Escape.

I talked to the landlord about leasing the space and he agreed he would lease it to me, but that weekend I was out of town doing a collector’s show elsewhere and he leased the space to someone else. So, I found a small location on Poplar Level Road next to the Watterson Expressway. It was a 500-square-foot brick building. And I opened a record store with my record collection and a cash advance of $500 on my Master Charge card – it wasn’t Mastercard it was Master Charge back then, and $500 was the limit on my card. So, I opened the store August 1, 1985 in that location and we were there until the next year when 44:00I was actually able to get that location on Bardstown Road that I had originally looked at. The store that he had leased to went out of business. The first store on Bardstown Road opened up on Derby Day in 1986. So, moving the record store overnight and opening on Derby Day was not the smartest thing, but it actually was because we were actually very, very busy on Derby Day, believe it or not. So, we were underway on Bardstown Road at that point. The first location, I knew was a temporary location because the city was planning on widening the Watterson Expressway. We were right at the corner of Poplar Level Road and the Watterson Expressway, and they took that building. I knew they were going to take that property – the owner told me the state was going to take it – so my time there would be limited anyway. But it’s now 45:00an entrance ramp to the Watterson Expressway. I drive over that store, occasionally.

So, the first store on Bardstown Road was located right next to The Great Escape. It’s actually one third of what The Great Escape building is. The left side of the building was the first Bardstown Road ear X-tacy store. And we were there for five years before we moved locations. We got a good start there; the store was able to grow. Bardstown Road was obviously a better location than Poplar Level Road, but the store had always been a destination for serious record buyers. Driving out of their way – riding their bikes or driving – over to Poplar Level was not out of the question for a lot of folks just because the store was carrying things that were not normally found in other record stores.

CN: How did people learn about the Record Store? 46:00JT: Word of mouth. My customer base was small, but they were serious record buyers, so the word spread. And also flyers. I still have a flyer from the original opening of the first store, which I will share with the Archives if they want that. Jim Adams, who worked for me at Karma, who I was in Stutter with, did the flyer for me. We passed that out at record shows and posted them on telephone poles around town and that’s how word started. And it started off really small. I still had to travel every weekend to sell at collector’s shows to pay for the store. The store didn’t make money for the first three or five years it was open. So, it was a combination of having a record store and still going on the road every weekend to make it possible.

CN: How many people, 47:00was it just you at the time?

JT: I had one other employee at first and I basically worked throughout the week. I was the only one working during the week and this guy would come in on Saturdays and Sundays when I was on the road. So, we started with one employee and then eventually two, three, four. I think at the height of ear X-tacy’s run, we had 25 employees at the large store on Bardstown Road.

CN: When you first started the store, what was your dream?

JT: Stay in business one more day. I started working in record stores right out of high school in 1973, trying to figure out what my career was going to be, what I was going to major in in college. I never did graduate college. 48:00I got about three-and-a-half years in there and just never finished college. I never could quite figure out what it was I wanted to do. I studied photography and started a little bit in architecture and just lost interest in both. So continued working in record stores while I was still trying to figure out what I was going to do. So, I opened a store just to not have to sell records out of my apartment, but I was always still trying to figure out what I was going to do. So, 26 years later [laughter]. The store ran 26 years, but I’ve been doing this since 1973, so pretty much most of my life has been spent selling music.

CN: What’s always appealed to you about record stores?

JT: Well, music has always appealed to me since I was a little kid. I’ve got an older brother, Mark, whose four years older than me, 49:00so I was always privy to his music collection. But my AM radio, transistor radio, was with me all the time as a kid. My allowance was always spent on records. Every week it was going out to buy a new single or two or whatever I could afford. And those were usually bought at department stores. I was in grade school when I first discovered a real record store that I could ride my bike to, and after that all of my money, all of my disposable income, went to buying records every week. I’ve always just been fascinated with music, and records and record stores have always been a part of that. I never intended to own a business or own a record store, but it just seemed like a natural progression. That’s what I’d done pretty much all of my life. Certainly interested in music, interested in talking 50:00to other people about music, and a record store’s a prefect place to do that, but it never felt like it was a job. It felt like it was something fun to do, but it never felt like “this is your career.” I never set out to be a business owner or a boss or whatever, but I always enjoyed the record store part of it – the sharing of music and the selling of music has always appealed to me.

CN: So, the growth of the store, you were on Bardstown Road by The Great Escape.

JT: And then we moved further into the downtown area, but on Bardstown Road we moved from – I think I can remember the addresses – the store next to The Great Escape was 2431 Bardstown Road. We were there for about five years 51:00and outgrew that space. So we moved down to 1140 Bardstown Road, which is now Highland Coffee. It was behind a Blockbuster Video at the front of the building which is now an Urban Outfitters. The very back of the building was ear X-tacy. I think the store next to The Great Escape was 800 square feet, and we moved to where Highland Coffee is now and that was about 1300 square feet. And we were there for about 6 years, I believe.

CN: And when you say you outgrew the store, what was causing you to outgrow the store?

JT: Just more and more people were finding out about us. A lot of it had to do with the fact that we were on Bardstown Road with that store. It was next to The Great Escape, which is a draw. People going in to buy comic books. Comics and music, for some reason, is a good 52:00combo. Much more foot traffic, car traffic, visibility. And as customer base grows, your inventory grows. And needing to carry more inventory was a necessity. I think we had maybe a few bands play in that first Bardstown Road store location. There just wasn’t room to accommodate having any music performances and it was just getting difficult to carry the amount of inventory in that space.

CN: Was the inventory driven by just what your customers were telling you they wanted?

JT: Exactly. I started the store with my record collection, which was just very limited and narrow in focus. 53:00And when I opened the store, it seemed to make sense at the time, I called it “Louisville’s Alternative Record Store.” Which at the time meant that we were carrying things that other stores were not touching. We were carrying the import records you couldn’t find anywhere else. We were carrying all the indie and punk records you couldn’t find anywhere else. We were carrying Misfits records, which at the time the band was incredibly popular, and all the up-and-coming punk bands. And we were carrying the fanzines and we were stocking local bands’ music, which a lot of stores wouldn’t touch. They just didn’t want to be bothered with consignments, or just didn’t feel like a local artist if they’re not on the radio they’re not worth carrying. I always saw the value in carrying 54:00a wide range of music. Even though we started off as an alternative store, as the customer base grew people were asking for more different types of music. And the store grew into, in my mind, the kind of store that I would want to shop in where you could pretty much find anything that you were looking for. We weren’t necessarily turning anybody away just because we didn’t like what they were listening to. There were stores back then and still stores to this day that do that. I wanted to appeal to a wide range of people. So, as the customer base grew and people let me know what they wanted to have, I stocked it. Nature of that business. And that continued to grow.

CN: How do you think you came to have that mindset 55:00of wanting to appeal to more people?

JT: Well, I noticed that what I was selling at the record collector’s shows was appealing to a very narrow audience. And my musical taste has always been kind of across the board; I’ve got an open mind and open ears, I like to say. So, why not carry a little bit of everything? And as the customer base grew, they pretty much told me what they were wanting. That’s the nature of business, to take care of what the customer wants. The different music genres that we were carrying was expanding as the customer base was.

CN: And when did you start hiring more employees than the one person?

JT: When we moved to the Bardstown Road location it was necessary to do that 56:00because we increased our hours and you needed more than one person working at one time. Plus, as the store grew, my responsibilities as far as stocking, making sure we had the inventory, doing the ordering, doing the buying, and going out and searching things to buy elsewhere to bring back and sell, that’s taking up a lot more of my time. So, when we were at The Great Escape location, probably the most employees I had at any one time would have been five, maybe six.

CN: Were there any memorable employees from that era?

JT: One of my first employees was a guy by the name of Scott Mullins. Scott was a big blues fan, and he was always pushing me to carry blues 57:00records. And I laughed at him the first time he told me that. “Nobody buys blues records, what are you talking about?” Scott eventually became a DJ at WFPK and he’s now a music director of a radio station in Baltimore, Maryland. Scott was one of the more interesting early characters at the store. Also, another interesting employee, Chip Burrell, had just moved here from Chattanooga, Tennessee, at that time, and he was going to UofL studying to become an accountant. He worked for me for maybe three years early on and then left to become an accountant and a CPA. And later on in the run of the store, he became the store’s fulltime accountant, so kind of made full circle there. 58:00But early on he was one of the more interesting characters. Then also along those lines, Mike Bucayu, one of the more colorful music characters, worked with us at ear X-tacy for a number of years before he left and opened his own record store, Blue Moon Records. Mike was also in a band, Kinghorse. A very popular band at the time, very influential in the local music scene. He was one of the musicians that worked for us, but early on he was one of the more important players at the store.

CN: Why did you choose to hire people?

JT: [Laughter] To this day I still wonder why I hired some people, Mike being one of them. There was just something about them, you could tell who was definitely into music and 59:00whether it was a wise decision or not. I was always trying to hire people that were somewhat friendly and certainly knowledgeable about music. You try not to hire folks that are making fun of people for what they’re buying or discouraging them from buying something because they didn’t like. But I hired Mike anyway [laughter].

CN: Was that a problem occasionally?

JT: Oh yeah, absolutely. Usually, I’d find out about it later. All-in-all he was a good one. We did have a lot of good people who worked at that store, a lot of musicians over the years, and he was one of the early ones to work there.

CN: Was it a coincidence that you hired a lot of musicians?

JT: Absolutely not. They just seemed to be into music as much as me, if not more. And a lot of times would know more about it than I would or would have an expertise 60:00or knowledge of an area of music that I did not know that well. So, it was educational for me as well to hire folks like that. I was trying to appeal to a wide range of musical buyers, so why not have a staff that is varied as well?

CN: So how long were you at that location?

JT: At the Highland Coffee location, 1140, we were there for 6 years. And again, the store was very popular at the time despite the fact that it was set back off Bardstown Road and the visibility was not that great. But the store continued to grow, and the music industry was at a good point, at that point it was pretty strong. We would have record release shows for bands. We had a record release party for the Kinghorse album 61:00when that came out. That was like a late-night thing, a midnight release, and we had 100 people or 150 people show up. But we outgrew the space. We started carrying more inventory, the record and CD bins were jammed, so we had to put stock on the floor under the bins. As the store grew, the aisles got narrower and narrower, and it was just uncomfortable to shop. You’d have to stoop down on the floor to go through records on the floor, and it was hard to get through everything in the bins when the bins were jammed full and you couldn’t flip through. It just got to the point where after a few years of that we knew we had to grow, had to move to a bigger space.

CN: How many customers would 62:00come into the store on an average day?

JT: Maybe 150 or 200? It was a fairly small space; it was just always busy. So, the staff size had to increase as well, and the inventory grew, so it got to the point where once again it was just time to move.

CN: So how did you find the next location?

JT: There was a store on Bardstown Road called Pier 1 Imports. And they were at 1534 Bardstown Road, where Panera Bread is now. Pier 1 closed up one night 63:00in the middle of the night, just moved out, broke their lease. And when I found out about that, I contacted the owner of the building. And he had already had a couple of national companies contact him about moving in, one of them happened to be a record store. And for whatever reason he leased the space to me. The store where Highland Coffee is was 1,500 square feet, and the Pier 1 location was 10,000 square feet. So that was a huge leap of faith. For whatever reason, the owner/landlord of the building gave me a graduated lease where we started out very low monthly amount for what we were paying for rent 64:00and over the course of the ten-year lease it would go up every year. So, I could afford to take this space. The challenge was going from 1,500 square feet to 10,000 square feet, how do you make the store look full? How do you make it look like you’ve got a tiny little record collection in a big space? Somehow, we did that.

We moved the store overnight. We were not closed for a day, not closed one bit. We closed the Highland Coffee store at the regular closing hours, we packed up everything into trucks, we had customers volunteer to help move things, we moved the entire store overnight and we were open the next morning at 10am. Yeah, crazy. It’s like opening your Bardstown Road store on Derby Day, you just don’t do these things. 65:00It’s kind of like being in a band at the time, nobody told you you couldn’t do it, so we just did it.

So, we opened up and that was a very good space. We had plenty of space for more inventory. We were actually trying to find ways, creative ways to make the store look full or that it was occupied. We now had space for music performances for bands to where they didn’t have to sit on milk crates in between the record bins and play acoustically, we could do a full-on show. So that was the location for 16 years. It was very good. There was a natural progression of growth. There were tough times, times where it was tough to pay rent and pay the staff, but over the course of most of those 16 years business was really good, and the store gained 66:00popularity and notoriety. We had all sorts of great musicians, both local and national, come through and play the store. And we continued to grow and grow and grow, and as the lease continued to increase and increase and increase, the record industry started to take a nosedive. And at some point, we crossed paths where the rent was increasing and the sales were decreasing. And so, it became necessary to either close the store or move to another location and downsize and to cut back on inventory, cut back on rent and overhead, and cut back on staffing. So, we ended up moving closer to the original location, The Great Escape location. 67:00And that address does escape me. Anyway, it’s where the Kinkos is, where the CVS drugstore is now. We were there for maybe two-and-a-half years, maybe close to three, before we ended up shutting down.

CN: What were some of your favorite in-store performances?

JT: On a big band level, at what I call the Panera location, having the Foo Fighters play the store was great. That was Dave Grohl’s idea, too. He had shopped there before when he’d been in town, and Foo Fighters were playing that night at Freedom Hall, opening up for Red Hot Chili Peppers, so they wanted to play an independent record store 68:00for Independence Day. They were in town for the 4th of July, so we set this up a month in advance. They came in and did a full acoustic show. It was just amazing. We had maybe 800 people in the store, which was against the law but since it was the 4th of July the fire marshal was busy with fireworks stands so we didn’t get busted. And that was one of the better in-stores. We also did a CD release show for My Morning Jacket, for their Evil Urges album. And again, we had maybe 800 people in the store, and a few hundred outside. The fire marshal did come in the next day after that after seeing a picture of the crowd in the Courier-Journal the next day. I knew that would be my first customer through the door. He didn’t buy anything, he just told me I couldn’t do that ever again.

But we had lots 69:00of, so many of the local bands did their CD release shows there, or just did shows in general. And I can’t tell you how many bands we had there, but they were numerous, and a lot of people remember that stuff. It was a good time for the store.

CN: You also ran a record label.

JT: Yes, I did! Another big mistake, the black hole of the ear X-tacy record label. And that actually started – the idea for that, or the mechanism behind that – started when I was at The Great Escape location. There was a local band at the time, Mrs. Frazier was the name of the band, Brent Starkey was the main guy in that band. And I liked the band and they wanted to record at Jeff Carpenter’s Reel-to-Real recording studio, but they needed some money to put the 70:00record out. So, I fronted them the money – it was not a lot of money, it was a few hundred dollars maybe – to where they could manufacture the record. It might have been a cassette, I don’t remember. But the agreement was, well, just pay me back when you can. And I think that happened, I’m not quite sure. But then I started getting other bands asking me to put their records out, and I thought about it for a while and didn’t do it for a while, and Brent Starkey started another band after Mrs. Frazier called Cherub Scourge. And again, he had approached me about putting out their record. He wanted to put out a CD and we also put it out on vinyl and cassette. And that was the first release on the ear X-tacy record label. I decided if I was going to front bands money, I might as well put the store’s name on it. 71:00So, the first record was with Cherub Scourge, and we did vinyl, cassette, and CD in major quantity because they were getting ready to go on the road and tour. So that was the first of many black holes in the ear X-tacy label. We never did contracts or anything like that, it was always a verbal agreement or a handshake agreement that, you know, I front you this money and you pay me back when you recoup, so I can recoup. I was not asking for anything above and beyond getting my investment back. No other investment in the band other than pay me back, you know, that’s it.

CN: What were the projects you released other than the Cherub Scourge?

JT: Cherub Scourge was the first one. We weren’t stuck with any particular genre, but pretty much any local band that was wanting to put things out. You know, singer-songwriter stuff, rock bands, a couple 72:00of records that we did put out actually recouped and did well and continued to have a lot of interest even though they’re all out of print. A local musician by the name of Tim Krekel, who I mentioned before, we put out two records for him that despite – you know, having a record label is one thing, but not having any distribution or promotion is another – but with Tim’s two records that we put out, we sold a few thousand of each one. So, we recouped on those and we were able to fund other projects. There was a local blues band at the time – well they’re still around but without their lead singer at the time – called the Mudcats. That was another band where we sold 1,000 copies of one of their records. So, I was able to fund other artists’ projects 73:00along the lines with that money. But all in all, the record label was done just to help the local artists get their music out there, with the hopes of just getting paid back. And unfortunately, very few of them were able to pay much of it back, if any at all.

And like I said, there were maybe three records that we actually did recoup on, but that helped fund other records. And the smart thing would have been to just say no, I’m not going to do this because it’s not going to make money. But that was not the reason behind the label. That was the reason behind the store, was to make money, to make a living. But with the record label it was more of a good will thing, I figured that the karma, if you will, will come back. And to a large extent, I think it did. 74:00I think a lot of people did appreciate what I was able to do to help them out. But then again, the whole music industry was changing to where you didn’t have to go to a recording studio to record anymore, and you didn’t have to have things manufactured at a plant for you, you could burn your own CDs, you could make your own cassettes. So, the need for what the label was trying to do was going away, kind of like the industry as-it-was was going away.

So, I think ear X-tacy label released maybe 51 or 52 local artists. Yeah, yeah. But, all local bands ran their course, for the most part. Some of them are still out there, but I like to joke that we would release an album by a band, and they would either start talking about 75:00their next album and not promoting the one they just put out, or the band would break up. That happened a lot. Or in one case, the main guy in the band died. It was always typical record industry sort of stories. But it was good to be able to try to help some of the bands out.

CN: So, when did you start to realize that running the record store and doing all of the work that you were doing was no longer just going day-to-day, but it was your career?

JT: I never really felt that until the last couple of years when the store was not doing well financially. I was given advice to close the store years before I did. I just always believed that that store would survive, and 76:00part of one of the reasons it needed to close was because I did not want to downsize any further than I had with that last location. Even though it was not a major downsize, it was going to become a store that I couldn’t be passionate about anymore. It would not be the store that I would most want to shop in, if that makes sense. It would cease to be what I though the store needed to be in my mind. It was kind of a selfish reason, but if the store was going to go back to where you had to root around on the floor to go through inventory, or if you couldn’t carry everything that you wanted to carry, then what’s the point? What was the point of doing that? So, it just got to the point financially where it was not feasible 77:00to continue to run a store that big – with that much inventory – when the industry and the way people were buying music was totally changing.

CN: Can you think of any notorious or interesting employees that you’d like to share?

JT: [laughter] I didn’t really have any notorious staff, not really. A lot of great people worked at that store, and those are the people- the staff is what really made that store grow and thrive. I mean, the customer base is one thing, but you have to have a reason for people to want to come back. Inventory is one thing, but if you have a staff that is passionate about music, is knowledgeable about music, and are just good people to deal with, 78:00then you know that’s a big part of it. Jason Noble, Sean Bailey, Mike Bucayu. Ehhh, Mike Bucayu? Love/hate relationship with him, but I currently love him. But I hate to say that. Those are just a few people. Randall Bolton, whose managing Better Days right now. These are all good people. I can name them all. Rebecca Mercer was my last store manager. Doug Miller, Douglas Miller, great artist. Just excellent people all around. There might be three or four, maybe five people over the course of 26 years that I really wish hadn’t been hired, and they will remain nameless, but they know who they are. But, all in all, the staff made that such 79:00a great place to be. I’m sure as a boss I was lacking in managerial skills, but they were great people to work with. And they put up with me. I was very stubborn about how I wanted the store to be, and they for the most part would accept that and run with it. They just made it a better place.

CN: What is your relationship to the scene currently? 80:00JT: Wow, well, it’s changed a lot, in a lot of ways, with the store closed now. It’ll be four years in October of 2015. You know, it just feels, it felt really odd and it still feels somewhat odd. After closing the store, there was a disconnect for two years, totally, from the scene and from music pretty much in general for me. It was a really tough period to go through. I started working with public radio maybe three years ago. Been on the air at WFPK for two years now. So, I feel like I’m connecting a little bit more with the scene. I just felt that I had to distance myself from it for a while, just because 81:00it was a great loss with the store going down, personally, and I think there were a lot of people that were affected by it closing. I’m still very fond of the music scene. I feel like I’m getting back into it a little bit more because of my association with the radio. I still don’t go out to a whole lot of show anymore, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’m 60 years old and just going out late at night to a club doesn’t appeal to me all that much anymore.

I think there’s a lot of great music going on in the city right now. I just witnessed a couple of bands, a couple of very different bands, at Forescastle this past weekend. Twin Limb and White Reaper are both incredibly talented bands. 82:00It was great to be able to see them, even though it was at Forecastle and it’s the worst possible way to experience and enjoy music, especially as hot as it was. Being at the radio station, I’m reconnecting with a lot of music. But I’ve never actually felt like I’ve been a part of the scene like a lot of people might think. I’ve always felt it’s kind of like going back to my time in Jil Thorp and the Beat Boys. It was a great time for me, musically, but the band was never considered cool by a lot of folks. Some of the people that I would have liked to have had some sense of approval from for whatever reason. And I never felt that the store was considered cool 83:00by a lot of the people that I would hope would like it. And I work at radio station that I am very fond of, but there are a lot of people that think it’s not a cool place to be. So, in my mind there’s always been that disconnect with me and the music scene. But I continue to do what feels right to me, and if that’s not being cool then that’s OK with me. But I’ve always felt – it’s kind of hard to describe – I have felt a connection to the scene and to Louisville ever since I’ve been here, but there’s a part of it that there’s a disconnect at some point. I don’t know if this is making any sense. You know, you can’t please all the people all the time. There are a lot of people that 84:00I would like to feel that there’s been that acceptance from them, but it’s never been there. Despite all, whatever the public perception is, for me it’s always been that way.

CN: Have you felt the scene is exclusive?

JT: In some ways, yeah. Or maybe it might just be my perception, I don’t know. Maybe part of this change is maybe that the scene is getting younger and I’m getting older, so there’s that gap. The two bands I was mentioning, Twin Limb and White Reaper, White Reaper especially, 85:00the first time I played them on the radio here I was raving about them, and I continue to do that. Watching them, seeing them for the first time perform live at Forecastle, I was just blown away by how good they were. But then again, there’s that disconnect, you know? You’ve got this young band that’s rocking out – and they’re really good at what they do – and you’re 60 years old and you really like what they’re doing, but would they want to hear that? That somebody my age considers them cool and good? I don’t know. But watching them and their crowd, I just felt that there was that gap there, that age disconnect that’s a little unsettling. But that’s my issue, not theirs. 86:00CN: I feel like there has to be some great stories from some of the days at the Pier 1 location that maybe I haven’t been able to ask you about. Anything jump out?

JT: There were just so many great people who walked through those doors, you know? You didn’t have to be famous, there was something about that store. All the locations that we were in had their draw. But that location, the Pier 1 location, that location was the best that I think we could have been in. That store just, for whatever reason, 87:00had a soul to it. And I had more than one artist come in there and say, “there’s something about this space.”

CN: Will you describe the way that space looked, from your memory?

JT: It was just kind of cavernous, with nothing in there. The first time I walked in there and there was nothing in there I was like, “We can’t possibly do this here.” There were so many different levels and rooms. There was the upstairs that was never fully usable; it was never a practical space, kind of like a loft area. There was the main entrance area that used to be a horse barn back in the early 1900s. There was a horse-drawn streetcar that would go from Bardstown Road to downtown, and that was where they kept the horses. So, the main part of the store was an old horse barn. 88:00And then there was an addition built, a couple of additions built, on the other side of the building. But it was almost – in the main part of the store, which was the cavernous part with the arched windows and all the glass – just the way it looked, it almost felt like a church to me. It was a very special kind of… there was just something special about that space. There was a vibe, there was a feeling when you walked in there. And a lot of it had to do with the fact that it was a record store, it was music, but the people that worked there and the people that shopped there, there was sense of community in that store that, when we had to downsize, that was lost.

CN: It was kind of like a meeting place.

JT: It was a meeting place. It was – I keep going back to the church reference – it was kind of a religious place 89:00for people that love music. It had that spirit; it had that soul.

CN: You had the beautiful signage in there for all of that.

JT: Yeah. Douglas Miller was the artist that did that. Doug was great. He did that on his own; he was not asked to do that. So that was the sort of employees that we had. The store meant a lot to them as well.

CN: And the importance of the windows, too. I remember that meant a lot to the music community. I don’t know if you want to describe what that experience was like.

JT: Are you talking about them putting up posters and flyers and all that? Well, that was part of it, you know. There was great advertising space because the telephone poles were considered off limits anymore, for the most part, because the city was 90:00vigilant about tearing posters down. So, we would gladly put up band’s flyers and posters and all that as best we could. We got in trouble with what I called the “sign police” numerous times. They would come in and say you can’t cover your windows because if the police are driving by and you’re being robbed, they can’t see you. That was pretty pointless. So, we had to fight them every once in a while. The windows also served another purpose. When you were walking down Bardstown Road on the sidewalk you could look into the store, and you could see the full store. All businesses have windows, but these were just special, arched windows. Lots of windowpanes. There were lots of times we’d have in-store performances, and people would walk by and see the back of the band playing to a group of people and they would stand there. When you were in the store, and you were watching a band, and you were seeing 91:00people behind them looking in and trying to figure out what was going on. It was a nice backdrop. And when we had in-stores where you couldn’t get any more people in the store, people were crowding up against the window to watch My Morning Jacket or the Foo Fighters. There was just something that was drawing people to that space. It was a very special place. Lots of good memories there. I mean, just the amount of people that walked through that door that were there for their love of music, that made it a really special place. All of the locations had their points, but for me that was the ultimate location for us. That was the best we could be.

CN: When formats of music and the internet and everything that happened changed the landscape, what were the things that you tried to do 92:00to keep up with changes?

JT: Well, the internet comes along and people find that they can now download music, they don’t need a physical format – or they don’t have to buy music, they can just take it off the internet – that certainly took a portion of the business away. With just the decrease in our business we had to expand into other areas. I worked in other record stores where they had the smoking accessories, the drug paraphernalia if you will. That was never an option for me with my store even though one or two employees brought it up. Why don’t we carry this, why don’t we carry that, because other stores are doing it. I refused to do it, I just never felt good about that even when I was selling it for somebody else. 93:00I didn’t want my store to be that. We increased in various areas where the profit margin was better: books, magazines, toys, just little goofy things that were not directly related to music, they were more pop culture items. We expanded into things like that to try and boost the bottom line. But ultimately, I told people the minute you walk into this place and it doesn’t look like a record store, we’re done. And towards the end there were times the focus was being lost on the main reason I wanted to be there. But we were always looking for other ways to increase the revenue. Posters, the usual stuff. Just carrying more of that sort of item. And not being able to carry as much music as I wanted, 94:00that was a tough way to go.

CN: Is there anything we missed?

JT: I wish my memory was a whole lot better as far as the music scene goes. I really appreciate what you guys are doing with the project. Again, I appreciate the fact that I was invited to participate in some way, but again I never felt like I was a-- I can’t describe it. Going back to the not-being-cool factor here, my experience was just totally different than what I think a lot of people’s experiences were. I’m glad the store was a part of the scene back in the day. I’d be curious to hear what 95:00musicians and other people have to say about the store. Because their take is going to be totally different. I saw the store as a store owner, and not as most people saw the store. I always saw what was wrong with it and what could be better until it was gone. So, I’d be curious what other people’s recollections and takes would be on the store, obviously on the scene as well. But I appreciate you asking about the store, too.

CN: It was a huge part of the scene.

JT: That’s what I hear. That’s what I hear.

CN: Well, I guess are we good?

JT: I feel pretty good about it. 96:00I don’t think you need to take anything out. /AT//