Four people who were important early influences on Keith Strickland and Ricky Wilson were myself, Jeremy Ayers, Crist Kocher, and Jim Herbert. Other people with significant relationships during the band's formative period were Megan Timberlake and Robert Waldrop.
Jeremy, who died in October 2016, had an important facilitating influence on the band. Later after they were recording artists, Jeremy wrote the lyrics of 52 Girls. Our fathers were both UGA profs (Bob Ayers taught Religion while my Dad was in the College of Education) who played golf together at Green Hills Country Club for many years. Green Hills, as opposed to the genteel Athens CC, was the budget country club of the community, just a rugged 9-hole golf course and a club house with a swimming pool a few miles outside of town. Dad golfed every Saturday and Sunday until, late in life, he fell and hit his head on the floor in the bathroom after a round. Dad thought he was OK; but, unbeknownst to him, he had suffered a subdural hematoma that caused him to collapse a month later and crash into one of Mom's china cabinets. Dad had emergency surgery and survived but he was unsteady on his feet afterward and very anxious about falling, ending his golf career. Some years prior to that, Bob Ayers gave up golfing, after which Dad switched his game to the University of Georgia golf course, it being much closer to our house at 275 Milledge Terrace near Five Points. It seems to me someone told me Bob never really liked my Dad. If that was so, it was perhaps because Dad was an agnostic. But, my memory for the story is vague so it might never have happened. In any case, Dad had to find new golf partners which he did.
Jeremy was in the Athens High School Class of 1966, a year behind my oldest sister, Anne, a year ahead of Scottie, and four years ahead of me (Class of '70, the last before integration of the black and white high schools resulting in a new name, Clarke Central HS). Jerry, as he was then known, was friends with Anne and Scottie during high school. They were fun and silly together, pretending to be Jet Setters and listening to the soundtrack from the Pink Panther while affecting British accents.
When I was in Junior High, Jeremy started going to Green Hills regularly during the summer with me to hang out at the pool and work on our tans. He was pretty, outgoing, and charming and girls were drawn to him. I was shy and nerdy and a borderline social reject among my school peers from the Seventh through Ninth grades. I drew some self-esteem from hanging out with Jeremy, although it got me nowhere with the young ladies.
Jeremy graduated in 1966 in November 1964 and enrolled at UGA as an Art Major. I was starting 9th grade. I had taken up the guitar after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 (and later, in concert at Atlanta Stadium on August 18, 1965). During these years, mentored by Chip Condon, I began to develop as a musician. In 8th or 9th grade, I was recruited by Jim Ball to play bass in his band, The Wages of Sin, which included African-Americans Bobby Daniel and Reginald McBride. Later, I played guitar with Chip on electronic organ, vocalists Tyre Lanier and Bill Armstrong who modeled themselves on the Righteous Brothers, Tom Whitmire (drums), and Rob Crow (saxophone) in the Soul Pleasers. The local bands had horn sections and played what was called "soul music" which I would now say was lighter and whiter "beach music." These bands had signature "uniforms"- I just this moment remembered the Wages of Sin all wore light yellow slacks while the Soul Pleasers all wore gray slackers and Lacoste golf shirts. The singers wore red shirts while the instrumentalists wore navy blue ones.
I had been inspired to play by the British Invasion. I listened to American garage pop bands and early hard rock groups like the Kinks who got radio play and appeared on teen dance music shows. I was not enamored of any of these outfits or the music, whatever one called it; but, I had to go along if I wanted to be in a band. My good friend, David Hunt, had a cool mother with a great record collection we listened to together at his house on Oakland Avenue featuring artists like Howling Wolf, Love, and the Yardbirds. I bought singles with my allowance and the occasional LP when I could afford one.
As the counterculture of the 1960s emerged, I was following musical and cultural developments closely through TV and the news media. I had eager ears for each of the new and amazing bands that emerged- the Byrds, the Doors, the Electric Prunes, the Music Machine, the Buffalo Springfield, the Who, Cream and the unbelievable Jimi Hendrix Experience. I became a big fan of the Rolling Stones. I sneaked into one of the downtown theaters to see the avant-garde film Blow-Up after reading about it in a magazine (I devoured Time, Life, Look and US News & World Report cover-to-cover for many years). In the 9th grade, I took a news quiz sponsored by Time Magazine and was a national winner. In my youth, I was often ahead of the culture curve, at least, relative to Athens, Georgia culture. I discovered Bob Dylan and listened to his albums, old and new, until I had most or all the lyrics to a number of his long songs fully memorized. Dylan definitively confirmed society was as screwed up as I thought it was.
Jeremy and I continued to be good friends. He introduced me to Jim Herbert, a prominent Art School professor and filmmaker. Jim had an old plantation house on Dearing Street with slave shacks in the back. He rented rooms to many art students including his constant companion Crist Kocher. I started spending as much time as possible with then-Jerry and Crist and sat on the porch at Dearing Street many times talking to Jim Herbert. In remarkable contrast to my peers from school, I was taken seriously as a young prodigy by Jim and Crist. Jeremy eventually disclosed that he and Crist were gay and in a relationship. They were my first openly gay friends and I accepted them without reservations. I particularly admired Crist who always had the best, cutting edge LPs, by groups such as John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, Captain Beefheart, and the Velvet Underground. The three of us saw Jimi Hendrix's first concert in Atlanta together. They introduced me to smoking marijuana which I loved initially, especially combined with amphetamines and alcohol. I was anxious to try everything, having started drinking with an old friend shortly after I turned 16.
At the end of my 10th-grade year (1967-68), I was the first boy at AHS to grow my hair out. Kids who were identifying with the counterculture gravitated to me and one another and a small group of "AHS hippies" emerged. Ricky Wilson and Roy Bell were early members. I met Keith that summer. I was standing in front of Barnett's News Stand reading Tiger Beat magazine and he came up to me with some other people I already knew. I liked him right away. Keith's family had just moved to Athens from Comer as his Dad, Julian, took over management of the Southeastern Stages bus station on Broad Street. Keith's Mom, Jo, worked with Julian as the bookkeeper. I later learned they were together all day and were the happiest married couple I've ever seen.
I introduced Keith, Ricky and the rest of my friends to Jerry, Crist, Jim Herbert, and the Dearing Street art scene. Another good friend of ours was Megan Timberlake, daughter of the Chair of Economics at UGA. Megan was and is a brilliant but troubled woman who, after graduation from high school, became notorious for publicly flaunting social conventions. As only one illustrative example, she once showed up at a wedding reception naked. My song "The Goddess Who Dances" was partially inspired by Megan, whom I admired and counted as a close friend although we never had a romantic interest in one another. I should mention here that from an early age, I fell in love with a large percentage of the girls I met at school as well as the ones I saw on TV and in movies. I was always hoping to have a real girlfriend but my desires came to naught until I was a senior in high school.
On the first day of my 11th-grade year (1968-69), Danny Brayton, a kid with long hair who just moved to Athens from Miami, was in my homeroom the first day of school. We were the only boys in the school who had the look. I quickly learned Danny was a bass player. We formed a friendship and musical partnership that was brief but occasionally encouraging, if not exciting. Danny introduced me to LSD within a few months which, having read about, I was eager to take. I had hopes of expanded consciousness and fantastic adventures in perception. Unfortunately, although I remember listening rapturously to Jimi Hendrix's astonishing wah guitar work on Electric Lady Land as I was "getting off," it quickly became frighteningly clear acid didn't agree with me. After I was relieved to return to sanity, but, I didn't recall exactly what had gone wrong. It took me two or three very unpleasant trips, one of which landed me in the ER at St. Mary's where my stomach was pumped, to realize it was dangerous for me to use the stuff because under its influence, I became paranoid and psychotic and experienced visions of being in Hell characterized by profound guilt, shame and terror. This was neither enlightening nor fun.
By the end of the school year, Danny dropped out and moved to Dearing Street with his young girlfriend from Miami and later, his wife, Patty Cappiello. I was extremely fond of Patty and corresponded with her for some time after she and Danny had a baby and split up with Patty returning to Miami with their son. Before that happened, Jim made a film of the couple having sex at various locations around the Dearing Street house and grounds. I don't recall the details but Danny and I drifted apart and he moved away before my senior year of high school.
I found out Keith played drums- he had that set of gold Ludwigs- and I recruited him to start a band. Ricky, who agreed to play bass, Keith, and I jammed together during my 11th-grade year and played as a power trio at a Battle of Bands in the AHS auditorium. Our set revolved around me playing the guitar behind my head, behind my back, and between my legs on a Hendrix-like arrangement of Rock Me Baby. This helped cement my reputation as the hot up-and-coming guitarist of the local scene. We placed 2nd behind an all-black soul group modeled on the Temptations who later forfeited the title because some of their members exceeded to contest's age limit.
My Senior year. I was the unofficial leader of the so-called hippies. Our friends hung out at school, went out together on the weekends, and had a lot of adventures. Keith, Ricky and I decided to start a band that would aspire to be the American answer to the Beatles, whom we all idolized. In the summer of 1970, we rented an old house on Georgia Avenue. At some point, probably during my that year, Ricky came out to me. At an opportune moment at my parents' house, Ricky looked at me nervously as said, "I have something to tell you. Ricky Wilson is gay." My response was something like, OK, Ricky, that's cool with me. I've got other gay friends.
Almost all of our friends went down to Byron, Georgia for Atlanta Pop !! where I saw Jimi for the 2nd time live. We added a fourth member, Pete Love, from Louisville, GA, to the band. Pete was starting at UGA in the Fall. I was also supposed to do that but I got into trouble for taking the SAT for some friends of mine, so I had to wait until Winter Quarter to start college. For whatever reason, the band never jelled. We failed to develop any original material other than one rock & roll instrumental, the only piece of music from that era I still remember. Pete flunked out of Georgia within one or two quarters and returned to south Georgia. The band dissolved. I was recruited to join some of the guys from the soul group that won the Battle of the Bands to form Chain Reaction, a cover group in the mold of Sly & the Family Stone. It was a very talented bunch but I didn't take it seriously as far as my aspiration to be a rock star. I still wanted to have a traditional two guitars, drums, and bass group in the mold of the Yardbirds, Kinks, Beatles and Stones.
I eventually quit around 1972 to form a band with Conner Tribble that eventually became the Zambo Flirts. Rather than the Beatles, the Zambo Flirts were inspired by the Stones. We covered about 30 Stones songs including many fairly obscure ones that didn't make it as singles. Our drummer, Jimmy Lord aka Red, got busted for selling marijuana and spent most of a year at a county prison in Jackson, Georgia. During this time, Keith replaced Red as our drummer. King of the Moon story. The Zambo Flirts lasted about 2 years.
Things went sour and I was kicked out. I was frustrated with my musicianship and began to doubt I or the Zambo Flirts would be successful. I had been reading Carl Jung extensively and, after agonizing about what Plan B might look like, I decided to go back and finish college at UGA. I was still socializing with Jeremy, Keith, Ricky and our wide circle of art and music-oriented friends including Robert Waldrop. Robert was highly creative- his poetry became the lyrics to several iconic songs including Hero Worship, Roam, and Revolution Earth. Mark Methe and Dan Wall moved to town and started Wuxtry. Kate Pierson and her British husband of convenience, Bryan Cockaigne, landed here. They became friends with Jerry/Jeremy and subsequently with the future B-52s and their close friends (later memorialized in the song Deadbeat Club). Fred Schneider came to Athens to attend UGA and became part of the club. At one point, Ricky and Keith had a band named Loon with Megan Timberlake and her boyfriend, John Higbee. Megan was the singer. While she was a very talented writer and actress, music was not one of Megan's real strengths. Megan's extreme behavior eventually alienated Ricky and Keith, as it did many other of her closest friends. I've heard it said Megan in the past resented the success of the B-52s and felt she should have been included in the band.
I had gotten close to Kate and, of course, had a secret crush on her. She and Bryan were not getting along due to his drinking and abusive behavior; and, Kate wisely decided to divorce him. She was working at the time as a paste-up person at the Athens Daily News. I pursued Kate and we started a relationship. I started going out more often with Kate and her circle of friends that included Jeremy and the future B-52s. Kate and I tried working up an acoustic duo but I was too discouraged about making a living with music and my heart wasn't in it.
Skinny dipping incident at Legion Pool.
My last quarter at UGA was Spring 1976. I put in applications to grad school starting in the late Fall. Sometime during that period, the famous start of the band with an evening of drinking at a local Chinese restaurant happened.
I was accepted to West Virginia University and offered a very nice scholarship. They invited me up for an interview in the Spring and Kate drove up with me. I eventually decided I would go there. Kate and I also drove up to New York together at the start of school around August 1976. We stopped to visit her family in Weehawken, NJ and then stayed in New York City at an apartment a couple she knew had overlooking Central Park.
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We were still ostensibly a couple but after I started school, we were clearly going separate ways. I was gone when they had their Valentine's Day debut 2/14/77. The band went to NYC and began catching on immediately. I drove up to visit and see them play at CBGBs sometime in 1977. Kate and I were emotionally disconnected and I knew it was time to accept a breakup. We parted on friendly terms and have remained good friends ever since.
