00:00:05.780 - 00:01:22.400

[Jerry Atwood playing piano and singing Strip Polka] Right, so staring off, just, can you give us a brief kind of summary of how your childhood was like and – Grew up in conservative Texas City, very conservative

00:01:22.400 - 00:01:37.440

and, uh, around conservative parents. And, uh, very conservative upbringing all, so fronts and, uh, there was no option for any kind of, uh, sexuality expression, like, whatsoever.

00:01:38.040 - 00:01:51.020

You know, uh, I'm very frustrated, very half angry and half crazy. And, uh, you know, your crushes are on the wrong gender growing up and you've quickly realized that is like not flying with your friends.

00:01:51.730 - 00:02:03.950

Quickly, I mean, like, shut the door. Um, uh, my mother probably always had an inkling because she was very perceptive and saw that I was a little different from everybody else. But, um, goin' through school and, and had some, all kinds of challenges.

00:02:03.950 - 00:02:15.760

I came out in the end of my, the beginning of my third year at Lamar University. And at that point in time I had to really fess up to my close friends who were really, some were wonderful and some turned out to be not so

00:02:15.760 - 00:02:30.700

wonderful and I found out who my friends were. And some of those became lifelong friends and others dropped away as many people do. And so I moved to Houston in '72, started working in engineering right away and had, uh, a great career for 38 years, um, working for

00:02:30.700 - 00:02:42.340

various consulting engineers and other entities and, uh, made some money and then always played music, from the time I was 2 years old until, still doing it.

00:02:42.340 - 00:02:54.770

The music was always around. I started making money with music when I was 11 years old playing for style shows. Then I started playing in a, uh, in soul bands and I did rhythm and blues music, uh, played keyboards in bands that traveled around too

00:02:55.190 - 00:03:11.870

and the black schools back, because the schools are still segregated in '65. And, um, and then, uh, started playing in, uh, other bands and still did that for all these years. So, specifically, music, we, we know that you are, you are a longtime partner with, um,

00:03:12.740 - 00:03:21.860

Rick – Rick Como, right, yeah, we're – Can you tell us about that? – we're a little sabbatical right now but we've worked together on and off for 26 years. He's moved away for years and come back and, you know, we'll, we had, uh, pretty good

00:03:21.860 - 00:03:35.670

fame, as that when Como, um, playing for many society gigs and at, uh, a few regular things that really worked well to integrate us into, um, the society set, like Post Oak Grill and, uh, Ovations over

00:03:35.670 - 00:03:49.890

in Rice Village, I hear it's still there but it's kinda going dormant, the owner's getting, getting kinda tired of running a club. And, uh, and then, you know, don't have anything else in the world from, uh, like locally, just playing in, in that, now playing at one restaurant,

00:03:49.940 - 00:03:59.830

um, primarily and, um, it's working out okay. It's, it's not a lot of work and it's fun and it's comfortable. I work with eight, eight different singers over the course of a month. They're all very different. I, love that, love

00:03:59.950 - 00:04:10.140

the variety. I don't have to be accurate. I just kill it, play it and have fun and laugh and make mistakes and stumble and run. You did a lot of, though, uh, charity events.

00:04:10.140 - 00:04:24.030

Yes, I started – Why AIDS? Well, here's the deal, um, uh, AIDS came around, started infecting people here in about '82, '83 and, um, uh, well my group of friends, the ones that were the best looking, the best built,

00:04:24.390 - 00:04:38.530

had the most money, drove the nicest car, the most stylish, were the first to go. That gen, that round, that's a set of people were the first to hit the, they started disappearing because they didn't admit they were sick. It was a terrible stigma, frightening stigma.

00:04:38.750 - 00:04:49.090

I mean, when your friends start leaving and you hear oh, they're very sick, they're known, and their family doesn't wanna even talk to 'em, and that was, it was one of the most frightening things that's ever happened in my whole life. So –

00:04:49.090 - 00:05:02.740

Did, did you personally know anybody – Yes. – who suffered from that? Oh, heavens me, I, I've, I lost, from the earl, from the late '70s until, uh, the mid-'80s, I really lost, uh, probably 35 to 45% of

00:05:02.930 - 00:05:12.170

one social circle. And then there was others who I lost less but they were, they were really, it was just devastating. I mean, I went to so many funerals now,

00:05:12.170 - 00:05:24.750

it's like, pft, another funeral, okay. I sound crusty but that's the way it is. So, the charity events that you started and, you know, Christmas Songfest – Right. – can we talk about that and –

00:05:24.750 - 00:05:39.110

Yes. – its affect? Every year since I got out of college, I had people over the house and I played the piano, we all sang Christmas carols. So that kinda grew to about, uh, 250 people in a house that I had that was quite big over in the Binz here, um, in '80 s, '85.

00:05:40.070 - 00:05:49.900

'86, I got busy with Ricky Como working, uh, working, planning to get my music started. I didn't have one and people got mad at me and they would send me a re, they would tell me I know, uh, why aren't you having

00:05:49.900 - 00:06:04.730

your party this year. I said well, you know, I didn't have time. In '87, um, I was asked to play for a red beans and rice fund raiser for Omega House which was our fairly newly established hospice here. And, uh, and there's only three beds at the time they needed eight and

00:06:04.730 - 00:06:15.010

they still had a waiting line for 20 at any given time. So, um, I volunteered my time for that. I made, uh, 1200 bucks or something and so, I said, well, you know what, and this was in October.

00:06:15.370 - 00:06:25.880

By December, I think it was beginning of December weekend, stage a fundraiser at Loco Hotel and make some money. We did. Passed out, you know, words to people and, uh, played all these

00:06:25.880 - 00:06:39.520

Christmas carols, had a gr, zany old time, had food and all that and made 6300 bucks. The next year we made 9,000. Next year we made 13,000 and kept going up from there. After a number of years, it leveled off after so many benefits.

00:06:39.520 - 00:06:51.190

We were just all benefited out, you know, every, every week there was like three to five benefits that we really wanted to go to but just couldn't spend all your money, No. 1 and No. 2, just got weary of – well, it ended 5 years ago.

00:06:51.190 - 00:07:07.980

Yeah, it was a struggle to get people to come 'cause it was a very old event and very, very, very old thing but it was a lot of fun because we'd, we'd, uh, have silent auctions at the beginning and we sang Christmas carols with all the audience participating. Sometimes as many as 60 people on stage, we had a giant stage and, um, and then

00:07:08.300 - 00:07:16.760

after that was dancing. We'd do disco dancing with all the singers that I worked with. You know, I'd play live and they would, uh, they would sing and everybody'd dance and a good old time for, while the, um, while the

00:07:16.910 - 00:07:30.700

silent auction closed down. But it got, uh, less and less people down to about 275 the last time we did it 5 years ago and we just decided, you know what, it's not enough money to worry about. We've had a good 20 years and it's time to pass it on to someone else. So we gave our 501c3 to

00:07:30.700 - 00:07:40.110

Marion Coleman, one of our really long-term activist here. She's been active for many, many years and much more active than I have. Um, and she's still around being very active.

00:07:40.400 - 00:07:52.710

She assumed our 501c3 and has, uh, the kindred spirit celebration, an annual event, plus a couple other events during the year to make, uh, fund, do fundraising for community health issues primarily. And women's issues.

00:07:53.020 - 00:08:05.890

So during that 20-year span, what would you say was the biggest challenge that you guys faced in organizing this event? Um, just, uh, doing at all volunteers. No one was paid. We had to get a 501c3

00:08:05.890 - 00:08:15.970

established, we, we had to do everything ourselves. Oh, the food was brought in. We, we didn't pay people to, we didn't, they didn't buy their food from the hotel. The one time when we realized we couldn't do that anymore 'cause we didn't make any money,

00:08:16.830 - 00:08:28.090

uh, but then we started, we brought everything in, including the lighting, the, I mean, everything. And, uh, so we, I had very low cost. As the years went on, the cost rose percentage wise 'cause we weren't, weren't, weren't making as much money.

00:08:29.090 - 00:08:42.610

Uh, and we decided to shut it down at the end, but the 501c3 is still being used to great benefit. But I will say that we have a huge amount of fun, uh, putting that event on. It was extremely well received with the community, the g, population in

00:08:42.610 - 00:08:56.480

general and our, our community, uh, mainly was populated by our community but there was still, each year fully 15 percent of population there was straight people, patrons, I mean. And, uh, everybody loved it. It was a very, very festive event.

00:08:56.480 - 00:09:06.500

I mean, just over the top giggle, silly, fun, um, anything would go. When people made a big mistake, you laughed about it. Kids there and great grandmothers and it was really a nice event.

00:09:08.240 - 00:09:22.350

But one of the things I do need to, uh, inter, interject about Songfest is that even though I was the, was the, kinda the impetus of getting founded, there were other people that were absolutely essential the whole time. It was all volunteers and they worked their behinds off for all those years.

00:09:22.450 - 00:09:36.190

I was just kind of the, uh, the, the glue that held it all together but many fine, talented, smart people, uh, gathered around and saw the benefit of the cause and, um, and really, I would've not been able to m, make

00:09:36.190 - 00:09:50.050

it work by myself, I just didn't have all the skills that it took to, uh, to communicate with large numbers of people, to write really finely worded documents when you're in a pickle. Um, that sort of thing.

00:09:50.050 - 00:10:00.710

It was just so many things that I, do food. Hey, food for 800 people? Bit of a challenge. So, uh, they, the volunteers for Songfest were magnificent from beginning to the end.

00:10:02.450 - 00:10:16.020

And, uh, even need a little, did a little minor one for the, the BCPA, Bayou City Performing Arts which is is the gay men's chorus, the gay women's chorus and band, uh, at the restaurant that I work at. It was very small thing, uh, just a restaurant, it holds 100

00:10:16.020 - 00:10:28.170

people, uh, well, not too long ago in the Christmas season. And next year, we'll hope to have another one that will be more successful because we'll have more time to put it together. But it's a easy thing for me to stage.

00:10:28.170 - 00:10:40.040

I just call singers that I know up and say who are you, who of you, who among you are willing to volunteer and I'm willing to play. Mu, the music equipment's set up, the venue's there, all you do is show up and sing and go home and you've done something good.

00:10:40.590 - 00:10:55.590

And they're always willing to step up to the plate. The Diana Award, were you proud of getting it? Absolutely, you know, the Dianas are known for trashing people and, um, the same year they trashed me and told all sorts of true, uh, horrible things about me in public,

00:10:55.960 - 00:11:10.350

um, 'cause after all, I spent a decade, um, being, uh, a gay man in the no, let's see, the no consequences, um, world. So I had a great old time, did some things I wouldn't be proud of

00:11:10.350 - 00:11:20.730

now and they trashed me and got me on their big event, you know, and then turned around 20 minutes later and gave me their, uh, their Award for community service. Community service, yeah.

00:11:21.100 - 00:11:34.210

So I think it's the, like one of the family after that. Um – Well that means I gotta hold my gut in. Oh, one of the things that wa, is kinda funny,

00:11:34.600 - 00:11:50.010

um, uh, or not f, uh, interesting was that, you know, uh, we had a mayor, uh, mayor, mayoral candidate, uh, years ago, Louie Welch who, uh, back in the '80s, who, um, met a gaff on, on the news camera while it was running and one of the photographers, one of the photographers

00:11:50.010 - 00:11:58.040

said, uh, Mr. Welch, what do you think we ought a do about the homosexuals. He said shoot the queers. Yeah, he – And this tee shirt was from that era.

00:11:58.580 - 00:12:10.900

It says Louie don't shoot. Louie, don't shoot. That's good I still have a lot of old activist tee shirts in the old days. That's really funny. And then we proceeded to have a march from

00:12:11.000 - 00:12:21.820

Montrose and Westheimer to City Hall that night with, uh, I believe that's where we went to, to protest. My future plans really, uh, have to do with re, going into retirement.

00:12:22.270 - 00:12:37.310

Uh, I wanna play music as long as my hands and my bod holds up, uh, I think I can do it well into my 80s, if I hold up like my parents did, um, and are, uh, are and so, um, I can make some extra money with my Social Security from a pretty decent

00:12:37.310 - 00:13:13.230

career I'll do okay. And my dad had let me, my parents had let me run the way I wanted to and become a musician, I wouldn’t had that option, I woulda been really poor and really miserable right

00:13:17.940 - 00:13:35.150

now probably [Jerry Atwood playing piano and singing Strip Polka]