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A PIECE OF MY MIND: DAVID ISLEY, WILLIE CLAY, THE ROCK N' ROLL EXPRESS AND MORE

I was in Charlotte, N.C., this week and while I was in Gold’s Gym I found myself looking at a familiar face. So I asked the man if he remembered me from Allentown, PA., when I was hanging around with Afa and Sika “The Wild Samoans”. He said “Yes I do”; I reintroduced myself to a guy who was a great worker whether as a heel or a babyface. I also reminded him that the last time I saw him it was at Nelson Royal's funeral. It was great seeing Rene Goulet again. We got a chance to talk about old times. I gave him some updates on some guys. He told me about Ric Flair breaking Stan Lane into the business, since he was in the territory at the time and got to see a lot of it firsthand. It’s always great running in to guys that you haven’t seen in a long time.

That was a rough week not only did Nelson pass away but the mother of “The Wild Thing” Willie Clay, Etta Clay also passed away that week as well. I remember riding with “Carolina’s Own” David Isley to both wakes on the same night. Willie was the local promoter in Concord, N.C. where we used to work on a very regular basis. It was at Willie’s shows that I first became a manager and then first became a wrestler. I started out working babyface against Gary Royal. It had to be Gary because I had no chance otherwise. I went into the ring with no in ring training to speak of. Any training I did have was many many years earlier.

I was managing David Isley at the time and working babyface participating in matches and learning as I was going along. It wasn’t long after that we decided it was time to turn “The Yankee” heel so we started a slow turn. In time David got suspended for something and I brought him back in as “The Midnight Rider”. We were still not turned but we were on our way. In time the whole thing blew up and “The Rat Patrol” was born. We had started using Willie Nelson’s Midnight Rider as our entrance music and we got real hated real quickly. It was nuts, but the second that music played, we were already getting booed. It wasn’t long after thereafter that we needed police escorts to our car by the local Concord, N.C. police. The local officers, like Tony Atwell and Debra Crump, were normally on duty and would get us to our cars. We always went and hit Shoney’s after the show and talked over the nights events.
These shows were a lot of fun an literally minutes from the house when I was living in Concord, NC.

When it came to the Wild Thing Willie Clay he was a local hero in the community. He was also a totally accomplished musician and played locally in the Carolina’s for many years and I believe still does today. He even appeared on a program out of Nashville called Catch a Rising Star performing his own original song. It was easy to understand why the people backed him and hated me. I came out with my Yankee attitude and that’s all it took. I believe our big blow off angle was myself and my many times opponent “Gorgeous" Gary Royal and someone named the Buddha who was a white Abdullah the Butcher type that I really liked against Willie Clay, Jimmy Jam Garvin and Michael P.S. Hayes. At the time Isley was suspended for previous actions. It was the next to the last match for Michael Hayes before he started with the WWE. We had to go on early so Jimmy and Michael could get down the road to their double shot. So we worked with Michael on his last Indy show ever and probably one of the last for Jimmy Garvin. On that night Willie turned us babyface after a long running feud. The Buddha was ordered to attack me by Gary Royal and Isley ran in from the stands to save me from the beating and believe it or not our old enemy “The Wild Thing” Willie Clay made the save.

I spoke to Willie today to catch up and found out he was running The National Guard Armory in Mooresville, N.C. on Saturday Feb 7th 2009. It was just going to be some of the local guys which meant it was going to be a lot of fun. He invited me down and, truthfully, I wanted to go but while I am in Concord I have been catching up with old friends so I was already committed to celebrate my friend’s birthday with him and his wife, Richard and Kathy Jarvis. I knew though that sooner or later Willie will run another show when I am back in town and that music will start and I will head back to the ring. Of course I can do without the police escort the next time.

This picture was taken in January 2005 at WrestleReunion 1 of The Rock and Roll Express( Morton and Gibson) and The Fantastics (Fulton and Rogers). It was before they teamed up for the first time against The Midnight Express (Condry, Eaton , Lane and Cornette).