A somewhat more objective perspective is offered by Kearns, who had parted company with Henneman, Parr and Ortmann shortly before the meltdown that night. “My take on the whole thing was, I think that Tom, at that point, was wanting out of the band, and it had kinda been building up. This is just my thoughts on it, but I don’t think that he really knew how to just say, you know, guys, I don’t wanna do it anymore….He wasn’t exactly sure how to do it. So, he just did it that way.”
Ortmann is similarly philosophical about Parr’s departure in retrospect, suggesting it ultimately wasn’t all that different from when Tom Ray departed back in 1997. “Everyone has their own breaking point or their own interest level,” Ortmann figures. “And once it goes so far, it may not interest someone anymore. And when that person loses interest, they leave the band.”
Not that it wasn’t a significantly more emotional experience at the time. “I remember seeing Mark and Brian at Stubb’s [an Austin nightclub] right after it had just happened,” Kearns recalls, “and they came up to me and said, ‘Tom’s out of the band.’ I went, ‘WHAT?!’ And they told me the whole story.”
Despite the initial shock, Kearns says, “I wasn’t worried about it whatsoever. In fact, I quoted a Tom Petty song when we all parted ways that night. I told Brian, ‘Hey man, just like Tom Petty said — the future is wide open.'”
Less than 24 hours later, the Bottle Rockets took the stage as a trio on the back of a flatbed truck in the parking lot of Mother Egan’s at the Bloodshot showcase, following their old producer Eric Ambel’s band the Yayhoos. Henneman, Kearns and Ortmann sized up the jam-packed crowd and proceeded to knock them dead, filling the sweet spring Austin air with the soulful songs and sounds of Doug Sahm. By the time they wrapped up their set with the entire crowd shouting along on the chorus of Sahm’s “Stoned Faces Don’t Lie”, there was no doubt. The Bottle Rockets were back. Again.
The band toured for much of 2002 as a three-piece, and remained a trio when they went in to record Blue Sky in April 2003. (Other musicians helped out in the studio, notably producer Haynes, who added electric guitar, slide guitar and dobro on many tracks, and Mark Spencer, who played lap steel, electric guitar and sitar on “Baggage Claim”.)
Shortly before they began touring this fall, they added veteran St. Louis guitarist John Horton to the lineup. Horton and his brother-in-law Kip Loui had been playing bass with Henneman and Ortmann in a casual side-project band called Diesel Island over the past year, but Horton was also an accomplished guitarist and seemed a good fit for the Bottle Rockets’ aesthetic. “He’s a wonderful guitarist, and just a great personality; salt of the earth, and a great addition to the band,” Ortmann says.
Whether or not Horton also becomes involved in the band’s songwriting remains to be seen, although he says they have welcomed him to contribute; “that’s definitely a big plus” about joining the lineup, he affirms. Indeed, one of the Bottle Rockets’ distinguishing characteristics over the years is that the songs have come from so many sources within the band and its inner circle.
“Brian is obviously the focal point and the principal songwriter, but there’s contributions from all band members,” Ortmann notes, and a look at the credits over the course of their career bears him out. Though the broad participation is particularly evident on the new record, with Kearns writing or co-writing three songs and Ortmann involved in two others, previous discs also included contributions from each of them and from past members Parr and Ray.
Other close associates also are represented in the writing credits. Ambel and his Yayhoos bandmate Dan Baird turn up on Brand New Year, and Tom Parr’s brother Bob contributed one track each to three of the band’s albums (“Sometimes Found”, “Radar Gun” and “Waitin’ On A Train”).
But by far the most prominent collaborator is Taylor, their old high school teacher and musical mentor. Primarily a lyricist who turns to Henneman for melodies to carry his words, Taylor has co-written many of the Bottle Rockets’ most memorable songs, including “Kerosene” and “Got What I Wanted” from their self-titled 1993 debut, and “Welfare Music” and “Gravity Fails” from their sophomore disc The Brooklyn Side.
