Roger Schutt / Captain Midnight(Born in 1931-Died Tuesday Feb. 8, 2005)
Captain Midnight in His Nero Jacket and Shades
A Quote from CMT.com
Roger Schutt, who ruled Nashville radio in the late '60s and early '70s as Captain Midnight. Born in Durand, Mich. Schutt is perhaps best known as a confidant, guru and pinball-playing partner to Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, Tompall Glaser, Billy Joe Shaver and Kinky Friedman during the peak of country music's Outlaws movement of the '70s."It's really hard to peg Midnight," Friedman told CMT.com. "He was like a country Rasputin, sort of. Waylon and Roger Miller and Tompall and a number of others, too, considered him valuable. He was a master of the human comedy, patron saint of sleepless nights and friend to all . . .
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| Ralph's Morning TV Show |
The restaurant that momma and daddy opened was doing really well in spring of 1968. They had built up a clientele and people like them. So on most nights they worked till midnight. There was a group of T.V. WSM Channel Four employees, and radio channel WSM 650 A.M. employees and also WKDA and WMAK A.M. rock channels that would call and get momma and daddy to deliver a pizza to the radio show after they would close the pizza shop. They got to know all the local deejay’s well and got lots of free advertisements because the deejay’s would say things about the pizzas on the air. The two that daddy liked best were Captain Midnight was his stage name. He was a little weird guy but he really liked momma and daddy and of course there was Ralph Emery the WSM 650 A.M. midnight till six a.m. country deejay. Momma and daddy and I met lots of country and western singers at Ralph’s show, he would let me sit in his show and answer the phones for him to take requests, that was after I came home to live with momma and daddy which I will bring up soon in my story. People like Junior Samples( the comedian )Tex Ritter and there was Martie Robbins, Farron Young ( The sheriff ) just to name a few. If you notice I don't mind name dropping because it always made me feel important . . .
I met a few new kids in West Nashville. Marsha Toombs and her brother Mark and there was Steve Mayo, he was younger than we were. He asks momma and daddy for a job and they started letting him work on week ends, washing dishes and sweeping the floors. He acted older than what he was. It was a hard thing to do when I had to go back to the children's home. It got harder and harder each week when I had to leave. Momma and daddy started buying things for me. They bought me a small four-inch T.V which I already told you about. I would hide under coves late at night so I could watch Johnny Carson show that was after lights out time. They also bought me a transistor radio. I know now they were trying to make up for all the stuff that I had been through. It worked, my ego was bigger than I was. I had someone that cared, but most all the other kids didn't have anyone . . .
I met a few new kids in West Nashville. Marsha Toombs and her brother Mark and there was Steve Mayo, he was younger than we were. He asks momma and daddy for a job and they started letting him work on week ends, washing dishes and sweeping the floors. He acted older than what he was. It was a hard thing to do when I had to go back to the children's home. It got harder and harder each week when I had to leave. Momma and daddy started buying things for me. They bought me a small four-inch T.V which I already told you about. I would hide under coves late at night so I could watch Johnny Carson show that was after lights out time. They also bought me a transistor radio. I know now they were trying to make up for all the stuff that I had been through. It worked, my ego was bigger than I was. I had someone that cared, but most all the other kids didn't have anyone . . .
I started taking people home with me, Linda Harding, Diana Eubank for a few. We always had a ball. We would eat pizza and play the juke box and stay up all night. My parents had come along ways from when they were bankrupt and drinking and fighting all the time. I got to spend almost all summer in 1968 at the new house in West Nashville. I got to know a lot of the customers and they got to know me. Many of the West Sector Police Prescient were customers of Pepe's. The restaurant was right across the street from the Bel-Air Drive Inn. We would sneak in at the exit and watch movies for free. Then we got caught but they didn't call the cops cause they knew me and knew that I knew almost all the policemen in West Nashville, so they settled for a free pizza that night . . .
Merle Kilgore (August 9, 1934 – February 6, 2005)Merle had a career as a country music recording artist but had great success as a songwriter, co-writing with June Carter Cash the song Ring of Fire, first recorded by her sister Anita Carter and later by June's future husband, Johnny Cash (Kilgore was a distant cousin of the Carter sisters through their maternal grandmother, Margaret Kilgore Addington). He also wrote Claude King's big crossover hit, Wolverton Mountain. Amongst others, he also penned "Johnny Reb" for Johnny Horton and the Tommy Roe pop music hit, The Folk Singer. In the early 1960s, he toured with Cash as part of his package show. On April 7, 1986, he was named Executive Vice President and head of management of Hank Williams Jr. Enterprises. In addition to managing Hank Williams Jr's career (along with that of Hank Jr’s Bama Band), Merle managed a number of other artists from his Nashville, In office. Merle also had a number of successful business ventures and held numerous leadership positions. Merle’s prominence in the country music community had grown in recent years through his involvement as Vice President of the Country Music Association and he had served on the CMA Board of Directors since 1989. Also contributing to his success was his position as President of both the Nashville Songwriter’s Foundation and the Nashville Songwriter’s Association International . . .
Now comes the story of the very important person that came into my life that had the biggest impact on my whole life. One week end I was with momma and daddy when they closed the restaurant. They would ride around and see what was happening around town. Like I said early on in this chapter, they knew Captain Midnight. He had a couple of guest on his show by the name Guy Mitchell and Merle Kilgore and momma wanted to meet Guy. He had sales in excess of 44 million units and this included six million-selling singles and had been in many movies. Merle Kilgore was Hank Williams Jr road and business manager. He was at Captains to promote a new album that Guy was doing for Starday Records where he had a contract to do three albums. So off we went to Captains studio. When we got there, we were sitting in the studio with Captain and the Great Guy Mitchell. They were talking about the love of a puppy. How when you scold a puppy, they will put their heads down and their tail between their legs and hid and all you have to do is click your fingers and they will come running back to you with instant love ( was he talking about me )? I was kinda like a puppy if I liked you I would do almost anything to get you to like me back. I was very impressed with him. Captain told Guy and Merle that daddy was a pizza man and they begged daddy to go get them a pizza. So off we go to the shop to make a pizza for them . . .
When we returned, Merle had left and we were stuck with Guy, yes stuck. Guy was in Nashville to make a come back because he had lost everything from his drinking problem. He was broke. He had no car, knew no one and so we had to take him to the apartment that Merle had rented for him. We never did find it cause he didn't know where it was. So we finely called Captain and he told us Merle's phone number and we called him and he told us to just bring him to his house and so we did. We lost touch until later that month. August of 1968 I think it was . . .
I was having to go back to Monroe Harding to start school. I hated going back to Monroe by this time I really didn't hate Monroe but I wanted to stay home with my parents. I wanted to stay where all the action was. Momma and daddy had made major changes in their life and I felt that they could handle me OK. I think I could cope with them and their drinking. I had learned some social skills by now and what the heck I just wanted to go home. I thought I knew what was good for me. One week end after school started-back I was there at the pizza shop and momma had a phone call telling her that Guy was in a place called Samaritan Center. It ( for a lack of a better description ) was a flop house for alcoholic's. ( flop house is a place where people can hang out while they were trying to not drink) He had told someone to call Pepe's pizza in West Nashville and tell them that he was there and please come get him. So off momma went to get Guy and bring him to our house. He was drunk and he was pitiful. We called the man that brought him to Nashville and he arranged to take him to Cumberland Heights for detox and treatment. I was so on a hero trip with him, and he could do no wrong. I went to see him every weekend for the thirty-day treatment. So he kinda took a liking to me and I really liked him. He became my next person who I followed around like a puppy and he showed me the attention I need so desperately . . .
When we returned, Merle had left and we were stuck with Guy, yes stuck. Guy was in Nashville to make a come back because he had lost everything from his drinking problem. He was broke. He had no car, knew no one and so we had to take him to the apartment that Merle had rented for him. We never did find it cause he didn't know where it was. So we finely called Captain and he told us Merle's phone number and we called him and he told us to just bring him to his house and so we did. We lost touch until later that month. August of 1968 I think it was . . .
I was having to go back to Monroe Harding to start school. I hated going back to Monroe by this time I really didn't hate Monroe but I wanted to stay home with my parents. I wanted to stay where all the action was. Momma and daddy had made major changes in their life and I felt that they could handle me OK. I think I could cope with them and their drinking. I had learned some social skills by now and what the heck I just wanted to go home. I thought I knew what was good for me. One week end after school started-back I was there at the pizza shop and momma had a phone call telling her that Guy was in a place called Samaritan Center. It ( for a lack of a better description ) was a flop house for alcoholic's. ( flop house is a place where people can hang out while they were trying to not drink) He had told someone to call Pepe's pizza in West Nashville and tell them that he was there and please come get him. So off momma went to get Guy and bring him to our house. He was drunk and he was pitiful. We called the man that brought him to Nashville and he arranged to take him to Cumberland Heights for detox and treatment. I was so on a hero trip with him, and he could do no wrong. I went to see him every weekend for the thirty-day treatment. So he kinda took a liking to me and I really liked him. He became my next person who I followed around like a puppy and he showed me the attention I need so desperately . . .
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| Father Ronald Guy Mithchell Doc Smith At The House Behind Pepe's After They Got Out Of Cumberland Heights |
He was a real showman he always was on stage. He was always making people laugh and he was a very generous fellow. If he had money, we all had money. He was bigger than life. He is what most people think of when they think of a movie star. He was spoiled and he took advantage of that. The first month he was with momma and daddy, he would go to Cedarwood every day and was recording at Starday, We became really acquitted with many major people in the music business. They all treated me and daddy like we were just part of the country music family just because daddy and momma were trying to help Guy to stay sober. They did a very good job for a while . . .
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| Guy Mitchell ( February 27, 1927 – July 1, 1999 ) |
About this time Guy had met a young girl named Jenny Farris, and she was the daughter of a prominent lawyer in Nashville. She and he fell in love. I was so jealous of her, even if Guy was 30 years my senior. I had finely found a man that showed me the attention I needed. He was, always kind to me and would do anything to make me happy if he could, OK we will go back to Jenny. She took time away from me. He was spending it with her. She was helping Guy get his drivers licence back and got him a small VW Comagiea to drive . . .
She was nice, she would let me go with her and Guy almost everywhere they went. She had a stable of horses, and they were English jumpers. She even taught me how to jump fences and how to ride with an English saddle and to what they called post the ride of the horse. That is the rhythm of you and the horses gate. She also arranged for me to give lessons at a day camp for rich kids. I was to teach them how to ride. I think she did that so I would be tied up and not under their feet. That way she and Guy could have some alone time. It was fun so I didn't mind doing it. So I guess she was OK for a while. As long as she let me go along after the camp was over . . .
The photos below are of Guy Mitchell in 1968 these are covers of the two albums, Frisco Line and Traveling Shoes, that he did while he stayed with momma and daddy. If you noticed there were only two albums, because they fired him and did just what they said the would, they tore up his contract. The photo on the end is of Guy with my niece when she was a baby at Jacos Pizza which I will tell about Jaco's later in my story. . .
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| Guy And My Niece Tiffany At Jaco's Pizze |
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| Guy At Jenny's Back Yard |
Guy had no drivers licence so daddy had to drive him everywhere he went and when I would come home for the week end I would ride along with him. I was a constant companion of Guys. When he got out of Cumberland, he did not go to AA. I would like to say that the treatment stuck for Guy but he just couldn't stay sober. Within a month he was drunk and running wild. He sobered up again this time going to A.A. meetings that was in 1968 and there was a place in Nashville called The Friendship House (which you read about from when my momma and daddy were sent to A.A.) where they had the meetings and he was also taking Antabuse. That is a drug used to support the treatment of chronic alcoholism by producing an acute sensitivity to alcohol. He drank on top of the antabuse and I thought he was gonna die and so did he. We didn't think he was drinking. We looked for the signs of him drinking. He got knee knocking commode hugging drunk. We did not understand, there was no beer bottles no whiskey bottles what could it have been? He was going up to a little store where we had a charge account and was charging SSS Tonic and Vanilla extract. The SSS Tonic was about 24% alcohol that made it 48 proof and vanilla extract is very high in alcohol too. When we went to pay our bill, it was much higher than what we had thought. Daddy had a talk to the store manager and he explained that Guy had told him that he was getting it for you, Daddy told them that no one but him, momma or me was allowed to charge there . . .
He was in the middle of recording one of his albums Traveling Shoes, so they let him finish that one and then they released him of his obligation of the third album. I got to go with him as he finished the second one and I felt so important. Daddy and I would go over to Cedarwood Publishing and sit around and shoot the crap with Mrs. Dolly Denny. She was a grand lady of country music she was well respected by all in the music business. She was the mother of John Denny . . .
We met Mel Tillis and Kris Kristofferson before they were famous. Mel had some songs on the charts and was signed with Columbia Records. He wrote for Webb Pierce's" I Ain't Never." In 1965 but on the Kapp Records is where he was signed when "Life Turned Her That Way" was a hit. As for Chris, he lived in a small apartment behind Cedarwood Publishing across the ally and would sneak in the back door to swipe donuts and coffee from Cedarwood. They knew he was doing it but never said anything to him. He had a room mate that I had a big crush on named Bucky Wilkin, and his mother was Marijohn Wilkin. She wrote Long Black Vail sang by Lefty Frizzell and Waterloo done by Stonewall Jackson, both for Cedarwood, she worked with John D Laudermilk and Mel Tillis and many others. She was given credit for being the one who discovered Kris Kristofferson in 1965 because it was his first signed contract. Marijohn founded her own music publishing company, Buckhorn Music in 1964, where she published Bucky's song, "Little G.T.O" and it was their first hit. He was the lead singer of Ronnie and The Dayton's. She was well known for co-writing, One Day At A Time, with Kris, which was released in the early 70's. Now I will go back to Kris and Bucky, they had a wire roll, ( looks like a spool that thread comes on ) that big power lines are wrapped on, as a coffee table and had the holes in the walls covered with newspaper wet it down and let it dry so it would stick to the wall, it was a trip and they really were great guys . . .
At one time daddy lent Jimmy Payne $100.00 so he could go on a gig ( that's job lingo in the music business) He and Jim Glaser wrote Woman, Woman in 1967 and Gary Puckett and The Union Gap was the first to make it a big hit. Knowing these people made it possible for daddy and myself to go to a place that was called The Professional Club. It was a bar across from Cedarwood on 16th Ave (Music Row). It had a pool table and a juke box and a large long bar and a shuffle board. Minors were not allowed but they made exceptions for me. You had to be a member to come in. I was, at sixteen, hanging out with some really big stars. People like Tompall Glaser, Jim Glaser, Farron Young, Lefty Ferzell, Web Pierce. it was nothing for us to be at a recording and people like Stonewall Jackson, Bob Jennings, Don (Ox) Tweedy, backup singers like, The Jordanaires and so on and believe me I was a name dropper big time. I loved all the attention I was getting from all these guys. I was in heaven, I thought I was important and I felt important when I was with Guy. The reason I said earlier in this chapter, about meeting the very important person in my life, Guy was who I was talking about. I didn't want to go back to Monroe Harding I was having too much fun hanging around with Guy and all his music buddies. The life at Monroe just didn't mean anything to me any more . . .
The thing about people you think are important, most are just down to earth people who are cool. There are the ones who think that they're, NO I am not gonna say it. I was always treated with nothing but respect and some was even too nice. I just seem to fit in with this crowd and later in my book you will understand why. It was not very apparent at that time, that I was well on my way to being a, well a hand full. I made lots of mistakes along the way and sometimes I think momma and daddy, letting me play out my wild side of life at a young age, is what caused lots of heartache later in my life. Well you can't cry about spilt milk, well you can but it will not help . . .
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| Guy With One Of Jenny's Horse's |
Guy had no drivers licence so daddy had to drive him everywhere he went and when I would come home for the week end I would ride along with him. I was a constant companion of Guys. When he got out of Cumberland, he did not go to AA. I would like to say that the treatment stuck for Guy but he just couldn't stay sober. Within a month he was drunk and running wild. He sobered up again this time going to A.A. meetings that was in 1968 and there was a place in Nashville called The Friendship House (which you read about from when my momma and daddy were sent to A.A.) where they had the meetings and he was also taking Antabuse. That is a drug used to support the treatment of chronic alcoholism by producing an acute sensitivity to alcohol. He drank on top of the antabuse and I thought he was gonna die and so did he. We didn't think he was drinking. We looked for the signs of him drinking. He got knee knocking commode hugging drunk. We did not understand, there was no beer bottles no whiskey bottles what could it have been? He was going up to a little store where we had a charge account and was charging SSS Tonic and Vanilla extract. The SSS Tonic was about 24% alcohol that made it 48 proof and vanilla extract is very high in alcohol too. When we went to pay our bill, it was much higher than what we had thought. Daddy had a talk to the store manager and he explained that Guy had told him that he was getting it for you, Daddy told them that no one but him, momma or me was allowed to charge there . . .
He was in the middle of recording one of his albums Traveling Shoes, so they let him finish that one and then they released him of his obligation of the third album. I got to go with him as he finished the second one and I felt so important. Daddy and I would go over to Cedarwood Publishing and sit around and shoot the crap with Mrs. Dolly Denny. She was a grand lady of country music she was well respected by all in the music business. She was the mother of John Denny . . .
We met Mel Tillis and Kris Kristofferson before they were famous. Mel had some songs on the charts and was signed with Columbia Records. He wrote for Webb Pierce's" I Ain't Never." In 1965 but on the Kapp Records is where he was signed when "Life Turned Her That Way" was a hit. As for Chris, he lived in a small apartment behind Cedarwood Publishing across the ally and would sneak in the back door to swipe donuts and coffee from Cedarwood. They knew he was doing it but never said anything to him. He had a room mate that I had a big crush on named Bucky Wilkin, and his mother was Marijohn Wilkin. She wrote Long Black Vail sang by Lefty Frizzell and Waterloo done by Stonewall Jackson, both for Cedarwood, she worked with John D Laudermilk and Mel Tillis and many others. She was given credit for being the one who discovered Kris Kristofferson in 1965 because it was his first signed contract. Marijohn founded her own music publishing company, Buckhorn Music in 1964, where she published Bucky's song, "Little G.T.O" and it was their first hit. He was the lead singer of Ronnie and The Dayton's. She was well known for co-writing, One Day At A Time, with Kris, which was released in the early 70's. Now I will go back to Kris and Bucky, they had a wire roll, ( looks like a spool that thread comes on ) that big power lines are wrapped on, as a coffee table and had the holes in the walls covered with newspaper wet it down and let it dry so it would stick to the wall, it was a trip and they really were great guys . . .
At one time daddy lent Jimmy Payne $100.00 so he could go on a gig ( that's job lingo in the music business) He and Jim Glaser wrote Woman, Woman in 1967 and Gary Puckett and The Union Gap was the first to make it a big hit. Knowing these people made it possible for daddy and myself to go to a place that was called The Professional Club. It was a bar across from Cedarwood on 16th Ave (Music Row). It had a pool table and a juke box and a large long bar and a shuffle board. Minors were not allowed but they made exceptions for me. You had to be a member to come in. I was, at sixteen, hanging out with some really big stars. People like Tompall Glaser, Jim Glaser, Farron Young, Lefty Ferzell, Web Pierce. it was nothing for us to be at a recording and people like Stonewall Jackson, Bob Jennings, Don (Ox) Tweedy, backup singers like, The Jordanaires and so on and believe me I was a name dropper big time. I loved all the attention I was getting from all these guys. I was in heaven, I thought I was important and I felt important when I was with Guy. The reason I said earlier in this chapter, about meeting the very important person in my life, Guy was who I was talking about. I didn't want to go back to Monroe Harding I was having too much fun hanging around with Guy and all his music buddies. The life at Monroe just didn't mean anything to me any more . . .
The thing about people you think are important, most are just down to earth people who are cool. There are the ones who think that they're, NO I am not gonna say it. I was always treated with nothing but respect and some was even too nice. I just seem to fit in with this crowd and later in my book you will understand why. It was not very apparent at that time, that I was well on my way to being a, well a hand full. I made lots of mistakes along the way and sometimes I think momma and daddy, letting me play out my wild side of life at a young age, is what caused lots of heartache later in my life. Well you can't cry about spilt milk, well you can but it will not help . . .
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| Me & N.B. & Mrs. Guinea |
When I started staying almost every week end, momma bought me a small little dog and a guinea pig. I loved them so much. I was still a bit of a tom boy because I liked doing things like horse back riding and I still didn't like dresses and most of all I hated makeup. I know that momma and daddy wanted me to come home too. We had to have a formal meeting with the counselors and make arrangements I would have to go back to Monroe. I wanted to stay with them because I had bunches of fun every weekend. In real life, I was even at more risk at that time than when I came to Monroe . . .
Next chapter I tell about how it came to past that I left Monroe Harding . . .