06/10/2026
Our oldest son on his “first horse” that I had, unfortunately, put up at Wild Will’s for added eye candy in our museum of originality that all burned. And a pic taken a month or so before the fire of our grandson Tater riding that same rocking horse. I am a pretty handy carpenter and could have built a rocking horse myself but I had met a guy that was wheel chair bound named Steve Spencer who did creative carpentry work to keep busy and make extra money. I commissioned him to custom build our cute little cowboy “Bailey” a unique rocking horse……and Steve did a great job and even hand painted it to add a little character. Baileys first real saddle was also on display in there awaiting him to marry and have a child to be able to give it to…..As well as my first saddle….an old R.E. Donaho.
I continue to hear heartless chatter from heartless people…..Even from a saint of an old Christian man at our church just last week who, after hearing that my wife and I had went on a little vacation to temporarily get away from the constant eye sore and mental pain, popped off to me saying, “Just livin’ off that insurance money huh!”…..To which I said, “What insurance money?”
In life, people are always just gonna be people and there’s no way to escape that and the thoughtless, rude, and hateful things that are said and done. Honestly, at some time or another, we are all guilty….I personally am chief of sinners and desperately need the grace of God all day every day.
Loss, is a very strange thing, whether it’s losing a loved one, a lifelong friendship, an old dog, or your home, you really never get over it….you just get older. In the last two years I have lost my dad, a handful of old friends (by choices), my old dog, and my home. They say, home is where your heart is….Wild Will’s was where our heart was. People from all walks of life repeatedly told my wife and I that they could feel “an anointing” in the building the very moment they walked in. That anointing? It was Love-(God is Love. 1 John 4:8)
The building was an old falling down peanut mill that had been forgotten until we bought it. Then I prayed, “What now God?” “Dancehall”….He clearly said, “Dancehall.” My wife and children helped me do every single bit of the work needed to resurrect life in a town that had no life left. Without help from anyone….No investors, no city funding, no rich dads, no trust funds, no banks….just hard work, lots of prayers, and lots of patience to create the vision. We literally had “one” hundred dollar bill left after closing. But we had faith and grit, so I changed the lock on the door, put the key in my pocket and went back to work at my day job. It wasn’t long until I had a little extra money so I bought a used pool table, watched YouTube videos on how to disassemble, move, and reassemble a three piece slate, ten foot long snooker table. I had walked in the building one day while it was raining and found the only spot in twelve thousand square feet that the roof didn’t leak…..That’s where we put the first of five pool tables. On off days or after work our family would go work on the building, then shoot pool for a little while, then work on the building some more. We repeated those steps for about a year and a half and then booked our very first show which was the incredible Texas Music pioneer Gary P. Nunn for a New Year’s Eve show. In which we sold every ticket and everyone had a very large time. Gary gambled with me and offered to do that first show for 80% of the door….an absolutely unheard of thing for somebody of his status. His agent, which later became our friend and venue mentor, had offered that because he knew we didn’t have the money to pay Gary P his standard fee. He believed in Gary….and I believed in God, so we did it…..and Gary left with a lot more than me. But we soon found out that Gary P. Nunn had put his personal stamp of approval on our new establishment and that gave us instant “street cred” with every other musician that we called on…..As soon as they heard Gary P had just played our place they were quick to make a deal and get on our books. (Thanks Gary P and D Foster)
The memories we made and the memories we helped other people make in a cool old building are truly legendary…..
But the remaining question often never spoken out loud is “Why a dancehall Will?” Why not another cowboy church?” The answer is very simple….Modern day church usually only attracts the same type of people, the same click, or Clicks…..You’ve got the baptists, the Catholics, the Pentecostals, the Cowboys, the Non-Denominational, the Methodists, and on and on I could go. None of them ever mingle with each other and that is wrong. They all segregate and think they are right. They think “they are better than the other” and that is wrong. They sit in their little buildings (or big ones) and begin to believe that they are something special which causes normal ever day ordinary folks like “Wild Will” to want to run off.
Good churchy people stink like skunks but they don’t even know it. They often give off an aroma of haughtiness that can be smelled from the parking lot. And churches truly struggle to “love their neighbors” unless their neighbors act just like they do….at least in public. Kind of like all my Christian brothers, friends, and pastors, that used loved to come to Wild Wills and cut loose a little yet have ghosted us since it burned down.
I know….”They might get a scary email from an unhappy tither.” Haha-“Couldn’t possibly ever be found out that I actually prayed for a sinner as rotten as Wild Will and his family.” lol-That whole “Love your neighbor” thing….It didn’t say “only if your neighbor is as perfect of a churchy person as you are.” Or, “only if it makes you look good.”
My vision for “Wild Will’s” was to be able to bring folks together from all walks of life, from all denominations, (or not)…..the good, the bad, the rich, and the poor, and show them that we can all be in the same room at the same time, be full of joy and have a good time. And you could drink a beer (or not) and not be judged. Or, I could kneel in the floor and pray over you to get free from your alcoholism addiction right in the middle of a concert……which I did more than once.
Wild Will’s had a special mission and a special purpose that is supposed to be pretty simple, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Our family will never truly get over our loss until we cross over to the other side and step into Glory where there is no more pain, no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more death, no more loss.
How about we all try to act like real Christians today and “go” love on somebody that needs it…neighbor!
