OffStage with Little Roy Lewis June 2002
Have you ever wondered about the offstage world of a professional musician? Every month in this column, bluegrass now will provide a glimpse into the lives of some of your favorite bluegrass stars.
Without half-trying, Little Roy is one of the funniest men on the planet. Everything he says is spiked with unpretentious good humor, and delivered in an outrageously twangy drawl. Interviewing him is like talking to Foghorn Leghorn's second cousin! It's hard to believe, but the Lewis Family has been around long enough to have released their songs on old 78s. Their old television show was one of Elvis Presley's favorites, and Mamie Eisenhower was a fan! This year, they're celebrating 50 years of music with a new CD containing ten new songs (two of which were written by Tom T. Hall) and eight of their most requested tunes. At his home in Lincolnton, Georgia, Roy's getting ready for the 15th Annual Lewis Family Homecoming and Bluegrass Festival. We soon discover that he is, indeed, very much like a flea: he barely stays put in his chair as we chat. When he believes he's done answering a question, he leaps up to escape, but then he thinks of something else he wants to say and sits back down again. He settles just long enough to tell us a little about himself. “I love junk!” he exclaims. “A lot of people have a big house and have to clean all the time. Well, I built a smaller house with a big junk shed. It's the ideal thing! You put all the stuff that you don't want to see in it, and live in a house that's clean!” Roy's “junk” includes some precious bluegrass ephemera, like banjo picks from Earl Scruggs, Don Reno's necktie, and a big signed photo collage of his old friend Jimmie Davis, who wrote “You Are My Sunshine”. “I got to spend his last Christmas with him down in Louisiana,” says Roy. “He was 101 years old.” Antique cars, in particular, are a huge passion of Little Roy's. “On one of my birthdays, somebody gave me a little tin Model A that you wind up, and I've still got it!” He's also got the real thing: a 1929 Model A four-door convertible, and a 1930 coupe formerly owned by his best friend, the late Gene Cranfield. “I also have a '56 Chevrolet BelAir two-door hardtop that has 64,000 actual miles on it. I paid $125 for it in 1969, and put it in my daddy's barn. It looks like one that just rolled out of the shop!” As fans might expect, the performing members of the Lewis Family live close - within two miles of each other, all on the same road. Mom and Pop Lewis (now 91 and 96, respectively) and sister Miggie share a home across the road. Little Roy lived with them for the first four decades of his life, until he found himself hitched. “I was an old bachelor for 44 years,” he cackles. “My wife Bonnie is from Monroe, Louisiana. I was out there in 1984, and she said, 'I sold my house, and I'm gonna put all this money in the bank, but I've got to move it within two years.' I kept going out there. One day she said, 'I'm gonna have to get that money out, and either pay taxes on it, or put it into a house.' So I said, 'Let's just build a house together!' Well, I'll tell you what! She took me serious. Next week or two, I took my suit out there, and we went to Marshall, Texas. You don't have to have no blood test; you don't have to do nothin' but walk in. I had a big wedding. It cost me $45.” A frequent business traveler, Roy's wife Bonnie works for the InterCept Group, which provides banking technology products and services to community financial institutions. Roy is now the grandpa of two-year-old Bennett, son of Bonnie's daughter Kristen and her husband Matt Boswell. “I got him a little banjo, and he copies me!” Roy's also delighted with the musical progress of his foster daughter, 18-year-old Elizabeth “Lizzie” Long. “Of all the people that I've ever tried to teach anything to, this girl is incredible. Her first love is the fiddle. Last week I took her to Nashville to see Buddy Spicher, and Buddy thought so much of her that he gave her one of his bows!” Roy asks us to mention Lizzie's identical twin, Rebecca, who lives with another foster family about a mile away. “They're wonderful girls,” he says with obvious pride. “Lizzie's such a good person. She's gonna go to college next year. It's gonna slow her down a little bit on her pickin', but college is really important.”
 We start talking about food, and Little Roy gets nostalgic. “My favorite cook was my mama. When we could home from the television station where we did our program in Augusta, Mama would have the table set, and it was always soup. I loved her soup! It was real slimy, 'cause she'd put a lot of okra in it. Then she'd have fried cornbread, and roast beef and gravy; we'd put that on mashed potatoes. You just can't beat that.” Roy's quick to tell us that his wife is no slouch in the kitchen, either. “She cooks that Cajun kinda cookin', 'cause she's from Louisiana.” The man who loves junk is also a nut over junk food. “I'm a hamburger man. I love Waffle House hamburgers. They're greaaaazy and goooood. A lot of people say, 'Where do you get all your energy?' I never took a vitamin in my life.” A few decades ago, a fan in North Carolina invited Roy to taste a new soft drink. “I turned that Mountain Dew up. That's the drink that I've drinked ever since 1964. When my eyes open in the morning, I'm gonna drink a Mountain Dew with a jelly sandwich or some fried baloney or a sausage biscuit. A Mountain Dew and a sausage biscuit makes the day right!” Roy is often accompanied on his errands by a 12-year-old Black Labrador. The dog is actually owned by neighbors, but he's been friends with Little Roy for a long time. “His name is Beeeeeeyull.” When Roy says it, the name is stretched out till it's a mile long. “But he ain't mine; he's borryed. Bill got lost when he was a little puppy. We put it in the local paper. One day a man came and said, 'Bill, get in the truck!'” The dog stuck around. Roy's taught him some essential dog tricks, like rolling over, shaking hands, and how to remove his hat, shoes, and even his socks. “He goes everywhere I go. If I go in a store and he's not with me, everybody always wanna know where Bill is. And the stores that he can't go in, he'll sit out there and look like an anteater! 'Cause he's mad, you know. He's a stinkin' dog, but he's the most precious dog you could ever have.” When Little Roy isn't jumping around like a flea, he likes to pick bluegrass. “I'm a person that when I ain't playin', I am playin',” he says, and somehow this makes perfect sense. “If me and Lizzie ain't playin, well, it's me and somebody else. I play for fun. Money is a fine thing, but you know what? It sure is nice to have a lot of good friends who like to play.” Visit Little Roy and all the Lewises online at www.thelewisfamilymusic.com.
From The Kitchen of Little Roy & Bonnie Lewis: King Ranch Chicken Casserole
1 large fryer chicken, stewed, boned, and cut into bite-sized pieces* Combine chicken, onion, and green peppers. Layer alternately in shallow 3-qt. buttered casserole with tortillas which have been dipped into hot stock just long enough to soften. Top with grated cheese and sprinkle with chili powder and garlic salt. Add in order: chicken soup, mushroom soup, and tomatoes. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Serves 8-10. * For an inexpensive substitution that provides ready-made stock, use two cans (3 lb. 4 oz) whole chicken.
|
We call Little Roy Lewis one afternoon, to arrange an interview. “Hold on,” his sister Miggie tells us, “I'll have to look for him. He may be here and he may not - he's like a flea!”
|