In this episode, I caught up with Jack O’Neill and Cary Pierce from Jackopierce in Napa Valley from the Motor Lodge Inn in Calistoga, CA just before their live destination show. We talk about their music, their thirty-year journey, and the grit it required to get here. The first time I heard them live was in 1991 at a crummy little bar Scruffy Murphy’s in Waco, TX.
Twenty-five years, we talked, they sang, played and Jack blew his harps. They tell stories of their blue VW bus adventures and driving their 27′ foot RV across the US one university town to the next.
Podcast highlights:
- Get ready even when you don’t feel ready.
- Do what no one else will do to plant seeds “If the music stayed…”.
- How Jack O’Neill wrote Late Shift during a long drive, but with no paper or a guitar.
- Hear how Jack and Cary met in theatre class back in SMU.
Jackopierce backstory
In 1988, Jack O’Neill and Cary Pierce, the “Jack O” and “Pierce” who make up the seminal acoustic duo, Jackopierce, were playing cover songs in a dingy club with a crummy PA in their hometown of Dallas, Texas. In a moment of young-musician desperation, they whipped up a tune on the spot called “Three of Us In A Boat” to elongate their set. That became a signature track for a decade-long career wherein the two-piece sold 500,000 records over six albums (two for major label A&M) and toured three continents, nine countries, and 44 states. After a five-year breakup, in 2002 the duo reconvened as Jackopierce.
Today Jack O’Neill and Cary Pierce have a renewed creative vigor, mutual respect, and deep gratitude for their Jackopierce heritage. These good vibes shine through on JP’s euphoric new album, Everywhere All The Time, out August 28.
