Dear Jimmie Dale,

I visited Austin last week and ran into Lloyd Maines who was in town to play a gig with Joe Ely. We told some Lubbock stories and one or two involved Little Pete. On the drive back home I spent some time thinking about him and wondered if you'd ever seen his tombstone. It was one of Stubb's many great achievements. He designed it and raised the money to get it made. It has Little Pete's name, the year of his birth and the year he died....all the usual information and then some.

I first met Little Pete in Lubbock. I'd gone there to see Terry Allen. On Friday night, Terry and I drove out to the Cotton Club where a dozen bands were playing a benefit for Stubb and Terry planned to sing a few songs with the Maines Brothers. After we got inside, we got a plate of Stubb's BBQ and sat down at one of the long tables near the dance floor. Joe Ely brought his two goats -- Split and Slide -- and turned them loose inside the building. While I ate, I watched them trot around the dance floor. Every so often, one or the other would poke its nose into the door of the women's rest room, open it and walk on in. Soon after, there'd be screams and hasty exits. It was interesting.

I was taking a defensive bite of BBQ -- where you hold your head down low and over the plate in case the sauce dribbles off -- when I saw the top of someone's head glide along the other side of the table. No ears, no eyes, just the top of a head. It looked to be somebody who was pretty short. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joe, who was sitting across and down the table, turn and smile. Suddenly, like a cat, Little Pete jumped up into Joe's lap and shook his hand. I sat there in disbelief looking at a black dwarf in a white suit, a Panama hat in his hand, sitting in Joe's lap. They sat there and carried on a conversation as if it were the most normal thing in the world...and of course, it was.

I found out later how Little Pete got his white suit and Panama hat. Joe told me that shortly after he signed his first contract with MCA Records, the company's executives asked him to bring his band out to L.A. to perform for their associates and friends. Joe agreed. A few days later, he drove over to Stubb's BBQ joint to see if Little Pete would go with him. Though he loved his work, Little Pete thought a trip with Joe might be more fun than serving BBQ and declared himself ready to go.

Then, as Joe explained it to me:

"Little Pete rode the old bus 'Marilyn' out to the west coast with our band and crew, his first trip out of Lubbock. On seeing the desert he said, 'What desert is that?' and on seeing the ocean he said, 'What ocean is that?'"

"Our first gig was in North Hollywood at the old Palomino Club. Sharon flew out from Lubbock and rented a Camaro. She took me and Pete to the show and Pete had thrown his suitcase in the back. After the show we came out to the car and found that it had been broken into and all that was missing was Little Pete's suitcase. We were very sad about this for about ten minutes until Little Pete said 'ah, I don't give a damn about all those clothes, most of 'em didn't fit me anyway.'"

"We then put ourselves in the place of the thieves, who were probably at that time prying into their booty to see what fortunes lie inside. We imagined their despair upon pulling article after article of dwarfs clothing out of the suitcase. And when their despair turned in to bafflement we saw their faces and we began to laugh and continued laughing well into the next day."

"The next morning Sharon took Pete shopping all over LA and found him a whole new wardrobe which she tailored to his dimensions. That white suit and Panama hat was but a small part of Pete's new look. Pete walked with a new dignified air as if to say, 'I have seen the desert and I have seen the ocean and they ain't shit to how sharp I look in my new white suit.'"

MCA rented the Roxy Theater and invited several hundred music industry people to meet Joe and his band. That night the seats filled early. Most folks had heard of Joe but few had seen him perform. Finally, an MCA official stepped up on stage and proudly announced Joe and the band. When the curtains opened, the band began playing while Joe remained offstage. A few moments later, Joe still backstage, Little Pete ran out, pulled the mike stand down low and began singing "The Thrill is Gone" to a very bewildered audience.

Joe continues: "Later that night MCA picked us up in a Long White Limo and took us to a Tanya Tucker party at the Playboy Club. Little Pete was truly transformed that night into an 'International Glitterati', showing the bunnies all the dice tricks that Shallowater Slim had taught him out at TV's in that sad ol' Lubbock cotton field a thousand miles away..."

Several years later, I spent some time with Little Pete in Santa Fe. A whole crowd of Lubbock musicians and their families had come to town to help Terry and Jo Harvey Allen celebrate their anniversary. Stubb decided he and Little Pete would come and fix a BBQ dinner for everyone. They hitched up a portable cooker to Stubb's old Buick and headed north. Stubb's car broke down just outside Santa Rosa (that's another story) but he, Little Pete and the cooker finally got to Santa Fe. The next night, we all drove out into the desert south of town and they cooked us a fine dinner.

There were more than twenty kids with us and Little Pete couldn't make a move without most of them tagging along. Every afternoon, he and the kids gathered out on the big front porch of the De Vargas Hotel. I think they liked the idea that Little Pete got as swallowed up by those big chairs as they did. That...and he paid attention to them. He would do imitations of Ed Sullivan and Elvis Presley and even though some had no idea who he was imitating, as soon as he'd finish they'd yell at him to do it again.

During that trip, he visited several times with my daughter who was then fifteen and struggling to get her bearings. When we were driving home from Santa Fe, she said, "You know, you all treat Little Pete just like he is normal. Is that something you planned or did it just happen?" I told her as far as I knew it just happened but if anybody planned it, it would have been Little Pete.

You ought to go see that tombstone the next time you're in Lubbock, Jimmie Dale. Stubb's final touch was to have "The Thrill is Gone" carved below Little Pete's name.

Straight from the heart to the heart....

Take care and let us know the next time you're coming our way.

Johnny Rose Paris, Texas