After the screening (review posted here) of The Secret to a Happy Ending: a documentary about the Drive-by Truckers, there was Q&A with director Barr Weissman, band members Brad Morgan, Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood, and some of the other folks who appear in the film. Some of the highlights:

• Barr indicated he was introduced to the band by a friend who’d told him to “RUN, DO NOT WALK” to go listen to this band now around the time Southern Rock Opera came out.

• From the audience came a question to Mike Cooley about whether he knows a lot about cars. His response? “These hands don’t work! We write about cars, girls and booze.”  Much laughter.

• In a discussion about album cover artwork, Patterson said he thought that London Calling was the greatest album cover ever and that you knew that whatever was inside was gonna be great.

• While qualifying a comment, an audience member started their question by saying, “I didn’t like your music the first time I heard it…” which made Patterson quip, “Nobody ever likes us the first time they hear us!”

• Another audience member commented that the band makes “album rock like I remember.” Patterson said he still likes to go to record stores. Cooley talked about needing to find a way to get people to listen to an entire album, in this era of 1 or 2-track attention spans.

• Female audience member citing the lyrics to the song Steve McQueen:
  “That Duster had six hubcaps, know what I mean…
  and I love the way they all flew off when it landed in that ravine!”
  …said, “Um… I don’t know what you mean!” which then led to Patterson explaining the flubs of multiple (definitely more than four) hubcaps flying off Steve’s car during the legendary car chase in Bullitt.

• Being quizzed about the lyrics for Let There Be Rock, Patterson confirmed he did see Ozzy Osbourne with Randy Rhoads about a week and a half prior to Randy’s death in the plane crash and it was a great show.

• When asked about influences, Patterson mentioned the Clash, and Brad Morgan cited Iron Maiden.

• Audience member asked about the band’s connection to Baltimore, as they seem to play there a lot, and there’s footage from a show there in the film. Patterson’s one-word answer: “Pies.” They’re good friends with Rodney from Dangerously Delicious Pies, and it was one of the cities where they first built up a following and used it as base to work from up and down the coast. Rodney had Patterson as a houseguest for awhile when he was doing some solo shows.

• Another question from the crowd was about the character in the song Cottonseed in The Dirty South, especially the line, “And I put more lawmen in the ground than Alabama put cottonseed.” Cooley said this song was about one of the heads of the syndicate that Buford Pusser fought against both in real life and in the movie Walking Tall. The man’s actual name was left out of the conversation by Cooley, but he did reveal the guy eventually did do some time in jail. Cooley actually saw the man in question once — as a guest speaker at a youth retreat he went to. The man’s daughter was at the event trying to keep her Dad from losing his temper by saying, “Stay cool, Daddy, stay cool.”

• HOLD STEADY SHOUT-OUT IN “THE RIGHTEOUS PATH” CONFIRMED: during the poster signing afterwards, I was able to ask the band about the line in the song The Righteous Path, where - after singing “trying to stay focused” the first few times - Patterson sings “I’m trying to hold steady on the righteous path.”  Hood confirmed a suspicion of mine, that line is indeed a shout-out to their 2008 tourmates, The Hold Steady!  Craig Finn, the lead singer of that band has cited DbT as an inspiration for starting The Hold Steady after his previous band, Lifter Puller, had broken up.  Both THS & DbT teamed up for a slew of excellent double bills in 2008 on the Rock And Roll Means Well tour, and Patterson sang backup on their Stay Positive album.  I asked PH if he expects The Hold Steady to answer back on their next album, and he said, “They better!”  We agreed it’s been a long time since we’ve had an Eagles/Steely Dan thing going on.  The Hold Steady has a new album coming this spring, so we should find out soon.

I’ve been thinking lately about why I love this music and this band so much, and one thought occurred to me. There are places of desperation and loneliness that you can visit in their songs, and you may feel better just for not having to stay.  Maybe that’s another secret to a happy ending.  That… and they just rock!