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The drummer could play. The black guy that played drums, we called him Sleepy.
He could play. He was good, but me and the bass player couldn't play nothing. But
he’d laugh. He just drank his wine and let us go, and we played there every Sunday

afternoon for probably a year and a half.

So after a year and a half, I was starting to get pretty good, a little bit better. I didn't
understand the rudiments of playing in a band, but I played anyway. I played ‘Gloria’

and ‘Louie Louie’ and the Bo Diddley beat I did on the guitar, but I didn't know it
was a Bo Diddley beat, and all the ladies would pull their chairs up in front of me
and do the – do you know what the hand jive is?

BiTS: I do indeed.

OKD: You do?

BiTS: Yeah absolutely.

OKD: I would play the guitar beat and all the ladies would get right in front of my
microphone and do the hand jive! It scared me because I didn't know what it meant.
I didn't know they had been listening to Johnny

Otis and the hand jive because I didn't know about
it yet. I was, I don't know why they do that, but
they did it every time. Every Sunday, they wanted

me to play that beat. I would just play the beat on
the guitar with drums and a bass note. No singing,
nothing. It was so elemental and they would do

that hand jive dancing. I’d go, I don't know what it
is about it, but they love it, so I’m gonna do it.

BiTS: Okay, now tell me about how the Howlers

happened.

OKD: Well, I played in quite a few bands before the Howlers.

BiTS: Okay.

OKD: I played in some other bands that were really good, a band called the Amo
Tays, and a band called Crossroads, and a band called Blue Monday. Then I got

married and quit playing music, and then me and my wife split up. We didn't stay
together long. We split up and I moved from Jackson, Mississippi to Hattiesburg,

Mississippi, and I met some people there that were starting a band, and they wanted
me to be the singer because I’d played a gig with the drummer just off the bat. We

played for a college dance and he said, I know a guy who could be the singer.

BiTS: Tell me, when you were that age did you have that kind of gruff voice like you

have now?