Page 73 - Issue 36

or the past 30 years, Reverend Horton Heat
has carried the torch of rockabilly music, blending

classic elements of blues, rock n’ roll, punk. Rat
Rod Magazine recently had an opportunity to
speak with the godfather of modern rockabilly to
talk about the wild inventiveness of the 1950’s and

those who keep that spirit alive today.

Like many of us in the rat rod community, Jim Heath looks back fondly on
mid-century culture as a time when creativity bloomed out of every facet of
American culture. “Even lamps looked like rockets back then” as Jim recalls. Not
only were automobiles back then designed with a rich imagination but they were
then customized by even wilder imaginations. “I love the custom cars of that era.
I love what people were doing to them. A ’49, ’50, ‘51 Merc,
it’s a great looking car to begin with. So these guys, they
chopped those cars and lowered them and smoothed
them out. That’s really cool. I love those cars.”
It’s an odd coincidence that the golden age
GENE AMBO of music and the golden age of the hot rod

happened at exactly the same time. For
Jim, it was the cars and trucks of the
1950s that drove his love of music,
quite literally. “My fi rst vintage car was
a ‘52 Chevy Pickup Truck. It was just
bare bones – right off of someone’s
farm. We bought it from a farmer for
two hundred bucks. It was an old
straight six but we would
load all of our amps
and drums and PA and
everything in the back
of this pickup truck and drive
around and go play gigs. That was
when I was in high school.” From that
point on, Jim describes his career as
“one long extended tour that started 30
years ago”. Albeit these days they travel
in a bus, the spirit and the sound of the
early days of the band still resonate loudly
on their most recent release, REV, the
band’s eleventh studio album since
their inception in 1985.

RATRODMAGAZINE.COM RAT ROD MAGAZINE 73

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