The Quintessential One Bad Pig, Vol. 1 : iSOUND.COM™

Biography

It all started back in 1985 when Carey Womack (lead vocals) and Paul Q-Pek (guitar) and a couple of other friends were on their way from Austin Texas to the Cornerstone Music Festival in Illinois. They stopped to get something to eat in St. Louis at a Pizza Hut that was doing a promotion with local radio station KSHE FM95. Available for purchase were promotional wrap-around sunglasses which featured the radio station mascot: a tough-looking pig wearing a muscle shirt and sunglasses, sporting a Mohawk haircut and earring, holding an electric guitar. Carey exclaimed, "Man, that's one bad pig!" Paul replied, "That sounds like the name of a punk band." The rest of the trip they joked about being in this fictional band and about all of the amazing exploits they had done, were doing, and were about to accomplish. Over the next year and a half, the band travelled across the country on weekends playing to enthusiastic crowds. Soon word of this crazy foursome that was making waves reached the ears of legend Billy Smiley of the famed band WhiteHeart. Billy was always looking for the next new and different thing. Well WhiteHeart was scheduled to play in Austin. The following is an account by our good friend Lynn Miller Mcrae: Billy Smiley had heard of OBP when he came to Austin, but he did not know who or where they were and did not set up a meeting before he got here.What actually happened was that I (Lynn) was at the time managing the Paul Q-Pek Band and also happened to be working with the promoter who brought WhiteHeart to the Austin Music Hall. I knew Billy produced young bands and I booked the Q-Pek Band to open for WhiteHeart, hoping he would like and produce the band. I found Billy on the catwalk above the stage while the Q-Pek Band played below. Well, it turned out he didn't much care for the Q-Pek Band, but when I happened to mention that Paul also had another band called One Bad Pig, he said, "No kidding? I've heard of them. I've been wanting to meet them." So while Paul's band (including Phillip Owens) was still playing, I went and got Carey out of the audience and dragged him up on the catwalk to meet Billy. I think Billy was a little surprised. Billy and the Pigs all got together the next day for lunch. That was pretty much the death of the Paul Q-Pek Band and a new chapter for One Bad Pig. Billy wanted me to manage them, but I told him I thought he could do a better job of that with his Nashville connections.