Tom Huster: "I Got the Band in the Divorce"

Drive-By Truckers are significant characters in the beginning and the end of Tom's marriage story.

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Tom Huster has attended every single HeAthens Homecoming except one — in 2017, while in the process of separating from his husband. His ex went to Athens, and Tom sat that Homecoming out.

"He kind of went just to piss me off, and I wasn't ready to face him," Tom remembers. "Now there's a joke that I got the band in the divorce."

Tom hasn't missed a Homecoming since that unfortunate year. Remarkably, Drive-By Truckers are significant characters in the beginning and the end of Tom's marriage story. Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley played his wedding in 2012, after a gig in Richmond, VA, the night before that Tom calls his bachelor party. A lot of us have breakup songs, but Tom has a breakup band.

Tom hails from Richmond and moved to Vermont nearly a decade ago. Since his first Drive-By Truckers concert in 2004, the 58-year-old has attended more than 300 shows. Keep reading to learn which performances stand out, which songs he's listened to the most, and the sweet story of one of his favorite DBT mementoes.

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How and when did you discover Drive-By Truckers?

My friend Mark Lynn, who lives in Richmond, I remember him talking about the Drive-By Truckers, probably 2002. Every now and then, he would tell me "you need to go to one of Wes Freed’s barn dances and see Drive-By Truckers," and I never did.

I was living in DC, and I read a review of Decoration Day in Washington Post. I was like, "Oh, that's the band that Mark's been trying to get me to go see." I went to Tower Records, and they were all sold out. The only thing they had was Alabama Ass Whuppin'. I bought that record, and that's what got me into the Truckers. I didn't see them for the first time until 2004, at the Haymaker Music Festival in Spotsylvania, VA.

"I was blown away when I heard 'The Living Bubba,' because I am gay and I hear these five redneck dudes singing about someone with AIDS."

The first song that really caught my interest was "The Living Bubba." At the time, I had no idea what the Truckers were about. You know, judging by the names of the songs, they sound like a bunch of rednecks. But I was blown away when I heard "The Living Bubba," because I am gay and I hear these five redneck dudes singing about someone with AIDS. My uncle had died of AIDS and a bunch of friends and acquaintances. At the time, no one was singing about AIDS. I mean, maybe Lou Reed had a song, "Halloween Parade."

And you're of the age that you were watching a lot of friends die around that time, I'd imagine?

Right. In 1985 I worked at a hospital delivering food to the patients, and we were not allowed to deliver to the AIDS patients. We had to set the food outside the doors, and the nurses had to gown up just to go in. It was ‘85 and no one knew much about it. Quoting the Truckers, "goddamn Reagan" wouldn't even mention the word. So yeah, I saw a lot of devastation just from that disease.

When they wrote that song, people were still very ignorant and prejudiced. There's probably lots of people who just assumed Gregory Dean Smalley was gay when there's no indication of that. It doesn’t matter, but it's great that they left it up to interpretation. I mentioned my uncle died of AIDS, but no one knows he got it; he was married and he had a 2-year-old kid. He wasn't a heavy drug user. Who knows how he got it?

I know you’ve been to a shitload of Homecomings, maybe all of them?

All of them but 2017, because I was breaking up with my husband. He kind of went just to piss me off, and I wasn't ready to face him. He got into them because of me, but he was never really into them. There's a joke going around — I think Dr. John [Contovasilis] was the first one to say it — that Tom got the band in the divorce.

That's the whole reason I moved to Vermont. I've always wanted to live in Vermont, but I took the chance while I could.

And do you know how many Drive-By Truckers shows you've been to total?

I don't know the exact amount. I know it's more than 300, maybe 320 or 325.

What song have you listened to more than any other?

The Patterson song would be either "The Living Bubba" or "A World of Hurt." And if it's a Cooley song, it's definitely "Uncle Frank." "Uncle Frank” is not my favorite Cooley song — I love it, but I would say that my favorite is "One of These Days." But I recently went back to school, because work paid for me to get a degree, and in my communications class, we had to recite a poem or a song to the entire class. I picked "Uncle Frank," so I probably listened to it 200 times during that course.

Maybe you don’t have an answer to this question, but is there any song that you have never heard live but hope you do?

I actually looked that up, and there’s a couple that I haven’t heard: "Mrs. Dubose," "Little Pony and the Great Big Horse," "The Avon Lady," and "Moved," which is a Rob Malone song. I chased "Greenville to Baton Rouge" for so long, but when they did the Southern Rock Opera Revisited tour, I finally got to hear it.

"Everyone joked that it was the Marriage Equality Tour, even though it was only two shows."

And is there any song that you really like that you feel is underappreciated or not played that much?

They are actually two. One of them is "The Tough Sell." I've seen it maybe 10 times, but he doesn't play it all that much. The other one is "Sandwiches For the Road." He played it a few times during this recent solo tour, but every time I ask Patterson to play it, he admits he forgets about it. I think a lot of people like those songs, but it's kind of "out of sight, out of mind," so it's extra special when they play those.

What’s your Lynyrd Skynyrd – aka a band you wish you’d seen live but didn’t?

In hindsight, I wish I would have seen Warren Zevon. I’ve always been a fan but I didn’t do a deep dive until after he died. The Ramones are the same for me. Another would be Motörhead. I actually had tickets once to see Motörhead with a coworker. The coworker backed out, and I didn’t want to go by myself, so I never got to see them either. But most of the bands I’ve ever wanted to see I’ve seen, unless it was impossible.

What’s your favorite piece of DBT merch or memorabilia that you own?

I have a couple things. I have an original Wes Freed from Homecoming 2016. And I have The Big To-Do big drum head that they had behind the stage, that EZ-B would only hit like once per show. You can see that he aimed for the monkey's head.

My mother, she's passed away, but she went to a few DBT shows with me. She crocheted a lot, and she made me a DBT beanie. That's special too. It's kind of cheesy-looking, but since she's not with me anymore, I don’t find it cheesy.

Aside from attending more than 300 shows, what’s the most DBT superfan thing about you?

Well, Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood played at my wedding in 2012. My friend Mark Lynn, who I mentioned earlier, he was a lot closer to them than I was back then. I was living in DC, and Mark lives in Richmond. We were able to get them to play the night before my wedding in Richmond. Everyone joked that it was the Marriage Equality Tour, even though it was only two shows.

Patterson always says that those shows kind of launched the Dimmer Twins shows they did afterwards. At a Dimmer Twins show a few years ago in Albany, Patterson said on stage, "I think one of the first shows we did was for you" and pointed to me.

Out of the over 300 you’ve seen, which ones stand out?

There are few that stand out not because of the performance, though the performances are amazing. One was definitely when they played at my wedding. The other one that really stands out is the first time they played Levon Helm’s barn. It was 2010 and it was the same weekend as the as Mountain Jam on Hunter Mountain.

"I thought it was the cutest thing seeing this legend trot in with a Sharpie and a poster. He was like a little fan boy."

The Truckers did a short set; whatever supporting band is there is the opening act for Levon Helm’s band. David Hood was there and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan. Watching Patterson and Jay Gonzalez on the side of the stage, the happiness on their faces alone was enough to make that a special show. The next day was Levon’s 70th birthday, so they had this big jam for his birthday at Mountain Jam, and Patterson played with them, and David Hood played again, and Steve Earle. That whole weekend was really special.

The other one would be seeing them at the Shoals Theatre in Florence. This was 2009, and they hadn't played in that area of the Shoals since 2004. The Decoys opened up — a band that David Hood was in with Donnie Fritts and Scott Boyer — and they all got on stage together with Truckers. That was really special, not only because they all got to play together, but it was the first time I was ever invited on the Truckers bus.

Everyone congregates in the back of the bus, and it got a little bit too crowded for me, so I went toward the front to get away from the crowd and wait for my friend Mark. As I'm as I'm sitting there, Spooner Oldham walks in. He has a Wes Freed poster from the event and a Sharpie, trying to get the Truckers to sign it for him. He walked right up to me, puts his hand out and goes, "Hi, I'm Spooner Oldham." I thought it was the cutest thing seeing this legend trot in with a Sharpie and a poster. He was like a little fan boy.

Another one was 2009 at The 9:30 Club in DC. They played two sold-out nights, and Patterson was deathly ill. He probably should have been in the hospital. So Cooley played both shows with all Cooley songs. Shonna was in the band, so she did some of her songs, but it was the majority Cooley songs. They announced earlier that day that Patterson wouldn’t be playing at all, and there were at least a few people who dropped everything at the last second and flew to DC. Cooley brought some random dude up from the audience to sing "Life in the Factory."

I wonder if that’s the only time that’s happened, that the band played without Patterson.

I think it is, yeah.

Any other shows you really remember?

One that goes down as a joke. When DBT toured with Tom Petty, a bunch of us went to the Pittsburgh show. It was me, Mark Lynn, my ex, and Barr Weissman, the guy who did The Secret to a Happy Ending. The show was great, Tom Petty was great, and we were very low on gas. After the show, we couldn't find any gas stations that were open.

We were about 15 miles from our hotel, and we ran out of gas on the side of a major highway. We were there for like three hours, and it was raining. We couldn't get AAA, and everyone's phones were dead. I think Barr or Mark was trying to call the Truckers and couldn’t get through. And we’re standing there and their bus drives right by us.

I was really embarrassed, because who runs out of gas? AAA or one of those roadside services finally showed up and they're reprimanding us. I was like, "you think I did this on purpose? Your job is to give me gas, not tell me how much of a fool I am."

Are there any recent movies, books, or records you’ve consumed that you want to recommend to other DBT fans?

One of the bands I've been listening to a lot lately is a band called Fust. Their latest album came out last year, it’s called The Big Ugly. They're from Durham, North Carolina, and they're on the same label as Florry.

Every year, me and a couple friends put on a benefit concert in Richmond for Connor's Heroes, a charity for children with childhood cancer. I've been helping with it for the last 15 years. We’ve had the Dimmer Twins, Jason Isbell, Anders Osbourne, Lucero, and this year we had Florry and Fust, a week after Homecoming. Fust live just blew me away, and their latest album has been on heavy rotation since I saw them.

I'd like to also mention a writer that I like. He's a queer writer out of Kentucky, Silas House. One of my favorite books of his is called Southernmost. He and Tyler Childers are really good friends. Tyler did that video about two gay coal miners called “In Your Love,” and I think Silas helped him do that video.

Silas House. What a great name for a writer. OK last question, do you have a favorite dive bar?

I don’t have a lot of bars that are doable in Vermont, because I live in a rural area and there’s no Uber. But when I get down to Richmond, we always go to this place called Dot’s Back Inn. It’s a dive-bar-slash-restaurant. If I had to pick one, that one’s a lot of fun.