Stuck in a Jam: Ozark Mountain Daredevils have been rocking for 50 years

Provided by Ozark Mountain Daredevils

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils debuted a locally produced gin in 2020.

I never read it in a book,

I never saw it on a show

But I heard it in the alley

on a weird radio …

For the past 50 years, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils haven’t hit the airwaves much – not even on the weirdest of radios, as referenced in their 1973 hit, “If You Wanna Get to Heaven.”

The thing is, the Daredevils, Springfield locals, weren’t trying to write radio music. They were trying to jam.

“Nobody knew what to do with us,” said John Dillon, one of the band’s founders.

Dillon, 75, who still performs with the Daredevils today, said record companies had a hard time figuring out the band.

“They kept asking for more singles – more radio-friendly songs,” he said. “We were more artistically directed internally. We were more about the song than commercial success, and we stuck to that.”

Ozarks Public Television chronicles the band’s history in “The Ozark Mountain Daredevils – Backstage,” a 90-minute documentary set to premiere at 8 p.m. on June 30.

Producer Brent Slane said he relished the opportunity to tell a story about the hometown band that topped charts around the world.

“It’s such a rooted-in-the-Ozarks story,” he said. “Their sound is just a unique blend of many Ozarks elements.”

These days, the core of the band includes Dillon and Supe Granda, who have been with the band since its founding, plus Ruell Chappell, Molly Healey, Ron Gremp, Dave Painter, Bill Jones, Nick Sibley and Kelly Brown.

A performance may include other area musicians who roll in and out as the occasion arises.

Slane said the Daredevils’ sound is informed by rock-and-roll sensibilities, but also by the country music they heard on Springfield’s KWTO radio.

“The roots they are familiar with are largely from this area – how they incorporated gospel, bluegrass, country and rock ‘n’ roll all into their musical list,” he said. “It really comes down to the songwriting as well; a lot of the elements from these songs were gathered from their experiences regionally, growing up here in the Ozarks.”

The band was invited to move to Los Angeles and make it big back in the ’70s, Slane said, but they chose to stay at home.

“They felt grounded and connected to the Ozarks. This was home, and they didn’t want to lose that. You can hear it in the lyrics,” he said.

A business story
The Daredevils don’t like to talk much about revenue, but Dillon revealed an interesting fact about the band as a business: The music has always paid his bills.

“Music is doing all the work, and basically it has for me for 50 years,” he said. “There was about a 10-year period where I would do advertising to some degree – jingles and that kind of thing.”

But speaking for himself, Dillon said the Daredevil life has supported him for his entire career.

“Being in the band gave me access,” he said. “Just like any business, it’s been up and down, but the last decade for us has been financially better than the previous three decades by quite a bit.”

It’s a phenomenon that can be attributed to streaming services, like Spotify and Pandora, and to social media, according to Dwight Glenn, the band’s manager.

“There’s been a resurgence because of Spotify and Facebook,” Glenn said. “Our Spotify numbers are up 35% or 40% in 2022. Every time I look at them, it’s like, wow – and it’s increasing.”

Glenn said music fans consume music much differently today than they did when the band was founded. Keeping track of downloads or play on streaming services gives a real-time sense of who’s listening to what, in a way that album sales never could.

Glenn said audiences for music have a choice: They can listen to a song once and never go back, or they can come home to it.

Fans are also finding the band for their live performances, Glenn said. He said before COVID-19, the Daredevils performed the most shows they had done in a decade.

They had 30 bookings in 2019, and their 2020 schedule was going to be equally as busy before the pandemic put the kibosh on their plans.

“The rewarding thing from what we’re seeing is that people are coming back to shows,” he said. “People crave live music.”

Up close and personal
Live music is the point for both fans and members of The Ozark Mountain Daredevils. They are a jam band, in the tradition of the Grateful Dead or the Allman Brothers. Getting lost in the music – both for the band and the audience – is what it’s all about. And that live energy is hard to reproduce on a single.

The band did achieve significant radio play with the hits “If You Wanna Get to Heaven” and “Jackie Blue,” but its bread and butter was live play.

For the 50th anniversary, the Daredevils have released a line of merchandise on their website celebrating their hippie roots, like a tie-dyed T-shirt that says, “We’re Still The Ozark Mountain Daredevils.”

The band also held four commemorative concerts in March at the historic Landers Theatre, the site of their first big show.

Those who were around and up for a jam in 1972 could buy a ticket to see the Daredevils for $1 in advance or $1.50 at the door, but in 2022, they were significantly pricier at $70.

The band is looking forward to two appearances in September at Juanita K. Hammons Hall, where they will perform with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

“It’s a bit disconcerting,” Dillon said. “Symphonies do not jam.”

As a result, he said the band has to learn to adjust its approach to the performance to be able to parallel what an orchestra of classically trained musicians does.

“I am looking so forward to hearing the orchestrations and being backed up by instruments and sounds and movements that accentuate the songs,” he said. “I’ve heard some of this stuff in my head for years. To actually hear it in person is going to be exhilarating.”

The orchestrator of the performance, Bill Jones, has been with the band since the beginning, and Dillon said he has written parts for each symphony instrument and is trying to make it all work.

“He said it’s going to be the most amazing thing people have ever seen in Springfield, or it’s going to be a complete train wreck,” Dillon said. “Either way, it’s going to be really entertaining.”

A total of 28 members have been part of the band since its inception. The current lineup made their debut at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry on May 17, and Dillon said he was blown away to receive a standing ovation from the crowd following “If You Wanna Get to Heaven.”

“That was an interesting bolt from the blue,” said Dillon.

“We don’t consider ourselves a country group, though we do have certain roots, obviously, based on where we’ve always been based, which is the Ozarks. It was quite an honor to be asked to play at the Opry.”

Country music and the Opry have been conservative over the years, and Dillon figures they would never have been allowed to play that song 50 years ago.

“Music evolves, and it evolves socially and philosophically, as well,” he said.

Gin, blossoming
The Daredevils recently branched out into a venture wholly separate from their music, and that is the production of their own gin in the London dry style.

The small-batch spirit was launched in fall 2020. It is distilled in Springfield by EE Lawson Distillery LLC and is distributed by Major Brands.

The gin is a potent potable, at 47% alcohol by volume, but it is likewise a potent metaphor for the band, with down-home ingredients coming together to produce a distinctive flavor. It features a mix of 11 botanicals, and while the band is mum on the particulars, the flavors are sourced from right here in the Ozarks, including an elderflower harvested in Mount Vernon.

Like with the music, Dillon said the band worked hard to get the gin mix exactly right.

“Reviews have been terrific,” he said. “It’s a real thing, not a vanity product, not a novelty product. I think it’s the best gin in the solar system.”