Credit: Photo by Gary Miller

In my late 30s, I burned a lot of bridges. I had a reputation of not showing up, or worse, I would show up. Then I got clean and sober.

My last real day job was probably back in my 40s, and I had a gig shagging cars – driving BMWs down to San Antonio and Mercedes to Atlanta. Then I would go out with [my wife] Judy and actually repo cars. I only did that a couple times, but I didn’t care for it. That was probably the last job I did.

The worst day job I ever had was when I was 16 and got a job at Burger King in Dallas. They had those burger patties with paper between them, and my first day I was supposed to put the burgers on the grill. Well, nobody told me to take the papers off, so I sent about four of these patties through the grill with the papers still on them, and this huge fire just shot up and everybody panicked.

So I lost my status up front and got put to work in the back cleaning the grease pits and scraping grease off of pans. That lasted about a week.

Ray Wylie’s 17th LP is out now, Tell the Devil I’m Gettin’ There as Fast as I Can.

This article appears in August 25 • 2017.

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Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.