FRIEND OF THE DEVIL: Back in the late Seventies, shit-kicking bluegrass duo Banjo & Sullivan were Nashville’s next big things, even signed to MCA alongside Lynyrd Skynyrd, when their career (and their throats) were cut short by homicidal hillbillies at a remote Texas motel. Their grisly fate is documented in the new Rob Zombie movie The Devil’s Rejects, which opens Friday, and Universal Records has just released Banjo & Sullivan’s The Ultimate Collection 1972-1978, featuring should’ve-been-hits like “I’m at Home Getting Hammered (While She’s Out Getting Nailed).” Oddly enough, or maybe not, B&S sound a lot like local roots-rocker Jesse Dayton, who wrote the duo’s songs last year in L.A. with help from his actor buddy Lew Temple (who appears in the film) and “three bottles of White Label Jim Beam.” When they played the songs for Zombie, Dayton recalls, “he was laughing, really busting a gut. He called up Universal Records and got us a deal right there.” The dreadlocked horror-metal kingpin is also a huge fan of honky-tonk and Southern rock (who knew?), and personally requested the fiery cover of “Freebird” that closes the album. “It turned out to be really cool,” says Dayton. “We’ve got Erik Hokkanen ripping it up at the end – shredding, if you will.”
This article appears in July 22 • 2005.