I’ve already written about my friend John, but I’ve got one more classic Higgins story to relate.
In May of 1994, we attended a trade show in New Orleans. We wanted catch some music (we saw Elvis Costello, in town supporting the Brutal Youth album) and were excited to see that psychobilly legend Reverend Horton Heat was going to be playing at Tipitina’s. We took a cab out and bought tickets. The first opener was playing and then finished. A second band came on later and played. We looked at our watches. It was getting really late and we were both going to have to be up in the morning, but at this rate, the good Reverend wasn’t going on until 2:00 in the morning. We bailed.
Cut forward to November. Higgins is visiting me in Maryland for a couple days. My wife leaves for California to attend still another trade show. Higgins and I hang out. I drop him off at the Greenbelt Metro station and then later drive to Dulles Airport and take the plane to L.A.
Flash forward one more time to mid 1995. Paramount is running the syndicated version of The Jon Stewart Show, which is about to be canceled. Even though it’s on at 2:00 a.m., my wife and I sometimes are accidentally up that late and we watch. Jon announces his musical guest for the evening: the Reverend Horton Heat.
My wife was confused. Who is this? I explained that Horton Heat is a musician. She then tells me that when she had flown home back in December (she had returned before me), she had arrived to find a snowstorm and some weird religious bumper sticker on the back of our van, which exclaimed “I Was A Sinner Until I Saw The Reverend Horton Heat.” She had stood there in the flying snow, scrapping off the offending sticker. By the time I came home a few days later, she’d forgotten all about it.
I knew exactly what had happened. That night at Tipitina’s, Higgins had bought the sticker. He’d held onto it for six months and then surreptitiously applied it to the back of my vehicle. I blindly drove around for the rest of the day, never noticing it, and then flew off to L.A. Jon Stewart brought it all together.
I immediately confronted him and he roared with laughter.
Last year at Thanksgiving, Boston Market used the Reverend Horton Heat’s song “Eat Steak” in TV commercials, as well as their song “Turkey Gotta Gobble.” You can hear “Turkey…” on the band’s MySpace page.
Tags: John M. Higgins, Reverend Horton Heat