South Texas Entertainment Art Music
STEAM
MAGAZINE
BUSHBULLIT
If you’re from South Texas, you have probably heard of Bushbullit, a southern rock and blues band hailing from Corpus Christi. They originally formed in 1976 at a club in Alice TX after another band split up and Kerry Patton was left with holding a gig and no players. When OB Gonzales showed up the next night to play with Patton – he saw a band name on the marquee. “When I found Kerry, I said dang I thought we had a gig, but it looks like they found another band, Bushbullit.” Turns out that Patton had to think fast and give the club owner a band name for the marquee – only thing he could come up with was his CB radio handle, Bushbullit. The band stayed together until 1980 when a club, with all their gear in it, went up in smoke. They parted their ways and OB went to California for a couple of years before coming back to Corpus Christi in ’82. It wasn’t until ‘88 that OB decided to reform Bushbullit.By now you’re wondering what “Bushbullit” is, huh? Well, it’s a Texas Armadillo. Anyway, Bushbullit was formed in ’76 with the idea they could play what they wanted to and didn’t have to fall under any one specific genre; here we are in 2014 and they’re still playing by that rule. Of course now they can play a full night of one genre, but they still want to mix it up!Bushbullit started out as a four piece band, but have been a 3-piece for the last 15 years. The three guys making up Bushbullit have been together for years, in fact Eddie Saenz has been the bass player since 2003 and Antone Perez started drumming for them in 2007. As a young man learning to play bass in Corpus Christi, Eddie wanted to play in Bushbullit, but didn’t think he had the right stuff until he got to sit in with OB. OB was so taken with Eddie’s abilities that when the bass player left for personal reasons OB called Eddie that day. Antone began with them as a fill-in drummer after Doc G passed away unexpectedly.OB Gonzales is the lead singer, lead guitar player, and original member of the band. It’s his vision and leadership that has kept Bushbullit busy for the past 24 years and I think it’s safe to say they’ll be around for a lot longer! Bo Diddley, Head East, Foghat, and Molly Hatchet are some of the national bands Bushbullit has opened for in the past. There aren’t many clubs in the Coastal Bend area that Bushbullit hasn’t played and they have a huge fan base that follows them. They’ve also performed at many fairs and festivals across South Texas.“Slide Across Texas” is the first EP released by Bushbullit. At their upcoming performance with Bubblepuppy, at the Executive Surf Club on March 29th, 2014 they will be recorded live by RD Garza from Hacienda Records. Bushbullit has 5 new songs to record that night, so you don’t want to miss this show!