We had an opportunity recently for a lengthy chat with veteran bluegrass vocalist and bandleader Robert Hale, and feel certain that readers will be entertained by his reflections and remembrances over more than 50 years in the music.
Currently, bluegrass lovers know Robert from his work with Wildfire, a band he helped found in 2000, where he serves as guitarist and lead vocalist. But he also records as a solo artist with Pinecastle Records. We’ve had occasion to cover a great deal of his music over the years at Bluegrass Today, and are pleased to tie it all together here today with this interview, which touches on a good bit of bluegrass history from the 1980s forward.
Hale hails from the tiny town of Jolo, WV, located at the southern tip of West Virginia, not far from the Virginia line. Less than 1,000 call Jolo home, but it oddly has produced an outsized number of bluegrass artists. In addition to Robert, both Cliff Waldron and Darrell Webb grew up in the unincorporated community, which takes its moniker from the name of the local post office.
Robert says that he has lived in the state all his life.
“I live in West Virginia; that’s home. In Jolo, you need to drive about an hour to get anything. We’re more famous for a snake-handling church than anything else.
But I spend a lot of time in Pigeon Forge, TN working at The Comedy Barn. I used to play at Dolly Parton’s Stampede until COVID. I could get to get my Tele fix down there.”
His first instrument was a mandolin, common for youngsters who start early.
My dad played. I was in his band when I was nine, Clayton Hale & The Bluegrass Mountaineers. He had a TV show and was a promoter, and had a bluegrass festival. I made great connections growing up. He was good friends with Don Reno, so I got to be pretty good friends with Dale and Don Wayne.
Doyle Lawson was one of those guys who always helped me out along the way. I grew up as a mandolin player, and learned all his stuff as a teenager. Dad would bring Doyle over to listen to me play his breaks. He always gave me the confidence to think I could do that.
At 13 I was playing in a country rock band.
I switched to guitar at 18. When Don Reno died, Dale and Don Wayne called me to help them fill out the dates he had booked. It worked out that I played a year and a half with them until Ronnie came back and it became the Reno Brothers.”
From there he joined one of the most influential groups of the era, one that made careers for a lot of its members, and got to play at one of the world’s biggest events.
“In the fall of ’86 I joined Crowe the first time. Tony King had just left, and Gene Johnson was on mandolin and Slone on bass. Bobby left for a while to play with Keith Whitley, and we hired Curt Chapman. I stayed through ’88, until Crowe started talking about retirement. So Scott and I formed Live Wire. He was in Bristol when we started getting together, but he soon moved to Georgia.
Originally Live Wire was going to be me, Scott, and Russell Moore, but Russell decided to stay with Doyle. Wayne Benson was on mandolin and Ernie Sykes on bass. Ernie was one of my best buddies. He was the oldest one of us then, maybe 26 or so. I was 23, Wayne was 19, Scott was maybe 22 or 23.
We did the album with Rounder in 1990, and stayed together three years. We go to do a lot of cool things in that band. I don’t how we got booked on this, but we played at the Glastonbury Festival in England. Sinead O’Connor was there, and maybe 150,000 in the audience. It was bizarre. Probably the most interesting gig we ever played. We followed Mojo Nixon, and he had a boogie-woogie electric sound, and there we were getting ready to go out with banjos and mandolins.
We were plugged in, and played through amps. I remember one time in the set I started hearing a little sound from my amp, and before I had a chance to even look at it, there were three guys back there fixing it.
They had a huge and wonderful sound system at Glastonbury. The people loved us. At that point, we were probably the loudest bluegrass band of all time.
We had done a couple of festivals over there, and some pubs, and then one day we’re at Glastonbury with thousands of people. That was the time of the spiked hair and all that. I was a little worried about how they would like us, but luckily it went real well.”
But like all things, the band came to an end.
“Livewire broke up probably because we were young. We are all still great friends, and I think we all wish it had lasted longer. It seemed to just fade away.
Then I played mandolin for about five years off and on with Eddie and Martha. Afterwards, I went back with Crowe just after my dad died. I had filled in with Crowe a few times, and he knew that Ricky and Dwight were leaving so he asked me to come back.
Eddie and Martha always treated me so well. Missy Raines was still in the band, and I played several shows before she left and Ernie came in. They were just great. They treated me like I was somebody, and paid me well. Great people. I practically had a room in their house.
It was wild for me, having listened to all those Country Gentlemen records, and there I was staying in his house.”
Thinking about Eddie and Martha, and how highly he holds them in his regard, took Robert back to his boyhood again.
“Another guy that influenced me was Marty Stuart. Other than my dad, seeing Marty on Hee Haw with Lester when he was 13 really made me see that I could do this. I got to meet him later, and he was always kind and encouraging.
I remember he helped us get into The Opry one time, and I really remember that. We did a lot of shows with Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley, so I got to know the guys in those bands. Keith Whitley, Curly Ray Cline, and Wayne Lewis in particular were inspirations to me.
Bill got us a spot on The Opry when I was 11 in my dad’s band. I rememberer Grant Turner coming by and patting me on the head, and talking to my dad. They told dad that they think I was the youngest to play on the Opry at that time, playing mandolin with my dad’s band.”
The next vehicle for Hale was a new band he formed with the guys in The New South when he rejoined in 2000. It was Robert, along with Darrell Webb on mandolin, Phil Leadbetter on reso-guitar, and Curt Chapman on bass, all of who whom were playing with Crowe at the time. But they also played around east Tennessee with Barry Crabtree on banjo as Wildfire.
“We formed Wildfire when we left Crowe. We had all been playing at Dollywood, and recorded a first CD just to sell at Dollywood. We gave Crowe plenty of notice, and I hated to tell him we were leaving. It was a dream gig for me.
But when I told him, he said, ‘I understand. If I hadn’t left Jimmy Martin, I would still be a Sunny Mountain Boy.’
He almost always called me when he needed a fill in.”
Here’s a look at that original band from Hoofer’s Gospel Barn in Georgia with B.J. Cherryholmes on fiddle.
Through a number of personnel changes, Wildfire is still playing together, though it involved a personal loss that Robert is still grieving.
Wildfire started playing with Crowe in late 2000, and we’re still going. We hit the ground running, playing at Dollywood two or three days a week. Right off the bat we hit pretty good, playing festivals. Phil did the booking and he knew everybody.
Losing Phil was so hard, especially after he had fought the cancer several times. In the end, it was the COVID that took him.
We did a Wildfire reunion at Bean Blossom before he died, and I ended up hanging with Phil most of the time. He was handling most of the booking there. I could tell that something wasn’t right with him, he was forgetting things, and seemed really worn down. That’s when the cancer came back.
He was one of a kind. Me and him always stayed the best of buddies. He was always going to make you laugh.
I’d like to play more than we’re actually playing with Wildfire, but the guys all have other things. Johnny is an attorney in Sandy Hook, KY, Scott is out in Owensboro teaching at the college.
Crowe came out and played some shows with Wildfire, he thought that much of us. He came with us to play a show when Bobby Slone passed. When Bobby was real sick, me and Curt, JD, Doyle, and I think Don Risgby, went and spent the day with Bobby. That was a great blessing for all of us.
Having Bobby Slone in the band when I was there the first time was a big help to me. He took me under his wing a little bit, and that was so important. He was from a town in Kentucky close to where I was from.
If somebody had a problem with Bobby Sloan, that’s just what it was. They had a problem.”
Another bluegrass icon that had an impact on Hale as a youngster was Tony Rice, and Robert explained why he never played that style of guitar.
“I never got to be real close to Tony Rice, but during my first stint with Crowe we did some shows with him. I met him for the first time at Denton, and Milton Harkey said he would introduce us. Dad took me, and I wasn’t even sure he meant that. I met Tony backstage – he was there with the Album Band. Tony got his guitar and let me play it. After a few minutes, he turned around and said, ‘I hear you back there. But let me tell you something, don’t play like me. Learn to play like yourself!’
Then he gave me a grin and said, ‘Besides… I’ve got that other part covered.’
I took it to heart, maybe too much. One line that had probably the best and worst advice I ever got.”
Again, thinking about a giant we have lost sent Robert on to more reminiscing.
“Steve Gulley is another one. We did the All-Stars of Bluegrass together with Phil. I had known him for years, but we got to be close during that time. It was strange that he was gone so fast. It felt like I was standing next to him in the studio, and the next thing you know he’s gone.
I remember we were getting together to shoot a video for one of the songs, and we ended up postponing it because Steve wasn’t feeling well. They took him to the doctor, and they sent him straight to the hospital. He was gone a few weeks later.
Losing those guys like Crowe, who was everything to me, that really hurts. The first time I played with him I was just a kid, maybe 20. I would usually stay with him the night before, and his kids were really little and would crawl all over him. The second time David and Stacy were all grown up.
All the time I look at my life and think, ‘How did I get to do all these things with all these guys?’ To come from Jolo, WV. It’s pretty awesome.”
Here’s the video he was mentioning above.
And once you get Robert Hale to remembering, the recollections just pour out.
“We got to have a big jam backstage at the Opry with Vince Gill and Amy. We closed the Opry down with Wildfire. The security guy was waiting for us to leave so he could go home.
We didn’t even know that Vince was going to be there at the Opry. Wildfire played one of his songs and he missed it, but he asked us to stick around after. He asked, ‘what are you guys doing after this?’ He was stoked and wanted to play some grass. We had to head to Georgia that night, but we were happy to stick around to pick with Vince.”
That brought up one final memory with Phil Leadbetter in Wildfire. They were pulling in to a festival when Robert wasn’t feeling it.
“Phil said, “Man you know, you don’t think of us this way, but you remember when we were kids seeing the bus pull in, and you watch it till it’s parked. Somebody is watching us like that.”
Bluegrass has been very good to Robert Hale, and he’s not finished yet. His latest single is So Lonesome So Long, from an upcoming solo album with Pinecastle.
