Joe Jerkins

I was born in Stillwater, OK and lived in or around there for 19 of my first 20 years (a year in Wyoming was hell ... fun place to visit, not live). I began playing guitar at 14 when my dad bought me a Squier Strat Pack at Daddy O's in Stillwater. When I moved to Gillette, Wyoming, I was 16 and didn't have anything to do other than work out and play guitar. That's all I did (I got a lot better at guitar). After 10 months of liftin' & rockin', I moved back to Oklahoma where I started jamming with my friend, Adam. He turned me back on to country music, which I had gotten away from since beginning to play guitar (I was busy rockin' Zep & Rage). We wrote a few songs together and were roomates my sophomore year at Northern Oklahoma. I moved to Austin in 2003 with my 1st wife-to-be and our infant daughter. Marriage and divorce soon followed. Like many songwriters, I have used this as the inspiration for many of my songs. I got a lot better at songwriting after my 1st divorce (mostly because I did a lot more of it). I just write what I know.My Grandfather that I was named after worked in radio and TV from the mid-40's until 1990. While DJ-ing for the legendary KOMA radio in the OKC, he interviewed the likes of HANK WILLIAMS and GENE AUTRY on-air! My dad was a Stillwater, OK police officer for 20 years. He pulled over David Allan Coe's tour bus in the late-70's and Coe got off the bus, gave dad his license and got a warning for a busted tail light. (I wish he would have kept that ticket with the autograph) Years later (early-90's), at a Tulsa gun show, dad ran into Coe and asked if he remembered getting stopped in Stillwater, to which he replied "Yes, Sir. I do." Sweet.Now, I just play as much as I can.