Introduction

From the time I first saw this band live in 1967, I knew they were something VERY special.  No, that's NOT a typo!  I was STUNNED when I started looking around the internet and
press mentions of the band while working on a scrapbook of old photos and relics and found virtually had all placed this band as being of a mid-70's origin.  That's rubbish!  The band started WAY before 1972--they REFORMED in 1972 after a brief split with only moderate personnel changes.

I've been a fan of the band since the 1960's, before most of the their listeners even knew
of them as a musical entity, and before many of the fans were even born.  By the end of
1979, most all of my interest in the band musically had become a thing of the past.  I did however still follow notes of interest on many of the bands former members and attended
some concerts through about 1982.

Virtually none of the websites about the Outlaws have ever touched on the pre-Arista
recording history of the band--the original members, the not so famous years of Youth
Centers, rec halls, and school gyms (and one very famous gig in 1969 at Curtis Hixon Hall
in Tampa where they opened for Janis Joplin...she got arrested...).  Nobody mentions the seemingly endless club dates of the early '70s in places like the Back Door in Winter Park, Grant's Lounge in Macon GA, and Tampa's two great watering holes of the time, the Whippin' Post and the Depot.

This site is my personal tribute to THOSE days and the band's early history with Arista Records.  It became tiresome when people looked at me like I am was nuts  when I said I
saw the Outlaws in the 1960's.  Some of us "old timers" also tired of seeing either little
or no mention of the people who made the group what they later became.

There will be a lot of names on this page which the average Outlaws record consumer knows
nothing about, whom I think you should get to know if you are a serious Outlaws music lover.  All,in one way or another, were key in the development of the Outlaws who became famous in the mid-70's.

I am very opinionated about this band and as far as I am concerned anybody who was in it
past the ones mentioned on this site were "pseudo-Outlaws".  They are all be fine musicians
in their own right, but to ME, they were not THE OUTLAWS, just players using the name.
By the time it got down to where only Hughie and David Dix were left of the originals,
the whole thing was GONE for me.  Without Billy, Frank and Monte, it just wasn't my
Outlaws any more--not the sound, not the faces and not the fun.

Many of the photos on this site were taken by me, and are not ones widely circulated by
the media.  Also being added rapidly are many photos from the personal collection of Monte Yoho, who has been awesome about sharing these with us. Evelyn Rivenbark Hughes, whom I attended Junior High School with (though we didn't know it at the time-we crossed paths at an Outlaws gig in the 60's) provided some of the OLDEST pics of the band on this website and a big thanks goes out to her as well.  Everyone who has contributed to the site gets a big thanks (more on the Links and Thanks page).

These photos are not to be ripped off and posted on other sites--all these folks have been nice
enough to share them--be nice enough to respect that they don't belong to the world.

One website besides this one has permission to use some of my photos previously submitted to
them, Tom G's Outlaws Tribute Page.    Visit Tom's site for more information on the band as a
recording entity and for some later photos of the band.  If you are looking for anyone too far past the "Hurry Sundown" album, that's where you need to go.  Tom's got a lot of stuff over there about the later band lineups. (please note during February that Tom closes the site to everything but his Billy Jones tribute)

If you're into finding out the "roots" of the band and how it evolved, then you've come to the right place and we are glad you're visiting us!  Please take a minute to sign the guestbook cuz you never know--some Outlaw may be reading it!  (I know for certain at least five previous band members have been here and some have signed the book)

There is nothing of personal gain involved in this website except the knowledge that some great people get recognized for their accomplishments and that people know that the Outlaws were not found under a rock at a Tampa bar in 1974.  A lot of  the music I still listen to today was due to the influence of the Outlaws. My relationship with the band was not strictly as a fan--some of these people were and still are my friends.

It took a lot of people to make the Outlaws what they were and this website what it is.  I hope you enjoy it.