"I used to use the cover of ‘Stagger Lee’ [by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds] as a sound check until Hal had a serious meltdown one day," says Jones. "He broke a Budweiser bottle on the bar and told me he would gut me if I ever played the song again. He had cut his finger and stuck it in his mouth. I still remember his cold blue eyes and the little speck of blood on his bottom lip and the moment toward the end of the song when Blixa of the Bad Seeds begins shrieking. It was very surreal. This song is sort of a soundtrack to Hal for me, God rest his angry soul."Signal Hill is an oil town which I have been careful to avoid in the twenty years since its police department beat Long Beach State football player Ron Settles to death and hung him in a jail cell. Here's a terrific story about the town's meanest bartender.
originally posted by xowie
