Webb expands talents from music to art

This is the final article of a three part series on Joyce Webb’s life in the music industry.

The move to Wimberley was a good one, and Joyce Webb’ second career began as an owner of Wimberley Stained Glass; she tried to keep up with the industry and attended stained glass expositions, such as the one where she learned about working with Blenko glass.

One stained glass exposition was held in Nashville, Tennessee at the same time as Country Music’s Fan Fair. Fan Fair was an event that honored Country Music with numerous artists performing in concerts and signing autographs during the four-day festival.

While Joyce was in her hotel, getting ready to attend the stained glass expo, Kenny Rogers was on TV, as he was one of the featured artists at Fan Fair. Joyce was excited and called his personal assistant, to let Kenny know she was in town and would like to meet up with him. Little did she realize that the assistant was unable to contact him.

“And I said, okay, I’m just going to go to where he’s performing. His assistant said, ‘Okay, I’d get in touch with him. I’ll tell him that you’re going to be there.’ I said okay. So I go to where he’s going to perform, thinking that he knows that I’m there.”

The venue was crowded with thousands of fans, but Joyce was able to get a single seat up front still believing the assistant had gotten hold of Kenny Rogers.

“I’m sitting next to a little girl in a wheelchair, right next to me. And over here is a group of people, families, and me. And so, Kenny comes out on stage. And I thought he saw me. Toward at the end of the show, he said, there’s a very special lady in the audience I’d like to sing a song for.

“He sang ‘Lady, I’m your knight in shining armor. And I love you.’ And I thought, god, I’m glad (husband) David didn’t come with me because this is a lot, he’s looking right at me, I think. So at the end of the song, I stood up. And he said, ‘Joyce? Sit down!’” It turns out this little girl sitting next to me in the wheelchair was from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Totally embarrassed, Joyce hung her head down.

“People were there from the glass show so that when I was back to the glass Expo, I mean, I’m trying to keep my head down just thinking about it.”

That said, before she got back at the hotel, Kenny Rogers had telephoned Bobby Doyle in Houston and told him of the Make-a-Wish girl and Joyce standing up and being embarrassed. Joyce meanwhile pleaded her case to the expo people, “I really did use to sing with him,” with retorts of yeah, sure.

But playing with big names in Vegas was not something new to Joyce. She was able to rub elbows with some pretty big names in the business. Playing between the main acts on the strip in Vegas was one of her jobs while there.

For a performance on just one night, Joyce was one of Ray Charles’ Raylettes’, singing back up to Charles.

“I started with them, a little behind him. But I was just doing it for fun. But he knew, he could hear your voice. ‘Hey, Who’s that? Who’s that fourth part?’ I said that would be me. He said, well, good job. He said ‘you aren’t Black, are you?’ I said No, no, sir. And he didn’t tell me to get off stage either. You know, didn’t say ‘get the hook.’”

Bill Cosby, the famed television actor incarcerated for his use of date rape drugs, was also an acquaintance of Joyce. “You know, I was this is pretty blonde girl, and that was his type. I mean, all the girls he knocked out and took advantage of were blondes. I mean, I was there. He never even said ‘boo’ or anything. Someone pointed out to me that since I didn’t drink, you know, he didn’t get a chance.”

Roy Head, singer of a 60s hit “Treat Her Right,” and Joyce had a revue.

“Now Roy Head and I had a good 50s show together. We’ve worked in Vegas, this first main room. He named himself Stud Turkey. He named me Juicy Lucy. For years people said ‘hey aren’t you Juicy Lucy?’” She continued.

“He used to do a dance which was called the alligator. He got out on the floor and rolled around to do the alligator. He tried to get me to do it. ‘I’m not getting down,’ I replied. ‘You’re missing out, man.’ No, I’m not going to do that.”

Head was used to jumping off the stage and knew how to land on his feet, as other band members did except Larry, a guitar player. “When he told Larry to come on, Larry just dove off the stage and landed on his head and knocked himself out. It did mess up the dance floor when people wanted to dance for a while.”

Roy Head was a wild man. Rumor had it that he bit Elvis Presley in the ankle so that Elvis would remember him. Joyce worked with him one more time, about 20 years later.

“We were in the Blue Room in New Orleans. We were walking out of a restaurant and these people behind us are saying Roy Head. He turned around and he said, ‘Yeah, I’m Roy Head,’ and the guy said, ‘is that Juicy Lucy? Didn’t you used to do the alligator?’”

“We were in a parking lot and he just jumped out and said ‘used to’ and started doing the alligator right there in the parking lot on the cement. He scared me, because we’re nearly the same age. And I’m thinking well, he got down there, but how’s he going to get up?

“And he just went right into his number. We’re watching all right. And he did his own thing, you know, and ta daaa, and he got up, and we were just amazed. And those people walked away to get in their cars and as they drove off, Roy just said, ‘Carolyn take me to the hospital.’”

The Grand Piano Incident

An incident that left her scared was when her then boyfriend had too much to drink.

“I even had a guy that I dated that chopped up my grand piano, a beautiful Yamaha grand piano.

“I never dated musicians. We were on the road together. And well, we were in Vegas. So we always went together in groups, and I started dating the guitar player. We were fine out on the road. Everything was great. And I thought I was in love, you know? Good guy. He was just fine for six months. He was just fine. We got back to Houston.”

Joyce confronted him about drinking and his abusive behavior. Finally the argument caused her to break up with him at that moment.

“He got that ax from when we chopped the wood for the fireplace and chopped up my grand piano, a beautiful brand new Yamaha grand piano, six foot. It broke up our group. I said to Roy Head ‘Hey, I can’t work with these guys.’”

Other scary incidences happened, especially after late night shows. Male admirers would try to express their feelings to her after hearing Joyce sing at night.

“One time, I was in my car. I didn’t have my car locked. He was waiting in my car. He said, ‘I saw you looking at me, what you were saying and you’re just too good to be true. I saw you looking at me, and I know we had a connection.’”

For anybody that has not appeared on stage in front of an audience, people are just indistinguishable blurs, you know they are there, but with the bright lights shining in your face, it is impossible to see any one individual. Joyce finally convinced the man to leave her alone. But there’s a humorous tale of another.

“I finally learned to let somebody walk me out to my car, okay? But this guy jumped in my car and he’s put his left hand on my shoulder, with me in the driver’s seat. He had a tough hold on me, ‘I just want to tell you something. It’s important.’ I said, okay I don’t want to fight. He said, ‘I just love you. I’ve been hearing you for so long.’ And he’s sitting here with his hand on my shoulder. And he said, ‘I want you to know how deep my feelings are.’ He leaned over. And I think he meant to kiss my shoulder. But he kissed his own hand. And I cracked up. That’s the funniest thing I ever saw. I laughed and he left. And I never saw him again. No, I never saw him again. That’s funny. I never saw such a horrified look on anybody’s face in my life.”

Joyce also has faced serious illnesses, too. She got bit by a flea in the desert and came down with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and later a gangrene gall bladder that happened during the 2015 flood. She was worried about her daughter Shelle living near the Blanco River, communications were down and there was no way to contact her.

“That’s the first time I realized, you know, I always thought that I was saved because I was baptized. And I went to church and I was saved. I was lying there in terrible pain. And I thought to myself, and said a prayer within myself. God, you’re good. I had faith in God. But you know, I evidently thought I was in charge be cause I thought, God, okay, you’re on your own. I’m sorry. I can’t help you anymore. Thank you.

“I said the Lord’s Prayer, said in the very moment I said, that ‘thy will be done’. In my mind, thy will be done. The pain stopped. It was a peace that came over me. And it was such a relief. I went to sleep. I had the best dream I ever had. I mean, I saw people that passed on before me. Right. I had a peace that came over me I saw my brothers and sisters (who had passed).

“What is this? Heaven? What is it? This is a picnic. What is this? And I’m sleeping. But it’s a dream, or whatever it is. And it was the most fun I ever had. I was just laughing and it was really fun.

“But in this dream, there were a lot of people, people that didn’t pass before me. When I came to, I had all these tubes and everything, but I had no pain. And it was the strangest thing. I kept trying to tell somebody, ‘hey, I’m okay.’ You know, and they are thinking she’s on her way out.

“So finally the chaplain came in. I told the chaplain, all of a sudden, I just didn’t have any pain. And I’m thinking, okay, wait. And the chaplain said, ‘You know what? I’d give anything to be you. You have experienced a miracle.’ She said, ‘I’d give anything to have had a miracle happen in my life. You’ve had a miracle happen in your life. You know, do you realize that? You turned it over to him.’ I said, all this time, I thought I was helping him you know. Yeah, I just thought I had some control.”

Joyce survived and is in her 80s, but she hasn’t slowed down. You can see Joyce around town at the finest establishments or on a front porch by the Square. And a little secret…

“When I forget a bridge or have a senior moment, I’ll stop and tell a story, like ‘I sang with Ray Charles, back in the day…” But the stories are all true and fun to listen to, all about the entertainment world and how it once was.