I am from a small town in Montana called Florence. You probably have never heard of it. There I was raised by my foot stomping music loving mother who made me take up the violin. As soon as high school came into play I dropped the violin and starting fooling around with the electric bass. Being from the town I was from, not a whole lot of people where interested in that sort of thing, and therefore no one to learn from. So on the backbench it went as something I wanted to learn until I went to Western Washington University, where I met some people that wanted to start up a psychobilly band with me we called The Whiskey Wailers. In that band I learned how to play the upright. I learned on a beat up old DeVilli. We opened up for many amazing bands, one of them being Big John Bates. After the show John introduced himself to me and hinted towards their upcoming need for an upright bass player as that was Caroline's last tour. Caroline filled in the details and I was officially in Big John Bates. I still had two years left in college (which I soon got my B.A. in Biocultural Anthropology), but i figured why the hell not? Juggling two bands and school was a pain in the ass, but I saw a light at the end of the tunnel that kept me motivated. (more like a rope around the neck that i was wildly trying not to hang myself from.) In BJB is where I learned the fine tuning in upright bass playing, and I had to learn it quick because one of my first shows with them was for 10,000 people in Germany playing festivals. It was sort of sink or swim scenario, and I paddled my ass off. Now day's we are still touring constantly, I'm always learning new tricks to beat the crap out of my bass and awing the crowd with bass yielding contortionism.. But the bass just won't break, Hofner tough. People ask me at the end of the show.. "is that a stage prop?" If those exist somewhere, sign me up, i'll light it on fire.

"Big John Bates has been concocting his hellfire remedies for the past decade. After playing over 1000 shows in 17 countries around the world for tens of thousands of fans this endorsed Gretsch-slinger has hooked up with a menacing new band. It features Brandy Bones (endorsed by Hofner upright bass and sharing lead vocals) and T-Hag powering the machine on the drums. They’ve been digging up the dark roots of Americana and hammering them with garage punk blues, laying down 10 wicked tracks for the new Battered Bones album - and they’re heading out on the “Hellfire Remedy Tour” in October 2011.
BJB has headlined to 10,000 at Germany's Stemwede festival, played a federal prison in Belgium and topped the bill with the Fuzztones at the first Stag-o-lee Festival. They've played the oldest theatre in Germany, offended Mandalay Bay in Vegas and were given the royal treatment by the underworld in Palermo, Sicily.
They played the Raalte Festival in Holland with the Blasters & Solomon Burke and the Ink & Iron Festival in Long Beach with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. They’ve even been featured on Battlestar Galactica (Season 3 Episode 14 – The Pleasure Planet). They’ve made their name doing countless tours of North America in their flat black Murderbus, playing with Andre Williams, Supersuckers, Belrays, New Bomb Turks, Boss Hoss, Koko Taylor, Dex Romweber, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, US Bombs & T-Model Ford.

They’ve also had their version of "Tainted Love" featured in the film "Un Singe Sur Le Clos" from CauriFilms in France, been interviewed on A&E / Discovery for the special on Russ Meyer, had cover stories in Bizarre Magazine and Tattoo Life Magazine and have been featured in many lifestyle coffee table books." 

Band
Big John Bates

Instrument
Hofner Stringed Instruments - Double Bass

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