Mill Valley musician Austin "Audie" de Lone --

a founder of what the Brits call "Pub Rock" -- had

a number of songs playing in the jukeboxes of

popular Mill Valley pubs during the 1970s. 

Perhaps you remember his band Eggs Over

Easy and their song "I've Got A Horny Old Lady"

blasting over the din at The Old Mill Tavern?  Or

maybe you recall drinking at The Brothers bar on

Miller when someone selected their song "Gonna

Put a Bar in The Back of My Car (and Drive

Myself to Drink)"?

Well, it's been awhile since those bars were

around but DeLone has been making sweet

music in Mill Valley ever since.  Aside from his

long relationship with The Sweetwater, he has

toured and recorded with rock legends such as

Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Paul Carrack,

Commander Cody, The Fabulous

Thunderbirds, and Clarence Clemons.  He’s

also served for years as Music Director for the

BAMMIES and completed several solo albums

including "de Lone at Last".  Recognizing his

immense talent and contributions to the Mill

Valley music scene, the Mill Valley Art

Commission presented DeLone with a "Milley"

award in 2007 for bringing national and

international honor to the city of Mill Valley. 

de Lone moved to Mill Valley in 1972.  He and

his wife LESLEY had me over to their Mill Valley

home to talk about their Mill Valley memories:

JASON: What was "The Office" in Mill Valley?

AUDIE: It was just a bar.  They had a piano in

there.  It was that old joke - "I won't be home until

late tonight, I'm still at the office, dear."  It was

where the Sweetwater is today.

JASON: What was your favorite hang out?

AUDIE:  My favorite place in Marin County -- and

also my main hangout -- was The Old Mill

Tavern.  It had everything, both good and bad. 

There are special places at certain times where

there's sort of like a beam from outer space that

comes down and puts a little zap on a

place...and for a while, that place bubbles up like

a boiling cauldron of great ideas and people. 

That was The Old Mill Tavern. 

I got here in '72 and it was jumping with crazed

rednecks, stoned hippies, gays, lesbians... a wild

mix of everybody.  At the time there were some

rich people who lived up in the (Mill Valley) hills

but the town wasn't particularly a high end joint. 

A lot of workers lived in town. 

JASON:  Was there friction between all these

different groups at The Old Mill?

AUDIE:  No.  The rednecks were happy to go out

and fight each other but there wasn't friction

between the different groups.  That's what was

amazing about it.  Everybody just poured in there

and they had a good ol' time.  Before I lived out

here (I was told) that in the Sixties they called it

"Saturday Night Fights".  People used to go down

to the bar and at the end of the night they'd be

outside slugging it away.  It was just kind of how

they had their fun.

JASON:  That was before you got there?

AUDIE:  Yeah, but there was still a certain

amount of that was left (in 1972), sort of redneck

cowboy characters...

JASON: Where did you live before Mill Valley

and what made you decide to settle there?

AUDIE:  Let's see... London, New York, Tucson,

then Mill Valley.  We were in LA mixing a record,

came up to visit some friends who were also

mixing a record, and we just decided to stop right

here and go no further.

JASON:  Did you meet your wife in Marin?

AUDIE:  I met her probably 7 or 8 years later in

Mill Valley -- at the Old Mill Tavern!

LESLEY: Audie could put a sentence together which was very appealing to

me because none of the people during that time could put a sentence

together.  It really was Drugs, Sex, and Rock 'n Roll -- those were the times. 

Actually the community back then was really kind, artistic and friendly.

JASON: So you guys would play at The Old Mill Tavern?

AUDIE: Absolutely!  It was rockin'.  I don't think the Sweetwater would have

happened if it wasn't for The Old Mill Tavern.   It was a music thing and

people could plainly see after a few years that it was jumpin'.  Some of the

people who started The Sweetwater saw the Old Mill Tavern and realized

something was happening.  There were a bunch of great bands that played at

The Old Mill Tavern.  I met Elvis Costello there, I met Steve Miller there.  It

was a lively scene.  I met Sam Shepard there.  And of course there was

Charlie Deal!!!

THE LEGEND OF CHARLIE DEAL:

JASON: Tell me about Charlie Deal.

AUDIE:  I've got a song about him -- "The Legend of Charlie Deal".  You

know that photo on the cover of Huey Lewis' big SPORTS record that was

taken inside The 2am Club?  There's a guitar on the wall in the picture.  It's

a toilet seat guitar.  It was made by a guy named Charlie Deal.  He was a

character who came out (to Mill Valley) before I did in the Sixties or maybe

the late Fifties.  He was a very simple guy who everybody in town knew.  In

fact, he was kind of a ubiquitous character.  He was a janitor and stuff but he

also made toilet seat guitars and had a band called "Charlie's Gang" and

they played at the Old Mill Tavern.  Everywhere there was a place to play he

played.  Charlie's Gang did cover tunes and Charlie would get up with his

toilet seat guitar, stand up on top of his old Fender Harvard amp with a roll of

toilet paper hanging off the guitar and he'd play music, "Mustang Sally" or

"Midnight Hour" or whatever.

[Click the PLAY button to hear DeLone's "The Legend

of Charlie Deal".]

FAVORITE RESTAURANTS and HANGOUTS:

JASON: What about favorite Mill Valley restaurants?

LESLEY:  Well, of course there was The Trident (now Horizons) in

Sausalito where the book The Serial was based on.  That was huge.

AUDIE:  Right where D’Angelo’s is now in Mill Valley there was Davood’s,

the Persian restaurant.  That was cool.  La Ginestra was right where it is now

but further but the street there was another Italian restaurant I really liked

that burned down called La Veranda.  Then I loved the restaurant where

Toast is that used to be The Sunnyside that used to be The Dipsea...

JASON: THAT was the Dipsea?

AUDIE: That was the original location of The Dipsea before they moved out

to the French place that used to be...

LESLEY: Le Camembert.

AUDIE: Yeah, we had our pre-wedding party there...The next day we had a

party out at the beach at The Pelican Inn.

LESLEY:  We had Marty Ballin there and Dan Hicks and a bunch of people.

AUDIE:  The Pelican was a great place too.  You used to be able to sit out

on the lawn and drink.  Now you can’t do that.  It was really fun when it first

opened.  It was built by some of the guys that we knew who were local

legends like this guy Whalebone who I think also helped build The Black

Oak Saloon in Larkspur. 

JASON:  His name was WHALEBONE?

AUDIE:  Whalebone.  He’s gone unfortunately.

LESLEY:  No one’s told you about Whalebone???

AUDIE: Whalebone moved into town in the early-ish ‘70s, originally from the

East Coast somewhere.  He was a Viet Nam vet who had been a Marine

guy, maybe a tunnel-rat.  The toughest guy I’ve ever met.  No point in

fighting with Whalebone.  Even if there were 5 of you there was no point in

getting in a fight with Whalebone because you would definitely lose.  He was

a lovely guy but he had a hair-trigger.  He used to hang out at the bars and if

people crossed him the wrong way — whew! — it was unbelievable.  He

pretty much put an end to the Saturday Night Fight style thing at the Old Mill

Tavern because everybody after awhile realized there was no point in going

up against Whalebone.

THE TOILET BOWL:

AUDIE:  When I first game into town in ‘72 these were the bars...there was

The Office which was in the same space that later became The Sweetwater. 

The Old Mill Tavern.  There was a place called Quinn’s that is now the liquor

department of the Mill Valley market.  The Brothers which is now The Bead

Store of Marin which is across the street from the 7-11 (on Miller).  The 2am

Club.  And The Fireside — so six bars.  And Quinn’s was the tiniest one. 

Quinn was the bartender and at one time had owned ALL the bars in town. 

By the time I got here he just had Quinn’s and if he didn’t like you he

wouldn’t serve you.  (Laughs)  He was an old curmudgeon. 

LESLEY:  But going back to the football game...

AUDIE: So really the happening places in town were The Old Mill Tavern,

which had a lot of music, and a lot of the same people would frequent The

2am Club and The Brothers.  Those three bars used to play some sports

among them.  They played a football game once between The 2am Club and

The Old Mill Tavern.  A lot of people really could have been on either team

but sides were chosen.  The game was called The Toilet Bowl, partly in

honor of the great Charlie Deal.  Myself, Dan Hicks, and some other

musicians formed some sort of a very stupid and rather drunken marching

band and did a halftime thing.   One of the super-fine cheerleaders for The

Old Mill was my gorgeous wife Lesley.

LESLEY:  Holding a plunger. 

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unless otherwise

stated.  Those

images not owned

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are copyrighted

by their

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owners.  If you

are interested in

using material

from these pages,

please contact

Jason Lewis at

jason@marinnost

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