Enjoy JB Walker on the Rocks and Roll This Saturday

His seemingly permanent smile is on his face as he enters Reid’s Deli.

His hair is pulled back into a perfect ponytail and his snug leather jacket is removed and placed on the booth where we sit.  He is happy on this day, as the weather is nice enough to enjoy a ride on ‘Stone Mountain Sweet Marie,’ his Harley-Davidson.  A sweet tea is ordered and the first cigarette is lit. Through the cloud of smoke that slowly rises toward the ceiling, I see a tattoo on his left wrist: Invictus.

As the interview begins and JB Walker starts to reminisce about the band, he cannot help but be interrupted by longtime friends who just smile, say hello, and tell me that, “He is a real good man.”

Walker always wanted to be an entertainer, and his dream began to come to fruition at age 27, when he decided to quit his job as the meat-cutter at a Winn-Dixie store.  He then bought his first guitar and taught himself how to play.  He joined forces with some co-workers from the store, and they became the original members of the JB Walker and the Cheap Whiskey Band.

After a two-year hiatus, Walker is back to rock and roll, and no one can stop him.  The bands’ 2011 tour schedule is filling up and he will be playing at Mexico Lindo Bar and Grill on Saturday at 7 p.m.

“I didn’t know a damn thing when I decided to make this my career,” Walker says.

Twenty-five years after leaving his Winn-Dixie gig, and 18 albums later, Walker has played 40 states and has toured in 72 foreign countries with The Cheap Whiskey Band.

The band’s name came from one of Walker’s former bosses. “My boss would listen to us and say, ‘damn, you need a cheap bottle of whiskey in order to listen to you guys,’” he laughs. “Bands change their names so many times.  This was our first one, and it will never change.”

When performing with his friends for fun, Walker uses an alias, Cleatus BoDean and the White Trash Experience.  He says he never uses the band name when he is not performing with the guys.  They are his family, and they are one.

The band members have donated time to the USO for 22 years, beginning with Walker’s first USO tour in Saudi Arabia.  He became a member during the first Gulf War. 

He performs for the troops “because it is the right thing to do...It is my honor to do it,” he says.

While he does not speak about his children, he does enjoy talking about his band and the adventures they have lived throughout the years.  Most recently, someone stole the band’s trailer with about $150,000 worth of equipment.

“You cannot worry about money,” he says.  “You have got to keep going and things will happen.

“When I was a kid, I would spin the globe and place my finger on a destination, eyes closed, and wish to someday be there.  I have been everywhere I have wanted to go.  It is not money that matters, but the stories you’ve got.”

His sleeve rises and again the letters that form the word Invictus are revealed.  Invictus, Latin for unconquered.