JANUARY 2015 BUDDY 9

They remain partners after 40 years: Rusty Burns and John O’Daniel

BUDDYTHE ORIGINAL TEXAS MUSIC MAGAZINE

JANUARY 2015VOLUME XXXXII, NUMBER 7

When Point Blank first brokeonto the national scene from theDFW Metroplex in 1974, theyrode a wave of popularity forgedby southern rockers like LynyrdSkynyrd, Molly Hatchett, .38Special, and the Marshall TuckerBand. Under the deft, savvy man-agement of Houston’s Bill Hamand Lone Wolf Productions, whoalso handled fellow power-boogie-rock artists ZZ Top, itwasn’t long before Point Blankwas playing every major rockand roll venue from coast to coast,opening for ’70s arena acts likeKiss, Bob Segar, AC/DC,Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd,Molly Hatchet, Joe Cocker,Santana, Blackfoot, EddieMoney, UFO, Journey andFoghat, just to name a few.

Eschewing theatrics, PointBlank built their reputation on ahard rocking live show, based onno-nonsense musicianship,spearheaded by John O’Daniel’ssoaring vocals, the signature twinguitar attack of Rusty Burns andKim Davis, and bolstered by thesolid, straight ahead rhythm sec-tion of bassist Phillip Petty anddrummer Buzzy Gruen.

They were also getting noticefrom a work ethic that saw themplaying over 200 shows a year, atone point, over 300.

“It was either 303, 305 or 308in ’76. Yeah, that was the torturetour deluxe,” Rusty Burns recalled.“Somebody said that we endedup in the Guinness Book of WorldRecords. I’ve never seen it, butI’ve had several people tell meabout it.”

“I’ve never seen it, but I’veheard the same thing,” addedJohn O’Daniel. “I know we didn’tsee Texas for eight months afterthat.”

Indeed, they played virtuallynonstop for two years before theyeven had a record deal, releasingtheir eponymous debut PointBlank (Arista) in 1976.

October 20, 1977SHORTLY AFTER THE RE-lease of Second Season (Arista) in1977, the band was signed toMCA, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s label,and they were ready to hit theroad to promote the new album.They were booked for 62 sold-out shows opening for LynyrdSkynyrd and they just knew thatthings were going to start hap-pening in a big way.

Their new high wasn’t fatedto last long.

On October 20, 1977, whiledriving to Baton Rouge, La to

meet up with Skynyrd to kick offthe tour, they got the fateful newsthat Lynyrd Skynyrd’s charteredplane ran out of fuel and crashedin Gillsburg, Mississippi. Leadsinger Ronnie Van Zant, guitar-ist/vocalist Steve Gaines, back-ing vocalist Cassie Gaines (Steve’solder sister), assistant road man-ager Dean Kilpatrick, and thetwo pilots died as a result of thecrash. Twenty others survived.

The crash impacted PointBlank’s career tremendously.

“We had 90 days, a wholequarter of our year was going tobe in front of the largest-sellingrock band of all time all over theplanet,” Rusty explained.

“That’s a make-it-or-breakitdeal, you know what I mean?When they crashed, our wholecareer just kinda went out thewindow and all of a sudden, wedidn’t have any gigs and now it’stime to just start popping datesanywhere you could find ‘em.Grab anything. We had a newrecord out and just no way totour it - the tours were alreadybooked up.”

There’s an adage that says,“When the going gets tough, the

tough go touring,” and that wasexactly what they did after sixmonths of no work, hitting theroad with a new fervor, criss-crossing the U.S. and creatingmore long-term fans.

But the grueling pace on theroad as well as the beginnings ofartistic differences resulted inbassist Phil Petty’s departure justbefore the release of 1979’s Air-play (MCA). Another personnelchange was the addition of SteveHardin on keyboards.

With new bassist “Wild” BillRandolph onboard, the band re-leased The Hard Way (MCA) in1980. The Hard Way saw Hardinreplaced by Karl Berke.

The constant touring as wellas changes in musical directionfrom their roots-based rock toAOR (radio-friendly album ori-ented rock) brought morechanges in personnel. Berke leftand was replaced by MichaelHamilton.

A time of changeBY THE TIME THEY CRACKEDthe top 40 in 1981 with a singlefrom American Exce$$ (MCA),John O’Daniel was gone as well.“Nicole,” sung by Bubba Keith,received strong airplay on AORradio stations, and reached #39on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Still, with the decline of south-

ern rock and the emergence ofdisco, the musical horizons hadchanged dramatically, and twoyears after the release of 1982’sOn A Roll (MCA), Point Blankwas no more.

But the demise of Point Blankdidn’t mean idle time for eitherRusty or John. Rusty worked withAustin-based Shake Russell from1984-89, and produced tworecords for him on AustinRecords. In early 1991, he wasplaying country music with RickyLynn Gregg, performing on twoof his records as well as touringwith him for five years.

John threw himself into a lotof studio work, including jingles,but by 1986, he found anothermusical home as the lead vocal-ist for the Stratoblasters, JimmyWallace’s ‘army’ of some of thefinest guitar slingers in theMetroplex.

By the mid ’90s, Rusty andJohn, along with former PBdrummer, Buzzy Gruen, veteransession ace Chuck Rainey (laterChris Gipson) on bass andMichael Hamilton (PB 1981-82)(later Rex Mauney) on keyboardswere playing in an outfit calledBigfoot Johnson. They held courtevery Thursday night, hosting ablues jam at the Tattoo Bar inEast Fort Worth, drawing long-time Point Blank devotees, win-

ning new fans as well as inspir-ing such musical upstarts asDarrell “Dimebag” Abbott and ayoung Lance Lopez. When Buddyinterviewed Rusty and John in1998, they were clearly having ablast in their low-pressure set-ting, starting to enjoy some oftheir old chemistry again. Theband would toss out a Point Blanknugget like “Mean to yourQueenie,” but suggestions of aPoint Blank reunion were alwaysquickly dismissed.

“We hadn’t really thoughtabout it (Point Blank reunion),”

John remembered. “We werejust doing Bigfoot and having alot of fun. I received a liver trans-plant or was fixing to go throughthe transplant (he had his trans-plant November 1998), I wasn’tfeeling real perky at the time, wewere just trying to make a living.And during that time, we hadunplugged Point Blank. It’s kindalike a child we buried, and wedidn’t even want to go to thegravesite.”

The reunionIT WASN’T UNTIL 2005 WHEN

they reunitedfor a concert tohelp PrestonGreen, one ofthe originalPoint Blankroad crew mem-bers who wasfacing both liverand kidney fail-ure and was des-perately in needof a transplant.On September17, 2005, at theRidglea Theaterin Fort Worth,Rusty Burns,John O’Daniel,Phillip Petty,Buzzy Gruen,along withB u d d yWhittington onsecond guitar,Jeff Williams onkeyboards, andsinger BubbaKeith came to-gether for thelong-awaitedPoint Blank re-union.

“The 2005Ridglea reunionwas the onlydate we did andwe had no plansto do anything

Point Blank 2.0Retooled and renewed

By Chuck FloresOCCASIONALLY, LIFE OFFERS US A SEC-Oond act; in the case of Point Blank, thatOsecond act took well over 25 years to gethere.

The original 1976 lineup included Buzzy Gruen, Rusty Burns, Kim Davis, JohnO’Daniel and Phillip Petty: Point Blank

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