by Elvis Buckin
East Texas Tribune
Sunday Edition
July 25th, 1999
Huntsville, TX-- 1999’s Hits Until Morning Party made its way to the Wakonda Fairgrounds outside Huntsville this weekend and fans flocked to catch a glimpse of Flint, the maverick rock stars headlining the all-Southern lineup. This small Texas town has always been a place of paradox for Flint has a band. Huntsville is the site of some of their greatest performances. However, Huntsville has also been witness to some of Flint’s most trying moments: guitarist Juwan Pilgrim’s mysterious collapse during an impromptu basketball game, Cody Jackson’s day-long disappearance, which included a stabbing and a concussion, Doug Cherokee's bender; a vague tale that includes homeopathic drugs and a hot tub. Huntsville has also provided Flint fans with countless rumors and accusations from frightening and frightening-looking women that have made this Texas town a place Flint should avoid. Yet, defying logic and reason, Flint always seem to return to Huntsville to play. It’s time to find out why.
Halfway through the tour, the Hits Until Morning Party is considered an unbridled success. Gigs have been sold out or nearly sold out throughout the South and fans who paid only to see Flint or get a nipple pierced have come away raving about brilliant, upandcoming acts like Senor Throwdown, Harmony and the Brothers P. It had all been smooth sailing for Flint... until Huntsville.
The confusion started when tour schedulers failed to secure a place for Juwan and Cody to sleep the first night. Ironically, with all the motels and hotels booked solid because of fans here to see them, Flint had no place to stay. Pilgrim said, “We were absolutely exhausted from working shows all week and just needed to find a place to drop. I wanted to do what we did in the old days: go out, find some girls with nice tatis and hopefully find a bed that way but Cody overruled me. He was right as the media would have had a field day if we pulled something like that now.”
So the burgeoning rock stars ended up sleeping on the floor in “Trap Aire’s”, a Huntsville craft store. “The owner of the store is a big fan of ours and she let us stay.” Jackson says. “It was a great gesture by a great fan.”
Despite sleeping on mattresses in a craft store, Juwan and Cody and the rest of Flint seemed in good spirits. Their arrival at the Wakonda Fairgrounds the day before had caused quite a buzz with Cody and Juwan signing autographs and chatting with the throbbing mob for forty-five minutes before the Wakonda Fairground Choir sang a special song and had a dusk flagpulling ceremony in honor of the guests. Anyways, Flint was getting ready to perform that night when bass player Lance Overmars was overcome with some serious giardia-like symptoms. The curse of Huntsville had struck another member of Flint!
In the wake of this latest bout of bad luck, Senor Throwdown was ready to take the H.U.M.P. headlining mantle away from Flint. How could Flint perform? Bandmember Pierre Young is not legally allowed in the state of Texas for another sixty days, Doug Cherokee is on a self-imposed break from touring and Lance Overmars was sitting on a toilet for the majority of the time. The two-fifths of Flint kept "the show must go on" mantra alive with a unique acoustic show that left most of the crowd spellbound. A few fans left disappointed, expecting the loud, sonic shower and pyrotechnics of a typical Flint show, but the majority of the crowd were thrilled for Juwan and Cody's stripped interpretation of Flint's song catalogue.
"I'm never coming back to this place again." Cody Jackson sounds emphatic when he says this in the interview room after the show. When asked if he, a grown man, believed that his bandmates were cursed in this small Texas town, he quickly answered, "Yes. Wouldn't you?" But after Jackson left the podium, Pilgrim quietly surmised, "We've got too many hardcore fans here. It is one of our biggest pockets of fans in the country. I know Cody said he'd never come back but he will. I'm sure Flint will return for years to come."
Only time will tell if Flint returns to Huntsville or not. The opinions of Juwan and Cody only present another paradox involving Flint and Huntsville,TX. A place that provides them with great, supportive fans but also a long history of bad luck. This weekend's stop on the H.U.M.P. tour only added to Flint's history here. If, as Jackson says, they never come back, can you really blame them?