Two Armadillos Walk Into a Bazaar

Some days you get an unexpected masterclass in music history.

Artist Jim Franklin (left) and Eddie Wilson, co-founder of the Armadillo World Headquarters.

At the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar last month, we had the honor of sharing the Austin Museum of Pop Culture’s book-signing booth with Jim Franklin—the artist who first drew an armadillo for what would become the legendary ‘Dillo posters—and Eddie Wilson, co-founder of the Armadillo World Headquarters.

“I turned him on,” Jim said, grinning not at Eddie but his joint-smoking armadillo, the one that started a poster art movement just trippy and weird enough to help put Austin’s music scene on the map.

Courtesy Austin Museum of Pop Culture

He also told us about painting Leon Russell’s swimming pool in Oklahoma—the mural you can see in Les Blank’s documentary “A Poem Is a Naked Person.” How Jim spent nearly a year on it, working around the scorpions living in the empty pool. How he begged the team to coat the mural properly. How he went back months later to find the pool full of muddy water, the cheap sealant cracked, his work ruined.

Eddie described his search for the building, the old armory that would become the ‘Dillo. How he booked everyone from Waylon and Willie to AC/DC and Bruce Springsteen. How, when it came to posters, he left that to the Jim and the Art Squad. Except one time. Once he had a vision for a poster promoting Willie’s first concert at the venue, which took place on August 12, 1972. “I wanted a lonesome cowboy at the bar, crying into his beer, with ‘Hello Walls’ playing on the jukebox behind him,” he said. It turned out to be Micael Priest’s first concert poster. “He captured it perfectly,” said Eddie.

Courtesy Armadillo World Headquarters

Stories like these remind us we’re standing on shoulders. And even though our book focuses on Austin’s current music scene, we’re honored to pay tribute to the many forces that shaped it. Like Eddie and Jim.

(You can find our profile on the Armadillo World Headquarters on pages 142-143 of “Austin’s Music Scene.”)