“There is no other concert than Grayson Capps. The best concert I’ve ever seen in Pensacola, Florida is Grayson Capps and the best concert I’ve seen damn near anywhere is Grayson.” – Kelly Harville

I knew exactly what I wanted to ask when Grayson Capps answered the phone…

How did he and guitarist Corky Hughes become involved with the Free Benefit for Kelly Harville at Ozone Pizza Pub?

What I didn’t expect to learn was the story of friends and the “rockstar” Halloween show that brought them all together.

Here is the result of the interviews with Grayson Capps and Kelly Harville; “Capps visits Pensacola to help a longtime fan” which ran in the Pensacola News Journal’s weekly music column that summarizes friendship, the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Wildman Steve and the Halloween show that started it all.

Grayson Capps Interview

MS: Last time when you played Pensacola at Vinyl Music Hall, you broke out “Sweet Transvestite” from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. (Capps starts to laugh) Man, that rocked. Where did that come from? Is that a nod to your theatre days? How did that become part of your show?

GC: I don’t know. We learned a bunch of quirky songs for Halloween last year and that was one of them. It just felt good; it’s so much fun to do. I like to do it every once in awhile. Gets in my Frankenfurter side. rock n’ roll theatre. I’d love to do more of that, really. It was fun.

MS: About next weekend. How did you and Corky Hughes become involved with the Free Benefit for Kelly Harville? I know she’s a big fan of yours.

GC: That’s why. She’s done so much for us. Speaking of that “Sweet Transvestite” Halloween show, last year, she dressed us all. She owned that vintage clothing store, so I was like, “Alright! You get the dresses.” She just did it for fun, but nobody knew who they were going to be until the night of the show, until basically 30 minutes before we went on and then she hands out these costumes that she had spent a lot of energy getting them together.Corky was David Lee Roth and had a wig and this spandex shirt and I was Angus Young of AC/DC and Christian, my bass player was Jim Morrison and John our drummer was Buddy Holly (laughs) and she did it right. She got everything she needed; she had wigs for everybody and Steve was the only one that didn’t play the game, he’s not the team player, he was supposed to be Kurt Cobain but wanted to be and put together a costume as Deadmau5 or something. Dude, come on! But anyway, shes’ been such an avid fan and giving so much that when she said she was going through this stuff, I was like…and going to do a benefitfor herself, we had the weekend off and I’m not too far away, figured that’s the least I could do.

MS: Is there anything you want to add, anything you want the readers to know? This will be in next week’s Pensacola News Journal.

GC: This is for the benefit?

MS: It will be in next Friday’s Weekender section.

GC: Shit. I don’t know. Just for people to come out, eat healthy, jog and quit…well, I can’t say anything else (laughs).

MS: It’s cool, it’s cool.

Kelly Harville Interview

MS: Yesterday, I talked to Grayson and he told me how you two met at the Halloween party and how you dressed them all up. Crazy story, but I’d like to hear your side of the story.

KH: He told me that he wanted me to dress them all up, but not tell them what they’re going to be wearing for Halloween until I got there with stuff (laughs). So I went around and I got a bunch of vintage crazy stuff and I dressed them as ‘Rock N’ Roll Through the Ages’ and I dressed Jim as Buddy Holly, and I dressed Christian Grizzard up as Jim Morrison and I dressed up Corky Hughes as David Lee Roth in spandex and everything, and I dressed up Grayson as Angus Young from AC/DC.

MS: He said that there was one guy that wasn’t a team player that was supposed to be Kurt Cobain, but he ended up being something else.

KH: Yeah, Chris the keyboardist. I had an outfit for him, but he decided to go with Dangermau5. Yeah, I had him all ready to be dressed as Kurt Cobain. So, he kind of ruined the whole picture just a little.

MS: What did you dress up as?

KH: I just dressed up as a sea goddess. Just like throw on and just go with it because I was busy doing that. And I also dressed their photographer and roadie guy Chet. I dress Chet as-I don’t know if you know-Wildman Steve.

MS: I think I’ve heard about Wildman Steve.

KH: Wildman Steve plays with other jam bands and stuff around. He plays with Rollin’ in the Hay a lot, but he does the Jam Band Radio and he’s a character in-and-of himself. He’s an old grey-hair hippie dude who wears nothing but dashikis and has a grey goatee and long grey hair with round glasses and everything, and he plays a washboard. So I found an old washboard and then I went ahead with the rest of the…I worked around the washboard and turned that into Wildman Steve.

MS: That’s wild.

KH: That is pretty awesome.

MS: How did you find out that you had PCOS and could you tell me more about Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome?

KH: Okay. Polycistic Ovarian Syndrome; Its ovarian cysts like large constant ovarian cysts. It kind of just sends poison through your body from the time you come with it until forever. What it does, is it makes it almost impossible to lose weight or to stay healthy actually. It’s not about…it makes you gain weight. I used to think that girls who are overweight got Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome when in fact girls with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome became overweight. And there are inevitabilities eventually if you have PCOS, you will have diabetes, you will have high blood pressure, you will have heart disease. All these things are things that are symptoms of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. There’s only one cure for it and that’s bariatric surgery. I’m becoming that age, I’m 41 now. I’m starting to become the age at all those inevitabilities are starting to show their signs. And so, my mom had it, I’m almost positive of that, of course, they didn’t have diagnoses for it back then, but it’s hereditary usually and my mom had it too.

MS: Are you going to have the operation?

KH: If I can come up with the money for the operation, I am having the operation. I am having the operation no matter what. They can do self-pay discount, so it’s $5000 less than everybody else who has insurance and stuff like that, so that’s kind of cool.

MS: When I talked to Grayson, when he found out from you, he said, “The least he could do was play a concert.” He said that you’ve been there for him. He said-I can’t remember the exact words that he said- but he said, that you’ve done so much for him that the least he could do was at least do this concert.

KH: That was sweet of him. I don’t know if you realize how much I love Grayson Capps (laughs). Anybody who knows me knows that I’m…It’s ridiculous, I love him so much, I can’t even stand it. I’ve been a crazy fan for a long time. So, if he means that I’ve been there, right up front dancing my butt off for years, then yeah.

MS: I saw you at the last show at Vinyl, you were kicking it up. Especially when he did “Sweet Transvestite” which I think rocked.

KH: I love when…well that, you know that he did that at that Halloween show for the first time. And the spandex-Corky, when I dressed Corky as David Lee Roth- had him in a yellow spandex fishnet shirt and so Grayson stole that shirt from Corky and wore it when they played “Sweet Transvestite” on stage and it was hysterical, it was awesome, perfect in every way.

MS: That’s sweet. I just had a few more questions for you Kelly, I know that this was short notice, but I thank you for taking out this time.

KH: Absolutely. I think it’s awesome that you’re doing this.

MS: You’ve seen so many concerts, so I want to know what’s the best concert you’ve ever seen in Pensacola, Florida?

KH: I’m going to be honest with you; there is no other concert than Grayson Capps. The best concert I’ve ever seen in Pensacola, Florida is Grayson Capps and the best concert I’ve seen damn near anywhere is Grayson.

MS: He is awesome. Here is a crazy question for you though; do you prefer crunchy or creamy peanut butter?

KH: (Laughs) Well, I also have dibroticulitus, so I can’t have crunchy…and I want it. If I could have crunchy, I’d go for crunchy.

MS: Is there anything else you want the readers to know about your benefit concert or about you or Grayson anything you want to know specifically?

KH: Well, Grayson’s amazing. I can’t say enough about him. He’s just all inclusively amazing, talented and real. He’s a real person that has…he feels and he knows his fans and he’s there. He’s just the coolest ever and me, I’m just trying to be healthier than my mom.

MS: We’re pushing for you, Kelly.

KH: Cool. Thank you.

– Michael L. Smith