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Jimmy Garvin on the Fabulous Freebirds as they enter the WWE Hall of Fame

Posted: Mar 4th 2016 By: Brian Fritz

Every year approaching WrestleMania season, the same question comes up with longtime wrestling fans: Will this be the year the Fabulous Freebirds get inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame?

Ask no more as the Southern bad boys are finally getting their due and will be a part of the Hall of Fame Class of 2016. The ceremony will take place Saturday, April 2, in Dallas the night before WrestleMania 32 in Arlington, Texas.

While the Freebirds ? originally made up of Michael "P.S." Hayes, Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy and Buddy "Jack" Roberts ? didn't invent tag-team wresting, they revolutionized it and played by their rules. That included the "Freebird Rule," in which any two of three could defend the tag-team titles on any given night.

The group injected a rock 'n' roll flair into their act, taking it to another level when Hayes recorded his own entrance music, "Badstreet U.S.A." He even shot a music video for it. Add to that the group's notorious penchant for playing hard inside and especially outside the ring, where Jack Daniel's was the drink of choice and usually by the gallon.

The Freebirds were already gaining quite the reputation before joining World Class Championship Wrestling in Dallas in the early '80s. That's when they struck gold, feuding with the Von Erich family, which remains one of the greatest, most volatile feuds in wrestling history.

Even after their heyday in the '80s, the Freebirds lived on for years, including in World Championship Wrestling, but now composed of Hayes and Jimmy "Jam" Garvin. But Garvin had been around the group for years during its stint in World Class where he was "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin and the unofficial fourth Freebird.

He will be on the stage in Dallas as part of the Freebirds when they are inducted into the Hall of Fame. Sporting News recently spoke with Garvin about being inducted, the Freebirds in their heyday in Dallas, and how real ? and dangerous ? things got when they came to town.

SPORTING NEWS: Did you think the announcement of the Fabulous Freebirds going into the WWE Hall of Fame was coming this year with it taking place in Dallas?

JIMMY GARVIN: No, I was really quite surprised. Michael has mentioned something about it. We didn't really talk too much about it because it was in Atlanta a few years back. People would say "Atlanta feels like the place" but Dallas is a great place, too, because of what we accomplished and what we did in Dallas.

SN: When we talk about the Fabulous Freebirds, so many people have such great memories on their impact to the wrestling business. What do you think is the impact that the Freebirds had? The group is something that people still talk about.

JG: Michael and those guys developed that whole three-way gang ? I hate to use that word ? but the group of more than two. The concept of tag-team wrestling was unheard of. To create something like that and, of course, the music entrance to the ring. I think the only reference they have back is Gorgeous George back in the '50s actually was probably the first one to ever use it. Michael and I hit it about the same time because "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin came out in Florida around '81 with Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" and then switched over to ZZ Top "Sharp Dressed Man" after that. But the Freebirds and their accomplishments ? and when I talk about the Freebirds as a group ? they were so versatile. That was part of the magic. Michael's creativity and his thought process, which I had the pleasure of sharing many, many hours of production with him and creating certain situation. The vignettes we did was before its time. The "Valet for a Day" with David Von Erich and myself, we created that together. We did one for Kamala with him coming out the jungle and type of stuff. That was way ahead of its time. Michael and I worked really good together. Terry was great. In the ring, his talent spoke for itself and he stood alone in sheer power that he had. Buddy was the go-to guy where if you needed something done, Buddy would do it. It didn't have to be clean, it didn't have to be fresh. Buddy just got it done. There was nothing he couldn't do. He had great psychology, as did Terry and Michael, too. It was magical to work with them because at the same time that the Freebirds were feuding with the Von Erichs, of course, I had the feud playing the "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin character with David Von Erich and then shortly after that he had his incident in Japan (where he died). We all still miss all those boys a lot. Then it transferred over to Chris Adams. So when you say Texas, yeah, you saw Von Erichs and Freebirds but does Chris Adams and Jimmy Garvin and Precious (his longtime valet and wife of now 43 years) and Sunshine ring a bell? I would think so. When it comes to the Freebirds, each of us could stand alone on our own and survive a pretty large storm. I think when you put the four of us together, there wasn't nothing that we probably couldn't do. To be honest with you, there wasn't nothing that we didn't do. (laughs)

SN: It seemed to obvious when the Von Erich-Freebirds feud began that it was destined to happen. Was there any surprise that it worked as well as it did?

JG: No. That was one of those things that was meant to be. That was going to happen. It wasn't if it was going to happen, it was when it was going to happen. That mixture was evolutionary; it couldn't fail. It would be like having a big fire and having nothing to put it out with. It was one of those fires that you can't put out with water. In fact, it's going to get larger. It was one of those types of phenomenons. You had (booker) Kenny Mantell and Michael Hayes and myself and all of us brainstorming and we had a lot of talent to work with. There wasn't nothing that we couldn't ask where we were worried if the talent could pull it off or not. All we had to say was this is what we want to do, this is how it should be, this is how we want the picture drawn, that's the way it was drawn because we had the talent as a territory. You could have gone to any city and put the Freebirds against the Von Erichs and that would be the only match and it would have sold out. I might be a little overstating myself when it comes to be arenas that hold thousands but I bet it would come close.

SN: You said that you and Michael had been friends for years before working together in World Class, but how did it come together that you became an honorary Freebird?

JG: I was always, from the time the Freebirds came together ? of course, I was in another territory ? but Michael and I always stayed close and our thoughts and beliefs of the business was so alike. I was born a Freebird, Michael was, too, and so was Terry and obviously Buddy. We just happened to finally get together. It's one of those things, too, that it was just a matter of time before that happened. A lot of times in the years before they referred to me as the undercover Freebird before I was an official Freebird when I was doing the "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin character. Of course, when I was doing "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin and the Freebirds were doing their stuff in Dallas, I was a Freebird then. It just that I was busy doing "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin, but who I was really? I was a Freebird but I had this character that I knew would do well, which it did, so I've always been a Freebird. I was born on Sept. 25, 1952, a Freebird. We were all too alike to not be together. And being a Freebird at the time was a dangerous occupation as well with all of things going on.

SN: We saw how heated that feud between the Von Erichs and the Freebirds was, especially in Texas, and how nasty it was with the fans. How often did you get attacked?

JG: Oh my gosh! I remember in Laredo, Texas, and all I have to say is Laredo, Texas, and you know it's going to be total chaos. For the sake of the people there, I love Laredo so please don't come by my house. (laughs) We had to try and carry Precious out of the back of the building and the boys actually had to come out of the dressing room and fight to get her away from the crowd. I couldn't do it myself. The crowd had her over their heads taking her out. Literally. The Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, I was in a match with Chris Adams, sold out, and just heard the loudest smack I ever had in my life. There was no Precious to be seen so I looked around and she was in a heck of a fight with a lady truck driver out on the floor that had jumped the rail and blindsided her. That ended up going to court. A lot of fighting back then, fighting to get back into the dressing room or fighting guys that just wanted to hit the ring to vent their frustrations on us. I think there's a small clip I saw somewhere on the Internet where you see Terry Gordy pushing this guy down because that's what we had to do. It was violent. Very violent. That was back in the day. If you were beating up a Von Erich in Texas, you were taking your life in your own hands.

SN: It was dangerous and violent, but you guys were trying to get heat. Did you enjoy having that much heat?

JG: It had its moments. It goes with the territory. That's, I guess, one of the best ways to look at something like that. We were wrestlers, we were fighters. We knew what we were doing, we knew that what we were going to do was going to cause a pretty big fire and we were prepared to the best that we could be for the eventual outcome which, most of the time, was a violent one. That just went with it. That was our mindset. Maybe that's where the Jack Daniel's came in, I don't know.

SN: We talk about the violence with the audience but those were some pretty stiff matches in those feuds. What was it like going through that type of a match on a nightly basis?

JG: It was like being in a shoot every night. Kerry (Von Erich), he wasn't too too bad. Kevin would kill you if you'd give him half a chance with some of his wild punches. David was pretty good but everything was pretty tight because that was just the way we liked it. That's probably another reason why it turned out as spectacular as it did. If you were going to hit me with a chair, and I didn't have to tell you this, you better hit me with the chair. So, if you're going to hit me with a punch, you better hit me with a punch. Don't be playing around because we're not here to play. Let's take this as close as we can and try to not break nobody's nose or knock any teeth out or break anyone's arm. We're not trying to injure each another but when we locked up with one another, I can think of many, many, many times that it was like locking up with a rhinoceros.

SN: Would you say that three-to-five-year period was the favorite of your career?

JG: I'd say it's one of them. I had a pretty good run down in Florida. I wrestled Harley Race for the world title and went an hour broadway with him. I wrestled with the Briscos down in Florida. I had a J.J. Dillon as a manager. I had the legendary Buddy Rogers as a manager at one time. I had Killer Karl Kox as a manager at one time. That's pretty heavy company to be with and we had some good feuds down there. That was good times for me. The AWA was good times for me with Rick Martel. We used to have magical matches. It reminded me of the matches David and I would have because we blended so well together. In Crockett's territory, there was Wahoo McDaniel. I never felt I had a great match with (Ric) Flair. I just never did. I really never felt that I had anything to be proud of working with Ric. It just didn't mesh that good. I don't know why. The chemistry just wasn't there.

SN: How long did it take before you felt safe about going back into the state of Texas?

JG: (laughs) Yeah, good question. I don't know. Texas is their own country, you do know that? I was threatened in Texas when I was working at the actual arenas but we didn't go out a lot. We were really restricted. There wasn't a lot of going out to dinner or going to certain places because it wouldn't be safe to do that. There's a possibility that you might get poisoned or worse. We did most of our socializing at the apartment that we lived at. Going back to Texas, I never felt bad after that. I didn't get to go back there too much.

SN: Did anyone ever try to stab you or shoot you?

JG: In Australia, I was stabbed twice over my left kidney in a riot. In Wichita Falls, Texas, a fan came in and told the police that there was a guy hiding up in one of the barns out behind the fairgrounds. There was a horse barn up behind the exit where we would go out after it was all over and where we would come in when first got there. During the matches, they came and told the police there was a guy hiding up in the barn with a rifle that was going to shoot me. They went up there ? they told me to stay where I was at ? and they went up there and got him. So that was good. Ray Stevens and I, that's another one. I managed him doing the Beau James character down in Florida. They shot at us coming back from West Palm Beach on the highway one time.

SN: What do you think the scene is going to be like that Saturday night in Dallas when you give your induction speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony with you and Michael giving your speeches?

JG: I cannot tell you, ever since I found this out officially like everyone else the other night, I may have found out a little earlier but not officially. It was on my mind and ever since then every night I go to sleep thinking what's that going to be like. I think it's going to be pretty funny. I think it's going to be entertaining. Michael is funny anyway. I have no idea. I hope we don't get arrested or thrown off the stage. (laughs) Or the big hook that comes out and pulls you off the stage or the proverbial music that starts playing. Buddy's son is going to be there. Brandon and Terry's son Ray, I think they're going to be there to say a couple of words about their dads. As far as Michael and I, we have a few stories we're probably going to tell. We're in the process of putting together some videos to show. I was talking to Michael the other day and adding this up and it's like 33 years ago, bro. Thirty-three years ago! We're talking about something that happened over a quarter-century.

SN: But I think that shows the impact it had and how it's lasted the test of time. People still talk about it.

JG: I don't think it's ever going to go away.