Beth Bandy Zeiders Interview
Interview with Beth Bandy Zeiders
April 1, 2023 Memorial Stadium Champaign, IL
BB: Beth Bandy Zeiders TT: Tyler Tucker CS: Chris Schwartz
GH: Grant Ham
CS: Uh Zoom 80008. Do you want to do the interview by the way?
TT: Yeah sure so first we’re just going to introduce ourselves. I’m Tyler I’m part of the history harvest class and i’m doing the interview
CS: I’m Chris I’m also doing the interview
GH: And I’m Grant I’m just working on the audio
TT: And can I have you state your full name and spell it out for us please?
BB: And are all of you in the class?
TT, CS, GH: (variously) Yes
BB: My name is Beth Bandyzeiders, with a Z
TT: Can I have you spell the whole thing?
BB: B e t h b a n d z, z as in zebra, e i d, d as in david, e r s
TT: Awesome, Thank you so much. So were you actually at the concert like in the stands, what was your involvement?
BB: No, we had people staying at our house
TT: Oh wow, that’s fun
BB: There was a call for homes for people to stay at. I had Willie Nelson’s folks
TT: Oh his parents?
BB: No. No. I just meant people. And I asked my husband, we had just gotten married you can see how young we were in the spring of that year
TT: Oh wow that’s awesome, was that here in town?
BB: Yes
TT: What building was that?
BB: Oh that’s our living room and then that’s Easter which was right around when we got married
TT: That’s cool
BB: But they’re looking for people to stay in homes and my husband was a physician at Carle hospital he’s a rheumatologist. And I asked him what he would think about us offering our house. And he said it’d be fine if we had Connie Chung. I didn’t even know he liked Connie Chung so it was pretty funny when he said that. But I went ahead and called up where they told us to call in and said we would be willing to have people come
TT: So was there like a hotline or something
BB: Yeah
TT: That’s so cool I never would have even thought of that. And you were just doing it for free like just to help people out?
BB: Actually we charged something but it was a very nominal amount
TT: I would do that, it must have been cheaper than a hotel
BB: You know we did what we were told to do pretty much and they told us to do that.
TT: Makes sense.
BB: And we had state bed and breakfast before and so we kind of knew the routine and that was what we tried to provide, although it became a lot more than that. They became friends in the few days they were there.
TT: Oh that’s really nice. So how old were they? Were they like students? What was it?
BB: Well it’s really funny because I didn’t know until this came out when I started doing research and I was 34 and the two people I got birthdays from were 35. So we’re all in the same age range and they were pretty much near the beginning of their careers
TT: Cool. What were they doing?
BB: Well, yes. David Lynn Jones, his wife stayed with us and after Farm Aid he came and stayed with us. He is the songwriter living in the Promise land which was Willie’s big song at Farm Aid. And he also plays piano. Well, he plays about every instrument you could ask for. But he played piano for Willie. And we had Mark Stallings. Mark was, he also could play every instrument imaginable. This is a funny story which you’ll enjoy and you have to remember the times it was 1985 and my husband was a physician. And so when I called in to say we would be happy to have people stay with us. I told them he was a physician and I said we’d really like people who weren’t doing drugs, you know, just to.
TT: Maybe that was a needle in a haystack for this concert
BB: Yes it was because I don’t think Mark Stallings had been there long before. We had a five bedroom house and he was at the other end from the primary bedroom but the window went up and at night and a curious smell. However, the best part was that window stayed up and he wailed on that saxophone into the evening it was just beautiful. He is something else.
TT: Did they have anything to say about Willie or working with him? Because I have only heard good stories about him
BB: And I think that’s all I could tell you. The other person we had was Hercy Williams. He was Willie’s golf pro
TT: Willie loved to golf, didn't he?
BB: Yes and he has his own cars. And he said that would anybody asked him what par was for lily’s golf course he said whatever willie shoots that day.
TT: I love that
BB: He went on to work for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. So he also got into the music business eventually and helped other people become stars.
TT: And so did they have anything to share with you about the actual event and their experience there?
BB: Well, Willie went on last so they had been there for a very long time
TT: Wow the whole day?
BB: Yes
TT: That’s awesome
BB: Here they are (shows pictures). This is Willie’s attorney and his girlfriend and they came over at breakfast time and they said we heard it’s a lot more fun over here, so they moved in all but for sleeping and that was fun. This was David Lynn Jones wife Robyn and this is her key, the golf pro.
TT: That’s amazing you met the whole team?
BB: Yes it was a lot of fun
TT: Did you get to talk to Willie at all?
BB: No. No. You know when they first came we didn’t want to interfere with them and what they had to do, but they were the ones that just became comfortable with us and we’re around and we enjoyed them a lot.
BB: This is this car (pictures) was my husband’s antique Mercedes limousine
TT:You let him get in and drive?
BB: No they didn’t drive he drove that and because he was in that car they let him come right up to the stadium
TT: Oh wow that’s crazy
BB: Here’s the front of the car as well (pictures).
TT: Wow that is beautiful. Cool. I wish they still made cars with character like that. I feel like they all look the same now.
BB: This is a sad thing for me because I was a student during the war protests here at Illinois. But this car was the hearse that followed the students at the Kent State killings for the funeral. It was beautiful. It was a really beautiful car. BB: They didn’t talk about Farm Aid much other than they had a really good time. And the following day you can tell this is before cell pictures because these photographs are just awful. The following day here we are having breakfast. This is David Lynn Jones playing piano and Mark playing sax and my husband had to go to work but they put on a little concert for us. I said my piano never sounded that good before and has never sounded that good since. It was really incredible
TT: Did they have anything to say about the community or Champaign Urbana?
BB: They came into town they were driving from Arkansas and when they went they asked for a place to go have dinner. So he’d sent them to the hideaway, which you probably don’t know where it is. It’s very near the corner of Prospect …and the street I don’t remember the name of the street but I can tell you where it is and you’ll know. You know where harvest market is? The street that’s on the south side of Harvest market.
TT: Is that maybe Devonshire? BB: It could be. I bet it is, so it was near the corner of that.
TT: That’s cool, it’s changed completely since then?
BB: Yes but it was in there was a little area of buildings near that corner and it was in one of those buildings and on Fridays you could always find Lou Henson there who used to be the basketball coach for Illinois and was always loved by everyone in town. So it was always fun to go there and they had good food. It was a very popular place, especially for people who lived in the neighborhood that was walking distance from our house. They were tired of being in a car and so they, they’ve walked there.
TT: Alright, and I had one more question about just like this living situation, it sounds kind of insane especially your husband’s a doctor like he needs to sleep. Was it contentious. Did you have to enforce any rules?
BB: No not at all. They were really just good people. They were all from Arkansas. They were um, David Lynn Jones the one who was the composer of the song. His dad was a farmer in Arkansas and his mother was an unordained preacher. And they were just the most down to earth, just wonderful people. All of them were just wonderful people.
TT: That’s awesome. It sounded like that was kind of the vibe of the whole event it sounded like everyone was there for the message and the good feelings and stuff which is rare these days I feel like so that’s really awesome
BB: and after the concert the next year then moving into the promised land was the star.
TT: That’s awesome have you been able to keep in touch with any of these people at all or any sort of maybe just like sending postcards?
BB: Well they wrote to me after the concert and since I saw that thing in the newspaper I’ve done a lot of googling to find out what happened to everybody and what they’re up to. And I’m now David Lynn Jones is still at 72 in his band. David Lynn Jones and friends. And um, I have gotten in touch with people on that webpage and they said they would give contact information for him. I didn’t know people’s last names and right away he gave the lady who’s in contact with me the information, so I would know that. I really appreciated it.
TT: Yeah well we appreciate you taking all this time to get all of this together. It’s super helpful. Everyone’s been super helpful and I think we’ve created a really good event
BB: It was just fun how the entire community was involved in it.
TT: Yeah it was awesome
BB: And having people stay with us was just the best
TT: Yeah
CS: I have two questions. First things first I was gonna ask do you have any personal family connections to the farming crisis or just general farming in America?
BB: No
CS. No, Okay. The second thing I was going to ask was, do you feel that people have forgotten about the farm crisis or even the Farm Aid concerts. And I don’t mean that just cyclical I mean moreover just like generally , like a cultural sense like we’ve forgotten about farmers in a sense?
BB: It’s hard for me to answer that living in this community because farming is even part of the new date recording on WC, you know, and farming there are farmers and their families who are featured in the newspaper on a regular basis. So farmers in this community, I think people are aware of some of the problems that face farmers. But it’s hard for me to know how that translates to big cities in more urban areas, right? So I don’t really know. Of course, anytime anyone I would imagine from Champaign Urbana who is of my age hears Farm Aid You think back to that time when it all started.
TT: I think we may have talked about this but I wanted to ask you a bit more specifically why were you motivated to seek out this program or whatever it was to house people?
BB: I just thought it would be fun
TT: Yeah that’s awesome.
BB: And to participate in the community.
TT: That’s awesome
BB: I grew up here TT: Yeah me too. I actually have lived here for ten or 12 years now. So that’s pretty awesome
BB: And after I graduated from the university, I didn’t stay around and didn’t come back until I got married. So I was waiting for awhile.
TT: That’s awesome I think it’s a good community
BB: My husband always says it has an airport. An airport and a university. That’s what he always said were the two best things. The two things that you would want in any city. We love to travel so that was important to us
TT: Awesome, I had one last question. Did the performers sing any of the songs that Willie may have performed at farmaid for you guys in your house
BB: Well he sang promise land and he sang others but they were probably David’s songs and not necessarily Willie’s songs. Because David sang and um he went on and continued writing songs and singing
CS: Did he at all discuss the creative process for that song or just generally like art in general or no.
BB: I didn’t ask him at the time
TT: Do you have any more questions?
BB: Do you know who Kris Kristofferson is?
TT: Yeah I’m writing about him for this class
BB: Well’ he said that things that I’ve read said that his songs tell much in what but almost like he’s a poet like Kris Kristofferson, Dylan, other Leonard Cohen, other singer song or people who can write music and lyrics. So it’s been interesting like I said
TT: yeah I didn’t know how much there was to know about this event I didn’t even really know about it before the class and now it’s like wow, how did I not know?
BB: Well, and you every time you hear that willie is having another farm aid
TT: Yeah we’re actually the museum I intern with is in touch with him and hopefully he’ll do a recording for us or something I don’t really know what but yeah
BB: If you google his video on living in the promised land, it’s really cool because it starts with video of immigrants coming in. Yeah so and then goes into a beautiful song, it was beautiful
TT: Willie was a bit of an activist, did you get that vibe from the people who stayed with you? Did they seem socially aware and involved or maybe they’re just here for the music?
BB: No I think that they were, and like I said David Lynn Jones’ dad was a farmer and living in Arkansas I’m pretty sure that they were aware of the farm community.
TT: Yeah, awesome well I don’t have any questions. You totally answered everything.
CS: I don’t have anything else
TT: Thank you so much for you time.
This set of recordings is of a range of participants in the Farm Aid concert of 1985, and is to be used only for historical research and educational purposes. Interviews were conducted with the express written consent of all participants. This collection was compiled by the Champaign County History Museum and the Spring 2023 History Harvest class at the University of Illinois. These recordings are presented with transcripts of their contents.