From ice pick to guitar pick, 93 year-old Jackson legend Bill Briggs still seeks perfection. He’s a pioneering member of live country music known as Sunday Service at the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson and the variety show, the Hootenanny at Dornans in Moose. The “Father of Extreme Skiing” came by KHOL to talk about playing with Bob Dylan, his historic first ski descent of the Grand Teton, and what advice he has for the next generation of explorers.
This interview was edited for length and clarity. – Ed.
Evan Ballew: Bill, how long have you been playing music?
Bill Briggs: Well, we started playing with the ukulele in college. That was the early 50s. And we went to a guitar because guitars are much better. And then late in the 50s, I started in with the banjo because everybody else was playing guitar. I needed something different to fit in with everybody.
EB: For people who never got to witness that era, how would you describe the culture of an old Stagecoach or the old Mangy Moose?
BB: We started playing there on a Sunday evening because nothing else was happening on a Sunday. We just played because we wanted a place to play. But the cowboys wanted a fight. They wanted real action. As soon as the fight would start, then he would get us playing music. And we would get into playing music while the fight was going on. It would sure disrupt a good fight and it wasn’t very long before the fights were just simply out.
EB: There’s a picture on the internet of you and Bob Dylan playing together back in the 80s. Could you tell me a little bit about that story?
BB: We were playing for a wedding reception up at the Turpin Meadow ranch. And we didn’t know who that was for and who should show up but Bob Dylan. I think the wedding reception was for his producer. But, Bob was there and he was bored. About the best way I could put it. And John Cook who was playing with us in the band knew Bob and asked him if he wanted to play music with us and he said, ‘Oh yeah, he really would!’ And all we had was a mandolin there and he played mandolin for three sets.
EB: Do you remember what songs you were playing for that party?
BB: Well, in the picture, I’m playing “Railroading the Great Divide.”
EB: Kind of looping up to the Hootenanny now, when that started back in 1993. Could you tell me a little bit about how that came together?
BB: Well that’s Dick Barker. He was the one that really wanted something regular that we would be playing or have a chance to play our music. I say our music, well it’s folk music. The idea was to have a place to play and that was hard to come by but Dick went over to talk with Bob Dornan and to play music there. Bob was not particularly interested, but he said he would give it a try. We could do it for the rest of the month. So we chose Monday night as nothing else was happening. By the third night, we started having some customers coming in. And Bob decided that he wanted to see if that might keep going. So we got started in the bar at Dornan’s. Things went very well. It kept growing. But there was talent just simply hanging around in Jackson with no place to play! So we made a place. He would try to have it as close to a Grand Old Opry type of performance, making use of what we had for talent in Jackson. And anyone was welcome to play in that venue with that type of attitude.
EB: Bill, I’d like to change gears just a little bit and ask you a couple of questions about skiing. Specifically about your first descent. Would you be able to describe the lead up to that event back in 1971?
BB: There are certain skills in skiing that I had been researching for 10 years. I set about to learn all of the skills, all of the individual turns that could be done on skis. Then I would pick it apart to find out what the skill was for each turn. Well, these individual skiers were beautiful skiers. But very much oriented to a few skills which they were very good at, and then there’d be another bunch of skills somebody else used. Well, I wanted to know all of them. I wanted to do something that would show or demonstrate what the different skills were. Skiing the grand I thought would be a wonderful place to demonstrate this. At the top, I said, ‘Okay, come on, Briggs, make some good tracks.’ We didn’t have the film, but we would have the tracks. Well, it turns out to be a starting point for extreme skiing. Well, that wasn’t my intention at all! I can remember one guy asking me, “Did you have any close calls?” Well no, I was just skiing what I knew.
EB: Bill, if you were to start your career over now in the modern era of skiing, what would you do differently, if anything?
BB: I’d still be looking for the skill, any new skills, and to get them defined and perfect them. Each different turn or skill has a different feel to it. It feels different. It gives a different sensation. I like the different sensations! There being a multitude of sensations available, it’s fabulous.
EB: Is there anything that you hope the future generations of Jackson skiers and musicians can carry forward from your story?
BB: If you can’t perfect a regime of some sort, whether it’s music or skiing or whatever, then you never become really the expert of that. If you know what you’re doing when you’re doing it and that’s what you’re doing, you get the greatest reward.
