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Reshare • Armadillo World Headquarters Fifty-six years ago today, the doors opened on a beat-up old National Guard armory.

As legend has it, it all started in July of 1970, when Eddie Wilson was watching the Hub City Movers play the Cactus Club down in South Austin. He stepped outside to take a leak, and spotted an old armory sitting empty. 16,000 square feet, rent at $500 a month.

On August 7, 1970, the Armadillo World Headquarters opened. It became the room where 1,500 people gathered regulary to watch some of the strangest and best bills Austin ever saw, and only the Astrodome sold more Lone Star Beer.

Happy birthday to the ‘Dillo.

Original logo and opening night poster by Jim Franklin.

RAG RADIO TODAY! 
2-3 p.m. (CST) Friday, August 7, 2026
Listen Live: KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin 
Stream it at KOOP.org

Van Wilks performs for us, during an album release event at Waterloo Records.
New album is available now!
http://www.VanWilks.com

Two days left to see the work of Gilbert Shelton up close and personal, in Austin. AUSPOP
AusPop curated exhibit, Poddy Rules the World: Gilbert Shelton’s Underground Comic and Art at 506 Congress Avenue through Sunday, July 19.

Happy Birthday, Sandra! The spark that keeps us all going. The heart that keeps on loving!

“The 1960’s Underground” with Alice Embree and Thorne Dreyer

“And so to me, one of the stories is to look back at that time and go, “Look, there was a lot of crossover that younger people don’t know about,” right? And when I tell people about it, they’re like, “Oh, I had no idea.” … These narratives tend to live in textbooks and not come from people’s lives, it seems like sometimes… if you pay attention to how people experience the times they lived through, it looks much different than the stories that get told much later on.” (Alice Embree)

In this episode, co-hosts Dr. Jason Mellard and Eddie Wilson, sit down with two of Austin’s most enduring activist voices: Thorne Dreyer and Alice Embree, co-founders of The Rag, the sixth underground newspaper in the United States and one of the longest-running, publishing 377 issues from 1966 to 1977. Together they trace the arc of Austin’s radical counterculture, from the origins of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) to the birth of a national movement.

Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and YouTube

Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder 
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian Jason Mellard
Editor, Renee O’Connor 
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson Matt Carlson, Axe Man Guitar Service
Producer, Renee O’Connor Renee O'Connor
Producer, Sandra Wilson Sandra Wilson
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music Jake Andrews
Production assistant, Miles Muir Miles Muir
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

“Developing Austin” with Perry Lorenz

“We all got liberal arts degrees, and a whole lot of my friends are, you know, are casualties in one way or another. Either, either drug casualties or lifestyle casualties, and never quite made it through school, although that’s the reason that they came to Austin. And again, it was so inexpensive… People weren’t having to work three jobs to figure out how to pay for their school.
Student debt, what the hell is student debt? I mean, nobody I knew graduated with student debt. So it was just a completely different scene… and it was just a liberal bastion.” (Perry Lorenz)

Perry Lorenz has been at the center of Austin’s transformation for nearly six decades, from printing underground comics in San Francisco, to developing some of downtown Austin’s most iconic real estate. In this conversation with co-hosts, Eddie Wilson and Dr. Jason Mellard, Perry traces his unlikely journey from University of Texas student and counterculture participant, to one of the city’s most consequential developers, reflecting on what Austin gained and lost along the way.

Guest:  Perry Lorenz - Principal of Constructive Ventures, participant in early underground comix movement, community commissioner, and decades-long figure in Austin downtown development.

Production Team:
Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian Jason Mellard
Editor, Renee O’Connor 
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson Matt Carlson, Axe Man Guitar Service
Producer, Renee O’Connor Renee O'Connor
Producer, Sandra Wilson Sandra Wilson
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music Jake Andrews
Production assistant, Miles Muir Miles Muir
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

“Outstanding Stories in the Criminal Legal System” with Dick DeGuerin

“Well, I accept a lot of cases. Basically, my criteria is something that needs to be challenging. So you get some tough cases that way, and if you get the reputation for trying tough cases, people come to you. Growing up, I was younger than all my classmates…and I was smaller. But what I learned was the law and the rules of evidence…great equalizer…In the hands of someone that knows the law, you’re as big as anybody in the courtroom.” (Dick DeGuerin)

This episode of Austin Roots features Dick DeGuerin, a legendary Houston-based criminal defense attorney with deep Austin roots. Raised in the city and educated at UT Law, Dick shares wide-ranging stories spanning his college days, legal career, famous cases, and lifelong love of Texas music. The conversation begins with memories of 1960s Austin, fraternity life, underground rock and roll radio (KTXN), the Ranger humor magazine, and colorful campus characters like Frank Irwin and “Daddyo” (Bill Whitliff). Dick recalls early encounters with Kinky Friedman and the Terrytown scene. The discussion shifts to his legal career: his time at the Harris County DA’s office, then 12 years under legendary attorney Percy Foreman, who mentored him through high-stakes criminal cases. Dick explains his philosophy of taking on seemingly unwinnable cases, as exemplified by the Robert Durst trial in Galveston, and his representation of Billy Joe Shaver. A standout segment covers his direct involvement in the 1993 Waco siege, where he entered the Branch Davidian compound multiple times as David Koresh’s attorney, offering a rare ground-level perspective on the standoff and ATF’s use of force. Throughout, Dick weaves in his passion for Texas music, playing ukulele and guitar since childhood, friendships with Guy Clark, Terry Allen, Billy Joe Shaver, and Jimmy Dale Gilmore, and his New Year’s gathering in Margarita.

Available on All Platforms

Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian Jason Mellard
Producers, Renee O'Connor and Sandra Wilson

AUSTIN ROOTS, a podcast
“Music Journaling” with Kevin Curtin

Austin Roots - Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, YouTube

“The Austin Chronicle, it’s just like, is so fiercely loyal to the local scene and willingly ignores opportunities to interview national artists in favor of a local artist. I think that means something in terms of where we put the quality of the people in our community in comparison to people in the national picture. You know, we wanna treat them on the same level, and I think it’s important, you know?”  (Kevin Curtin, 2021)

This episode of Austin Roots features Kevin Curtin, music journalist at the Austin Chronicle, in conversation with hosts Eddie Wilson and Dr. Jason Mellard. They trace Austin’s music ecosystem from the Armadillo World Headquarters era to the present, exploring how venues, journalism, visual art, and community identity have shaped the city’s culture. Topics range from Kevin’s origins as a hitchhiker/camper-dweller who broke into music writing, to the legacy of the Chronicle’s music column, the East Austin blues tradition, the modern psychedelic revival, and the challenges of preserving a vibrant scene amid rapid growth.

Guest: Kevin Curtin - artist, writer, and music journalist at the Austin Chronicle

Production Team:
Host, Eddie Wilson - Armadillo World Headquarters founder
Host, Dr. Jason Mellard - Cultural historian
Editor, Renee O’Connor 
Music Mixing, Matt Carlson
Producer, Renee O’Connor
Producer, Sandra Wilson
Executive Producer, TSSI
Music by Jake Andrews Music
Production assistant, Miles Muir
Production consultant, Katey Psencik

Enjoying Dr.Jason Mellard presenting his “Preservation Austin, Walking Tour” about the Austin Music Scene.

So much fun with historian Jason Mellard!