The Jackyl Mat

Back in '94 or '95 Hayden, Blackhurst, and myself headed down to Panama City for spring break. We were eating lunch on a Saturday (somewhere in the midwest) and just said "Hey, let's go to Panama City." We called our bosses and told them we would not be in until Wednesday. The 1st night Jackyl was playing at a bar near our hotel. Jackyl was this cheesy band that had a mild run in the early 90's and now they were on their way out and playing bars. I would liken them to bands like Stained, Theory of a Deadman, Creed, Nickleback, etc, that are out there living it up currently. Jackyl didn't sound anything like these bands; they were just really lame, unoriginal, and glaringly obvious in everything that they did, just like these bands now. I could go on for days about these types of lame-o bands - but not now.

At the time the 3 of us had long hair and looked quite menacing, indeed. We had lots of facial hair, tattoos showing, and we wore obscure metal band t-shirts, and the like. We had been drinking all day, and that night we saw their bus. They had already played and now they were back on their bus. The fact that they had a bus was confusing and pissed us off. We decided that we should harass this little Jackyl band by pretending that we were fans and then when they came out we would make fun of them. They wouldn't come out because we obviously didn't look like their fans looked like. Here is a typical Jackyl fan:



Since we received a less than satisfactory response, we resorted to banging on the door of the bus and yelling that they were a bunch of half-sissys and they need to come out to receive a beating. They offered no response except for a skinny roadie telling us to go away through the safety of a bus window.

Well, we did go away, but not without taking something. In the sand between the venue and the bus was this long (30' x 6') heavy rubber mat. It was theirs, and we decided that we were just going to take it. There was nothing they could do about it unless they came out, so it was a win-win in our opinion. We started rolling it up and then we started laughing; it was ridiculous. This thing was way, way, heavy. By the time our drunk asses got it rolled up, we realized that 1) it was too big around to hold, and 2) it was too heavy to carry. So, we unrolled it in the sand, and we put two of us on each end and one in the middle and we dragged that miserable rubber mat through the sand toward our hotel. I remember Hayden yelling back at the bus that if they wanted it - to come and get it, as we were staggering away with their mat. That is when he named it the Jackyl mat. We were literally giggling and panting as we passed people on the beach. They didn't know what the hell it was and why three metal heads were dragging it. We rolled it out (partially) in out hotel room and that is where it stayed for the remainder of the trip.

When we got home, Blackhurst and I brought it to our band's rehearsal space and announced that it was The Jackyl Mat and it was here to stay. We cut it up in about 5 pieces and lined our space with it which made the floor much more comfy. I think the Jackyl mat is still around, at least portions of it. If I see it next week at practice, I will take a picture of it and post it. If you want to come out you can touch if it you want, we will let you.