He’s made music with Johnny Cash, X and Rob Zombie. Now Jesse Dayton’s telling tales

Jesse Dayton has immoderate stories to tell.

Whether it’s befriending Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings oregon performing with breached ribs aft a brawl connected a Social Distortion tour, the instrumentalist gets into the gritty details successful his memoir, “Beaumonster,” retired Nov. 9 from Hachette Books. As befitting his time job, there’s a companion soundtrack retired arsenic good that includes artists and songs Dayton discusses successful the book.

The book’s rubric “Beaumonster” pays homage to his hometown of Beaumont, Texas. As Dayton tells it, helium was a lad who enactment down his shot mitt, picked up a guitar and past lit connected an adventure. Dayton has since lived an absorbing life, but helium besides discusses the messier moments of his idiosyncratic and nonrecreational life.

“Writing a book’s benignant of similar pulling your pants down and hanging your butt retired the window,” Dayton said during a caller telephone interview.

“It’s like, erstwhile it’s retired there, it’s there. The happening that guided maine done it was not throwing anybody nether the autobus but myself. And I made the publication astir the admiration I person for each the radical who were benignant capable to bring maine on for the ride.

“But it’s besides astir however I screwed up during each of that. I wanted to amusement radical this paradigm of, like, truly large worldly and truly atrocious worldly happening astatine the aforesaid nonstop time,” helium said. “I mean, that’s amusement business. Really, it’s each fume and mirrors.”

A small spot country, a small spot stone ‘n’ roll

At the clip of our interview, Dayton was getting acceptable to drawback a formation to Los Angeles from his location successful Austin to play a Halloween amusement with Glenn Danzig. He’s coming backmost to Southern California to enactment the publication and medium with a bid of small-venue performances wherever helium plans to archer immoderate stories that didn’t marque the last chopped of the memoir.

Back successful the mid-’90s, Dayton says helium was a spot of an outcast successful the euphony scene: Too state to play rock, excessively stone for state gigs. Over the past 20 years, however, he’s thrived conscionable doing his ain thing.

“I’ll spell play with Glen Campbell and past I’ll spell play with Danzig,” helium said, though this wasn’t ever the case. “Back erstwhile I archetypal met Johnny Cash, helium wasn’t connected each these punk rockers’ T-shirts. He was playing successful Branson, Missouri to a half-empty theatre and doing Taco Bell commercials. I don’t mean that arsenic a flimsy to John, nary 1 loves John arsenic overmuch arsenic I do, but that’s what it was similar backmost past and I was doing this worldly backmost past and it wasn’t truly cool. This was agelong earlier the hipsters successful Silver Lake knew who Townes Van Zandt was.”

Dayton met Cash conscionable arsenic shaper Rick Rubin was helping revive the state icon’s career, and helium connected with Kris Kristofferson who passed his sanction connected to Waylon Jennings. Dayton yet ended up signaling with Willie Nelson (thereby playing with each the members of the Highwaymen state supergroup individually) and making an content connected the fable erstwhile helium “borrowed” 1 of Nelson’s amplifiers — a favourite one, it turns retired — and, well, Willie noticed.

Dayton inactive recalls nuggets of contented bestowed upon him from the state legends. He said Jennings enactment things successful position for him astir speechmaking reviews of his work.

“He’d archer me, if you judge the bully stuff, you’ve got to judge the atrocious stuff, too,” Dayton recalled.

As for Cash, Dayton wrote that the champion portion of proposal the fable gave him was: “You’re different, truthful beryllium patient. It mightiness instrumentality you a small longer, but you’ll person a longer vocation due to the fact that of it. Don’t change. Just beryllium you, Jess.”

Horror and Hollywood

When Dayton got to Los Angeles successful the precocious ’90s, helium opened for the punk stone set X. He befriended guitarist John Doe, who helium would aboriginal play with during solo endeavors and adjacent directed him successful the 2011 fearfulness film, “Zombex.” In 2015, while X guitarist Billy Zoom was undergoing attraction for bladder cancer, the set called Dayton to capable successful connected tour.

“Billy’s guitar playing is truthful absorbing due to the fact that there’s each this small worldly helium throws successful there. It’s not conscionable a large riff oregon large pb guitar playing, there’s jazz worldly successful determination that he’s doing and he’s precise nuanced,” helium recalled. “But I got to propulsion a small of my ain mentation successful there, too. They gave maine a batch of enactment to bent myself with.”

When 1 of Dayton’s closest friends, “The Walking Dead” histrion Lew Temple, landed 1 of his archetypal roles successful Rob Zombie’s 2005 movie “The Devil’s Rejects,” Temple passed his sanction on to Zombie, who was looking to make a fake ’70s state set to constitute the soundtrack for the film. After helium and Temple wrote a clump of “hillbilly fearfulness songs” for the film, Dayton has been penning euphony for Zombie’s films ever since. In Zombie’s 2009 “Halloween II,” Dayton plays Captain Clegg, the person of a fictional set called Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures that play the Halloween enactment country successful the movie.

“I don’t cognize if Rob Zombie knew what a acquisition helium was giving maine and my family,” Dayton said, noting that helium gets royalty checks from the songs and offers to execute arsenic Captain Clegg astatine Halloween parties astir the world.

“When I worked with Rob, helium said to me, ‘You request to constitute a opus with the connection ‘Halloween’ successful it.’ So I did and I made small videos and I’d nonstop them to Rob and he’d say, ‘Okay, good, but needs much blood.’

“I was similar going done the Rob Zombie fearfulness movie school. I didn’t recognize what being a portion of ‘Halloween,’ the biggest franchise ever, meant astatine the clip and it inactive happens present that radical travel up to maine and go, ‘Hey, man, are you Captain Clegg?’”

Dayton said he’s already moving connected euphony for a caller medium and is enjoying hosting “Jesse Dayton’s Badass Country Show” each Wednesday connected Gimme Country streaming radio. He besides has a bully thought of what his adjacent publication volition beryllium about.

He doesn’t enactment hard anymore. Seven years ago, helium adopted a healthier manner aft a doc told him helium wouldn’t spot 50 if his humor unit and cholesterin levels stayed truthful dangerously high.

“The doc was like, ‘Dude, you’re gonna beryllium dormant similar beauteous soon; You’re a bosom onslaught and changeable waiting to happen,’” helium said. “I walked retired of determination and changed my full life. That’s what the adjacent publication volition beryllium about. If a feline from Beaumont, Texas, who grew up successful this insulated bubble of gluttony, if helium tin change, past anyone can.”

Jesse Dayton “Beaumonster” Tour

When: 7 p.m. Thurdsay, Nov. 11

Where: Gallagher’s Pub, 300 Pacific Coast highway, Suite 113, Huntington Beach

Tickets: $15 astatine Ticketweb.com 

Also: 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10 astatine The Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern Street, San Diego. $10 astatine eventbrite.com; 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12 astatine Campus Jax, 3950 Campus Drive, Newport Beach. $20-$60 astatine campusjax.com; 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13 astatine Redwood Bar & Grill, 316 W. 2nd Street, Los Angeles. $20 astatine eventbrite.com.