Grillin' Stories

 RiverFest 1999

Time flies doing what you love. Hard to believe but my very first cooking competition was 12 years ago, the 1999 RiverFest BBQ Competition & Festival in Decatur, Alabama. I've learned a tremendous amount in a short period of time and continue to have even more fun year after year. While it's true I simply love to cook,  the real truth is it's the people that make it special. They say enjoy the journey. I have loved every single mile of it and none is more special than my very first contest and a character who defines the word "friend" and the spirit of BBQ-ing. His name is Blind Dawg.

 The RiverFest was my very first KCBS sanctioned event and I wasn't green, I was clueless. But my heart was in it as I drove the 13 hours down to Alabama. All I knew is it was a "BBQ" competition so I took what I had, my finest tools… my basic, plain ole charcoal grills, all 4 of them in fact. There I was, with my "toolboxes" as I've come to call them, in a VAN, "DOWN by the River!" I had already landed the John Boy & Billy connection and we had been making The Grillin' Sauce for nearly 3 years. So here I came, "Carl the Cook" rolling into town ready to rock. Boy was I in for a "smoking!"

 The Contest required us to cook brisket, pork, ribs and chicken. I pulled in with my 6 x 12 trailer and parked beside a guy they called, Blind Dawg. The word was out and Blind Dawg, being a seasoned, serious cook was waiting to meet the radio Legend himself, Carl the Cook. I arrived 2 days early, thinking I would get a feel for exactly what I had gotten myself into. Dawg and all the folks welcomed me with open arms as they sized me up and waited for my "rig." They all assumed I had some massive trailer cooker and a team of folks as my entourage that would roll into town any minute.

 The next day, Blind Dawg said, "Man, it's time to set up. Where's your Grill?" I replied, "You're looking at it, Hoss." They ALL died laughing, falling all over the ground in complete disbelief. Dawg looked me in the eye and said, "You ain't never done this before, have you." That would be a "nope." He asked to see what I had. I showed him my toolboxes. Direct heat. "We use in-direct heat, son," Blind Dawg informed me. He asked to see my brisket which I proudly pulled from the cooler. He took one brief look at it , said "this ain't no damn brisket, this is a tire-chock," and then heaved the entire chunk of cow into the Tennessee River.

 Blind Dawg called his butcher and told him to send out 2 proper briskets. Wouldn't even let me pay for it! He walked me around the grounds, looking at the different cookers and asked me to tell him how I was gonna compete with the limited tools I had. I informed him I would make a heat deflector with a piece of cardboard covered in tin foil and have my coals on one side and meat on the other. Here's the kicker. Dawg said, "I'm gonna be there to help you." And he was.

 Blind Dawg helped me properly dress and prep the chicken and various cuts of meat. He watched over me like a father would a son as my crash course in competition BBQ-ing heated up. I suppose I made that trip for more than one reason. Like most of us, we're always learning whether we realize it or not. Out of 63 teams I finished 13th overall in my very first competition. I made the trip down with my toolboxes and instincts. But i came back with  a sense of sharing and brotherhood from a group of complete strangers. Blind Dawg and I have remained good friends and I think about that first experience nearly every time I fire up a grill. Like a nice bed of coals it warms you right up. With a lot of help from my new BBQ-Brothers I placed well in my first contest and learned what this kind of cooking is all about…family & friends. That is the Secret to Happy Meat! Gather round the Grill & Getcha some Hoss! And when you do, like Blind Dawg did, share it. Anything less is like a bad brisket on the bottom of the Tennessee River.