This is Ozarks at Large. In the early 1990s, the band Punkinhead was a popular mainstay in Fayetteville venues. After developing their sound in their hometown, the band then launched national tours, but it has been a long time since Punkinhead has played together. The band last took the stage in 2010. That 16-year-long drought ends Halloween night at George's Majestic Lounge on Dickson Street in Fayetteville. That reunion show is sold out, but an additional performance has been added for the following afternoon, also at George's.
To get a sense of the Punkinhead of the past and present, two members of the band talked about getting the gang back together. Paul Boatright, who lives in Fayetteville, was in the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio, and Eric Mills, who now lives in Little Rock, joined us by phone. Eric says the band's rehearsals are bringing back great memories.
Mills: I can tell you, Kyle, we had a practice last week, and we hadn't played together since we were on stage in 2010. We had a Zoom meeting where we talked through the set list a few weeks ago and put forth ideas about the set list and the songs and how we needed to attack these songs. But after last week's practice, it's really an amazing thing. I'm so excited to be a part of it just because our heads, our hearts are all online. And it was exactly like we'd never stopped, shaking off a little bit of the rust. And then it was straight fire.
Kellams: Paul Boatright, Eric mentioned hammering out the set list. What were the negotiations like? Or did you all know, yeah, these are the ones we want to do?
Boatright: You know, it's crazy, because we have constructed this machine that works like nothing else I've ever seen. I've been in all kinds of other bands. Chuck Platt has been in all kinds of other bands, like all these guys. And we all agree there is nothing like Punkinhead. It is a super unique machine that we've created.
And I saw it happening during the rehearsals. It's like one of us would start to say something and the other one would finish the middle part of the sentence. And then the third one would say the final part of the sentence. We wouldn't even say the last part of the sentence. Sometimes we just all knew, yeah, yeah, we know what we're going to do now and on. And you can see that's kind of between me and Chuck and Eric. We are the ones who spent the most time together. Sometimes I see the other people in the room saying, what the heck are they talking about? But then we get the idea across. But the shorthand is just remarkable.
And other people who know a lot about music will tell you that we've created this machine rhythmically that fits together in ways that's just highly unique. We've never been in another band like this. I've never seen another band that works the way this band works. So to have it come together after like 16 years of not playing anything together at all, and to have it just kind of click back into place, it's pretty crazy.
Mills: I'm making an analogy with the relationship. I was joking with Paul about this at practice. You have to have that difficult conversation or maybe an awkward conversation with your new band or your new act, and you say, my ex was pretty special. It's a high bar to hit.
Kellams: A lot of people who live in Northwest Arkansas or around the region now weren't here in 2010, the last time you were on stage. Certainly weren't here when the albums came out. And it might be hard for people to understand what that, not machine, but what that groove of Punkinhead was at that time when you guys were together touring, releasing the albums. What do you remember from, I don't know, the feeling or the energy from that time?
Mills: From the '90s?
Kellams: Yeah.
Mills: From back in the day? Well, I can say the music scene. I was very excited when I moved up to Fayetteville to go to college. And I saw the Faith Healers, one of the first bands. I knew about them before I got up there. Brian Petty and Wade Ogle. I mean, come on, those guys. Big-time fire. But the drummer, Paul Boatright, he was the one. He was the cat that really captivated me. Just played standing up. Mesmerizing. He set the stage for that whole act. Drove smoke. That was the Faith Healers, and all that made an impression on me. So I thought, that is a guy that I can work with, that I would like to work with.
And we, of course, connected eventually in the music scene. We shared that punk rock background, the love for emotion and intensity and action. And we got to know each other, and it was a rich music scene. Jesus Lee Jones, the Charred Barbies, the Faith Healers, like I said, and we wanted to do something a little more positive. We wanted to do something that was dance oriented, and we discovered funk, like deep, real, true funk, about the same time. Paul, of course, has a long history with Prince. So he had a much richer understanding than I did. But Paul, do you want to carry it from here, from how we came together at the Quonset hut?
Boatright: Yeah. You know, it's crazy, Kyle, because I could get on your roof and I could throw a rock and I could hit where Punkinhead was born, over there in the alley with the Quonset hut. We're literally one block away from where this happened. And it was just like a fluke, like one of those right place, right time. It was late at night, and we were laying vocal tracks with Eric for another band at my recording studio there. And no other renters there at the time. It was just me and him in that alley all by ourselves, super late at night.
And we took a little break, and I put on Sly and the Family Stone's greatest hits. And I came out of the room and I was like, you see. And at the time, this is true, nobody's doing stuff like this now. It's all slick R&B or it's rap or they're trying to do Red Hot Chili Peppers stuff, like punk funk, and nobody's doing true funk and soul, old school. And Eric, God bless him, immediately said, that's what we should do. And that's it. It was on from that moment, and we've been tight ever since.
Kellams: Do you recall, the two of you or the greater band, a song that it was clicking and you go, OK, yes, this is the existence we're looking for?
Boatright: I would have to say, and it's crazy because I closed my set of my new band, my debut of my new band, with this song, and I've had people, it's like, this is an old-school Fayetteville song. It's called "Neighborhood," and it's about making peace in your neighborhood.
And I said it in a little monologue at the show, in between the second and third verses. I preached to the audience a little bit. This is what the promoters wanted, and this is what the venue wanted. And I was like, old-school Fayetteville, I'm gonna give you some old-school Fayetteville. And Fayetteville in those days, it's like we all felt like characters out of a comic book or like superheroes, and all of the town from downtown through South Town, which is Dickson Street and railroad tracks, all the way up to Markham Hill. It's like that was our neighborhood, and it was like Sesame Street for adults. It was remarkable. Who are the people in your neighborhood? The people that you meet each day? And that's where it all kind of came from.
And we synthesized the punk energy with the funk from the old school that we were absorbing continually at the time and wrote a song about Fayetteville and how amazingly cool and euphoric it was to live here in those times. And that was the birth of something special about the band. The punk funk energy and the charm of Fayetteville in those days. That was it for me.
Kellams: You mentioned euphoria, and were you all surprised in the band about the euphoria that, to my memory, sort of seemingly just erupted about the band? I mean, you were beloved pretty quickly.
Boatright: Do you remember Doug Mann?
Kellams: I do remember Doug.
Boatright: Local punk rock promoter who deserves a massive amount of credit for how cool this town was and turned out to be later on. He had a huge part in it, and he had seen so many acts come and go from California. And he was tight with so many punk rock bands. And he said to me, only band I ever saw that was born with an audience.
And it was a benefit for "For Lack of a Better World," a local compilation record. We were six weeks in starting the band. It was way too soon. I was like, why did you say yes to this? We're not even ready. But yes, it was just an eruption from the very beginning. And it was like a rocket taking off. And I said, oh man, we're going to ride this. It's not going to be a long ride. It's going to either go up into orbit and stay there, or we're going to spend all our fuel and then it's going to come crashing back down to earth. But yes, it was like an eruption when it went off. It was crazy.
Kellams: Y'all are not musicians who are just in the past. You're working now. You've got a band right now.
Boatright: Absolutely. Yes. Just debuted my new group, which is just called Boatright. It's a tribute to my ancestors and to my family and to my tribe. And it's got two people named Boatright in it, so it's kind of fitting. But yes, debuted as a part of Arkansas Music Week, which is organized by Arkansas Music Experience, at a show at the Stonebreaker on Markham Hill with Avery Lee from the Phlegms from Fayetteville and Big Piph from Pine Bluff and Little Rock. Powerful, really righteous dude doing all kinds of great stuff. My new friend. I love Big Piph, B-I-G P-I-P-H.
Kellams: Look him up if you're ever feeling down. Look him up. Yeah, because he will bring you up.
Boatright: Yeah. He's working with Rimrock. He's doing, he's just, yeah, I'm a huge fan of Big Piph now, and Avery Lee. But the show really could not have gone better. I mean, for a debut show, the reactions from the fans and the people on the street, and people were flagging me down and telling me everybody's talking about this show. Everybody at the night of, the people who promoted it, Travis Smith called. Shout out to Travis Smith for being promoter. He really did an amazing, amazing job. But everybody was just over the moon about the show and the results the night of and the following day and the following day. So really couldn't ask for a better debut.
Kellams: What's next for Boatright?
Boatright: Next is, the very next day, I called Brian Crowne at George's, and I was like, hey, let's get something going. So we're talking about it. I don't have another show on the calendar just yet, but I just want to mention these guys because I have all-stars at every position. It's remarkable. I was very patient, and everything finally fell into place with the right people. Eli Barrett on drums, all the drummers in town know he is a bad mama jama, and Kevin Jones on bass guitar. Just unbelievable bass player. And then my son, Freeman Boatright, plays keyboards. He also plays in Ted Hammig and the Campaign, a fixture in Fayetteville music now. And he's not in the band because he's my son. He's in the band because he is also a bad mama jama.
Mills: Hey, I want to give a quick shout out to some of our other guys as well. Charlie Platt, many of your listeners are going to know Charlie, ordinary drummer working with maniacs around Northwest Arkansas. And Charlie and I met at Holcombe Hall at the UofA when we were in college and started our first band practicing in the laundry room there at Holcombe on campus. A band called A Very Strange Band.
Kevin Blakely, our bass player for these gigs, he's in St. Louis playing around town, and he's at church every Sunday. He's keeping the bottom in lock down there, so he has his chops. They're finely tuned. And of course, don't want to forget our trumpet player, Jeff Gray, who's got two notable acts in Northwest Arkansas, the Crescent City Combo and the Forte Quintet, and hearing great things about both of those acts.
But for me, I have an EP out called "Traitor to Hate" under the name of the Spoiler. And this year I launched a new act called A Tutto Vero and released two tracks so far in 2026. A funky, satirical send-up of our dear leader called "Little Boot Orange Caligula" and a companion piece to that for Britain's little Trump, Nigel Farage, called "M.F."
So I have been recording and releasing music, and I'm so excited to get back on the stage with these boys. And I tell you, the fact that we're all still living with music in our lives in myriad ways, forming bands, playing in bands, playing at church, recording and releasing music, it really allows and fosters the ability for us to come together and light this fire again, which we're looking forward to doing on Halloween, on Nov. 1.
Kellams: Saturday, Oct. 31, which of course is Halloween, but that sold out, and that sold out quickly.
Boatright: That is sold out. Yes, we announced that, and everybody's mind, including the staff at George's and Brian Crowne, within three days, half the tickets were gone. And then I made an announcement that they're half gone, and within six days after announcing, it was sold out six months ahead of time. Really just humbling, first of all, and just blew us all away.
So we decided to add a second show Friday. He wanted to give us Friday, but he already had Sawyer Hill for that night. So we looked at Sunday and said, let's do a daytime show. And tickets are about half gone for that. We've sold half the tickets for that Sunday show as well. But then I'll turn it over to Eric to describe the vision of the concept of this Sunday show, because it's going to be very different from Halloween.
Mills: Yeah. You know, we got the full-on bacchanal of Halloween. That's going to be for sure. And Sunday's going to be a throwdown too, but with a little different feeling. Because, of course, when Friday wasn't available, George's kindly offered Nov. 1, and I immediately thought, this is great. This really ties in nicely, beautifully with the ethos of Punkinhead and what we wanted to bring with our music and what our feeling of being a sense of the community in the past and in the present.
And so we thought of All Saints' Day, Day of the Dead, All Saints' Day, and how that's an important day for many traditions, cultures, denominations. And it's just a fine time for everyone to come together, remember their dearly departed and celebrate those loved ones that have gone before.
So we started to think about the members of our family that have passed. Paul's mother, Wanda Boatright, she was a much-beloved office manager, kept things locked down, made sure we left with money in our pockets. And she was often the only one that knew where we were and where we were going when we were on the road for weeks at a time, because we weren't always calling home as much as we should have.
We think these deaths are much loved. Solid brass, badass trumpet player, the late Steve Setser. We miss him. That guy was one of a kind. And Chris Anderson, a longtime friend of the band, played percussion with us a lot. And then that circle started to grow. As we were talking about this, we thought of Gypsy and Vernon Daniels and Annie Apple, who passed so tragically in a car accident when we were all young, and it really sent a shockwave through the community and the music scene at the time. That's right. And we thought of Porky Hill and, and who else?
Boatright: Terry Cagle and Fayetteville fixture Darren Rae. Bruce from Flying Possum. These are all people that, it starts to feel like we were always a Fayetteville community-based band. We were like connective tissue for the town. And so it makes a lot of sense for us to honor people who were really a part of Fayetteville. So yeah, bring your loved ones with you, bring the memories with you. It should be a really, really special feeling show that I think is going to be really unique and definitely very different from Halloween.
Kellams: Finally, I don't know if this is a weird question, but do you ever think of what, because you've been in music for a long time, you've had great times together, you're both still playing music, do you ever think what success means for you?
Mills: Good question. Yeah. And that's something that Paul and I talked about recently and something that's important to me, sort of in the light of the context of this band and getting back together and anticipating getting on stage, is that success takes a lot of different forms. And that's something I think that's come with age as well. And a large part of that's about gratitude.
I feel like the fact that we did what we did, that we were able to make original music, travel the country, put out records, form these strong bonds and friendships and work with all the wonderful people that have come through the family of this band, and not just the guys that are going to be on stage next month and Nov. 1. But there are a number of other outstanding players that gave a lot.
But success, I would say, is gauged, like I said, in so many different ways. That we do ourselves a disservice when we set some artificial bar for what success is or what success isn't, because we lived that dream. And we are able to come back as friends many years later and play on a stage in a town, in a place that means so much to us, and in a venue at George's Majestic Lounge, which has meant a lot to our band and to us personally, different guys in the band, and make a joyful noise. To me, that sounds a lot like success. That's eudaimonia. That's a good life. And that's my take on that.
Boatright: Yes, we did touch on that. And the phrase "success comes in many different forms" was what synthesized with me. It's so true, and fame is different than success. People don't know this, especially when they're young. And we could have been famous several times over, but fame is also a dangerous place to be. So how everything turned out, I feel that we have been incredibly successful. And like Eric, I'm just so happy that we get to do it. I mean, in Fayetteville again, at George's. If we're going to do it anywhere, if I'm going to be known anywhere, if I'm going to be appreciated, loved, respected anywhere, it's Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Paul Boatright and Eric Mills are two members of the band Punkinhead. That band will play their first show together in 16 years on Halloween night at George's Majestic Lounge. Again, that Halloween night show is sold out, but the afternoon show on Nov. 1, also at George's Majestic Lounge on Dickson Street, still has tickets remaining. Our conversation took place earlier this month.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
