Hoyt Axton & Xavier / Joy To The World

I was going down the road on our tour bus last night, sorting out my files on some hard drives and came across this wonderful moment in time when Hoyt Axton came flying in on his jet with the intention of laying some of his songs on Abe's band, Xavier. Abe was two years old when I brought him to the Troubadour in LA to see Hoyt and I remember him saying to me, "HE IS BIG!!" When Abe and Cathy were about five and three, Hoyt would babysit them both for hours and tell them the most magical stories. One time we were staying at Hoyt's house in Lake Tahoe for a week. Arlo and Hoyt were in a very deep discussion and Abe (6yrs) came up to me and showed me the antique grizzly bear he just broke. I told him to go tell Hoyt. Abe was terrified. He walked over and stood there trying to get Hoyt's attention away from the "important discussion"......Then, Hoyt looked down at Abe and saw his broken "antique grizzly bear" , he freaked out, "MY ANTIQUE GRIZZLY BEAR!!!!!" He grabbed the bear, out of Abe's little hands, GROWLING, he ripped it up some more and threw it across the room! Then he looked down close to Abe's face with A GREAT BIG HOYT AXTON GRIN, and said, "I didn't like that bear anyway."

Anyway, didn't mean to ramble, we just miss him so much.
I think this took place in 1988 or '89. I'll find out.

"The teen agers" in Xavier are Tim Sears, guitar, Abe Guthrie keyboards and Randy Cormier, drums.

Mom on video camera and George on camera

Category:

Music

Tags:

• xavier
• abe
• randy
• tim
• jason
• eb
• guthrie
• sears
• cormier
• webster
• rock
• hoyt
• axton
• joy
• to
• the
• world

[Freddieboy44]

@moles2000 Well, I didn't know about Teddy Bear, so thanks for that info, but I have heard many times and through various sources over the years that she wrote Heartbreak Hotel.

[moles2000]

@Freddieboy44 HOyt's mom wrote Teddy Bear, I didn't know about the other one though.

[tpocain]

OMG I saw you guys opening for Arlo back in '93, and you did an a capella version of this...I was shaking and almost in tears--that's how AWESOME it was!\m/

[jesatria]

...Its always great to see the writer perform his own song!!! This looks like it was around 1988...My best friend and mentor, Joe Schermie (bass player for Three Dog Night) introduced me to Hoyt Axton up in North Hollywood around this time when he was on the road...What a thrill!!!

[tookita]

I dedicate this song to my dear friend Carole Hansen with thanks for making me a Hoyt Axton fan...so many years ago !!!

[Freddieboy44]

@gamoonbat Thanks for the info. I've always been curious about such things as this. I'll check this out. I've always been interested more in the movers than the shakers. Hoyt and his mom seems (IMO) more of the mover trend.

[gamoonbat]

@Freddieboy44 - Hoyt's mom was actually named Mae Boren Axton, or "Mama Mae" by those who knew her. I wrote the above before I read the whole Wiki entry.

[Freddieboy44]

@gamoonbat I didn't know her name, but I've read it several times and have had people agree that she wrote when it is brought up. I was just searching around the other day here on youtube and there's a video, I guess, for the ending of a Hoyt Axton TV special, where he says that he wrote the "No, no" song that Ringo Starr did. I think he's wrote alot more that we're not aware of. His mother too.

[gamoonbat]

@Freddieboy44 - Elvis Presley covered Heartbreak Hotel. I did not know that Boren Axton wrote it.

[Freddieboy44]

@gamoonbat Hoyt wrote this song and "Never Been to Spain"; both covered by Three Dog Night. Also, wrote "Pusher" and "Snow Blind Friend"; both of those covered by Steppen Wolf. My favorite has always been "Never Been to Spain". One of the greatest song ever written, IMO. His mother wrote "Heartbreak Hotel". Bet you don't know who covered that one most memorably.