Every Midland oilman has a story about “the road that wasn’t taken” and what they should, could, would do. But likely few, if any, wavered between promoting concerts and the oil business. What makes Jamie Small’s story even more unusual is that he claims he can’t carry a tune or dance to any rhythm.
Over the years his business success has fueled his passion for collecting music memorabilia and beyond – so much so that he needed a vacation home with a large barn to contain the overflow.
Jamie grew up in Virginia Beach and worked as a promoter for Whisper Concerts. He remembered having dinner with his parents and after they went to bed he went to the clubs with pockets full of cash to listen to and then pay off the bands he had signed. At Washington & Lee University, he ran the student activities bureau and hired Sigma Nu, giving him opportunities to arrange campus concerts for singer-songwriters like Bruce Hornsby.
A geology degree brought Jamie to Midland to work for Marshall Young Oil Co. He later worked as a consultant for Cobra Oil and Gas and eventually founded Icon Petroleum and Element Petroleum.
Jamie claims the first piece in his collection was a Lowell George maraca after a Little Feat concert. He also collected a number of confirmed, canceled checks from each member of that band, signed by Frank Zappa after they opened one of his concerts. Soon he was collecting signed lyrics, not just guitars. Before items are sent to Las Vegas to be framed in a shadow box, Jamie puts together other memorabilia, such as signed stage passes and picks to surround the guitar.
As he surveyed the walls of his office and barn, Jamie said that he focused on bands from his youth – the 60s to early 80s, and the collection is eclectic because he wanted to cover the musical genres of those years. So it’s not all rock ‘n roll: he has a signed Bee Gees guitar, a Glen Campbell guitar, and a Beastie Boys guitar. And he’s proud of little things he found like George Harrison’s sunglasses his chauffeur pulled out of his limousine, a crumpled letter from Tom Petty to his wife-to-be, and a list of songs played at one of Bruce Springsteen’s concerts at the Floor was glued.
No, he couldn’t go to all the concerts of his favorite bands and he never buys at E-Bay because there are a lot of fakes in circulation. He has a couple of scouts who contact him when unusual items come up for sale, like the back pocket of Jimi Hendrix’s jeans, which happened to be signed “for Jamie”. All of his memorabilia are fully certified.
Some other items he’s collected include signed guitars by The Police, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, KISS, Queen, Grateful Dead, the Eagles (for his wife), Modest Mouse (for his son ); a signed harmonica, sketches, and handwritten copy of song lyrics for studio musicians by John Lennon; a set of drumsticks, cymbals and a sketch by Ringo (for his son); signed text from “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (for his daughter’s inauguration); and his valuable possessions: handwritten texts for the song “Whipping Post” by the Allman Brothers, which are yellowed and written on three-ring binder paper. Jamie assumes this is an exercise copy.
So the walls in his barn were soon covered, but he had to fill the space below. Now the “man cave on steroids” comes into his collection. Virginia Beach used to have an oceanfront arcade on 31st Street, which Jamie liked. So he got hold of the old Brunswick pool table from that venue and gradually bought rock ‘n roll themed pinball machines, including Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and Pinball Wizard, a rare one with the Beatles and one with KISS. He found a baseball game from the 1950s and old pinball machines from the 1930s. Bowing to the pressure, he bought two first generation electronic machines – Ms. Pacman and Asteroids – to remind him of people like his college roommate who spent fortunes playing them. Jamie points out that his barn is not a museum and anything can be played with, including his wife’s favorite, the skee ball. There is also foosball and shuffleboard. And he bought an antique Wurlitzer jukebox, had it converted to play CDs and loaded it on the barn walls with songs from all the bands.
At the end of the day, Jamie admits, “I loved my days as a promoter because I was fascinated by how it all fits together. Drilling a well is like putting on a concert, ”he thinks. “After all the planning and preparation in advance, it is like a day of a concert when you enter a pay zone.”