Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Head.
Hi Anthony, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
In the beginning, I worked at The Bluebird, a music venue in Bloomington, Indiana. During the day hours, it was known as Gerry’s Happy Hour. I worked as a doorman and bartender the Bluebird for many happy years and came to appreciate the vibes during Gerry’s Happy Hour. The place felt more like a dive bar during those hours. Conversations could be had. Stories could be shared. There was much more laughter to be heard. Authentic bar friendships were made during those shifts, which I call Dive Time. After I left Bloomington, I never lived anywhere without finding a great neighborhood bar to go with it, like the Gaslight Lounge in Chicago, and Frank n’ Hank in Los Angeles. Even when I was writing for Bon Appetit magazine in LA, I was finding a way to get neighborhood bars into my stories. That ended in 2003 or so and I’ve been freelancing as a writer ever since. I have approximated that I have over one million words in print, through newspaper and magazine articles, professional journal articles, books–fiction and non-fiction–and assorted online publications. A not insignificant number of those million words has been dedicated to alcohol, including beer, wine, and intoxicating spirits, as well as the people who make them and the people who drink them. In 2022, I wrote a bestselling book with photographer Kirk Weddle called Texas Dives: Enduring Neighborhood Bars of the Lone Star State. I’ve profiled many old bars for Texas Monthly and I’ve been covering dive bars in Austin for the past three years for AustinMonthly.com. In addition to being a dive bar escort for hire, I host a radio show called TEXAS DIVES RADIO on KZSM 104.1 FM in San Marcos.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Although I have focused on writing about alcohol and bars for a while, that has been part of a larger catalogue of writing, which includes travel, food, celebrities, real estate, biographies, dogs, lawyers, and even mass media communications. In other words, a freelancer’s job is to have many many jobs and many many bosses, which makes nearly every assignment somewhat difficult. I must navigate different personality types as well as differing levels of knowledge and experience. I am turning 58 in January, and I’m in a tough position of knowing much more than the people who assign me stories and edit my work. Other than that, the pay is low. The appreciation is fleeting. The opportunities are drying up. The competition from the living and the artificial is overwhelming. Did I mention the pay being low? You’d think a guy who’s been getting paid to write since he was 18 would have some type of seniority at this point with the writing world, but no. That’s not the case. My real wages have gone down over time.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Clearly, my dazzling looks have carried me throughout most of my professional life. But if I had to be humble, I would say that stubborn endurance and a true desire to live life a certain way has been at the root of nearly every decision I’ve made since second grade. That’s when I wrote my first book, Tornado. (It’s also the first time I was on the radio, for the OMAR reading program. I reviewed “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry”; true story). The book was just a few pages stapled together, but I really liked doing it. I played with words throughout grade school, and wrote short stories. I was the sports editor for our 8th grade newspaper. In high school, I was editor in chief of the paper. I also wrote sports stories for the city’s newspaper. The point of all that prologue is say that everything that came afterwards was a story more or less of my own choosing. I never specialized in any particular subject, no matter what publication I worked for. So I have written about the world as it is, and also the world as it was because I love reading and writing about history. I have dined in some of the world’s greatest restaurants. I have traveled to many other countries in addition to seeing most of the United States. I write a lot about dive bars these days because no one else is doing much of it. Or at least I don’t think they’re doing it the right way–with the respect that these establishments deserve. Don’t get me started…
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
When a person is young and has fresh legs, that person is gonna take some risks while running as fast as possible toward a goal. If it is a noble goal those risks are worth taking because such goals tend to take a while to achieve. That means that endurance is necessary. Again–with young, strong legs, endurance shouldn’t be a problem and it shouldn’t be taken for granted either. So, enduring through risks and consequences and false starts and unexpected obstacles and some occasional joy and satisfaction and more obstacles and possibly some trauma and brick walls is what happens on the way to achieving most noble goals. By the time someone could honestly say “this is it” they should have gained so much knowledge and so much perspective after so many years of practice and failure and achievement and more struggle and–I can’t stress this enough–context, that they would never really say “this is it” because they would finally understand a much more rewarding truth. So, risks? Yes, more of my professional career has been a risk than the other way around. Most years are tightrope-walking years. I have no guarantee that tomorrow will be better for freelance writers, and I have no expectation for that outcome either. I continue to risk my family’s financial well-being because of the uncertainty. I am more than fortunate to have a spouse who is a rock-solid 9-to-5er, which brings much-needed consistency to my life in every way imaginable.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.anthonyheadworks.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070636106414
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-head-4852565/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@anthonyhead303
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.head.79/
Image Credits
Some photos by Kirk Weddle
