Month: September 2026

The earliest memory I have with my dad and I together will surprise no one. I don’t know the year exactly but must have been around 1969 or 1970.I was in Los Angeles with my mom. my dad was already there from his earlier trek from Austin to pursue music. While I remember my dad having a small upstairs apartment in Venice a short walk to the beach. I vaguely remember beach time together and body surfing lessons. But beyond that, everything is a blur of various events with various folks.  The only vivid memory I have is sitting on the floor of dads living room watching a Dallas Cowboys football game. Charlie waters even made a great interception that caused chaos in the apartment with dad and a few buddies. I was just being groomed to be a fan at that time so I kinda just watched the guys get excited.

Im sure I was getting to visit dad while living in LA with mom. They weren’t friendly and mom had her abusive addict bass player boyfriend Roy Cox. I also remember a time when mom and roy took me to dads to demand money or he would not get to see me anymore. I was crying,at he bottom of the stairs while my dad, above, was enraged and hurt. they were yelling, although at the time I didn’t know what was going on. It was later in life I learned this from dad.

At this time my dad was trying to get a band together, but on his own, he was going to open mic night at the troubadour. He would frequently win the nights he went with his rendition of “cryin” by Roy Orbison. And the $100 was usually his. As a teen and adult I heard dad sing that song at parties or home and it was astounding how good he sang.  Veins would protrude his forehead and neck while hitting the super high notes. When I was about 19 and got an acoustic guitar, I learned Cryin. we did that song together and what a thrill to play and listen to him absolutely crush that song. LA  might have been the birth of “Dobie Gent” the stage name he created, but never really developed into anything beyond a passionate hobby. Dobie Gent was, a blend of dobie grey, the singer of “drift away” and peter gent, the author north Dallas Forty, a book based on the Cowboys OF COURSE!!!!

Lets start at the beginning. How did butch yant become my father? To be honest, Im not completely sure. Well, I mean there was intercourse involved yes, but beyond that ive lived   with two different stories my whole life, for the early part of life I was under the assumption that my mom got pregnant with me so they married, then split, and I went with mom for some years before going to my dad’s parents for a few years until ending up in Oregon with dad.

Sometime in my late teens or early 20’s another version of that came to light. I don’t remember from whom, but likely my dad, by a campfire, with whiskey in hand, told me she got pregnant, they married, then she miscarried, but stayed together and had me. I never confirmed this, as it didn’t matter to me, or change things.

I can say with great certainty, that I have no memories of my mom and dad ever being in the same room with me.

I do know, that dad was a singer in a pop/rock band called Butch Yant and the Deeds after high school and into the college years. Somewhere there is an epic band photo with the handsome foursome donning red velvet sport coats with scripted “D” on the breast. (like Lavern from Happy Days.) Mom was a groupie and followed them around Austin and south Texas and im sure we can figure out the rest.

As I sit here collecting my thoughts about how and where to begin telling stories about my Dad, one thing becomes very clear many people reading this knew him. While I welcome discussion and remembrance, its important for everyone to understand that the Butch many of you knew, in a lot of cases is not the same man as the Harry Walter Yant jr that I knew as Dad. No one knew him better than me. That cannot be debated.

The other issue occupying my thoughts is the fact that a lot of these “memories” are really an entangled web of actual memories, second hand stories, lore, and “memories of memories”. In a 60 year life you meet many people, and hear many stories. Over time I think we forget the different ways we absorb these events and stories. So I cannot always be 100% accurate in the way things happened but I will do my best.

Yes, you can consider this a bit of a disclaimer, and with that, these are the memories ive carried and do my best to export them to you as accurately as possible. Keep this in mind as you wish to “debate” your version of a story.

Many of these stories will die with me which is why I wanted to put some of them out to the world.

Im also realizing how fucking hard it is for me to sit at a keyboard and actually type, and not voice for text. I simply cannot generate words on a keyboard one handed fast enough to keep my brain engaged, but im gonna give it a go.

10 years ago, When I did the blog, I had a wonderful partner (Erin Donley) to bounce ideas off of, as well as type and edit for me.   This will be a solo effort, for better or worse. As if that wont be painfully obvious

More coming soon.