The five members of the band playing on a flatbed trailer on an oil lease at dusk, a lit drilling rig and a gas flare behind them, rig hands in hard hats and coveralls watching from their pickups

Operator

Burning Dead Dinosaurs

Lease: Ector County · Midland County
Field: Permian Basin, West Texas
Spud: 1981
Plugged & abandoned: 1986

Hard hats required beyond this point

Make hole.

Oil-patch hard rock from Odessa and Midland, Texas. Five hands from the same location: a driller, a derrickman, a floorhand, a motorman and the mud logger. Formed in the boom. Played on their days off. Broke up in the bust.

Read the mud logs Read the tour sheet

A flatbed on a lease road, south of Odessa, at dusk. The rig is still drilling. The flare is the gas they could not sell.

01 · Spud

One crew and the mud logger

Ector County, spring 1981. One evening-tour crew and the mud logger on the same well. A band by the next days off.

Burning Dead Dinosaurs formed in the spring of 1981 on a drilling rig in Ector County, south of Odessa. Four of the five worked evening tour on the same crew. Bobby Lee Crump was the driller. Travis Kincaid worked the derrick. Jesse Ruelas worked the floor. Dwayne Sikes had come up from the Gulf of Mexico that winter and was running the engines.

Rhonda Pike was logging the well. She worked out of the mud-logging trailer at the edge of the location, catching samples off the shaker every ten feet and calling the gas readings to the floor. She kept an electric guitar in the trailer, unplugged, and practiced between samples. Travis heard it through the trailer wall at crew change. He asked whether she played anything louder. She said she played everything faster. The band had its first rehearsal on their next days off, in Bobby Lee's garage in Odessa.

On the sleeve
“We worked the same twelve hours. We figured we could play the same three minutes.”
— Bobby Lee Crump, sleeve of Crew Change (1982)

The five band members walking toward the camera across dry ground through a field of pumpjacks at sunset, carrying guitar cases, a snare drum and a hard hat — Walking in from the pumping units, Ector County, 1981. Travis Kincaid carries the hard hat. Bobby Lee Crump carries the snare.

02 · Tour Sheet

Daily drilling report

The band's history, entered by tour, in the order it happened. Operations are described in the driller's words. The codes are the archive's.

Daily Drilling Report

Tour sheet · Original

Morning
Daylight
Evening (this tour)

198115:0023:00Spud
Evening Tour
A rig works around the clock in three tours: morning, daylight and evening. In 1981 the evening crew on the rig south of Odessa came on at three in the afternoon and went off at eleven. Bobby Lee Crump ran the brake. Travis Kincaid worked the board, ninety feet up. Jesse Ruelas and a hand named Lupe worked the floor. Dwayne Sikes kept the engines running.
Rhonda Pike was the mud logger on the well. She had a geology degree and a guitar, and she used both on every tour. The band rehearsed on days off and played its first show in June 1981, in a garage in Odessa, to two other crews and the company man.
1981–8515:0023:00Drill
Seven and Seven
The boom set the band's calendar. Every member worked seven days on and seven days off, and the band played only on the seven off. Shows were booked from the hitch calendar, not the other way around. When a rig moved, the band's schedule moved with it.
Paydays were Fridays. On a payday the band played the honky-tonks of Odessa and Midland, where the dance floors filled with rig hands still in their work boots. On other nights it played off a flatbed trailer on a lease road or at a truck stop, with the work lights from a rig for a stage. The crowds wore hard hats. They held them up at the end of a song.
198415:0023:00Log
Mud Weight
Rhonda Pike was the fastest player in the band, and the rest of the band said so in every interview. She set the tempo for every song. On stage the others watched her right hand, not the drummer. Bobby Lee Crump said it was the only time in his life he had followed anyone else's count.
She also kept the records. She logged the band the way she logged a well: dates, places, the size of the crowd, how the set went, all in pencil, in a mud logger's notebook. The second album, Mud Weight, was cut in 1984 at the top of the boom. Its sleeve reproduces a page of that notebook. The archive holds the notebook.
198615:0023:00P&A
Stacked Out
In the winter of 1985 crude sold for about thirty dollars a barrel. By the spring of 1986 it sold for about ten. Across the Permian Basin, rigs were laid down and stacked in yards. The crew south of Odessa was let go in February. The rig went to a pipe yard with a FOR SALE sign on the mast.
The band recorded Stacked Out that March, in a week. It played its last show in Odessa in June 1986, on a payday that had no checks. Dwayne Sikes drove back to Houma the next morning. The others stayed in the Basin. Nobody announced the breakup. The notebook's last entry reads: "Plugged and abandoned."

The band in hard hats and work clothes on a drilling rig floor at dusk, pipe racked behind them, rig tongs hanging on chains, a guitar case leaning by the doghouse door — On the floor at crew change, 1982. Drill pipe in the rack. The guitar case by the doghouse door is Rhonda Pike's.

Remarks

Equipment, customs and one sticker, as the crew kept them.

equipment

The Hard Hat on the Belt

Travis Kincaid sang every show from 1981 to 1986 with his yellow hard hat clipped to his belt. He was on call for most of them. The hat is the one in the photographs. The dents are from the rig.

custom

Hats Up

Crowds at a Burning Dead Dinosaurs show did not wave lighters. They held up hard hats at the end of a song. From the stage a full room looked like a pipe rack: rows of round tops, red, white, yellow and blue.

custom

The Sample Bags

Rhonda Pike wrote every set list in grease pencil on the back of a cloth sample bag, the kind a mud logger fills with cuttings every ten feet. Fourteen of the bags survive. The archive holds them flat, in order, with the sand shaken out.

mythology

The Sticker

In 1983 the band printed five hundred hard-hat stickers: a round decal with the band's name around a gas flare. They were gone in a month. Rig hands traded them like union cards. Hard hats with the sticker still on them turn up at pipe yards and estate sales across the Basin.

03 · Crew

Crew on location

Five hands, as listed on the tour sheet. Each line gives the job on the rig, the job in the band and the town they drove in from.

Hand 01Derrickman
Travis Kincaid
In the band
Lead vocals
On the rig
Derrickman
Drove in from
Kermit, Texas
On the crew
1981–1986
Sang every show with his hard hat clipped to his belt. He said a derrickman doesn't leave it in the truck.
“Ninety feet up, you learn to be heard over a rig. After that a band is easy.”
“The hard hat stays on the belt. I'm still on call.”
Now. Lives in Andrews, Texas. Works as a pumper. Checks the same wells every morning and sings in the truck between them.
Hand 02Floorhand
Jesse Ruelas
In the band
Lead guitar
On the rig
Floorhand
Drove in from
Odessa, Texas
On the crew
1981–1986
Cut the sleeves off every shirt he owned. The tongs on the floor kept catching them.
“On the floor you count the joints. On a solo you count the bars. Same thing.”
Now. Runs a machine shop on the south side of Odessa. Threads pipe by day. Restrings guitars for half the town by night.
Rhonda Pike on location, 1983. She practiced between samples.
Hand 03Mud logger
Rhonda Pike
Fastest player in the band · Set every tempo
In the band
Rhythm guitar
On the rig
Mud logger
Drove in from
Midland, Texas
On the crew
1981–1986
The fastest player in the band. She set the tempo for every song and wrote every set list on the back of a sample bag.
“A sample comes up every ten feet whether you're ready or not. So does the next bar.”
“I logged the well. Then I logged the band. Both of them were drilling fast.”
Now. A petroleum geologist in Midland. Still plays. Still the fastest of the five. Still writes everything in pencil first.
Hand 04Motorman
Dwayne Sikes
In the band
Bass
On the rig
Motorman
Drove in from
Houma, Louisiana
On the crew
1981–1986
Six years on offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, out of Houma, before he came to the Permian. He brought the bass with him in a sealed case.
“Offshore it's fourteen and fourteen and nowhere to go. Out here you can at least drive to a show.”
“Root note. Hold it. Like a rig in a swell.”
Now. Went home to Houma, Louisiana, in 1986. Runs a crew boat out of Port Fourchon. Plays bass in a church band on Sundays.
Hand 05Driller
Bobby Lee Crump
In the band
Drums
On the rig
Driller
Drove in from
Big Spring, Texas
On the crew
1981–1986
The driller on the crew and the drummer in the band. He counted in every song the way he called a connection.
“A driller keeps time for five men and a rig. Four people and a drum kit is a day off.”
“Count it off. Make hole.”
Now. Lives in Big Spring, Texas. Went back to drilling in 1989 and ran a rig until 2011. Teaches drum lessons in the garage.

04 · Mud Log

Three wells, logged

Rhonda Pike logged the records the way she logged a well. One strip per record. Each interval is a song. Depth is drawn at three feet to the second of tape, which puts all three records at a Permian Basin depth. Reproduced from her originals.

Sandstone
Shale
Limestone
Dolomite

Formation Log

Lithology · Drill rate · Gas

Crew Change

Company: Caliche Records
Well: No. 1
Year: 1982
County: Ector
Formation: Spraberry
Mud weight: 9.1 lb/gal
Total depth: 6,750 ft
Logged by: R. Pike

DepthDrill rateLithGasDescription

001Crew Change3:52Show

69602Evening Tour4:07

1,43703Make Hole3:18

2,03104Ninety Feet Up4:21Written on the monkey board.

2,81405Doghouse3:04

3,36606Caliche Road3:46

4,04407Flare3:23

4,65308Highway 1913:34Midland to Odessa, both directions.

5,29509Friday Check3:09

5,86210Turn to the Right4:56

TD 6,750 ft

Remarks

The debut. Recorded in Odessa over two sets of days off, between hitches. The title song was written in a pickup at the gate at midnight, waiting for morning tour to come out.

Formation Log

Lithology · Drill rate · Gas

Mud Weight

Company: Caliche Records
Well: No. 2
Year: 1984
County: Midland
Formation: Wolfcamp
Mud weight: 10.4 lb/gal
Total depth: 6,537 ft
Logged by: R. Pike

DepthDrill rateLithGasDescription

001Mud Weight4:34Show

82202Kelly Down3:31

1,45503Seven and Seven3:58

2,16904Tripping Pipe4:12

2,92505Every Ten Feet2:47Instrumental. Rhythm guitar, Rhonda Pike.

3,42606Out of Houma4:04Dwayne Sikes's song about the Gulf.

4,15807Penwell3:39

4,81508Hold What You Got3:53

5,51409Total Depth5:41

TD 6,537 ft

Remarks

The heavy one. Slower tempos, lower tuning, and Rhonda Pike's rhythm parts tracked twice. Recorded at the height of the boom, with every member working seven on and seven off.

Formation Log

Lithology · Drill rate · Gas

Stacked Out

Company: Caliche Records
Well: No. 3
Year: 1986
County: Ector
Formation: Ellenburger
Mud weight: 9.6 lb/gal
Total depth: 5,640 ft
Logged by: R. Pike

DepthDrill rateLithGasDescription

001Stacked Out3:48Show

68402Ten Dollar Oil3:25

1,29903Last Payday4:03

2,02804Pipe Yard3:17

2,61905Rig for Sale3:41

3,28206Laid Down4:16

4,05007Back to Houma3:32

4,68608Plug and Abandon5:18

TD 5,640 ft

Remarks

The last record. Released in April 1986, the month the rigs came down. Eight songs. Recorded in a week, because for the first time in five years nobody had to be at work.

The band standing in a weedy equipment yard under an overcast sky, stacks of idle pipe behind them and a FOR SALE sign hung on a stacked rig — Pipe yard, Odessa, April 1986. The rig they met on, stacked. The sign went up in February.

05 · Rig Moves

Mud Weight Tour, 1984

Nine dates in 1984, the year of Mud Weight: eight towns in the Basin and one in Louisiana. Every date was booked on a set of days off. Opening and closing nights were in Odessa.

Location 01
Odessa, TX
Ector County
Payday. Opening night.
Location 02
Midland, TX
Midland County
Location 03
Big Spring, TX
Howard County
Bobby Lee Crump's hometown.
Location 04
Andrews, TX
Andrews County
Location 05
Kermit, TX
Winkler County
Flatbed, on a lease road.
Location 06
Pecos, TX
Reeves County
Location 07
Hobbs, NM
Lea County
Across the state line.
Location 08
Houma, LA
Terrebonne Parish
Dwayne Sikes's home. The only date off the Basin.
Location 09Shared bill
Odessa, TX
Ector County
With The Shoulder Lane. A flatbed at a truck stop on I-20. Both bands played twice.

The band playing on a low stage in an Odessa honky-tonk under a large neon cowboy-hat sign, couples dancing in front, rig hands in hard hats and cowboy hats crowding the floor — Payday, Odessa, 1984. The dance floor filled by nine. Some of the hard hats came straight from work.

The band leaning on a two-tone pickup truck in a gravel motel parking lot full of pickups at sunset, a NO VACANCY sign lit on the roof, amplifier and guitar cases on the ground — 1982. Every motel in the Basin was full. The sign was lit for five years.

06 · Incidents

Incident reports

Three reports, one clipping and the notes left in the doghouse. Entered without amendment.

Incident Report1982

Stuck in the Sand

Location: Lease road, near Monahans, Texas
Type: Equipment
Description: The flatbed carrying the band's equipment bogged down in sand on a lease road. A water truck pulled it out. The show started two hours late.
Corrective action: Tow chain now carried on the flatbed. Lease roads walked before the trailer goes in.

Full report

On a Saturday in October 1982 the band was booked to play a flatbed show for two crews at a location north of Monahans. The lease road crossed a stretch of deep sand. The trailer went in to the axles a mile short of the location. A water hauler on his way out stopped, ran a chain, and pulled the trailer free. The band played two hours late and dedicated the first song to him. He did not stay for it. He had another load.

Incident Report1984

Called Out

Location: Odessa, Texas
Type: Personnel
Description: A rig called Travis Kincaid back to work in the middle of a set. Rhonda Pike sang the rest of the show.
Corrective action: Rhonda Pike to learn every lead vocal. Completed by the next payday.

Full report

On a payday night in May 1984 a relief derrickman failed to show for morning tour, and the toolpusher called the honky-tonk. Travis Kincaid took the call at the bar phone between songs, set the microphone in its stand and drove to the rig. Rhonda Pike stepped up to the microphone, called the next song, and sang lead for the remaining eleven. Travis made the rig in forty minutes. The band reports that nobody in the room left.

Incident Report1985

The Power

Location: Hobbs, New Mexico
Type: Weather
Description: The hall lost power in a storm during the second set. The crews in the parking lot turned their pickups' headlights on the stage door, and the band finished acoustic.
Corrective action: One acoustic guitar to ride in the truck at all times.

Full report

A storm came over Hobbs in August 1985 and took out the power to the hall in the middle of the second set. The amplifiers went quiet. Jesse Ruelas had an acoustic guitar in the truck. Bobby Lee Crump played a snare drum with his hands. The crowd opened the stage doors and the crews in the lot aimed their headlights through them. The band played six songs that way. Rhonda Pike kept the tempo on an unplugged electric. The power came back during the last chorus.

The Basin Ledger · March 1984

Rig Hands on the Bandstand

An Odessa five-piece plays only on its days off, and the dance floors fill on payday

By D. Hollis

Burning Dead Dinosaurs keeps a schedule nobody else in the music business would accept. All five members work in the oil patch. Four of them are on the same drilling crew. The band plays when the crew is off, and not before.

On a Friday night at an Odessa dance hall last month, the floor was full by nine. Most of the crowd had come straight from work. The singer, Travis Kincaid, is a derrickman, and he sang with his hard hat clipped to his belt. The drummer is the driller on his crew.

The band's rhythm guitarist, Rhonda Pike, is a mud logger, and she is the fastest player this paper has heard in West Texas. The band takes its tempos from her. When asked how they keep up, the bassist, Dwayne Sikes, said only that they had practice. "Twelve hours a day," he said. "Seven days at a time."

Left in the doghouse

Notes from people who were there, as written.

I worked morning tour on a rig outside Andrews in 1984. We drove an hour after work to see them. Held my hard hat up for every song. Still have the sticker on it.
R. Villarreal, retired driller · Andrews, TX

The rhythm guitar player was the fastest I have ever seen, before or since. I took lessons for two years after that show and never caught up.
K. Dunbar · Midland, TX

My father was a floorhand. When the rig he worked on was stacked in 1986, he played Stacked Out in the kitchen every night for a month. Then he got a job in Houma and played Back to Houma instead.
T. Guidry · Houma, LA

Payday

Friday, at the yard

Pay to: The crew
Period ending: Friday
Hitch: 7 on / 7 off

Shirts and hard-hat stickers are issued through the Sideband Label store. Every order is paid out in full, folded once and sealed.

Go to the store

Checks may be cashed at the bank on Friday until five.

Front

Burning Dead Dinosaurs

Evening tour. Odessa, Texas.

Back

Make hole.

Burning Dead Dinosaurs · Odessa–Midland, Texas · 1981–1986 · Spudded in the boom. Plugged in the bust.