Man of the House - Vernon Rust

Got a text from Vernon this morning asking for assistance. He's been living in his car for almost two months now and he is getting cold.

One way you can help is to consider buying his new self produced single, A Lot More Jesus. It's available for download at your favorite music download sites.

Stranded in West Memphis

4:00 a.m. text from Vernon:  "Mate if ur up. . got pulled over with my handcuff.on film cop losis it!  were stuck in w memphs . . staing in ark. awhile@my friend has a wesrtrn unin problm"

"can u wire us 50 its clay"

My reply at 7:22 a.m.  "You are in West Memphis with Clay?" 

Rain - Vernon Rust

Tonight it's raining in Nashville. Raining in most of the Southern U. S. Vernon and Helen are spending the night in a car that has plastic trash bags taped over two of the windows.

Meanwhile, Vernon has written songs currently on four major label records, and he has one, A Lot More Jesus, that he has recorded and released himself through the usual internet outlets.  Why doesn't he get out of his car and get on with his life?

The Martini Shot

January 1, 2012.  This was our final shot of the trip to Nashville, the "martini shot".  Vernon met us at Centennial Park, where you can find Nashville's Parthenon.  Vernon had talked a great deal about his new song, A Lot More Jesus.  Telling us about the process of getting it recorded after an eight year drought from the Business.

We wanted one final song from him, and he obliged us with a real gem.  Wheels, how appropriate!  He lives in his car, that he bought with his first really decent royalty check in years.  He is moving on in life, getting his career going again, and the wheels keep turning.

30 Plus Days Living in a Car

It's kind of sad for me to see this.  I didn't shoot it.  I'm not sure that I would have, or that I would have published it if I had.  Vernon has four songs on major label records right now, but he is living in his car parked beside a Walmart somewhere in Nashville, Tennessee.



He won't collect any royalties on the songs for a few months, yet he won't get out of his car and walk into Walmart and ask for a job.  Same for Helen who is sitting next to him shooting this video, and living with him.  They subsist off of gifts from folks who care, and free meals and laundry services from churches and aid organizations around Nashville.


"We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless.  The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.  We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty." - Mother Teresa

Nashville New Years Eve 2011

It was a long and chilly cold New Years weekend shooting Nashville Wild Child. The somewhat depressing sight of my old friend, Vernon Rust, living in his car beside a Walmart in Nashville was depressing. Vernon was disheveled, had not shaved in a while, and stinking of alcohol and body odor when we caught up to him.

Although he has a new single, A Lot More Jesus, out now on Amazon.com, he is at least six weeks away from receiving any remuneration from it.


I don't usually like large crowds, but juxtaposed against the gritty, mean, environment where we found Vernon and his friend, Helen, it was a relief to get into a large, more upscale crowd.  We went downtown and recorded some of the traditional New Year's festivities, Nashville Style. Southern Rockers, Lynyrd Skynyrd closed out an evening of performances at the end of Broadway in Nashville. Then the lighted guitar drops down the scaffolding, and fireworks erupt. Skynyrd came back on stage for a rousing 15 minute Free Bird encore.

New Song Released

Vernon's new song, A Lot More Jesus, is finally available on Amazon, iTunes, CD Baby, and others.  Please check it out.  Although he is homeless, Vernon has decided to donate a portion of the proceeds from this to the Red Cross.  Vernon has formed a new record company, Broken Boat Records, and released this first single, from his home office, which is parked outside a Walmart in Nashville, Tennessee.



We had a great, but troubling shoot in Nashville this weekend, more on that later.