Ozark Mountain Daredevils raise hell on final tour
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After more than 50 years of playing gigs, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils will retire from touring at the end of 2025.
Why it matters: A group of hippies who met and formed a band first called The Family Tree in Springfield, Missouri, claim no specific genre. But their rock-bluegrass-country-folk sound helped define the perception of the Ozarks region for many throughout the 1970s.
State of play: You may have "heard it in an alley, on a weird radio" — that song you can recite, but aren't sure who sings it or what year it was recorded. It's just always been on FM.
- The band's most well-known singles — "If You Want to Get to Heaven," "Chicken Train Stomp" and "Jackie Blue" — came from their first two albums, but the group's recorded at least 19 since 1973.
- Come the end of 2025, the Daredevils will still play, write and record together, Michael "Supe" Granda, the band's bassist, told Axios. "But as for me, slogging around the highways of America to play in Philadelphia and Phoenix, you know, those days are going to be over," he said.
Fans are warned: This is the final round. No comeback or reunion tour will follow, Granda said.
Driving the news: The band plays at The Auditorium in Eureka Springs this Friday as part of the Original Ozark Folk Festival. Seats are available from $25.
Flashback: When they got a recording contract, the group had to drop The Family Tree because another band had a claim on the name. A case of beer and focused session produced Cosmic Corn Cob and His Amazing Ozark Mountain Daredevils.
- Granda laughs now, remembering the name was in the spirit of New Riders of the Purple Sage and Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen.
- But they had to drop "amazing" to steer clear of the Amazing Rhythm Aces and no one in the band wanted to be the Cosmic Corn Cob, so what was left stuck.
Behind the scenes: Their recording company wanted to move the group to Los Angeles in the late '70s so they'd have easier access to publicity available on "The Smothers Brothers" and "The Tonight Show," which would've meant more money, Granda said. But the band members declined.
- "We decided to stay in the Ozarks because my children were swimming in beautiful creeks … my children were eating vegetables from the garden. You know, clear blue skies."
- "So we said, 'I'm not going to uproot my family so I can go be on 'The Sonny & Cher Show,'" Granda said.
That set the stage for a career of relentless touring and playing smaller venues. Granda now lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
The bottom line: "I don't regret it at all … we've had a level of success that has afforded us wonderful lives. Well, how can you regret that?" Granda said.
What's next: The Daredevils have performances scheduled through February.