Full Moon Horror Fest
Aaron Rhoades
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: Life & Style
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Briggs is a Little Rock native who got his start working as a copy boy for the Arkansas Gazette, which led to a sports-writing scholarship from Vanderbilt University. After graduating from Vanderbilt, he moved to Texas where he invented his alter ego, Joe Bob Briggs.
AT: "What is your favorite cult movie?"
JBB: "I would have to say "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Even though it's 25 years old, it still retains the power to shock. In fact, it was only first aired on television a couple of years ago. Often, when Congress talks about violence in movies and television, The "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is usually mentioned. If a movie 25-years-old still retains that power, you know it's got to be good."
AR: "How did you get your start writing about B movies?"
JBB: "When I was 14 I got a job at the Arkansas Gazette as a copy boy. This was before child labor laws - I got paid something like a dollar a day and had to crank out stories with an hour deadline. This was a world of hard-drinking, chain-smoking reporters and editors. And here I was, 14-years-old, tagging along on poker nights and learning which bars paid protection money to the police to stay open late. Near one of the bars was the old Razorback Drive In, which is where I got my first taste of B movie cinema. After I moved to Texas, I decided that I should write about what I love; and so Joe Bob Briggs was born. It's been a great life, and now I'm recording commentary tracks for B movies such as "I Spit on Your Grave" and "The Incredibly Mixed up Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Zombies."
AT: "What is your favorite cult movie?"
JBB: "I would have to say "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Even though it's 25 years old, it still retains the power to shock. In fact, it was only first aired on television a couple of years ago. Often, when Congress talks about violence in movies and television, The "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is usually mentioned. If a movie 25-years-old still retains that power, you know it's got to be good."
AR: "How did you get your start writing about B movies?"
JBB: "When I was 14 I got a job at the Arkansas Gazette as a copy boy. This was before child labor laws - I got paid something like a dollar a day and had to crank out stories with an hour deadline. This was a world of hard-drinking, chain-smoking reporters and editors. And here I was, 14-years-old, tagging along on poker nights and learning which bars paid protection money to the police to stay open late. Near one of the bars was the old Razorback Drive In, which is where I got my first taste of B movie cinema. After I moved to Texas, I decided that I should write about what I love; and so Joe Bob Briggs was born. It's been a great life, and now I'm recording commentary tracks for B movies such as "I Spit on Your Grave" and "The Incredibly Mixed up Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Zombies."
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