Night Train, the Southern rock band that often serves as backup to Jesco White (the Dancing Outlaw), will be doing a FREE live web cast on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2005 at 9 pm EST on www.artistfirst.com. The hour long show will include music, interviews and the opportunity to email questions to the band's leader, Dave "Chico" Prince to be answered live on the air!

Night Train will be working with Jesco the first weekend of November in Boone County, so it's a great opportunity to get caught up, or pass along messages to Jesco, Mamie, etc. Night Train's web site, which has some candid pictures of Jesco, is www.8thgradebride.com.

This story appeared Monday, July 12th, in the Charleston Daily Mail.

PEYTONA -- Life hasn't been great for Jesco White, "The Dancing Outlaw," ever since he got back from Hollywood.

"I feel like a damn possum," he recently said outside the Boone County trailer, where he lives by himself without running water.

"I want to live like a happy man, not a madman. I'm not Hitler's son or Saddam Hussein's boy. It feels like a big, old coal truck ran over Jesco. There ain't a tear in my body that hasn't been cried all out."

A decade ago, White was riding a manic, weird wave of popularity because of the documentary "Dancing Outlaw," which depicted his life as a mountain dancer, Elvis impersonator and rural philosopher.

"I'm on the edge of something good," he said in the documentary. "I hope this is the big one."

Toward the end, he concluded, "I might have a whole new life next time you see me."

For a while, it was true.

Fans gathered together to watch videotapes of the documentary and flocked to see Jesco White perform at pubs. At the height of his cult popularity, he was flown to Hollywood for a brief appearance at the end of an episode of "Roseanne."

Now he's scared to answer his own door. He says he's afraid people are making fun of him or want to make money off his name. He feels ripped off by people who sell T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats saying "Jesco White."

He contends he wasn't given enough money for his dancing scene in "Roseanne" and wants bands such as the Kentucky HeadHunters to pay him for mentioning his name in songs.

Worse, he's suffered real tragedy. He came home from a performance a few years ago to see his house burning to the ground. He says his brain isn't right because he spent years huffing gases to get high.

His wife, Norma Jean, lives in a Charleston high rise for low-income residents. She has to be near medical care because she suffers from diabetes, heart disease and emphysema.

So Jesco lives with just Patches, his nervous Jack Russell Terrier, in the trailer up a Boone County hollow. A gate outside his property says, "There is nothing in this holler worth dying for. Stay out or be carried out."

"Nobody knows what I've really been through," White, now 48, said one recent day after being coaxed out of the trailer. "If I have to live like a madman, that's what I'm going to do.

"I've got beautiful talent I can't even use. Everybody wants to make money off me. Half make fun and half admire me. It's a shame I've got to be forced to live like a wild animal."

He refuses all requests to perform and says he receives disability checks and Social Security worth about $500 a month. He says he is depressed, but doesn't trust people enough to open up for help.

"I've been fighting alone, just me and God," he said. "I've got to do it myself. I can't trust anybody. I feel I'm forced to act happy when I'm not. I'm happy when I'm with my wife."

Norma Jean, 65, lives about an hour away, but it might as well be a lifetime away.

Her home is a low-income high rise in downtown Charleston, where she participates in Bingo and sings hymns such as "Building My Mansion Next Door to Jesus" in the choir downstairs.

She can't live with Jesco because his trailer doesn't have running water. He says he can't live with her because he would lose some of his Social Security benefits. Plus, he prefers living in the woods to living in a high rise with strangers for neighbors.

He visits Norma when he can and calls her every day. She worries about him.

"He's gone blank on me," she said one day from her apartment, which has pictures of Elvis, Jesus, John Wayne and Jesco.

"No, honey, he went downhill. His mind. His memory. Because people did him so dirty. I worry about him. I'm afraid he's going to do something to himself."

The couple met on Christmas Eve 1974. Norma Jean was driving home from her daughter's wedding when she saw Jesco, his sister and her boyfriend, and Jesco's niece hitchhiking on the road over Williams Mountain. She knew Jesco's sister, so she stopped and gave the group a ride.

Jesco and his niece sat up front, and Norma Jean thought they were a couple. During the ride, Jesco said he thought he was falling in love and asked Norma Jean if she could see without her glasses. She said she could and took them off.

He asked her to pull over to the side of the road, then asked if he could kiss her.

They didn't see each other again for three months. Then Norma Jean ran into Jesco's sister at the grocery store and asked about him. She then drove up to his house just as sheriff's deputies were taking him away with a buddy who had stolen food stamps.

Norma Jean bailed him out and they were soon married. She was 35; he was 19. They were married for 15 years, divorced, got back together and now have been married another 15 years. They have been living apart the past six years.

The 1991 "Dancing Outlaw" documentary made them an unlikely famous couple. He was Elvis and she was Priscilla, and they lived in a hollow.

"I loved it," Norma Jean said. "I had never had nothing in my life. We never had nothing. He still has nothing."

For a while, Norma Jean was outspoken about being abused. A few years ago, she even spoke at a conference on abuse sponsored by Kanawha Valley Senior Services, saying, "Is it good to have five minutes of love and 30 minutes of hurting and beating?"

Now she says Jesco has changed.

"He has grown into a man," she said. "He doesn't abuse me."

She says he isn't happy, though. He has crawled into a shell and won't come out. She wants fans to send cards to Jesco at P.O. Box 57, Peytona, WV 25154.

"To make him know he is deserving to be the person he is instead of people making fun of him."

Norma Jean hopes Jesco can get a grip, start talking to people again, maybe even perform a little. She wants him to be happy, but she's afraid The Dancing Outlaw is lost.

"He won't give up on me, and I won't give up on him," she said. "He's mine until I die. We deserve to be together."

Jesco says he has to deal with his emotional problems alone, but he can't figure out why the government won't bring water lines to his trailer and why people who make money from his name won't pass some on to him.

"I can't live on an Elvis coffee cup," he said.

Sometimes he just wants to get out of his own head. In the middle of talking about his tragedy, he broke into song: "I've got ‘em, Lord, the honky tonk blues," and he wrapped it up with a flourish like a guitar stroke.

"It's all gone to hell," he said. "I guess I'll be George Jones tomorrow."

The reluctant showman suggested his own conclusion for this story. It's sort of weird, and it's sort of deep; sort of thoughtful, sort of incomprehensible, kind of funny, kind of tragic. It's a misery-loves-company kind of thing:

He said, "Use this for your ending: ‘Ashes to ashes dust to dust, whoever started this bull - - - - ought to be with us.' End it that way."

I talked to Mamie tonight for an update on Bertie Mae. She's back at home now & they still haven't been able to fix her broken arm. Her heart condition just won't allow her to be sedated so she's got a cast on it. It's still quite painful & she's on morphine patches. Some of you have e-mailed me wanting to send her cards. If you'll send them to Mamie Warner P.O. Box 285 Van, WV 25206, she'll take them to her.

Well, now that the dust has settled from the Holidays I thought I'd post a little update for y'all. Not a lot has happened at the White's. Just the usual sick young'uns, frozen pipes, etc. Jesco's on the outs with Norma AGAIN. This time he had Mamie to come pick him up & loaded all his Elvis pictures & even the statue Cousin Wildweed gave him in Charleston, into the car to take home. Mamie says he's fed up with not being allowed to swear & being shushed all the time 'cause Norma can't hear her TV. Mamie also says he's already called her & apologized. Jess likes it better down at the trailer where he can have a little privacy... catch a little buzz now & then.

The other news is that Bertie Mae has suffered 3 heart attacks in the last month or so.. all at home & didn't know she'd had them. This last one made her wobbly (combined with her Parkinson's Disease) & caused her to fall & shatter her right upper arm. She's in the hospital now in Charleston but I think they're going to move her to a heart specialty unit at another facility tomorrow. They're trying to decide whether she's strong enough to be sedated to re-set her arm. Apparently, it's really crushed & will require a general anesthetic. Mamie's pissed because none of her siblings will come stay with Mommy in the hospital. She's staying with her mostly. By the way, The "Miracle Woman" will be 80 Feb. 23!)

And finally, the guys in Atlanta that Jesco & Mamie did the IgFest for want to hire him again to do a movie. Mamie too. They've offered him a 6 figure payment for 6 months of touring & opening for a band, plus, doing the movie. (All this is according to Mamie.) She says Jesco won't even consider leaving home for 6 months... no matter how well it pays.

Thanks to everyone that's helped with the kids' Christmas so far!

SPECIAL thanks to Jessie & her dad who drove from Elkview, WV last weekend to deliver 20 wrapped gifts, 2 for each child! Mamie was truly amazed that folks would do something so wonderful in this day & time.

She asked me to let folks know that the kids need clothes & shoes more than they need toys. She says they need warm things, socks, shoes, coats, hats, pretty much anything. They range in age from infant to 11 yrs. so what doesn't fit one probably will fit another. Awhile back I suggested Wal-Mart gift cards for people that wanted to send Jesco something. That's still a "one size fits all" gift & this close to Christmas it's an easy one to get there fast. Mamie says she still has time to make it there to get what they need before Christmas Day rolls around. I bet Pampers wouldn't go to waste either!

Mamie's phone bill has been out of control lately. Wimpy is in the Federal Pen & calls her collect. She says she feels badly about refusing his calls so her bill is growing weekly. I'm sending her a couple of Sam's Club calling cards that are like 3 1/2 cents a minute & can be recharged. I'm hoping she'll send Wimpy one.

Thanks again to everyone that's come through for the kids so far!

Lots of folks have e-mailed me wondering what they can do to help Jesco & his family at Christmas.

Jesco has 10 nieces & nephews all from 7 mos. to 11 years old. Mamie has 3 of them living with her but the rest are all at her house daily. The greatest need this year is for toys & games for those kids. I'm posting a list of the kids' names & ages. I hope we can get at least 1 or 2 items sent for each child!

The Dancing Outlaw Firewood fundraiser was a SUCCESS!!

Click the camera to see the photo gallery!

to Julie, not Jesco. He doesn't have indoor plumbing much less e-mail!