Daily O'Collegian
April 14, 2000
by Cary Aspinwall

Rocking The House
Nobody calls Tex Montana by her real name. Except maybe her parents.

"If the phone rings and they ask for Larae, I know it's someone trying to sell me something or someone who doesn't know me," Montana said. Besides, as the frontwoman for Tulsa rock/cowpunk Tex Montana's Fireball 4, the name just suits her.

"There actually is a Tex Montana," she said. "He's an old-time cowboy guy. I didn't know until about a year ago."

For her, the name was a logical choice.

"I thought Tex was a good name for a girl and i thought a state name like Montana would sound good with it," she said. "What can I say? It was the '80s."

A lot has happened since then. Several years, bands and jobs later, Tex is finally living her own version fo the rock star life.
Along with her husband/drummer Billy Berkenbile, bassist Dennis Dusenberg and guitarist Jeff Graham, the Fireball 4 have embarked on a nine-gig frenzy for the release of their first CD, "A Woman's Place Is In The Home," and will land in Stillwater Saturday night at Mike's College Bar, 319 S. Washington St.

Tex Montana was actually at home for this interview - fresh from her day job at the Boston Avenue Frame Shop waiting for her sons to return from school.

She insisted the CDs title isn't the tongue-in-cheek, feminist statement that some might take it for.

"People, if they didn't know me, would think I'm super-feminist - and I'm not," she said.

She's the proud mother of 11-year old Calvin and 9 year-old Sam, who works while the kids are at school but values being able to come home and mother them after school.

"They're my No. 1 thing", she said.

"I don't think it matters (who stays home with the kids)," she said. "But I think that's what women are built for - it's not that men can't, but we have a built-in sense of nurturing. Women, in general, are just a little more suited to being caretakers. Men can, too - but I just think that's why we're here. That's why it takes two people to raise kids."

Montana and Berkenbile had the boys while students at OSU and managed the young family along with work and school.
"I would not do that again if I had the chance," she said.

They were thrown one of life's little curveballs when they found out Calvin had leukemia shortly before his third birthday.
"There was the initial, 'Oh my God,' (reaction)," she said. "But then it's just your life and you pretty much have to deal with it.
"We're hard to pigeonhole. We're not really close to anything trendy today," Berkenbile said. "There's not many bands with women lead singers - not any that rock like we do."

They are well-liked by the college-age crowd in Stillwater, Berkenbile said - but think most of their Tulsa fan base is a little older, just because "all of our songs aren't about relationships."

"We're that kind of band," he said. "It's fun to come in at midnight when you're slightly buzzed and just rock out. We all look at things the same way - we just want to come out and rock you on your ass."

Graham joined the band in early 1999 after pursuing a solo career off-and-on in Nashville.

"Dennis is the rock 'n' roll heart of the band. Billy is definitely the drive, Tex is the artist - and I play lead guiatar and hope that I have little aspects of all threee," Graham said.

"A Woman's Place Is In The Home" was recorded live with Lou Whitney, of indie-rock fame, whom Grahams calls "a guru, mentor and friend."

"It's original, loud, fast rock 'n' roll," he said.

"For Dusenberg, playing gigs outside of Tulsa with the Fireball 4 is refreshing.

"I like getting out of town. I feel like out of town people seem to
appreciate us more," he said. Not that playing in Tulsa isn't fun.

"I like playing with people I consider my friends," he said. "We're friends first, that's the way I've always felt."
"Everybody does their part to make things happen."

He has a 9 year-old daughter, Kate, who "could care less" that her dad's in a band.

"Nothing you do is cool to your kids," he said. "If I were in NSYNC, she might."

Berkenbile said his sons prefer pop radio boy bands to their parents demo tapes - but they still think the whole band thing is cool - sometimes.

"(Our kids) don't like our music, but they're proud of us," he said.

"Sometimes they'll brag. 'My mom's Tex Montana!'"
It's not as awkward as it might seem to be in a band with your spouse, Montana said.

"Billy thinks I'm a superstar - so there's no Ike Turner thing going on," she said. "I have a very high approval rating from him - but I'm his biggest fan too."

He designs the catchy pre-show posters that occasionally plaster the telephone poles and bulletin boards in town - by day, he's a page designer for the Tulsa World. They're a multi-faceted bunch, the Fireball 4.

Periodically, Tex makes furniture and "shabby chic" household decorations that she sells on ebay.com. Dusenberg works for Communication Graphics in Broken Arrow and dabbles in restoring old cars. Graham is getting his degree to become a middle school special education teacher.

Tex's favorite track on teh new CD is "You Might Be Surprised."
"It's how people are always trying to 'find' themselves and searching for answers," she said. "And how they might be surprised if they actually found what they were looking for."
Whatever Tex was looking for in life, she's found it.

"For me, it boils down to I don't care what people think - I like my music whether they do or not," she said. "If I had waited around for someone else to validate what I was doing, I would have been waiting for a long time. That sort of thing is few and far between."

"I feel like I'm really lucky," she said. "I'm very grateful that I'm
able to see how good my life is."

It was one of the blessings disguised in Calvin's struggle with leukemia, she said.

"Why do people spend so much time worrying about things they can't change?" she said. "People spend too much time trying to earn money to buy a house full of stuff they don't need."

"I'm really glad Billy and I went down a different path," she said. "Your kids love you like nobody else."