After his stint with Vee, Keys moved on to play with Happy, Texas native Buddy Knox, whose single "Party Doll" was banned by many stations.

"The fact that song was about sex and nothing else really caused a storm," Keys recalls. "It was way more to the point than most stuff that was out at the time that just kinda danced cutely around the sex thing. Of course the bannings just made the song more popular."

Keys also has a new band project in Nashville that has been working out a repertoire of rock chestnuts at Mercy Lounge one Monday a month. Members include Dan Baird (Georgia Satellites), Robert Kearns (Bottle Rockets, Jack Ingram), Micael Webb (Kenny Chesney), Steve Gorman (Black Crowes) and Chark Kinsolving.

Keys explains he's doing the project "to keep the juices flowing and to keep rekindling that rock and roll spirit that you need to do this stuff."

"We're calling ourselves the Suffering Bastards," Keys laughs. "I'll bet you can't guess where that comes from."

We make a couple of lame stabs at it, but Keys cuts us off.

"I was down in Australia with Keith and we took off one night and hit a few bars. We were in this joint where the bartender had just won some kind of big mixology contest and they had all these drinks I'd never heard of before. And then I saw one called the Suffering Bastard, so we ordered those.

"I should've known it was gonna whip my ass when they served it to me in a copper cup."

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