Anyone else would've seen a hog trough — a rusted tank emblazoned with a pig above the words "Pride of the Farm." Bill Schleicher saw the makings of a bar. Sure enough, it's now the centerpiece of singer-songwriter Verlon Thompson's refurbished barn — one of a multitude of inventive projects that songwriter turned designer, draftsman and carpenter Schleicher has done for fellow musicians, often bartering their services on his albums (the latest of which will be out this year). He's part of a bohemian circle of musicians who double as carpenters and craftsmen and pass around customers and projects, and his specialty is repurposing old things; his work with Demetria Kalodimos on the studio/event space The Filming Station, a transformed 1935 gas station on the Music City Center roundabout, won a preservation award last year from the Metro Historical Commission. It was there, with a pencil tucked behind his ear in his graying long hair, that he explained some of his method.
[Gesturing to sleek, sculpted black-vinyl office chairs that look like something off a Holodeck] Where did you find these?
I found these at Music City Thrift. We called these "the Star Trek chairs." Later on I did some research on the Internet, and I found out that the same company actually made the chairs from Star Trek!
Demetria Kalodimos says you have this gift for looking at things and seeing what they can become.
Something will just give me some kind of clue. Sometimes it's really strong. With [The Filming Station], I thought of a toy gas station, that kind where you crank up a car and put it on the roof.
When did you get to Nashville?
In 1977. I came in on a train into Union Station, on one of the very last passenger trains here. You remember those bubble-top cars? I sat up in a bubble-top car, just playin' my little guitar. I lived over on Utah Street, in a place I got for $75 a month. I hitchhiked through a few times. I left home when I was 15 — I grew up in Bloomington, Ind.
Was Bloomington a lot different from Nashville?
Bloomington was hard to describe. There was a big hippie scene, and everybody was running around naked. I tell people, "My life was like that movie Breaking Away, only with a lot more sex and drugs."
What was Nashville like then?
It was more conservative, but the people were so doggone nice. I hate to see it getting so cosmopolitan, but there'll always be this underground for songwriters and musicians. That's why people come to Nashville. That's the American Dream, right? — you just wander into town, and if you've got the best idea, you can match it up against someone else's and win. Like gunslingers.
You're both a musician and a craftsman. Is there any similarity between the two?
Sure — you've got proportion, scale, dynamics. ... But I think it's a line you don't know until you cross it. You just have to express yourself — that's the root of art, desire. I haven't made a dime, but I couldn't not write. I've got a thousand CDs in my closet, and I'll probably give away 900 of them. You've got to look for that thing that tickles you and seems easier than it should be. If you're drawn to something, that's what it's like.
More From the 2015 People Issue
The Textile Designer: Andra Eggleston / The Transformer: Bill Schleicher / The Chief: Steve Anderson / The Bookseller: Yusef Harris / The Producer: Dave Cobb / The Rookie: Filip Forsberg / The Pedal Steel-Playing Pilot: Joshua Motohashi / The Weathermen: David Drobny & Will Minkoff / The Punk Neuroscientist: Kale Edmiston / The Kitchen Artist: Karla Ruiz / The Metalhead: Kayla Phillips / The Image Master: kogonada / The Bartender: Lee Parrish / The Professor: Lisa Guenther / The Advocate: Marisa Richmond / The Captains: Kellie Hurst & Regina Durkan / The Painter: Michael Shane Neal / The Tunesmith: Shane McAnally
