If you watched Home Improvement in the 1990s, you probably remember Pete Bilker. He was the big, bearded construction worker with the deadpan catchphrase, “That would be me.” In one memorable bit, Pete played in a makeshift company band, pounding out a beat on empty plastic fuel cans with screwdrivers for drumsticks.
It looked like a sight gag. For the man playing Pete, it was a quiet inside joke. Mickey Jones was a real professional drummer, and before Hollywood he had kept time for Bob Dylan on one of the most famous tours in rock history and for Kenny Rogers in the First Edition.
A Texas Teenager Behind the Drums
Mickey Jones was born in Houston on June 10, 1941. He took up drums in high school and was working professionally while still a teenager. He enrolled at North Texas in 1959 but left once drumming for Trini Lopez became a full-time job. He spent about eight years with Lopez, then roughly three more with Johnny Rivers.
Playing Through the Boos With Bob Dylan
In 1966, Bob Dylan was taking his new electric sound around the world, and he needed a drummer. Levon Helm had left the band, so Dylan turned to Mickey Jones. According to Jones, Dylan told him:
“You’re my favorite rock ‘n’ roll drummer in the world.”
The rest of the band were the musicians who would soon become famous as the Band: Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson. The tour went through Australia and Europe, and many fans who had loved the acoustic Dylan were furious. Night after night, Jones watched audiences split between cheering and booing.
The most famous night came on May 17, 1966, at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England. During the electric set, a fan yelled “Judas!” at Dylan. The band kept playing. Jones later said Dylan did not seem bothered, because he was sure they were making good music.
Jones also carried an 8mm camera on the road. Decades later, his silent home movies from that tour were released as a documentary, a rare look at life inside the tour from the drummer’s seat.
Joining Kenny Rogers and the First Edition
The following year, Kenny Rogers and several other members of the folk group the New Christy Minstrels broke away to start a new band. They called it the First Edition, and Rogers recruited Mickey Jones to play drums.
The band broke through in 1968 with “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In),” a psychedelic song written by country songwriter Mickey Newbury. It reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Like many records of that era, the studio version used Los Angeles session players, including Glen Campbell on the backwards guitar and Hal Blaine on drums. On stage and on television, though, the man behind the kit was Mickey Jones.
The First Edition soon drifted toward country with songs like “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” and Kenny Rogers was on his way to becoming one of the biggest names in country music. Jones stayed with the group until it broke up in the mid-1970s.
The Dream He Had Since He Was 8
Mickey Jones had always wanted to act. He said he had dreamed about it since he was 8 years old, but he did not pursue it seriously until he grew tired of going to the airport every day on concert tours. He had already had a taste of it, appearing in a First Edition TV movie called The Dream Makers.
When the band ended, Jones went all in. His size and his beard made him a natural for tough-guy parts: guards, bikers, gunmen, cowboy musicians. He showed up in National Lampoon’s Vacation, Starman, Sling Blade and Tin Cup, and in TV shows like V, T.J. Hooker, Baywatch and 21 Jump Street. He often had few lines, but audiences recognized his face everywhere.
“That Would Be Me”
His best-known role came on Home Improvement, the hit sitcom starring Tim Allen. As Pete Bilker, Jones became a familiar face to millions of families every week. The fuel-can drum scene was a nod to his past, whether most viewers knew it or not.
In 2007, he published his autobiography and named it after Pete’s catchphrase: That Would Be Me: Rock & Roll Survivor to Hollywood Actor. Later in his career, he had another recurring role as Rodney “Hot Rod” Dunham on the FX drama Justified.
Mickey Jones died on February 7, 2018, at the age of 76, after a long illness. He left behind two careers that most people never connected: the drummer who played through the boos beside Bob Dylan and helped launch Kenny Rogers, and the bearded TV regular who made a whole generation laugh with four simple words.
Did you know Pete from Home Improvement was once Bob Dylan’s and Kenny Rogers’ drummer? Tell us where you first spotted Mickey Jones.