BY CHRISTOPHER MANSON
Labor Day weekend, 2020. Guitarist Clayton Bonjean and his band Cadillac Willy played their first gig on Okaloosa Island. This month, the group commemorates its 25th anniversary with a star-studded performance—featuring members past and present—in Santa Rosa Beach.
“We were younger, obviously, and had just moved to the area,” Bonjean says of Cadillac Willy’s origin all those years ago. “The music scene wasn’t nearly what it was now. Everyone was playing Jimmy Buffett and Matchbox Twenty.” Bonjean played in bands while attending Ole Miss, and percussionist Louis Antoon was a member of the “hot” local band Salty Dog.
“I was into jam bands, and Louis was interested in doing jam stuff like Grateful Dead and Widespread Panic with the congas and timbales,” says Bonjean. “I was always trying to put a band together.” Prior to hooking up with Antoon, he met Patrick Wilson, who played bass guitar with Willy for 22 years. “He’s retired from the band, but he still plays with us occasionally.”
The other founding members were guitarist John David Sullivan, and Josh “JP” Pace, that rarity in live music—a performer who can sing and drum simultaneously. “At that first gig, JP had a five-piece drum set, but we partied so hard we lost one of his tom-toms!” Cadillac Willy’s set list was pretty light at the time (Bonjean recalls playing Neil Young’s “Walk On.”), but Sullivan promised the venue that if they booked the band, they would fill the place up. And they did.
Following JP’s departure, Tim O’Shea sang with Willy for years, and the well-traveled Charles Pagano kicked out the jams. Over the years, John Mark Turner (Blues Old Stand) and the late great Kenny Oliverio (Dread Clampitt) have collaborated with the band. Turner filled in as guitarist on a few occasions and picked up the bass guitar when Wilson went through his celebrated pedal steel phase.
About 15 years ago, drummer Shawn Shackelford and vocalist/keyboardist Metz Barnes—both recognized by the local Beachcomber Magazine Music Awards—joined. Multi-instrumentalist Ricky Stanfield is a recent recruit. Bonjean describes him as “a big bluegrasser and an excellent banjo and mandolin player. He’s been a great addition.”
The current and original Cadillac Willy lineups will perform Friday, August 29, at Red Fish Taco in Santa Rosa Beach starting at 6 p.m. “We’ll play until around 9,” says Bonjean. “We don’t do ‘late’ gig anymore. The bands and people have all gotten older. I think the young late-night crowd is more into DJs.”
He says the band will set up additional rigs to entice any and all former members and “sit-ins” to participate in the celebration. “It’s going to be a great night,” says Bonjean, adding that Red Fish Taco has been Cadillac Willy’s main spot after building their fan base at venues like Harbor Docks and the much-missed Funky Blues Shack. “We’re booked there two Fridays a month through Christmas 2026.”
In 25 years, Cadillac Willy have never entertained the idea of calling it quits. “Louis always says, ‘You can’t kill Cadillac Willy,’” says Bonjean. “A big part of why we’ve been together so long is because nobody is really in charge. Whoever books the gigs is responsible for collecting the money. Everybody is pretty laid back—nobody takes themselves too seriously. Everyone respects everyone despite different political views and lifestyles. We’re all on the same page musically.”
Bonjean informs me that the band has learned a lot of new songs since Stanfield jumped on board. “We can always play Widespread Panic all night, though. But we’ve added a lot more complex songs by the Dead and some others. We have to keep it fresh, or we get bored.”
Take a deep dive into the band’s classic jams and funky stuff at cadillacwilly.com.
