Built in the early 1960s by “Wild Bill Byrd” the original name was “Wild Bill’s”. At that time there were only a few western style saloons in North Scottsdale, since then, all the others have come and gone. In the 60’s anything north of Lincoln blvd. were tumbleweeds, rattlesnakes, and cowboys. “Wild Bill’s” was a dancehall and honky-tonk that had live music, chicken wire in front of the stage and all! One of the regular performers was the then unknown Waylon Jennings. Waylon played clubs around Phoenix after moving from Lubbock Texas. Wild Bill hired and fired Waylon many times, so the story goes. A colorful character from Wild Bill’s days was “Mac the singin’ bartender”, and a good friend of Waylon’s. Mac told the story of one night at the bar (after a few cocktails) Wild Bill was demonstrating “the art” of twirling a gun…. he dropped the gun, the evidence remains in the inch deep bullet hole in the post on the dance floor, miraculously, no one was hurt!
