Gibson is on hand with a booth to give those wishing to escape the mud bath an opportunity to bend some strings. Along comes Jesse James Dupree, lead singer of the hard-touring southern rock outfit Jackyl . After inspecting several of the instruments, Dupree requests to borrow an SG for use on the stage. "Sure," says Gibson's caring and trusting staff, apparently forgetting that this is a man whose trademark is wielding a chainsaw on stage.

To make a long story short, the guitar never made it back to the booth. The hapless SG found its way into many pieces and into the hands of the rabid Woodstock audience. Before, the Gibson staff had an opportunity to admonish Mr. Dupree for his reckless behavior, a CNN clip depicting the final moments of the SG's brief rock and roll career were immortalized on a 30 minute basis.

Such is the existence of Dupree and Jackyl--they do what they feel like, tend to break things, yet something good always comes out of it.

While the mainstream music industry has been hiding bands like Jackyl, the band has been plugging away, earning fans the hard way. The fruit of five straight years of touring is the band's multi-platinum album sales status and ability to travel to just about any (as Dupree puts it) "real America" town and draw a large and loyal audience.

"Real America is where people work for a living," explains Dupree "These are the people who work their asses off for over 40 hours a week. When the day is over and they spend their hard-earned money on rock and roll. They deserve to get their money's worth."

According to Dupree, Jackyl is about making real rock and roll music for the "real" people. He attributes the band's long-term success to staying true to their roots and avoiding trends.

"It's just a fact that you're always going to have trends," Dupree said. "Trends are cute, but we're proud that we're not the flavor of the day. We're just a straight up rock band. It defies whatever trends are going on."

After taking over a year off from non-stop touring, Jackyl continues to defy trends with their third album Cut the Crap. The Epic release is slated to hit the stores on July 22, with the first single "Locked and Loaded" hitting the air waves today (7/1). The single was co-written and co-sung with AC/DC lead screamer Brian Johnson, marking the first time a member of AC/DC has collaborated with another band. The album was also produced by Mike Frasier, who had also worked with AC/DC. The combination makes for a bare-bones hard-hitting track.

"It slices. It really rocks," Dupree said, adding that Jackyl didn't try to redefine themselves with the new recording, just continually strive to rock harder. " It sounds exactly like Jackyl's third album. People will draw their own conclusions, but they're gonna get some rock and roll."

True to form, Dupree, with Jackyl guitarists Jimmy Stiff and Jeff Worley need rock solid guitars to play rock solid music. They rely on their Gibsons.

"We have a real commitment to our Les Pauls," said Dupree, who currently plays a P-90-equipped Les Paul Gem. "You'd have to pry them out of our cold dead hands."

According to Dupree, Worley plays a mid-'70s Les Paul as well as a couple of vintage Explorers. Stiff plays a variety of gold tops and a '74 black Les Paul. Dupree adds that five years of straight touring has taken its toll on their beloved axes.

"We beat the shit out of our guitars," Dupree said, noting that many of the guitars have long since had their finish worn off, leaving them susceptible to becoming "waterlogged" with sweat and beer night after night. "If you were to put our Les Pauls on a scale they would weigh several pounds heavier, I'd bet."