So, we were recently in Texas – outside of San Antonio – and decided to find a cool spot to take some new band pictures. It was July 4th. Potential locations were in abundance.

We ultimately chose the edge of a housing development that was still under construction. Good surroundings.

The area was void of people (being a holiday) and brimming with open space.. We weren’t actually near any of the construction.. just a few dead end roads, open fields and wild sunflowers..

It was perfect.

We had a camera, two guitars and a change of shirts (for variety).

Our modus operandi: We’d shoot for ten minutes or so, change shirts, reposition the camera and shoot some more.

Peripherally, we had noticed that during the course of the shoot, a car or two would pass on the main connecting road (maybe 80 or 90 feet away), but thought nothing of it.

We were blissfully doing our thing when the crunching tires of a third car caught our attention – this time, it was not passing by on the main road, but turning toward us, lumbering along the gravel.

A police car.

As fate would have it, at that precise moment, we were shirtless, in the midst of a wardrobe change. Half naked. Literally. 

Perfect timing.

We can only imagine what that officer must have been thinking seeing us like that on a semi-secluded dead end road in small town Texas…

It certainly couldn’t have looked good  – Two dudes, well-cloaked on a back-wood, dead-end road, half-clothed.

I hastily slipped on the shirt I had just taken off and started toward the police car to explain.

Not smart.

Four steps in, a bellowing voice exploded from the vehicle with a ferocity that probably warped the neck of my guitar: “Do NOT approach the vehicle! STAY where you STAND!”

He sounded real mad.

I froze. 

Bobby, too, was dead in his tracks.

“I’m coming to you!” he rumbled, struttin’ toward us with a swagger that would have had Vin Deisel scurrying to his safe space.

I didn’t dare flinch. This felt so “Law and Order.”

When he reached us, he asked what we were doing here getting undressed.

Oh, man….

I stammered slightly… “Oh that??? No, we weren’t getting undressed, officer,” I said, even though we technically were disrobing, “We are a band, on a photo shoot. We’re just taking pictures. That’s all. Honest.”

Pause.

I could tell he didn’t buy it at first.

I continued making my case by pointing to our camera stand, the guitars and our change of wardrobe.

We were asked for our IDs (both out-of-state licenses, as it turns out). Background checks were executed.

While he was occupied running his check, Bobby discreetly pointed out to me that my fly was inexplicably open.

“My fly?” I mouthed.

I looked down.

“Oh, great,” I thought, “Dandy…” wondering if he noticed, “Of course my fly is open….” 

He inspected our car (from a distance), surveyed the photo shoot scene and asked us some “test questions.”

“What’s your band name?”

We told him “Elm Treason” and then showed him our Facebook page.