Daddy-O's Book of Big-Ass Art

Recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts grants and with works exhibited at the prestigious Biennale de Paris, New York’s Whitney Museum, the de Menil Collection in Houston, and other venues, Bob “Daddy-O” Wade started “keeping it weird” in 1961 when he arrived in Austin with his ’51 custom Ford hot rod and his slicked-back hair. Primed to study art at the University of Texas, Wade’s coif and dragster earned him his trademark moniker, and the abstract, welded sculptures he fashioned from automobile bumpers in his frat house basement laid the foundations for the distinctive, larger-than-life art pieces that would eventually make him famous.

Daddy-O is the creator of the forty-foot iguana that perched atop the Lone Star Café in New York City, the immense cowboy boots (entered in the Guinness Book of World Records) outside San Antonio’s North Star Mall, and Dinosaur Bob, who graces the roof of the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature in Abilene, Texas. He is widely recognized as one of the progenitors of the “Cosmic Cowboy Culture” that emerged in Texas during the 1970s.

Daddy-O’s Book of Big-Ass Art features images of more than a hundred of Wade’s most famous pieces, complete with the wild tales that lie behind the art, told in brief essays by both Wade and more than forty noted artists and writers familiar with Wade’s work.

“When I first saw the Giant Frogs on top of Carl’s Corner Truck Stop in Carl’s Corner, Texas, I’ll never forget my first thought: ‘What the hell is Carl on?’ Now that I understand art, I realize what a genius Daddy-O Wade really is.”—Willie Nelson -- Willie Nelson

“Bob ‘Daddy-O’ Wade is what we call ‘Full Speed Ahead’...! Bob’s hot rod beginnings took his art down the straightaway and across the finish line where the checkered flag still waves. Wave on, Mr. Wade.”—Billy F. Gibbons, guitarist, singer, songwriter with ZZ Top -- Billy Gibbons

“I can’t think of a more serious artist who put more quizzical looks and smiles on faces. Daddy-O, in his life and art, was a great cosmic tour guide, with a beautiful and perfectly out-of-proportion appreciation for this hilarious and quirky journey we’re all sharing. Although he’s now left us behind, may his tour—what he pointed to and had fun with—never end!”—Richard Linklater, Academy Award nominated director & screenwriter -- Richard Linklater

“I didn’t know that Bob was Daddy-O, I thought they were two different people, and some nights they are.”—Ray Benson, Asleep at the Wheel -- Ray Benson

“Daddy-O is the perfect guy to watch out for. I will drink this man’s Kool-Aid, even though it might be flavored with chili pepper or other hot things.”—Ed Ruscha, American Pop Artist -- Ed Ruscha

BOB “DADDY-O” WADE spent the last five decades making outsized—and often, outlandish—art inspired by the grandiosity and unconventionality of his home state. He is also the coauthor of Daddy-O: Iguana Heads and Texas Tales and other books. W. K. (KIP) STRATTON is the author of Backyard Brawl: Inside the Blood Feud between Texas and Texas A&M; Chasing the Rodeo: On Wild Rides and Big Dreams, Broken Hearts and Broken Bones, and One Man’s Search for the West; and most recently, The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film. He lives in Austin.