The slaying of Austin drummer Bill Maddox, a drummer who played for local guitar legend Eric Johnson, is getting top story treatment from local media. TV stations have been calling the Austin City Limits TV show today, which shares an office with KUT, and asking for B-roll of Maddox's ACL performance from 2001. Expect to see glimpses on tonight's newscasts.
Austin 360's Music Source blog is reporting on hearsay that burglary was not a motive for the shooting inside Maddox's home on Rockway Drive.
Keith Landers, who performs oldies under the name Johnny Dee, lives behind the house on Rockway Drive where drummer Bill Maddox, his best friend since elementary school in Abilene, was fatally shot Monday morning. Landers said he talked with Bill’s wife, Rhonda Maddox, on Monday and disputed that burglary was the motive for the shooting as authorities have said. “It wasn’t a robbery,” Landers said. “It was a paranoid schizophrenic off his medicine who believed that he was trying to get into his safe house.”
News 8 Austin sent a reporter to the area to get reaction from neighbors who are understandably shocked by the murder.
Tom Bishop also lived near Maddox and knew him for more than 20 years. "Real nice guy. I've never seen him when he wasn't smiling," he said.
Meanwhile, KXAN has obtained word that the man suspected of killing Maddox, 63-year-old John DeBrecht, is still in critical condition at Brackenridge Hospital.
You can check out more coverage from KVUE, Fox 7, Spinner, and a TV station in Abilene where Maddox grew up. The story has also been picked up by the AP and is running in papers across the state.
While we can't post the 2001 Austin City Limits performance, we can point you to other internet video showing Maddox doing what he did best, jamming out to some rock 'n' roll.
