Joey Rocketshoes Dillon | |
|---|---|
 Joey Rocketshoes Dillon | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Lake Forest, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | western music |
| Occupation(s) | Gunslinger, Hollywood Gun Trainer, actor, musician, comedian, songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, vocals |
| Website | www |
Joey Rocketshoes Dillon is an armorer in the film industry, expert handler and trick showman of Western firearms, historian, production consultant, and singer-songwriter. Notably he is a three time world champion gunslinger. [1]
Born in Lake Forest near Chicago, Dillon's family moved to Lake Don Pedro, California where he states he had the Western influence around him with learning how to ride horses and shoot guns with his father. [2] Performing tricks first came with cap guns. "When I was young, I had a wooden and metal pirate pistol from Disneyland," he said. "It was so easy to spin back and forth, I'd go to sleep at night twirling it around my hand. We're all blessed with certain talents -- I'm not good at everything, but this (gun-spinning) is something I can do well." [3] Once he mastered these he moved on to unloaded real guns. After high school, he moved to Chicago in hopes of becoming a comedian and actor. He took classes with The Second City with a mind to someday be part of Saturday Night Live. While there he honed his comedic talents as a standup at open mic nights. In his early twenties Dillon relocated to Union, Illinois he happened to move next door to Donley's Wild West Town and presented to the management his unique ability as a gunslinger. He quickly landed a position as a part time entertainer, to which Dillon recalled: "I'd have a little portable stereo on a picnic table, I'd hit play on a Western-sounding song, and I'd sit there and spin guns." [4]
By the age of 22, he became a world champion gunslinger. [5] Eventually moving to screen work.
Dillon has worked as an Armorer and Gun Coach for Hollywood films while also appearing himself as an actor in both movie and television series of typically a Western genre. [6]
He has been an Armorer and Gun Coach on such films as "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs," "Deadwood the Movie," "Godless," "The Harder They Fall," "The Highwaymen," HBO's "Westworld," and many more.
Dillon also works on the side restoring and refabricating vintage cars, bikes, movie props, guns and other objects. [7]
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Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival is an annual event held at the William S. Hart Park in Old Town Newhall, Santa Clarita, California. Each year, over 10,000 global visitors attend lectures and performances on multiple stages by famous poets, authors, instructors, musical acts, and dancers in fields including Western, Bluegrass, Americana, Spoken Word, folk, Native American, and Mexican American traditions. Guests take part in cowboy and cowgirl living history through activities such as life around a chuck wagon, roping, bull riding, crafts, games, and trying several dishes, such as BBQ and peach cobbler.
Leon Barsha was an American film producer, editor and director. As a producer and director he was best known for making films in the Western genre. In his later years he concentrated especially on editing.