Jan Peterson • For the News-Leader • May 14, 2009 In almost 40 years of touring with the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, band member John
Dillon is clear on one thing: “A band always travels on its stomach.” Dillon’s passion for food has taken him to some of the finest restaurants in the world, including the Mansion on Turtle Creek, in Dallas. How he got there is a story unto itself. Chef Dean Fearing, who in 1994 won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef: Southwest, among many other awards, was executive chef at the Mansion when a friend of Dillon’s dined there several years ago. “When he found out that she knew the Daredevils and was from Springfield, he freaked out,” Dillon says. The two began communicating and several years ago, Dillon finally made it to Texas to try the chef’s creations. “You would have thought it was the president of the United States” coming to dine, Fearing says. “I couldn’t believe it. John Dillon is going to be eating in my restaurant” Fearing explains he’s been a fan of the Daredevils since the band hit the music scene in the early ’70s, while he was attending the University of Missouri in Columbia. And as it turns out, the two had more to talk about than just the menu. The chef — who is now owner of Fearing’s restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas — also plays guitar and sings with his band, the Barb Wires, which is working on its second CD.
“We hit it off amazingly well,” Fearing says. ” … It looks like all of the rock and rollers have turned into food and wine nuts, so it was real easy for us to get to know each other.”