Kati Hammett

Kati Hammett

The car scene here in Austin is a strange, but wonderful thing. Like any other major metro with a four-wheeled sub-culture, there are social cliques, friends, enemies, and everything else in between. Often, someone from Southern California will visit and wonder aloud just how in the hell we avoid the drama that surely follows from so many people roped in by a genre as small as traditional hot rodding and customizing.

The simple answer is… we don’t. There’s plenty of conflict. There’s plenty of strife. There’s plenty of ego. All of the ingredients are here to create the worst kind of upheaval and every few years there’s an eruption of sorts. Someone gets pissed at someone else, people take sides, and the boring aftermath of all that spews out like it does anything place else.

The remarkable thing about the Austin car scene, however, is that none of this dissent becomes all encompassing – the differences between people simply aren’t durable enough to withstand the environment that created them. Why? Because… TEXAS. Or, more specifically – AUSTIN.

Austin is a beacon of open mindedness in a sea of conservative values. What this does is create a melting pot of sorts – one that melds the virtues of old world orthodoxy with the benevolence of modern open thinking. There’s left and there’s right and there’s all of the political inference that comes with those ways of thinking, but I’m not talking about politics here. I’m simply talking about human nature.

My squad within the Austin car scene consists of a variety of folks from all different walks of life that bring to the table every conceivable way of thinking about the world and how it should work.

There’s Stevo who essentially brought me to Austin and has since become a weird mix between a brother and father to me. He’s a successful entertainment magnate and a promotional artist of sorts. He’s late to everything, he knows everyone, and he’s always working. But like myself, he’s an introvert to the highest degree.

There’s Will who along with Steve and Brian, runs the Round Up. He’s opposite to Steve in that he’s an extrovert… but the kind that knows when to be and when not to be. He’s a genuinely kind person no matter what side of the line you stand, but if you stand with him he’s the most good-hearted person you will ever meet.

There’s also Reggie. He’s the strong and silent type. If you get to know him, you quickly realize he’s the intellectual of the group. If you have a problem of any kind, related to any subject (from cars to kids), he’s often the first guy to seek advice from. Many of us are artists or come from creative backgrounds. Reggie, on the other hand, is prudent. Sensible.

There’s Norm who’s sort of the grandfather of the scene. He’s tough, he’s set in his ways, and he has no time for your bullshit. He also has no problem telling you how it is and how it is going to be. Despite all that, he’s also everyone’s best pal.

Then, there’s Laura. She’s everyone’s little sister of sorts and if there’s fun to be had, she won’t be far behind. She actually worked at the capital for many years, but is so considerate of other’s way of thinking that I don’t think she has ever told anyone who she worked for or which way she leans on the political spectrum. And it’s not for lack of trying on my own part – that much is certain.

There are plenty of other personalities in the group, obviously, but I highlight these few because they contrast each other so completely. On paper, you have the introvert, the extrovert, the black guy, the old guy, and the pretty young blonde. How in the hell could such polar opposites be such a large part of what I consider to be the best group of people in the car world?

Again, the answer is pretty simple. AUSTIN. All of us have differences that in everyday life would probably keep us from being close to any degree at all, but the environment in which we all live has sort of squashed that. It’s as if the conventional got into a head-on with the unconventional and after the smoke cleared the only thing left was the best characteristics of each.

There is, however, one common trait between all of these folks – generosity. It’s the glue that makes all of this shit stick and it’s the premise behind my post today. I think if you polled everyone in our squad and asked them who is the most generous with their lives… their very selves… you would get back a very long list topped by Kati Hammett.

***

Our group has a number of verifiable “cool” people in it – rock legends, movie stars, historic car builders, you name it… and we probably have that base covered with Ray-Bans. But no one was cooler than Kati Hammett. As I write that, I can literally visualize her rolling down I-10 in her Merc with her dark hair blowing, her tattooed arm hanging, her outlaw country blaring, and a smirk on her face. Following her is a bunch of guys in old cars on some road trip she planned down to every single last stop.

We all followed blindly because Kati was that damned cool. And good god, don’t cross her – may the lord have mercy on your soul if you did. She wasn’t just cool… under no uncertain terms, she was also a bad ass.

Photo by Blake Burwell.

And she was this way effortlessly. So effortlessly, that she had all the time in the world for everyone that was close to her. The last time I saw Kati was just a few days after my neck surgery a few months back. We were in a family crisis of sorts in that I was down for the count and Marcie was starting her first week back to school. It was the middle of the day and I was laying on the couch in the midst of an opioid breakdown – hating everyone and everything. It was pretty dark.

Kati didn’t knock – she was way too fucking cool for that nonsense. She just strolled into the house like she owned the joint, took one look at me in disgust, and asked, “Have you even eaten today?”

I probably replied with something embarrassingly rude, but she ignored me and began heating up some of her mother’s famous tamales. She put up with my bullshit far longer than necessary, fed me, cut my hair, and entertained me with gossip, road trip stories and other shenanigans… It felt to me like someone had turned on the lights.

And it’s not like Kati had nothing better to do. She was a working mom of two teenagers (three if you count Jeff) and had a plate as full as the next. I don’t even know how she knew about our predicament. She just found out, felt like she could help, and did what she so often did without prompt or expectations for a return of any kind. At the time, I took it for granted because well… It was just Kati doing what Kati so often did.

It was just another brick to add to the stack of generosity that Kati had built during her life. Another example of what makes Austin, AUSTIN.

***

Last night, we lost Kati. She passed away after battling a brain aneurism for a number of weeks and hanging on like only a true bad ass can. She leaves behind her husband Jeff and her two incredible kids – Dash and Dixie. She also leaves us with really big boots to fill in this Austin legacy of ours. Boots that can’t be filled by any one person.

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