That’s a bold move.
If you follow Ward Davis on Facebook, you’re probably familiar with his epic and ongoing battle with the police department in Hays, Kansas.
It’s a battle that began back in 2017, when Ward was playing a show in Hays with Cody Jinks.
Ward told the entire story in a post on his Facebook, and in a way more hilarious way than I ever could, but the Cliff’s Notes version goes something like this:
After the show, while Cody was still onstage, Ward was outside of his van smoking a cigarette when the boys (and girls) in blue walked up to his van. Now, their previous tour stop had been in Colorado so you can probably guess what Ward and his band had in his van. In his words, it was stocked with “all the weed we could afford.”
Well the police knock on the van (with Ward still standing outside) and his bass player opens it up – with a bowl in his hand.
An officer (who Ward affectionately refers to as “Officer Asshole”) starts to search the van, and while they’re doing their best to protect the fine citizens of Hays from the dangerous weed (because I can’t imagine there’s a ton of serious crime in Hays, Kansas), Cody walks out and starts cussing the police as they’re searching the van.
“A thousand drunks just left and you’re fucking with a guy that brought something nice to your shitty fucking town….”
I mean, fair.
Ward tries to calm Cody down (though it sounds like it didn’t do much good) and eventually the cops finish searching the van, find about an ounce of weed, and throw Ward and his bass player in the cruiser to haul them off to jail – which was a good 45 seconds from the venue.
Well long story short, Cody bails them out of jail, they throw the weed away in a dumpster before having a few drinks and deciding to go back for their precious green and smoke it all up, and Ward gets unsupervised probation and one hell of a story out of the whole experience.
And according to Ward, he’s glad it happened.
“I spent 20 minutes in jail and have a story to tell the rest of my life. Easy trade, man. Easy Trade.”
Well recently Ward decided to resurrect his battle with the fine folks of the Hays Police Department…by trolling the shit out of them on Facebook.
It’s one of the most hilarious things on the internet right now, and it’s gotten to the point where every single post that the Hays Police Department makes is quickly followed by tons of people busting their balls or tagging Ward in the comments.
But then Ward decided to ramp it up a notch, and announce that he’s running for sheriff of Hays…
Well not really. Since it’s not an election year (slight problem) he’s calling it more of a “coup” – in the form of a live show back at the scene of the crime at the Fox Theater in Hays, Kansas on May 14.
Well the “coup” seemed to go better than expected – so well, in fact, that the show sold out and Ward announced a SECOND night in Hays on May 13. And he also announced that he would be recording a live album during his time back in the city so near and dear to his heart.
Gotta admit, it takes some balls to return to the scene of such a horrific crime like possessing weed in public. Props to Ward for not backing down.
And the Hays Police Department has even gotten in on the fun, even throwing out suggestions of possible names for the new live album.
(For the record, my vote is Hays-ed and Confused).
Something tells me the drugs dogs are going to be out in full force in Hays, Kansas on May 13 & 14, if the Hays Police Department even has drug dogs.
Let’s just hope Ward makes it out without incident this time.
And while we’re on the subject, check out Ward’s kickass cover of George Strait’s “Troubadour.”
