Not Just a Ball-Buster

Bryant's temperament has softened, but he still knows when to play the intimidator. (Photo by John Nation)

Charles "Hillbilly" Bryant was raised in a one-traffic-light town in the foothills of North Carolina, just outside of Hickory, in the land of grits, stock car racing, wild-hog hunting, and guys spitting tobacco juice. His grandfathers brewed moonshine. His father trained cockfighters. And while Bryant maintains he didn't grow up like "the Beverly Hillbillies, living in a shack and walking around barefoot up in the mountains," he admits, with a Southern accent as thick as swamp mud, which turns yellow into yaller, that he's just a couple of generations removed from that.

But far from being the least bit self-conscious about his humble backwoods roots, Bryant has proudly adopted the whole good ol' boy thing as his bigger-than-life pool persona, right down to his twangy third-person declaration of "Hillbilly on the hill!" when he needs one more game to win a set. It's become his trademark rallying cry.

In just three solid years on the pro circuit, after spending most of his career not playing any "real" tournaments or trekking beyond his little piece of down-home turf, the 36-year-old Hillbilly has built one of the more colorful, if not notorious, reputations - and not simply for playing pool. Aside from knocking off champions in the relatively few major events he's played and possessing a break so powerful he's occasionally cracked cue balls, he's known for wearing some of the loudest shirts you'll ever see and for snapping a guy's elbow in an arm wrestling match at the 2004 Derby City Classic.

He'll often dismiss himself, with that aw-shucks charm, as "just a big ol' country boy." Indeed, at 5-foot-11, 220 pounds, he's built like a brick wall, broad-shouldered to the max and with muscled forearms seemingly as wide as Johnny Archer's thighs, exuding the hulking, menacing vibe of "a guy who might beat you up after you beat him in a match," observes Charlie Williams. That off-putting aura is further fueled by Bryant's hot-tempered past, during which he at times would snap at his opponents, or even guys on the sidelines, either by cursing a blue streak or putting a hurtin' on someone. "I used to get into a lot of fights back home," he says. "I didn't take crap from anybody. Once, when I was playing Tony Watson, his brother was egging me on, and I ended up slamming his head into a poker machine." There were other times, though, when Hillbilly, after making unforced errors, would simply turn the anger on himself. "My emotions used to overpower me, and my game would go straight downhill," he says. "It's something I continue to work on. I don't want to be that way. It's been a battle, but I've gotten a lot better at controlling it. What's really helped me is a saying I came up with. When I feel my temper coming on, I either think to myself or say aloud, 'Face Fear - Feel Anger, Control Emotions; Focus Energy At Results.'"

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