The Lamar M. Davis II Interview
Conducted by Paul Bax

Prior to your JKD training, what was your experience in the martial arts?
Lamar Davis: I started actively training in the martial arts at the age of ten, getting my first experience from basic Japanese judo and karate. I started purchasing books, magazines and everything else I could get my hands pertaining to the martial arts. At the age of fifteen, I was actively training in Shaolin kung fu, Chinese Kenpo, Tae Kwon Do and Tang Soo Do. Later on I studied Flipino Escrima and kuntaw and eventually achieved guro certification in escrima and a fourth degree black belt in kuntaw.
I also studied a Chinese style called shin pao chuan (leopard boxing) and achieved full instructor certification in that style. By this time, I was twenty two years old. I had developed a pattern of cross training in the martial arts that anyone would be hard pressed to equal!
In the late seventies I met and started training with Sifu Joseph I. Cowles, who had trained Bruce Lee in Seattle, Washington. This was my formal introduction to Bruce Lee’s fighting method. I had already studied some basic Wing Chun.

How much training time have you had with Joseph Cowles?
LD: Not that much! He first came to Birmingham to do a seminar, which was sponsored by the University of Alabama in Birmingham. That is when I first met and trained with him. The second day of that event he put his assistant in charge and he and I went to a separate room. He spent the whole day working with me one-on-one, teaching me the inner workings of Jun Fan Gung Fu, as well as the Sil Lim Tao form as it was taught to him by Bruce Lee. He allowed me to film everything we did, with the agreement that I would keep working on the material until I saw him next.
The next time I saw him was when I sponsored a seminar for him. He surprised me by allowing me to teach part of the seminar, as well as assist him with everything that he taught. At the end of that weekend he told me that he was so pleased with what he had seen from me that weekend that he was awarding me with a 1st Degree Black Sash in Wu Wei Gung Fu, which is what he called his version of what Bruce Lee taught. Needless to say, I was extremely honored! By the time I ended my association with him, I had been awarded the rank of 4th Degree Black Sash in Wu Wei Gung Fu.

At one point you two had a falling out. Can you comment on this event and your renewed friendship?
LD: I would rather not get too much into the details, as this was more of a private matter between Sifu Joseph and I, but let’s just say that there were some personal differences in how I handled some issues that were going on in my private life at the time! This caused an immediate falling out between the two of us! Years later I contacted him and we discussed what had happened between us. We both agreed that he had somewhat overstepped his bounds and that what I did in my personal life should have nothing to do with our friendship or our student/teacher relationship. At that time he told me that he had been following my progress as a Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do Instructor, and he was very proud of my accomplishments! I was honored that he would follow my career like that, and it felt really good to once again be friends with him.

Explain your fascination with Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do.
LD: At the age of ten I started watching Bruce Lee as Kato on the Green Hornet TV series. I was thoroughly fascinated by the way that he had moved! It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I made up my mind right then that I was going to learn to one day move like that! I did not fully realize how knowledgeable he was until I saw a two-part story on him in early issues of a marital arts magazine. I still have these magazines and they are a treasured part of my collection!
When I saw him on a TV show called Longstreet, which was a favorite show of mine, I could not sleep that night I was so excited about what I had seen! He had actually explained Jeet Kune Do on TV! I knew right then that whatever it took, I would one day be an instructor of this incredible art called Jeet Kune Do! That became my most important goal in life, to learn and be able to teach this art to others. Since I couldn’t actively study at this time, I set out to learn everything I possibly could about the arts!

Describe your frustration with the lack of JKD instruction in the Mid-West.
LD: When I was coming up in the martial arts, I always knew that Jeet Kune Do was the art that I wanted to learn and one day teach. It was very hard on me knowing that there was nowhere close that I could go to learn! In fact at that time, other than Larry Hartsell’s group around Charlotte, North Carolina, there was to my knowledge no Jeet Kune Do on the east coast or in the mid-west.
I do not come from a wealthy family, and really had no means to travel to study, so I was more or less restricted to just training in whatever I could and getting my hands on any reading material that I could, as videos had not yet become popular (or even available) at that time!
I kept hearing of a magazine called Inside Kung Fu that had Bruce Lee and JKD articles, but it wasn’t available anywhere around Birmingham at that time. I put in several requests at the main magazine store and they finally started getting it! There’s a strange but true fact for you. I was responsible for Inside Kung Fu finally making it to Birmingham, Alabama!

What happened between you and Gary Dill?