There’s a bright yellow and pink building that sits on Drachman that often has nothing more than an old coupe with matching colors sitting out front.
The Meet Rack, pictured on Nov. 19, 2019 in Tucson, Ariz.
The building is situated across from the decrepit Tucson landmark, the Tucson Inn, and evokes many of the same feelings when you approach it. Right above its pink double doors sits a sign that simply reads: “Meet Rack.”
Owned and operated by 76-year-old Jim Anderson, the dive bar is one brimming with stories that span decades, and that’s had guests from all over the social strata.
“This guy is a part of Tucson history” said Jason Duran, a 28-year-old Tucsonan. “If you talk to older generations, they all know Jim, they all have a crazy experience with the guy.”
In the bar, Anderson, whose nickname is literally “God,” has 37 photo albums of his customers across the decades, and another nine in a cabinet that show the thousands of customers who came to the bar and get a hot iron branding of his face on their legs. Across the walls, you can find photos of Anderson with Arnold Schwarzenegger, John McCain, Jackie Chan, members of the “Jersey Shore” cast, Burt Reynolds and countless others.
“These are all pictures of me or my customers,” said God. “I have 37 albums of the last 40 years of people partying in the bars.”
Jim "God" Anderson stands in front of one of his many decorations in his bar on Nov. 19, 2019 in Tucson, Ariz. Anderson is holding a staff that has a miniature golden head atop as well as a golden necklace that has a mirror image of his face on it.
His antics run deep in the bar. He’s known to throw water at patrons to cure their hiccups, have sex toys under the bar that customers can use to get discounts on their drinks, and even a room, affectionately called “The Duty Hut,” filled to the brim with different sex apparatuses that’s occasionally used by customers.
“There’s only one rule back here: never kiss a girl above the waist,” said God while showing first time customers the Duty Hut. “Unless she’s standing on her head.”
God is a showman who relishes in this kind of attention and storytelling. He gives the tours as if he’s flipping through a scrapbook for the first time, talking about the celebrities he’s met, the antics of his customers, and his younger years. In reality, the tour is a performance he gives day after day for all the newcomers that wander into the bar, with every stop of the tour reading the same way as the one he’d given only moments before.
Even when he’s not speaking, his personality shines through. After every tour, he gives out keychains that depict him on one side as a man that looks possessed with the words “PARTY OR DIE” written across it with his name Jim underneath, and the other side showing him tame with the words “I’ll Ruin Your Life” and the name God just below. He’s frequently wears only a partially buttoned shirt, basketball shorts and old sneakers, but also dons a gold chain of two face’s profiles.
“That’s me looking at God,” he says, showing the necklace is merely a mirrored image of his own face. He even has a staff topped with a golden bust of his head.
(left to right) Childhood friends Sam Echeverria, John Tims, and Jason Duran drink personal pitchers of beer as well as bourbon and whiskey shots on Nov. 25 in Tucson, Ariz.
“I hate to say it, but he won’t be around forever” said customer John Tims. “We just got branded and that’s a privilege. Who’s gonna carry the baton?”
Tims and his friends Sam Echeverria and the aforementioned Jason Duran gathered in the bar as a reunion. They’re all childhood friends and wanted to get together since Echeverria was in town for Thanksgiving.
“This is a place lost in time, everything is right here,” said Echeverria. “He reminds me of Earnest Hemingway. It’s all words and stories, it’s timeless.”
The trio balanced their individual pitchers and bourbon and whiskey shots with their conversation between themselves and other patrons at the bar, laughing through every sentence.
“You want to go to a place where everyone knows your name,” said Tims, talking about the television show “Cheers.” “That’s been lost. This bar is some of the last of that. Other bars, you’re just another number to them, another beer, another sale. This bar, you can interact with someone who’s there and cares about you and will tell you personal stories.”
That storytelling is something that is baked into the bar’s foundation. God says that he likes to have the music and TV turned down low, if on at all, so that patrons can talk and meet each other.
“Conversation bars are the kind of bars I like,” he said.
On November 25th, Echeverria, Tims, and Duran branded themselves, becoming God’s 3015th, 16th and 17th victims.
Duran gets branded by God on Nov. 25 in the Meet Rack bar located at 210 W Drachman Street.