I wanted to explore the Barbadian tradition of stick licking based on a story I heard from an old fighter when I was a boy. He told tales of gangs of fighters who would go from village to village to challenge each other. He told us listening that the gang would enter the village in a particular order. The weakest first, the strongest last. While he did not refer to the leader as a Bad John he did talk about some rogue fighters who had to be put in their place and the epic battles that took place. I had only to find a narrative for the battle and I had to look no further than a rum shop. Even in my time as a boy long after stick fighting was popular fights would break out at the rum shops in my village.