Of Rock n Roll United We Stand 
Below, I've listed the bands and shows for which I have driven tractor trailers. Time has a habit of fogging our minds; so, there may be other bands that I have forgotten. If any of my old buddies should stumble across this page, please write. I'd love to hear from you--Especially you Phil.(Hey Billy, where's Spanky?). I wish I could share THAT story but, alas, I no can do! Oh yes, by the way, My old CB code name was "The Ugliest Man in the World",� and I STILL use that handle.
You may notice that there are passes shown here of groups that I didn't work for. I got these passes through friends and other roadies when I visited them on their tours. I thought you might like to look at them!
I promised some Rock-n-Roll stories. So, here it goes. The names
in red are links to the stories about those bands, or you can just scroll down to them. Please sign my guest book at the bottom of this page and let me know what you think and - oh yes, I'll try to keep it as clean as I can.
Use your imagination! There were A LOT
of unwritten benefits for a single person.
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This was the year that the New Orleans police went on strike. It seems that the police there are teamsters.-- Can you believe that? I was given my first opportunity to evaluate a couple of new drivers on the way from Dallas Texas, where my company was headquartered, to New Orleans. One of these drivers ( I can't remember his name ) did me a great favor two years later But that's another story.
We were on our way to the Super Dome for what was being billed as the "World's Largest Disco". We left Dallas about 6 P.M. with an 8 A.M. stage call and drove till about 5 A.M. when we stopped for breakfast. I've learned not to eat large meals when I have to drive because I get the nods and want to take a nap. In show business we have what are called stage calls, and when they say 8 A.M. they mean 8 A.M. Well Bubba, (a big boy) knew how to eat! I tried to warn him, but this lad ate just about everything that was on the menu and then had dessert. We got back in our trucks and drove about 2 miles when Bubba just had to take a nap. I figured we had about an hour to spare; so a nap was out of the question, but Bubba just had to stop! I tried to reason with him, but he needed that nap. I knew that if he crawled up in the bunk, it would be all over, and part of the light show wouldn't get to the dome on time. I told him he could have his nap, but first I wanted him to drop his trailer, put his pin lock on it, and pull the tractor clear of the trailer so another driver could hook up and drag it in to New Orleans. This worked. All of a sudden, Bubba got his second wind and finished the trip, but we never saw him again after that.
I know you were expecting a funny story but I wanted to tell you this just to let you know how important a stage call is. The bands always have local stage hands waiting at the venue to unload and set up the show, and these bands take a very dim view of at least a dozen hands standing around, on the clock, with no truck to unload. It can run into a LOT of money. Union stage hands make a good buck!!
When we arrived at the Super Dome we found trucks from every Rock'n'
Roll company known to modern man.
Inside the super dome was to be the world's largest disco. Every
disco act was going to be there including the "Commadores" (They were
the "Main" act).
This was the year of the police strike; so the parades were held
inside the dome. The stage hands set up a huge stage with an 8 foot
barrier in front of the stage, but it didn't help. When the Commadores came on stage, the crowd went crazy and began to jump the barrier which left anyone back stage in a very vulnerable position. There were at least eight travel trailers back there to be used as dressing rooms. So, every one picked a trailer and ran as fast as they could toward it. One trailer was overturned; but, luckily, no one was injured. I don't to this day understand it; but the
police (who were on strike) suddenly showed up on horses, cars,
motorcycles, paddy wagons, meat wagons. You name it, and they were
there.
The next day I went to the French Quarter and bumped into a
friend at the Mardi-gras.
I'm here to tell you that we live in a very small world when I can
quite literaly "bump" into an old girl friend in a crowd as big as the one on Bourbon Street at Mardi-Gras. This girl's name was "Truly", and she was from Atlanta. Yet, I actually bumped into her in that huge crowd. Needless to say that was A great week in The Big Easy..
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Genesis a great name for a band and a great place to
start my stories. According to Webster's Dictionary,
"Genesis" means origin, and My tour of duty with rock
n Roll all started with this band. First let me say
that I have the highest regard for this band and all
of their crew members. I had been on tour with
this band in 1978-1980 and 1982 and had a ball on all
3 tours.
When I arrived in Pontiac, Joel was at the airport to meet me and to make sure that I got in Back Stage when I arrived at the Silverdome. We jumped into a cab and made our way to the dome while Joel talked endlessly about the unwritten benefits of working for a rock n roll band. The female cab driver begged him for a pass to see the show, but joel later told me she wasn't good looking enough.
This Tour and Album was named the "And Then there Where Three" tour, and when I walked through the back stage area, my mouth dropped open! I saw fourteen tractor trailers and one straight truck all for "Genesis"! They even had one flat bed trailer that had a generator mounted in an overseas' container to power the lights. It seems they needed more power than was commercially available. Wow! what a light show that was! That was one of the best light shows I've ever seen. I Owe "Joel" (Thats right, Ficticous name) a huge debt of graditude. If it weren't for him, I would never had experienced life in the "Fast Lane and wouldn't be writing these stories now."
There was this one fellow ( I think he was a light roadie ), whose name was Howard (fictitious name), and he kept asking everyone he saw for an extension cord. No one could figure out what he wanted all these cords for so one of the engineers bought a case of cords and gave a few to every crew member so that we could give them to Howard when he asked for one. One night a few of us were sitting around in our hotel after the gig just "relaxing" and watching Johnny Carson on TV, drinking a few beers, and smoking while Howard began plugging one cord into the next as we all sat around wondering what the heck he was up to. He then plugged the TV into the coiled extension cords and threw the TV out of the window. He watched johnny Carson all the way down to the ground--- all fourteen floors. It turned out that Howard hated the Johnny Carson Show!
I remember one night after a show when the crew realized they had a
lot of dry ice left. For those of you who don't know, dry ice is one of the ways used to make that fog that's knee deep on the stage. Another interesting fact about dry ice is that when placed in water, the water will "boil" and smoke (just like a witches cauldron). They
took the dry ice back to the hotel (I think it was a Holiday Inn)
and threw it into the outdoor pool. There was enough ice to make the
whole swimming pool look like something out of a B-rated sci-fi
movie. So-- what was left to do?--PARTY! It started slowly and picked up steam as people started to go skinny-dipping and other hotel guests joined in. All of this was at 1 or 2 A.M.; and before anyone could realize it, the pool area was one huge party until the hotel manager appeared and asked us to please hold down the noise. After a while that manager appeared again and declared that she was off duty and invited herself to our party. That was quite a drunken night and that manager looked like crap the next day but said she had ball.
I had a Mascot in the truck with me! It was "Animal" from the Muppet show. Animal wore a leather collar that was attached by chain to my radar detector. He had a drum stick in his hand and sat on the dash board while leaning against the radar detector and looking out the windshield. It got to the point that when I pulled into a truck stop, I could expect someone to Know that the "Ugliest Man in the World" was there Just because of animal!
The last show of a tour was always called the Roadie show and it was a time for the roadies to play tricks on the band and Genesis was no exception!
The Lighting guys had it all set up so that during a certain song, the lights would go down long enough for me to go onto the stage and hide behind one of the amps. When the lights came back up Animal was sitting on the amp rack and the audience began chanting "Animal" "Animal" at this point, Phil Collins walked over to the rack and when he saw me hiding there he punched Animal on the nose and was booed. Darn it, I miss the little fellow! (Animal)
Although I had a really good time on this tour, it
wasn't because of the food!
This was one of the few bands that didn't feed us
truck drivers. That meant that we had to drop our
trailers and "bobtail" to (hopefully) find some
where to eat.
Try to imagine yourself in LA You don't know your
way around; your truck is back stage with 10 other
semi trucks, and you can't get yours out of the gate
to go anywhere. What would you do?
I'd sleep! and that's just what I used to do. I'd
buy a sandwich while on the road and put it in my cooler
for later in the day.
1 Wait for the truck to be unloaded
2 Park the truck away from the loading docks
3 Eat a sandwich
4 Drink beer (always locked in the trailer with the
equipment)
5 Sleep till 10 or 10:30 get up--shower and hit it
again!!!
EXCEPT --- My buddies hated to see me sleep while they
were hungry. So one driver (Delton)--that's his real
name--used to try to wake me by pounding on the door
of my truck and tell me that the band was giving us
meal tickets that day. That was the only way they
could get me out of my bunk! This ploy usually
worked. (I'll bet you guessed that I like to eat)
One afternoon when we had a short trip from San Diego to LA; so I was hanging out back stage behind Dodger Stadium when I heard female voices arguing. It seems there were these three girls, all knock- outs, and they were trying to sneak into Dodger Stadium by crawling under an eight foot chain link fence like GI Joe. One of the Girls was wearing a red evening gown that went to her ankles--- on her belly,--in the mud! Some Girls would have done just about anything to get back stage for a chance to meet the Brothers Gibb! I recall one beautiful girl who opened her dress (all the way) to show me a gold necklace and quite a bit more. (She was very naked under that dress) She said I could have it (the necklace) or anything else I saw if I would just give her a back stage pass so she could have a chance to meet Barry Gibb. This was one of the few tours that wouldn't give us drivers meals OR passes. So one of the roadies was more than willing to help her with her request...
The truck was finally loaded about 12:30 A.M. in Denver. As I climbed up the ladder into the truck it was just starting to snow. Stage call the next day (Thursday) was 12 noon in Provo Utah. There were two shows scheduled. The first was at 6 P.M. and the second one at 9. The distance was about 490 miles over Vail Pass on Route 70. I started out of town and turned on the CB and my 2 meter ham Radios. This 2 meter radio was pretty cool. It could dial into the telephone system, so as a ham operator, I was able to make phone calls from our vehicles. Remember this was way back in 1980. By the way, as far as I know I was the first to have a Ham radio in a Rock Hauler so I lay claim to operating "The Original Rock n Roll Haulin, eighteen wheel Amateur radio station". I Know, I�m rambling! (The mind is the first to go). Anyhow, by the time I got on 70 It was snowing very hard and I heard on one of the radios that because of the snow, Rt. 70 was closed and yet I was driving on it. That was one trip I�ll never forget. Up to this point in my career I had never blown a stage call and didn�t want to screw this show so I kept driving with my palms sweating and my heart in my mouth. Man it was as bad as I�ve ever seen it. I had been stationed in Maine for three years while in the service so I�d seen some snow but this was incredible. I kept driving and at 7 A.M. called the hotel where the crew was staying to let them know I wasn�t going to make it. I really didn�t want to make that call but the crew did get a chance to Ski Utah while yours truly was sweating bullets. On one of the calls I was able to talk to the stage manager Rauole (real name) who told me that if I got in by 3 P.M. they could get the show up for the 9 o�clock ticket holders. I did and the 6 o�clock show was officially canceled and rescheduled for the next day. Friday.
Now it�s time to ramble again. Friday was a day off for everyone so the drivers could drive from Provo Utah to Tempe Arizona, a distance of about 634 miles to a stage call Saturday morning at 9. Rand McNally says it should take about 14 � hours. Guess what. It can be done in under 11 hours but it�s an illegal and Beautiful ride across several National Parks in Utah, Glen Canyon and the Vermillion Cliffs. Echo Cliffs on the Navaho Reservation and the Painted Desert. That�s a trip I�ll never forget because of its beauty.
Mister Loggins came to me personally and asked me to get to Tempe by noon but preferred the truck there by 11 so the crew would have ample time to set up. I figured I had better try to redeem myself after the show fell in Provo. I was there at 10 and the only stop I made was for fuel and a Twinkie Bar.
Mr. Loggins gave me a tour jacket and a week at the Sands Hotel in Lake Tahoe.
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Late one night after the show in Rhode Island I found (on the ground)
a zipper, still in the cardboard container.--a purple zipper and
thought --What the hell. I picked it up, and it turned out to be from David's wardrobe trunk. Anyhow, I threw it in the side locker of my truck and forgot about it until I was home and cleaning out my truck.
I gave the Zipper to my X-wife! I really didn't know anyone goofy
enough to want a purple Zipper except her! This is where my stupidity
really shows, --I told my current wife about "The Zipper". Well it
turned out I was wrong again--My current wife (I may have more) never
lets me forget about the Purple Bowie Zipper that could have been
hers....
