I’ve been listening to records, going to concerts and reading about music almost my whole conscientious life and heard of or witnessed a lot real Spinal Tap moments. I saw a hair band’s lead guitarist’s hair catching fire while accompanying his singer shouting “Fire” by spitting fuel onto a torch, saw Bob Forrester of Thelonious Monster climbing a 20 meter PA tower while completely drugged out of his mind at the 1993 Pink Pop festival and similar things. But the favorite episode I’ve heard of was when Keith Moon once more had a mix of horse tranquilizers and brandy (his usual diet) before the concert at the Cow Palace in 1973, but this time really passed out for good, in spite of every effort by the road crew to revive him (with more drugs and a shower). Pete Townshend asked the audience if a drummer was present, andScott Halpin, a 19 year old guy who hadn’t touched the drums in a year, took Moon’s sticks and completed the show to everybody’s satisfaction. And yeah, he got a tour jacket for his efforts which got stolen the same night. I love the story.
What’s yours? Can be something famous, or your own experience as a spectator or performer. Of course I mean “rock’n’roll” loosely, can be about any music or concert.
There was a Grammy show where cutting to a satellite hookup of a live show was THE latest in cool technology. Much touted in the lead up to the show. Diana Ross was a presenter, and high af, too! She intros the cut to, Stevie Wonder performing live, his nominated song. But that new tech was glitching, no audio, no image. So here’s Diana, on national tv repeating, “Stevie! Can you see me?”
Sudden cut to commercial, and when they return to the show, they’ve fixed the glitch, but first…a much sobered looking Diana Ross, clearly embarassed and endlessly apologizing to Stevie and the world!
It was pretty hilarious to watch unfold, I don’t even remember if he won or not!
[One night Keith Richards took Jagger out for some carousing–and by the time they stumbled back to their hotel at five in the morning, the singer was absolutely plastered. He called up to Watts, fast asleep in his own room, and started shouting into the phone. “Izzat my drummer, then? Where’s my fucking drummer?”
What happened next is one of the most remarkable moments in Stones history. The mild-mannered Watts, always the quiet one in the group, crawled out of bed. He shaved, put on a crisp white shirt and impeccably tailored suit, knotted his tie and slipped on some shoes. Then he calmly walked downstairs, opened the door, grabbed Jagger–and cold-cocked him right in the kisser. “Don’t ever call me your drummer again,” Watts sneered. “You’re my fucking singer.”](The Slippery Fish: "Charlie Watts is my drum god!")
I know the person in this story, so I’m gonna call him Chuck.
Chuck was a sound guy. Back in the '70s he worked at Bearsville; I’m sure some of you know what that is. Anyway, he told me about a time back in about 1976 or 1977 when he was in NYC for a show. He was doing monitors for one of the acts, so he was backstage right or left, just offstage. At some point, he sees a crazed-looking skinny lady in a plain white t-shirt run onto the stage from the other side, grab a mic and start wailing into it. Nobody else makes a move, so Chuck leaps into action! He rushes out on stage, grabs her by the waist and bodily hauls her off stage, yelling for Security. They rush over, he lets go of her, pushing the lady towards the security guys. They ignore her, grab him and start hustling him off-stage! He’s incredulous, starts hollering, making a ruckus, etc. They got him all the way to the door before the band’s manager gets over there (the act is now performing without a monitor engineer). Eventually it got sorted out, and now Chuck recognizes Patti Smith every time he sees her.
Al Stewart, mid seventies. Some college friends and I went to see him at a club in Chicago. After the show he invited a woman in our party back to his hotel. Flustered, she replied “I’m not a groupie!” He said, “I’m not a group.” She said she had midterms, so couldn’t.
I always liked the story of Jerry Lee Lewis lighting his piano on fire to show up Chuck Berry back in the day. Don’t know if its really true or not, sadly. How do you follow a burning piano?
It’s been a long time since I’ve read the book, so cut me some slack here. In Rock Scully’s “Living With The Dead” a story is recounted that cracks me right the fuck up. Some of the fellas in the band, can’t remember exactly who, are driving along in a car, in the mountains, with a suckable nitrous tank in the backseat. There was a crash, and IIRC the car ended up upside down. The cops showed up, but not before the nitrous tank let go, frosting the entire inside surface of all the windows. The cop wanted to know what happened, and was told that “we must have hit a patch of ice.”
All over the place! One of her poems was included on an insert in his album A Wizard/A True Star, and he produced her album Wave. They are old friends. She was a big booster of his music early on when she was a rock critic.
Supposedly the Stones insisted on being the final act on the TAMI Show. This annoyed James Brown who proceeded to go out there and give the performance of his life, pulling out all the stops. He came off stage and said to Mick Jagger “Follow THAT, Motherfucker!”
I read the story about “Chuck,” so here’s mine about Chuck Berry:
Chuck Berry normally toured by himself and used (cheap or free) local musicians to back him up in the 70s. One of my friends played in a local band in Boston and they were drafted to be Berry’s band for a local performance. (Think “My Ding-A-Ling.”) When Berry showed up just a short time before the show, they naturally asked him, “What songs are we going to play?”
Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee from Motley Crue had a bet going on how long they each could go without showering before groupies refused to have sex with them.
Apparently after going for weeks w/o showering, one groupie was performing oral sex on Nikki Sixx and vomited all over his stomach. She had spaghetti for dinner, so it was called ‘the spaghetti incident’
A group of friends of mine went to see Steve Marriott in a small club in IL back in the early 80’s. These guys were real rock fans and loved his Humble Pie work. They told me that before the show, Marriott was walking around and my buddies invited him over to their table. He came over and apparently was very nice and partook of the pitcher of beer in the middle of the table. What they didn’t tell Steve was they had dumped a couple of Quaaludes into the pitcher. After a few drinks he meandered backstage to prepare for the show. Half hour later, Marriott is introduced and proceeds to be play the opening number. My buddies told me he was struggling hard to maintain playing, singing, performing, walking…you name it. After the first song he collapsed and was taken off the stage and after a few minutes it was announced that Mr. Marriott was feeling poorly and the show was cancelled! That always cracked me up that my friends paid good money to see one of their heroes live in a club only to sabotage their own show! I guess they were more battle hardened than Steve Marriott.
PS. They did say that they saw him either the next night or a few nights later at another show. He recognized them but did accept their invitation a second time. And put on a great show.
Your friends dosed someone with a Karen Ann Quinlan cocktail? Marriott is lucky he’s still alive, and they’re lucky they’re not in prison. Maybe they should be.
