1972 Nitzinger

Roadie

My first real road gig!

John had Bugs Henderson on guitar, Lewis Stephens on B-3, Randy Bean on bass, and Linda Waring on drums.

Helluva band !

At the first show the other roadie, " Fast Eddie " got electrocuted holding John's amp plug in that kept coming loose.

He was OK, but we left him there and headed for Amarillo.

The stage was upstairs and I literally coerced a B-3 up the stairs alone. I got smarter than that pretty quick.

At the end of the second week, the band broke up. Great!

John put together a 3 piece band using my friends from Stymie - Bobby Wilcox on bass and Mike Kennedy on drums, Gary Carnes also played drums part of the time I was working with John.

At this point I was....

Audio Engineer / Road Manager / Roadie / Driver / whatever

It was just the four of us.

Showco custom built a Sound System for John

with 600 watt Crown amps in the bass boxes. ( yes, heavy )

Jim Rutledge from Bloodrock came by when we first got the system.

He gave me my first "sound man lesson".

And I quote " this is input, this is monitor send, this is treble, this is bass, this is volume....

and I have to go to a party"

This was also my introduction to  stage monitors....

" MORE GUITAR IN THE MONITORS !!! "

gigs I remember...

Mother Blue's

Gerties ( opened for Little Feat ! )

Armadillo World Headquarters

some club in the top of the Hemisfair Tower in San Antonio

Mother Earth...Austin

some civic center in Port Arthur that pulled the plug on us 20 minutes in...

Houston Cellar

San Angelo, the night the drinking age was lowered to 18 ( four days before I turned 21 ),

and John's birthday, lots of young drunk girls trying to get on stage.

Then I got the gig with Calico.