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Stories
Nov 29, 2009 10:33:14 GMT -5
Post by ekforum on Nov 29, 2009 10:33:14 GMT -5
Son, You're Gonna Need A Gun On This Tour
When The Strawberry Alarm Clock toured with the Beach Boys, we shared their private plane. One night a bus picked all of us up at the charter terminal. The bus had no interior lights. I remember it was noisy in there. I was sitting toward the rear of the bus. Mike Love had crawled up onto the luggage rack above the seats and crawled all the way to the back of the bus. Suddenly, he fell off the luggage rack and onto my lap...NAKED! Oh yeah...real funny. That was the same time Dennis Wilson got a hold of my new Kodak camera and shot a whole roll of film in 10 seconds. It's tough being 18 and on the road for the first time!
In April 1968, we departed L.A. in the Beach Boys private airplane (it was the Clock, the Buffalo Springfield on their final tour, and the B-Boys on board). Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot and killed the day before in Memphis, TN. We were scheduled to land in Memphis but there were reports of snipers at the airport, so we were re-routed to Nashville where we checked into the Holiday Inn.
That night at the hotel there was a guy going from room-to-room with a huge flight case filled with hand guns. This was a scary time in the South. It seems almost everybody on the tour bought one, so I did too. I had never fired a gun before. But on every show we did anywhere in the South, everybody who'd bought a gun went on stage with it tucked in their pants. Idiots, eh? What was I thinking?!
When the tour ended, we had a gig in Wilkes-Barre, PA. In back of the hotel there was a vacant lot, so I thought it'd be good time to go out early in the morning and try out my new "piece". I fired my .38 revolver a few times. Man...it was LOUD! When I got back to the hotel, I realized that I was DEAF! I could hear...but everything was really muffled!! NOT GOOD for a working guitar player.[/b][/size]
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Stories
Nov 29, 2009 10:35:02 GMT -5
Post by ekforum on Nov 29, 2009 10:35:02 GMT -5
Ronnie And The Bag Of Cash
After the "Pronounced" album came out, we played this outdoor show in Birmingham. It was the bands' FIRST POLICE ESCORT. Very impressive!! And we got paid in cash, as I recall.
After the show, Ronnie summoned all the band members together in a hotel room. He demanded that our road manager, Russ, hand him ALL the cash from the show (can't remember how much - maybe $15,000-20,000). Russ objected (saying "You can't take this, we owe taxes on that money!"), but that fell on deaf ears.
Ronnie then decided to pay each member in cash for that night - but he only paid us what he thought we were worth! Let me get something straight here. Ronnie was always fair. Harsh, but fair. I can't recall who got paid the least (I'm sure someone got extremely shorted because Ronnie was trying to make a point), but I remember that I made out ok that night. Ronnie made the most, though![/b]
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Stories
Nov 29, 2009 10:37:11 GMT -5
Post by ekforum on Nov 29, 2009 10:37:11 GMT -5
Corn On The Cob When I first joined the band (around October 1972), I moved in with Ronnie & his wife, Judy. That was very gracious of them and I'll always be glad that their home was my first stop in Florida. It was in their home that Ronnie came into my room, sat down on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder and said "Ed...you're really the WORST bass player I've ever played with!" But the following story happened many months before that...
I had heard from the other guys about Ronnie's gag reflex. He had a strong stomach, however given the right circumstances, almost anyone can "blow chunks" (thanks, Austin).
One night the 3 of us were sitting around the television eating dinner. I sat closest to the tv set with Ronnie & Judy a few feet away. The corn on the cob was delicious. The only trouble was that I had extremely long hair and, unfortunately, one long strand of hair got caught far back in my teeth. I tried to pull it out - trying to be discreet about it. After a bit of a struggle, I finally grabbed that hair. I'll never know what prompted me to turn to Ronnie and say "Hey Ronnie....take a look at THIS!" Then I tilted my head back and slowly began to draw that long strand out of my mouth - with quite a few pieces of chewed corn STUCK to the hair. Ronnie immediately screamed "Ed you son of a bitch!!!!" - knocked over his tray (everything went flying) and ran to the bathroom gagging and throwing up as he went! Yup, I figured. He really DOES have a bad gag reflex.
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Stories
Nov 29, 2009 10:38:13 GMT -5
Post by ekforum on Nov 29, 2009 10:38:13 GMT -5
An Interstate 40 Incident We were recording in Memphis. My guitar parts were pretty much done, so I decided to drive home for a few days.It was cold. I was all bundled up...scarf & wool hat...sunglasses. I don't think any skin was exposed. I mean COLD. I wasn't even 10 minutes outside of Memphis when I passed this cop who was parked on the median strip. I just had that funny feeling. I wasn't speeding. I never drink or do drugs then get behind the wheel. But I knew none of this mattered. Sure enough, he pulled out onto the highway...then pulled me over.
I asked him what the problem was. He just wanted my license & registration. Again I asked him the problem. He asked me where I was coming from. I told him. Asked me where I was headed. I told him. Asked me what I had been doing in Memphis. I told him.
"You play in a band?" he asked.
"Lynyrd Skynyrd" I replied.
"No, you don't" he said. He was wearing a pair of those mirrored shades, so I couldn't see his eyes. But I began to get a queasy feeling in my gut. I didn't like his "tone".
I said "My name's Ed King...I play for Lynyrd Skynyrd".
"No, you do NOT!" he said. Almost angrily.
NOW I was REAL nervous. I reached behind me where my guitar case was...my name was stenciled on the case along with the name "Lynyrd Skynyrd Band". I pointed at it and said "See?!"
He stuck his head in through the window, to get a better look. I know it only took a second or two, but it seemed like 10 minutes! Finally, he backs his head out and stands back a bit. He took his mirrored shades off.
"Well, I'll be damned. It really IS YOU." he said.
I let out this HUGE sigh of relief. Handing me back my paperwork he said "You have a nice day." And he was gone. I don't like being stopped!
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Stories
Nov 29, 2009 10:40:03 GMT -5
Post by ekforum on Nov 29, 2009 10:40:03 GMT -5
Ed, Jimi, And The Hendrix Snickers Bar Incident The show was on July 1st, 1967. (The poster is on the website on the "Strawberry Alarm Clock" main page.) Strangely enough, we were the only band pictured on the official poster! Hendrix had just finished playing the infamous Monterrey Pop Festival a month earlier, so he was big news.
We finished playing our set at the Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara. Hendrix shared our dressing room. I took a seat in the corner of our dressing room and sat there watching Jimi change the strings on his white Stratocaster. He only had ONE roadie. This one guy set up the drums, the amps, drove the equipment truck and collected the money. ONE guy. He walks in with a case of Snickers bars...24 to the box...and starts unwrapping them and handing them to Hendrix, who was downing them in two bites each while turning the tuning keys on his guitar. He probably ate three quarters of the box in about 10 minutes. Energy.
That was the only time I ever heard Hendrix play. His amp buzzed and crackled the whole show. I guess what that roadie could NOT do was fix amplifiers. I had never seen a Marshall amp up close before, but these were the most beat up pieces of furniture I had ever seen.
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Stories
Nov 29, 2009 10:41:43 GMT -5
Post by ekforum on Nov 29, 2009 10:41:43 GMT -5
The Stealing Of Stephen Stills' Les Paul
Thishappened on the 1968 Beach Boy tour of the South. It was also the final tour for the Buffalo Springfield. They pretty much argued amongst themselves the entire trip. At one point, in Dallas, one member of the band (who I'd better not identify!) was outside of Neil Young's hotel room banging on his door and screaming "Young, I'm gonna break every finger on both your hands!!" (Young had announced he was quitting the band.)
Watching them play every night was like watching history...we knew that. They'd close their show with "BlueBird" and, at the end of the song, Steve Stills would grab the handle of his Bigsby on his old Les Paul Custom, bend that handle all the way back - and the strings would pop one by one. "bing ... POING !" I asked him why he did that and he replied "It makes the neatest noise."
After one show some guys on the road crew were putting some guitars in the luggage bay below the band bus. A few of us from the 3 bands (I think I can recall Neil Young & Alan Jardine) were standing out in back of the coliseum when this older station wagon pulled into the parking lot. One of the guys in the car jumped out, ran over to the bus and grabbed Stills' Les Paul from the luggage bay, ran back to the car, threw the guitar in and they started to drive off. Good thing it was still in the parking lot....they couldn't go that fast.
We saw this and started running toward the station wagon. Like I said, I can't recall who did what but someone broke the back window out (someone else jumped in and stopped the driver) and Young was able to retrieve the vintage guitar. The rest of us pulled the occupants out and stomped on them for a while! But the important thing was that we were able to get Stills' guitar back! (I know THAT feeling.)
Later on that tour Stills gave Lee Freeman and myself a personal tour of New Orleans. He was a huge influence on my music at the time. But I am still kind of miffed at the time he came into our dressing room in Memphis....I had just bought a 1965 Gibson SG Standard in town (couldn't even find these guitars in L.A.). He was eating from this greasy, buttery tub of popcorn, grabbed my guitar from out of my hands and started playing it. Gee....thanks.
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Stories
Dec 4, 2009 10:15:44 GMT -5
Post by ekforum on Dec 4, 2009 10:15:44 GMT -5
One night in '74 we did a gig in Florida...big venue, lots of people. Started with WORKIN FOR MCA and during my guitar solo a HUGE CHEER AND APPLAUSE came up...just about drowned out the music, it was amazing.
I thought "Wow...I must be REALLY GOOD tonight." After the gig someone asked me if I'd seen the nude streaker that ran across the stage during my solo in MCA. No, ... I was busy showing off to the audience at that moment - totally oblivious to the REAL TRUTH!!! Yeah, that's my favorite moment. Made me humble AND MAD at the same time!
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Post by ekforum on Dec 8, 2009 9:29:19 GMT -5
So, did ya really rip the tone arm off Kooper's phono while he was listening to The Beatles?
That can't possibly be true. I love the Beatles. Maybe he was listening to David Bowie.
He says it was when you guys went back to do some clean up mixing, I think on SH. Said they had some house rented and he was staying up stairs and you and your other half were playing domestic and staying in the lower level. He says you came up one late one night and silenced them:)
OH! I can't remember what was playing but I was trying to sleep and Kooper and another producer who I shall not name had some nude girls upstairs, were taking pictures and playing records TOO LOUD. Yes, I put a stop to it! I'd been up for 3 days...I NEED MY SLEEP.
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