WEBVTT - Johnny Brower 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:12.280 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Leftsaids podcast. 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:15.800 My guest today is Johnny Browers, one of the promoters 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:20.720 of the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival in nineteen sixty nine, 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.640 featured in the new movie. 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:28.200 Revival sixty nine. This, of course, was debut of John 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.640 Lennon in The Plastic Ono Man. So tell me the 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:35.160 history of putting on this concert. What was the thought 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:37.519 forget when you get John at the end, when you 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.520 initially booked the festival, what were you thinking? 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.680 Well, I was thinking that Chuck Berry stole the show 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.800 in June at my festival called the Toronto Pop Festival, 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:52.000 which was the first festival of nineteen sixty nine, featuring 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:57.840 Sly Steppenwolf, the band, Blood, Sweat and Tears, terrific artists. 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:02.279 For two days, duck Berry had people duck walking and 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:08.080 like just really absolutely stole the show. And that's no exaggeration. 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:14.120 So I thought we needed a show for the fall, 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:16.640 and I thought, why don't we get Chuck and all 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:20.479 of the old rockers together. And of course, being a musician, 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.560 I had played Chuck Berry's songs, and you know, being 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.840 a musicians sometimes you think everybody else likes all the 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:32.080 same bands you did, and so Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Lewis, 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.520 Bo Diddley were available in the same day as Chuck 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.240 and that seemed to be an omen So it became like, Okay, 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:43.280 that's it, that's the rock and Roll Revival. And at 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.920 that point we started adding other artists just to fill 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.280 the bill out and got Chicago. Alice Cooper was just 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.920 an afterthought because shep was our buddy and they were 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.360 going to back up geene Vince and nobody had any 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.120 idea they were going to launch a twenty five year career, 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:01.840 but God bless them. I'm glad they did. I kind 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.520 of think that was a milestone of the event as well. 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.160 But that was the thinking, and it was thinking about 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.320 doing something that you think's a good idea. But you 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:13.200 know what, I'm sure you've had it happened to you. 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:15.960 Sometimes you're a good idea. You go, oh wow, I 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:18.800 thought that was a good idea, but it doesn't seem 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.000 to be a good idea with the public. Nobody's buying tickets. 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.079 Okay, you'd seen Chuck Berry, had you seen these other 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:31.079 acts perform live? Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis. 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.359 No, I had never seen any of them. I had 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:36.360 been in bands that played their songs. I had seen 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:41.480 them on American Bandstand or various different things, but no, 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.280 not live. I never had. Just based on the way 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.720 Chuck was, I assumed they'd all be incredible, which turned 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:48.320 out they were. 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.640 Okay, tell me about the venue in the capacity of 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:53.920 the venue. 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.720 Well, it's the football stadium on the University of Toronto 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:01.560 campus and depending on the configure, it could probably hold 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:05.440 forty thousand people. I do remember when Crosby Stills in 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.280 Nash played there with the band opening in nineteen seventy five. 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.120 They had the stage right up against the wall and 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.920 Bluer Street. Our stage was halfway up the field and 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.520 we had twenty thousand people there, so I think they 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.160 must have had thirty anyway, but that would have been 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:25.000 the capacity at that time, the way the stage was 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:25.520 set up. 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.160 Okay, tell me about your festival in the spring. 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.160 Well, it was the Toronto Pop Festival. It was at 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:39.240 the same facility two days and as I said, we 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:43.400 had quite a bill headlined by Sly and the Family 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:47.440 Stone Steppenwolf. We brought them back to Toronto. They were Canadians. 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:51.119 It was their return to Toronto. It was the band's 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:56.080 first outdoor festival. Many people think Woodstock was Toronto pop 0:03:56.120 --> 0:04:01.400 festival was. It was just a great show, and I 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.080 think all the bands are kind of listed on that 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.840 quick shot of the flyer in the Revival six ' 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.240 nine film. But it was a huge success. It sold 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.000 out both days. As I say in the movie, we 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:16.360 made a ton of money in that show, and I 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:20.400 guess we felt kind of invincible because we had come 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:24.200 from being regular, you know, small time concert promoters. Maybe 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:28.320 not small time, but smaller venues. The largest venue we 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.320 had done prior to that was Donovan at Varsity Arena. 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.880 That was seven thousand seats. That was quite a jump 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.719 from there to the Football Stadium. But the energy of 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:43.440 nineteen sixty nine. Agents were talking about festivals. People are 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:45.800 going to be doing festivals, and we thought, well we 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:46.640 better do one. 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.320 Okay, once again, let's talk about the economics for sixty 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.880 nine in the spring, you had two days. How many 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:56.680 tickets did you sell over the two days? 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.080 We sold twenty five thousand on each day. 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.760 And what were the economics in terms of ticket price? 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.279 How much did you have to be the bands? What 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:07.120 kind of profit? 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:10.440 Well, I know we made a ton of money, and 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:12.680 Kenny was the one handling all the money. I just 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:15.080 knew we made a lot of money and allowed us 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:20.760 to roll up into the fall very comfortably. And we 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.560 could have probably stood the losses had we not got 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:29.320 John Lennon. But the Eton investors had, you know, enough 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:31.240 shares in the company to be able to say, no, 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.960 we're not going to go along with this. I can't 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:38.240 remember the scale of economics. The tickets were reasonably priced, 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.760 the same as at the Rock Festival in September, you know, 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.800 six dollars a day. People laugh at that now, but 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.520 you know, in terms of the concert business then these 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:53.599 were standard prices. Woodstock was eighteen dollars for three days. 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:58.360 So I think, you know, the fact that we sold 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:02.360 out both of those eight gave us the confidence that 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.880 we could pretty much put anybody into Varsity Stadium and 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:07.080 it would be a great seller. 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:10.600 Tell me who we is? Tell me about the company. 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:14.040 Well, Ken Walker was the guy that got me out 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.200 of the rock pile. I was in the rock pile. 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.360 That was my club. It was like the Fillmore Masonic 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:25.720 Temple in Toronto brought led Zeppelin. Who Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.400 you know, Jethro Tull, all kinds of bands on a 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:33.400 regular basis, but it became kind of like the same 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:37.240 thing every week, and there was a ceiling to the capacity, 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.520 so you couldn't really make that much money. And I 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.000 had three other partners. So Kenny said to me, why 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:45.000 aren't you and I get in business and let's just 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:49.320 put on bigger concerts. I knew Kenny from you know, 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:54.159 the chums of high school and different places, and we 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.280 knew the Eatons. That was common friends of ours. They 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.679 were a very very wealthy family and so ultimately Henny 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.000 and I just went out on our own. But when 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.000 we needed to do the festival in June, we brought 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.120 George and Thor in with substantial funds and that allows 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:14.240 us to really do the Toronto Pop Festival and do 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:14.960 it properly. 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.520 Okay, let's go back to the beginning. You're from Toronto. 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:22.480 I am from Toronto, born and raised. 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.160 Okay, So you know, one thing about Canada and non 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.920 Canadians don't realize is direct connection with England. There are 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:35.600 a lot of bands that connected from England first in Canada. 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.160 What got you excited about music? 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.440 Well, I am a musician. I was also a choir boy. 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.160 I had a band of some note during my high 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:52.640 school years called the Diplomats. And in terms of coming 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.880 back to Toronto, remember I went to Los Angeles for 0:07:55.960 --> 0:08:00.000 sixty six and sixty seven, and when I came back 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:01.720 act I did. 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:03.480 Wait wait wait, wait, wait wait wait, let's just go 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:08.080 a little bit further. What year did the Diplomat start? 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:10.120 Pre Beatles or post Beatles? 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:16.040 Sixty two three four? Definitely pre Beatles because we were 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:21.400 playing Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye songs initially, and it 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.520 was an R and B band. And I don't ever 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.160 remember being in a band that played Beatles songs because 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.120 after the Diplomats I was out of playing in bands. 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:34.080 Okay, so sixty two, sixty three, sixty four, what instrument 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:34.760 did you play? 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:38.600 I played the bass and sang in some of the songs. 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:39.520 I played bass. 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.760 Yes, So what a lot of people a little younger 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.000 than you were inspired by seeing and hearing the Beatles? 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.240 What inspired you to get into music? 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.560 I just wanted to be in a band. I had 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.079 played piano and given little concerts in my gray flannel 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.640 short pants when I was you know, ten eleven, twelve 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.480 thirty Team but I wanted to be in a band. 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.000 I started trying to play the drums. I was terrible, 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.960 and I wanted to stand up, and so the easiest 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.120 thing to learn standing up is the bass, and that's 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:14.800 why I became a bass player. I played guitar later, 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.240 but as a bass player, I was able to jump 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.840 right in. I had a good year, and you know, 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:23.439 everybody needed a bass player. 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:26.680 Okay, what kind of background did you come from? What 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:28.160 did your parents do for a living. 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:35.240 My family was involved in the legal profession, construction politics. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:38.480 I grew up in I guess you would call it 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.440 a blue blood family. I went to Upper Canada College, 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:45.520 which was the oldest private school in Canada, where apparently 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.480 I was enrolled at birth if I can imagine people 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:55.240 doing that. So I had the opportunity of seeing, you know, 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.960 what could be done and what money could do, and 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.080 that when you needed I kind of had access to 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:07.800 friends and family who you know, were not unwilling to 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:12.680 roll the dice with something that their sons or daughters 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:13.360 might want to do. 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:19.640 Now, being a contos entrepreneurial, was there any history of 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.200 entrepreneurship in your family? Any models or were you just 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:25.640 striking off and you were the first one. 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.240 No, my grandfather was quite a well known entrepreneur. Aside 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:31.840 from building the Granite Club, he also built the Detroit 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:37.840 Windsor Tunnel. And his method was to go to the 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.480 United States government tell them that the Canadian government were 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.120 going to put up half the money. He hadn't spoken 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.400 to the Canadian government, but he came back with a 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.520 letter from the US government saying we'll put up half 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:53.280 the money, and the Canadian government said, oh my god, 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.320 well of course we'll put up half as well. So 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:00.880 that was pretty entrepreneurial. And you know, my father was 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.000 involved in mining at times. I think that's entrepreneurial. 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:09.480 And you know, obviously there was a lot of success. 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:11.880 Did you end up inheriting any of this money or 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.040 any of these businesses when your parents passed? 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:20.680 No, No, my grandfather died in nineteen thirty. My father 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.320 was when, you know, became a lawyer, which wasn't something 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:26.920 you handed on. They wanted me to go to law school. 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.360 I had no intention of doing anything that required you 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:32.679 to be in a room all day with no windows. 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.080 I was, you know, I was bound for California at 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:40.920 seventeen eighteen, and as I as I said earlier. You know, 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.120 I just wanted to get out and do stuff. 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:51.520 Okay, when you went to California, was this after the Diplomats? Yes, yes, okay, 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:55.680 let's start with the diplomats. So what was it like 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:59.920 with the Diplomats? How successful, how often? What kind of gigs? 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.680 Well, we played the same gigs that you know, the 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.000 well known bands of the day played the Rogues, John Elene, 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:12.360 the Checkmates. There weren't big opportunities or big venues for 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.720 local bands, but there was the Village in Yorkville, the Alpatio, 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.600 I mean a number of these clubs that that was 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:23.920 like big time playing those clubs. I think the biggest 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:26.360 thing we played was the Pepsi Under twenty one club 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:28.679 at the CNE, which would have had about twenty five 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.920 hundred people at it. We played the Key to Bala, 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.360 various places like that, but it was definitely on a 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:41.240 local scene. The Diplomats were very highly regarded by other musicians. 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.439 We had a fan base and we were a great band. 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.319 That's basically all they can say. Bob Bob McBride was 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.040 our singer. He went on to be the singer of 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:54.320 a Lighthouse, which was a very successful Canadian Band, and 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:56.840 the other singer, Peter McGraw, went on to be the 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.400 singer with Paul Butterfield. So those who wanted to stay 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.800 in the business musically ended up moving up the ladder. 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.000 So tell me about this move to California. 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:10.960 Well, I had the good fortune to fall in love 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.560 with a girl in Toronto, and she was an actress 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:18.120 and probably the second most well known Canadian next to 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.559 Lauren Green. She had a TV show five days a 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.479 week from the time she was eleven till she was fifteen, 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.520 and her name was Michelle Finney. But her parents, who 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.080 had moved to California, wanted her to be a movie star, 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.120 had demanded that she returned there. So of course I 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.920 had to go to California, and I got a student 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.320 visa and I moved on to her parents' coach, much 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:47.000 to their chagrin, but nonetheless I ended up getting a 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.120 job selling photocopy paper, and they gave me a car 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.520 and a box of leads, and that's what I did. 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:56.200 My school visa went out the window, and I became 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.160 an entrepreneur selling photocopy paper. 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:05.520 So when you left Toronto, how old were you and 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:07.360 how did you leave the Diplomats. 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.599 I played at the Pepsieter twenty one club. That was 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:12.840 the last gig that I played as the bass player. 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:17.120 It was the big send off. How old was I 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.320 when I went to California? I was just almost eighteen. 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.960 I was seventeen, but in November of that year I 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:24.840 became eighteen. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:27.960 So how long did it last with Michelle Finney? 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:35.520 Well, we elope to Encinata, Mexico, and came back with 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.240 a Mayorage certificate with our names in English and the 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:43.560 rest in Mexican or Spanish. Somebody said, are you sure 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.880 you did buy a cow? But it was fifty dollars 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.200 and it was very romantic. And we were then married 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:55.400 again in the little brown church on Van Knives. And 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.840 then we moved back to Canada, moved back to Toronto, 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.440 and that's when I found a dearth of rock and roll. 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.040 We've been going on too, the Sunset Strip and to 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.880 clubs and seeing great bands, love the doors, people like that. 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.720 Toronto was all folksing back then, and that's how I 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:19.320 ended up bringing the doors and that was my first concert. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.400 Okay, how long were you in Los Angeles? 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:26.040 Two years? Almost two years? 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.720 And your student visa ran out? How did you stay 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.479 in California or no one knew when you were basically 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:35.040 illegal at that point? 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.960 Yeah, yeah, basically no one knew. No one cared back 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.040 in those days, certainly. 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:45.600 And okay, so you sold copy paper until you returned 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:46.800 to Toronto. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.400 Well not quite. I met a guy named Huggy Boy 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.720 at the racetrack. Because I made so much money selling 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.520 photocopy paper that I kind of just lived on mailbox 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:02.760 money or picked up my checks. I created the concept 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.200 that paper was going to get to be very expensive, 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:07.200 but if you ordered a year's worth, I could keep 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.560 it at this price. And so the next thing you know, 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:17.200 my customers are ordering a year's worth of paper. That's entrepreneurial, 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:19.600 I guess, whatever. But I wanted to cut to the 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:21.720 chase and not be going back to the same place 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:25.240 every two weeks. Ended up going to the racetrack with 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.120 a neighbor of mine. By this time, of course, I 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:31.480 had moved into an apartment on North Orange Drive in 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.920 Hollywood called the Madison and met a neighbor and he 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:36.800 took me out to the racetrack and I met a 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.720 guy named Huggy Boy, who'd been a legendary DJ in 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.320 the fifties. It was a little down on his luck, 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.240 but I bankrolled him to get the big forty oldies 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.120 pressed up again and went up and down the coast 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.760 with him in his Cadillac, selling them by knocking on 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.360 the doors of radio stations and saying, Huggy Boys here, 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.720 and people would go, oh my god, Huggy boy. I mean, 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.120 we're in awe of him. And we would go in 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.680 the air with a little pre recorded commercial and people 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:07.640 would come down to the station and he would sign 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:11.800 the records. Then Jack Smith gave us a slot on XDRB. 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.600 I think it was midnight to one in the morning 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.720 on Sunday, and it didn't matter, hugging it on the 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.879 air with the big forty oldies and bags of money 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:27.720 started pouring in. So this was all great until I 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.439 got a knock on my door of my apartment and 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:34.000 it was US Customs and Immigration. You need to be 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.840 back in Toronto within three days or we'll be taking 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.720 you back. You were working and you're not doing your 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.040 student visa stuff. So Michelle and I had to basically 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.760 go back to Toronto and okay, wait. 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:50.639 Wait, wait, wait wait. Before you get there, was it 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.480 cheaper if you bought paper for a year, or you'd 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:54.440 just tell people. 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:58.480 It was the same price, and paper, of course, always 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:03.359 like anything else, increased in price, but probably not material 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.160 materially to the degree that if you bought it for 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.080 a year, you were going to save a fortune of money. 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.639 What I was saving was a lot of time because 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:15.960 we would do deliveries on a three monthly basis, so 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.920 instead of me lugging paper out to people's places because 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.439 there wasn't any deliveries, but once you ordered a year's worth, 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.800 you would get it delivered every three months, so there 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:27.000 were some benefits to it. 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:30.800 What was your pitch to Huggy Boy. You only met 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.040 him one day at the racetrack. How did he decide 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:34.080 to go to business with you? 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:36.840 Well, I met him one day, but we saw each 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:42.399 other many times, and as it turned out, I was 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.359 in line behind a couple of very well dressed women 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:50.520 who I recognized as obviously wealthy from you know, mothers 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:52.840 of friends of mine at Upper Canada College. The way 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.399 they were dressed, and they were talking about betting on 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:57.959 a horse. This woman said that they flew in on 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:02.920 their jet from Connecticut. Now nobody had jets back then. 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:04.959 The unless you had a leer jet and they were 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:07.199 going to bet this long shot and it was like 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.520 twenty eight to one, and the woman bet five thousand. 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:13.560 That brought the odds down. Our friend brought a bad 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.879 a thousand. I had two hundred and sixty dollars on me. 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.320 I put that all in the same horse in at one. 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.800 So I ended up with about seven thousand dollars with 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.960 the tickets. Now, my friend advised me, you will not 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:29.320 be able to cash those. You're not twenty one, you're 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:31.840 not even legal to be in here. They will seize 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:33.919 them from you. We need to find Huggy Boy and 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:36.959 get them to cash those tickets. So that's when Huggy 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.119 Boy said, I'll only do it if you invest this 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.280 money and we get the big forty oldies going again. 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:45.760 So I said, okay, I want my two hundred and 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.439 sixty eight dollars back, but yeah, I'll bank roll that. 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:49.600 And that's how it started. 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:56.800 Okay, so you go back to Toronto. What year is it? 0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:58.080 Set the scene for me? 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:03.680 Well, it's now nineteen six and I moved back into 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.200 my mom's place in Rosedale with my bride, with my wife, 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.920 we'd been married for almost two years, and that's when 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:14.760 I wanted to know what to do, how to you know, 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.400 how to fit in up here. And that's when I 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.720 decided to bring the doors to Toronto, and they were 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:26.840 very hot. Jamie Sifton's uncle gave us the money and 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.000 he was in the construction business, and we went to 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:31.399 ask him for ten thousand dollars to bring the doors 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.720 to Toronto, and he was either hard of hearing or 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.359 busy on speakerphones or something, and he said, oh, Jamie, Jamie, 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.680 I'm glad you're getting into the business. It turns out 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:44.680 he thought we were buying doors, like doors that you've 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:49.240 got put on a wall, and so you know, that's 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:51.720 how we got the money for the doors. And that 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:53.760 was the first time, you know that I wrote in 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:58.440 a limo alone with Jim Morrison of course at the time, 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:04.040 and that was very exciting. We sold out the CNE 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:08.880 Coliseum ten thousand seats and Jim was the Lizard King. 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:11.320 Then it was April twentieth, nineteen sixty eight. I like 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:13.959 to think maybe we started four twenty. I'm not sure, 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:19.040 but that was a very exciting time. I was told 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.240 to bring six beers for Jim and two limos and 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:24.920 the band and Bill Siddons got in one and I'm 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:27.560 standing at the curb with Jim and we get in 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.440 and he sees the beers and the opener opens one 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:33.119 up drains it opens another one, and he kind of 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:36.119 bumped his shoulder at me, like, you know, meaning have one. 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:39.840 So I nursed mine all the way downtown and we 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:42.040 got to the hotel. The driver opened the door. Jim 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:43.919 got halfway out and he turned back and looked at 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:46.399 me and he said, hey, man, thanks for not talking. 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:49.000 Like I was terrified. I couldn't say a word to him. 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:54.600 I'd find out later. The agent said to me the 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:56.640 next day, hey, kid, you did gray. You sold out 0:21:56.680 --> 0:21:58.920 the show. And Jim said he likes the promoter. Well, 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:01.440 that was the only kind I had hitting contact with him. 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:04.040 So Robbie told me later that would be about the 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:05.919 best thing you could ever do with Jim is not 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:08.880 to talk. So that's when fear won out. 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:14.320 Okay, you start in the business. The concept is easy. 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:16.840 You book a band, you get a venue, sell tickets, 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.639 big money. But the first time around it must have 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.000 been pretty scaring. You must have fucked up a little bit. 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.520 Well, you know, you try not to think of the 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.400 fuck ups, I'd have to really press hard to recall one. 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:33.640 Just the thrill of doing these things for me overrode 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:38.920 any kind of problems that we had with the door show. 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.680 We didn't really have any problems. It was very smooth, 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:47.800 it sold out. The band was incredible. As I said, 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:51.320 Jim was the Lizard King. Then on like nineteen sixty nine, 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:55.399 when he came back for the revival, he was very subdued, haircut, 0:22:56.080 --> 0:22:58.000 very you know, you could see the look on his face. 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:00.080 He was not a happy man. He was facing the 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:04.919 charges out of Miami. It was life changing. So the 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:07.520 sixty eight event, now, of course, right after that, Russ 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:09.560 Gibb got in touch with me from Detroit. He had 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:12.000 the Grandy Ballroom. He knew me from the Rock Pile 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:15.119 and he was bringing Jimmy Hendricks and he said, Brower, 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:18.320 be my local promoter, be my guy there. So that 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:20.120 was the next show I was involved in. 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:22.399 But whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa? How did he know you 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:24.200 from the rock Pile at that point? When did you 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:25.040 open the rock Pile? 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:28.960 Well? I had the rock Pile in sixty eight, later 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:35.520 in sixty eight, and you know, back and forth with 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:39.359 Russ Gibb was a promoter. A lot of promoters, you know, 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:42.000 were in touch with each other because it was sometimes 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:45.680 you'd if, like Donald in Montreal, if a band needed 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:48.680 two dates, Donald would ask me if you'll take one, 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:51.080 or I would ask him, like the Doors, they needed 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:54.520 two dates to play the revival, and so Donald took 0:23:54.560 --> 0:23:59.359 them on the Sunday in Montreal. Russ Gibb on occasion, 0:24:00.320 --> 0:24:02.399 I would, you know, share a date with him, or 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:06.399 in this case it was you know, the opportunity of 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:11.040 him for the first time asking me and he didn't 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:12.760 know me yet from the rock Pile. He knew me 0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:17.960 from the Door show, because I think that was promoted 0:24:18.080 --> 0:24:21.400 also of course in Detroit, Windsor everybody promoted. I mean, 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:24.640 as you know, back in the day, there was no computers. 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:27.040 You had to deliver your tickets as far and wide 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:30.560 as possible in order to sell them. Promotion was easy. 0:24:30.720 --> 0:24:33.960 Radio stations were on the case, not a problem. Buy 0:24:34.000 --> 0:24:37.280 some radio time and they'll blast it out there because 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:39.919 there wasn't anything else going on, like a million things 0:24:40.000 --> 0:24:43.920 right now, you know, putting on a concert. You were 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:48.280 you know VIP in terms of promotion at radio stations. 0:24:49.520 --> 0:24:53.720 So when you put on the doors in Toronto sixty eight, 0:24:54.400 --> 0:24:56.760 if we use the line of demarcation of the Beatles 0:24:56.800 --> 0:25:00.800 sixty four, things explode. Were there any the other concert 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:04.399 promoters in Toronto? Was anybody mad that you got the 0:25:04.480 --> 0:25:06.040 gig and they didn't? 0:25:06.480 --> 0:25:09.760 Well, Marty Enrat was a well known promoter in Toronto. 0:25:10.359 --> 0:25:14.159 He did events at Massey Hall. I don't believe that 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:19.200 he did any rock events. And of course the Gardens 0:25:19.240 --> 0:25:24.280 did the Beatles and the Stones, and other than that, 0:25:24.280 --> 0:25:27.600 there was the o'keith Center, and I guess there were 0:25:27.640 --> 0:25:32.960 a couple of other promoters, you know, other than Marty. 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:35.720 I can't really think of them. If there were any, 0:25:35.760 --> 0:25:39.200 they certainly weren't anyone in my social circle or anyone 0:25:39.240 --> 0:25:42.439 that I knew. And the whole thing with Kenny and 0:25:42.480 --> 0:25:44.880 I is we just wanted to do rock shows. I mean, 0:25:44.920 --> 0:25:47.320 that was what we wanted. That's what was happening. 0:25:48.520 --> 0:25:51.239 Okay, so it's nineteen sixty eight. How old are you 0:25:51.240 --> 0:25:52.360 in nineteen sixty eight. 0:25:52.640 --> 0:25:56.679 Well, I'm approaching twenty two. My birthdays in November, so 0:25:56.760 --> 0:25:59.760 each year I'm the same as I was almost the 0:25:59.760 --> 0:26:04.359 whole year. Eleven months of the last birthday so yeah, twenty. 0:26:04.520 --> 0:26:07.840 How many How many shows do you put on before 0:26:07.880 --> 0:26:08.959 you open the club? 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:21.000 Probably four, maybe five, and two of them of course 0:26:21.040 --> 0:26:25.080 were with ruskib because Kenny scooped me up after the club. 0:26:25.520 --> 0:26:30.040 But we decided to do the club basically because we were, 0:26:30.080 --> 0:26:33.359 you know, reading Rollie's sone about Bill Graham and the 0:26:33.440 --> 0:26:36.680 film More and you know, one of my friends said, well, 0:26:36.760 --> 0:26:39.680 you know, my girlfriend's dad's ahead of the Masonic Temple, 0:26:40.119 --> 0:26:42.520 and my other buddy, Doug, said, you know, I have 0:26:42.560 --> 0:26:45.040 some trust fund money, and the next thing you know, 0:26:45.160 --> 0:26:48.080 we're meeting the Masonic Temple and opening up the Rock 0:26:48.119 --> 0:26:51.280 Pile with Blood, Sweat and Tears. Who had a number 0:26:51.320 --> 0:26:54.200 one record and was there coming home to Toronto. 0:26:55.640 --> 0:26:58.200 What was the capacity of the Rock Pile? 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:03.040 I would say legal about fourteen hundred. There were occasions 0:27:03.040 --> 0:27:05.600 of having over two thousand people in there. There were 0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:09.280 some fire marshall crowbar in the back door nights when 0:27:09.760 --> 0:27:12.960 that's just what had to be done. It was very 0:27:13.000 --> 0:27:15.719 free for all back in those days when there's no seating. 0:27:16.320 --> 0:27:19.639 There were some benches, the concrete benches up on the 0:27:19.680 --> 0:27:22.960 second floor, but for the right band, and when led 0:27:23.000 --> 0:27:26.920 Zeppelin came, the second time. I mean bikers were charging 0:27:27.480 --> 0:27:30.720 five dollars to push people through the open windows from 0:27:30.760 --> 0:27:33.760 the street. It was so packed that you couldn't even 0:27:33.800 --> 0:27:38.240 get in if a door was opened. It was insane. 0:27:38.480 --> 0:27:40.280 How long did the Rock Pile operate? 0:27:41.040 --> 0:27:46.400 I operated in capacity as a talent buyer and producer 0:27:46.960 --> 0:27:50.600 for about eight months. It lasted about another six months, 0:27:50.640 --> 0:27:52.080 so it was about a year and a half. 0:27:52.880 --> 0:27:53.880 And why did you leave? 0:27:54.440 --> 0:27:57.359 I left to do bigger concerts with Ken Walker. I 0:27:57.480 --> 0:27:59.480 just you know, the rock Pile was just like the 0:27:59.520 --> 0:28:02.600 same thing every week. And also there were other weeks 0:28:02.640 --> 0:28:05.560 like Silver Apples, where you drew three people, but the 0:28:05.640 --> 0:28:08.200 agent told you they were the next Beatles. There wasn't 0:28:08.320 --> 0:28:12.719 Led Zeppelin every week, and we weren't Bill Graham, we 0:28:12.720 --> 0:28:17.600 weren't selling posters and merchandise. And you know, this was 0:28:17.680 --> 0:28:21.359 kind of a fun thing for my three partners. They 0:28:21.359 --> 0:28:24.080 all went either back to school or into business or 0:28:24.520 --> 0:28:28.760 to business school. And you know, I was entrepreneurial. I 0:28:28.800 --> 0:28:31.480 just wanted to keep doing this, so Kenny offered the 0:28:31.520 --> 0:28:32.440 opportunity for. 0:28:32.400 --> 0:28:35.960 That and just staying with the Rock pill for a while. 0:28:36.680 --> 0:28:39.440 How often did you do shows and how did that 0:28:39.480 --> 0:28:40.720 work out? Economically. 0:28:41.560 --> 0:28:44.000 Well, there were great weeks and there were disasters, but 0:28:44.040 --> 0:28:46.080 there was talent every week. We had to do a 0:28:46.120 --> 0:28:49.400 show every week in order to qualify as being a 0:28:49.480 --> 0:28:55.880 legitimate venue. You know, we had the debacles there and 0:28:56.200 --> 0:29:00.280 we had incredible sellouts, and we had experiences like Peter 0:29:00.440 --> 0:29:05.160 Grant showing up and try to rob us, and you 0:29:05.200 --> 0:29:09.080 know other times when certain people would show up and 0:29:09.160 --> 0:29:11.840 there would be like they'd be so gracious that you're, 0:29:12.000 --> 0:29:16.640 you know, putting on a show for them. That especially 0:29:16.680 --> 0:29:20.080 the English bands, like you mentioned earlier, many of the 0:29:20.120 --> 0:29:23.160 English bands would get their visas to Canada first and 0:29:23.200 --> 0:29:26.480 then that would be something that they would use in 0:29:26.520 --> 0:29:30.360 the States to add American dates. So a lot of 0:29:30.440 --> 0:29:34.400 times they would come to Toronto or Montreal first and 0:29:34.440 --> 0:29:37.840 then that would trigger them already being in North America, 0:29:38.360 --> 0:29:40.240 or they would be able to apply in the States 0:29:40.280 --> 0:29:42.840 since they were playing Toronto, and then we need to 0:29:42.840 --> 0:29:45.040 come to Detroit. That's kind of where they went. It 0:29:45.120 --> 0:29:46.960 is from Us to ruskild. 0:29:53.760 --> 0:29:55.760 Okay, how did Peter Grant try to rob you? 0:29:56.920 --> 0:30:03.160 Well, Peter Grant was the tour manager for the Jeff 0:30:03.200 --> 0:30:07.200 Beck group. This is pre led Zeppelin, and we booked 0:30:07.240 --> 0:30:09.640 them for two shows on a Sunday. They sold out 0:30:09.720 --> 0:30:16.120 both shows clean afternoon Mattinee, No band, No band, had 0:30:16.160 --> 0:30:19.400 to refund all the tickets. Everybody's now lining up for 0:30:19.440 --> 0:30:24.520 the evening show, and they show up, you know, and unload, 0:30:24.640 --> 0:30:28.400 and you know, you always pay the agent for one 0:30:28.440 --> 0:30:31.120 show and then you give the band cash for the second. 0:30:32.040 --> 0:30:35.560 So Peter Grant shows up and wants the money for 0:30:35.600 --> 0:30:38.920 the second show, and we said, well, we had to 0:30:38.960 --> 0:30:41.000 refund the first show. You didn't show up. What do 0:30:41.040 --> 0:30:42.760 you mean, give you the money for the second show. 0:30:43.080 --> 0:30:44.480 He goes, so if we don't get the money for 0:30:44.520 --> 0:30:48.120 the second show, we're not going on. Well, at that point, 0:30:48.200 --> 0:30:50.320 you know, we'd already let people in the hall. I mean, 0:30:50.320 --> 0:30:54.680 it would have been a nightmare, and of course our 0:30:54.720 --> 0:30:57.160 reputation would have been destroyed. It was bad enough that 0:30:57.240 --> 0:31:00.600 we had to refund the first show. So the band 0:31:00.640 --> 0:31:03.960 starts to play and one of my partners, Doug mcquaig's 0:31:03.960 --> 0:31:07.680 father was a very powerful attorney, and he made some 0:31:07.680 --> 0:31:09.880 phone calls, even on a Sunday, And when the band 0:31:09.880 --> 0:31:13.280 got off stage, there was immigration officers, customs officers and 0:31:13.320 --> 0:31:18.320 police officers there waiting, and two of my partners were 0:31:18.360 --> 0:31:21.360 big guys. They were like six foot three, two hundred 0:31:21.360 --> 0:31:23.080 and something, and they said you have to go talk 0:31:23.120 --> 0:31:26.520 to him because he might hit us. So I went 0:31:26.600 --> 0:31:28.280 up to Peter and I said, look, Peter, I need 0:31:28.320 --> 0:31:31.080 to inform you that the police there are going to 0:31:31.080 --> 0:31:34.320 take you to your hotel and you're going to a 0:31:34.360 --> 0:31:39.080 court tomorrow and be charged with theft by conversion, whatever 0:31:39.120 --> 0:31:43.720 else they can throw at you. And the customs people 0:31:43.760 --> 0:31:48.040 are going to impound the equipment and that's what's happening 0:31:48.080 --> 0:31:52.160 for you guys right now. And so he just now, 0:31:52.240 --> 0:31:56.840 meaning take in our equipment, and I go, well, you know, 0:31:56.840 --> 0:31:58.680 I'm afraid that's not the case. So one of the 0:31:58.680 --> 0:32:02.560 police officers came over and started telling him the same thing, 0:32:02.560 --> 0:32:05.400 and he grabbed the guy through like right here of 0:32:05.480 --> 0:32:07.680 his uniform and lifting him up in the air right 0:32:07.720 --> 0:32:11.680 to his face and said, nobody's taking our equipment. And 0:32:11.720 --> 0:32:13.520 this guy pulled his side arm out and put it 0:32:13.600 --> 0:32:15.280 in his gut and he said to him, you know, 0:32:15.440 --> 0:32:17.600 like let me down roll shoot you. Well Peter looked 0:32:17.600 --> 0:32:20.280 downside the gun lowered him. In La he might have 0:32:20.320 --> 0:32:23.200 been shot, but in Toronto, I think he shocked everybody. 0:32:23.240 --> 0:32:26.320 So much that they just escorted him to the hotel. 0:32:27.440 --> 0:32:29.680 Chaff said to me, can we please take our guitars? 0:32:29.680 --> 0:32:32.680 They said yes, of course. So nine in the morning, 0:32:32.720 --> 0:32:35.720 Steve Weiss and Frank Barcelona are on the phone to me, 0:32:35.920 --> 0:32:39.160 nine o'clock Monday morning, going, John, the band's got to 0:32:39.200 --> 0:32:41.400 be in Detroit tonight. Please, what can we do? How 0:32:41.400 --> 0:32:45.120 can we work this out? And I go, well, we 0:32:45.200 --> 0:32:47.400 just want our money back, you know, like we want 0:32:47.400 --> 0:32:49.120 to pay for one show and if it was we 0:32:49.200 --> 0:32:51.440 paid for the first show and we ended up getting 0:32:51.480 --> 0:32:54.800 the second, that's fine, fine, fine, John. The police are 0:32:54.840 --> 0:32:58.360 over there. They're talking about escorting Peter downtown in an hour, 0:32:59.000 --> 0:33:01.120 and what what can we do? I said, well, get 0:33:01.120 --> 0:33:03.920 Peter to come over here with our money and then 0:33:04.120 --> 0:33:07.160 I'll make a call and whatever, you know, charges whatever, 0:33:07.240 --> 0:33:13.240 Doug mcquig's dadd'll stop everything. So Peter came over with 0:33:13.320 --> 0:33:16.120 the money rolled up in a big thing with elastics 0:33:16.160 --> 0:33:19.760 around it. And the Masonic Temple had these beautiful marble 0:33:19.800 --> 0:33:23.320 steps and leading up to these huge doors, and then 0:33:23.400 --> 0:33:25.840 more marble steps up to the entrance. So I went 0:33:25.840 --> 0:33:28.240 and sit at the top of the inner marble steps 0:33:29.000 --> 0:33:31.560 and within a few minutes because their hotel wasn't very 0:33:31.560 --> 0:33:34.680 far away. It was like the door came off the hinges. 0:33:34.720 --> 0:33:37.800 Peter pulled that door open and like the sun behind him, 0:33:37.800 --> 0:33:40.719 and here's this giant, hoping guy in the doorway, and 0:33:40.760 --> 0:33:43.800 he comes in and he looks up at me and 0:33:43.840 --> 0:33:46.160 he just goes back in one blow and he just 0:33:46.320 --> 0:33:48.520 hurls his money right at me and hit me right 0:33:48.560 --> 0:33:51.120 in the head and it blew up all over the place, 0:33:51.240 --> 0:33:54.160 knocked me on my ass, and I just started scooping 0:33:54.160 --> 0:33:55.720 the money up and I looked at him, I said, 0:33:55.760 --> 0:33:58.240 get the f out of my club. And that was 0:33:58.320 --> 0:34:00.680 my only contact with Peter Grant. By the time he 0:34:00.720 --> 0:34:03.280 came back the second time for led Zeppelin, I was 0:34:03.280 --> 0:34:06.320 not involved with the club. I had been at Woodstock. 0:34:06.360 --> 0:34:08.400 It was the Monday of Woodstock and I was just 0:34:08.480 --> 0:34:10.920 getting back from being on stage at Woodstock for two 0:34:11.040 --> 0:34:14.120 days and we got back to go see Zeppelin at 0:34:14.160 --> 0:34:17.439 the club and just missed their encore. So I saw 0:34:17.440 --> 0:34:21.080 Woodstock and I missed led Zeppelin's encore at what once 0:34:21.520 --> 0:34:22.120 was my club. 0:34:23.000 --> 0:34:25.200 What were you doing on the stage at Woodstock? 0:34:25.920 --> 0:34:30.840 Well, you know entrepreneurial skills, you know, aside there was 0:34:30.880 --> 0:34:36.479 also hustle. Michael Lang invited all the promoters that were 0:34:36.560 --> 0:34:40.120 known to come to his show in Woodstock, which was great. 0:34:40.160 --> 0:34:42.880 He called us in June. I don't know who he was, 0:34:43.680 --> 0:34:46.399 and you know it was great. Sure, man, that's great. Yeah, 0:34:46.440 --> 0:34:51.160 we'll come to your show. Well, on Friday, Hugh Curry 0:34:51.160 --> 0:34:54.880 and I and are production manager and receptionist started driving 0:34:54.960 --> 0:34:59.040 up Young Street and on the radio comes this incredible 0:34:59.040 --> 0:35:02.400 story Woodstock and everything, and on the interview in a 0:35:02.520 --> 0:35:05.799 radio comes Michael Lang talking about it. So I'm going 0:35:06.040 --> 0:35:08.560 that's that guy called our office in June. That guy 0:35:08.640 --> 0:35:13.080 invited us to come. So long story short, we decide 0:35:13.120 --> 0:35:15.160 we're going to turn the car around, go to my place, 0:35:15.200 --> 0:35:19.040 get some underwear, socks or whatever. Nobody's calling their wife, 0:35:19.120 --> 0:35:22.240 nobody's The receptionist said, I don't need to call anybody, 0:35:22.280 --> 0:35:24.480 and we had to Buffalo. So we get to the 0:35:24.760 --> 0:35:27.120 border and tell the guy we're going to visit friends 0:35:27.160 --> 0:35:29.000 and have dinner in Buffalo. We know we're not telling 0:35:29.040 --> 0:35:31.560 them we're going to Woodstock. We get to fifty miles 0:35:31.560 --> 0:35:35.440 from Woodstock and the roads closed and everybody steered into 0:35:35.640 --> 0:35:41.160 a roadside whatever the through way things are. There was 0:35:41.200 --> 0:35:45.040 probably a thousand people there, So, you know, my buddy says, 0:35:45.080 --> 0:35:48.560 and we had a couple of joints with us some alcohol. 0:35:49.040 --> 0:35:51.719 So my buddy goes, well that's it, man. We tried. 0:35:51.760 --> 0:35:54.040 We gave it a shot, and I said, no, give 0:35:54.040 --> 0:35:56.719 me a joint. So there was probably fifty people at 0:35:56.760 --> 0:35:59.319 the pavephone. I lit it and came up to the 0:35:59.360 --> 0:36:01.239 front and I said, look, somebody's having a baby. You 0:36:01.280 --> 0:36:03.360 got to have the phone just for one minute, please 0:36:03.400 --> 0:36:07.080 play is here? So okay, man, So pass the joint 0:36:07.080 --> 0:36:08.920 down a couple people. I get on the phone, call 0:36:09.000 --> 0:36:11.640 the New York State Police. I go listen, we're roadies 0:36:11.640 --> 0:36:13.799 for a band that's playing at the festival witch Talk. 0:36:14.200 --> 0:36:16.560 I think we're lost. We're trying to get there. How 0:36:16.560 --> 0:36:19.279 do we get to the back roads? How do we 0:36:19.320 --> 0:36:22.040 get to the heliport? So he goes, I don't know 0:36:22.080 --> 0:36:24.440 what back roads, but the heliport. Where are you? And 0:36:24.480 --> 0:36:26.600 I tell him He goes, go back to exits, go 0:36:26.760 --> 0:36:30.000 south to Route seventeen, Go eastern Route seventeen. You'll run 0:36:30.080 --> 0:36:32.879 right into it. You'll see the clevelands. So an hour 0:36:33.000 --> 0:36:36.279 later we're there at the heliport and we go up 0:36:36.320 --> 0:36:38.200 to the chopper guy and tell them, you know, when 0:36:38.239 --> 0:36:40.040 can we get on a chopper? He goes, what band 0:36:40.040 --> 0:36:42.560 are you with? You go, we're not with a band. 0:36:42.760 --> 0:36:46.120 Michael Lang invited us. He goes, Michael Lang invited everybody 0:36:46.120 --> 0:36:47.600 get out of here. If you're not on a band 0:36:47.600 --> 0:36:50.319 playing tomorrow, you're not getting out of chopper. So now 0:36:50.360 --> 0:36:53.439 we're like, oh my god. It was a motel there, 0:36:53.560 --> 0:36:56.239 and of course it said rooms available, and nobody want 0:36:56.320 --> 0:36:59.960 to stay there. So the production manager and the reception 0:37:00.160 --> 0:37:01.600 just go, look, we've got to get a room. We 0:37:01.640 --> 0:37:04.879 can't drive back to Traunta now. So to them, it's over. 0:37:05.840 --> 0:37:09.719 So a cab pulls up and a guy gets out 0:37:09.760 --> 0:37:11.440 with the guitar and he comes over to the chopper 0:37:11.480 --> 0:37:14.400 guy and he goes, Eric Barrett got Jimmy Hendrix's guitar, 0:37:14.520 --> 0:37:17.560 going to get on a choupper right now. The guy goes, 0:37:17.760 --> 0:37:19.959 you're not getting on a chopper right now. Jimmy's playing 0:37:20.000 --> 0:37:22.440 Sunday night. You don't get on a chopper till tomorrow. 0:37:23.120 --> 0:37:25.759 So he's going fuck, you know, So we sidle up 0:37:25.760 --> 0:37:30.240 to him, and you know, we're limiting that. The chopper guys, 0:37:30.280 --> 0:37:32.239 which are always the worst guys in the world at 0:37:32.239 --> 0:37:37.960 any festival and a station wagon pulls up and this 0:37:38.040 --> 0:37:40.640 guy gets out and he's chewing on some tobacco, and 0:37:40.760 --> 0:37:42.880 you know, Levon Holm would be the perfect guy to 0:37:42.920 --> 0:37:45.600 play this guy if this is a movie. And he 0:37:45.680 --> 0:37:47.480 sidles up to and he goes, hey, you boys, don't 0:37:47.480 --> 0:37:49.560 want to go to that big hip show. Get you 0:37:49.640 --> 0:37:53.480 right in fifty bucks each. So we look at this 0:37:53.520 --> 0:37:56.799 guy and like so Eric Barrett goes, all right, let's go, 0:37:56.920 --> 0:37:57.359 let's go. 0:37:57.440 --> 0:37:57.759 I'll go. 0:37:58.640 --> 0:38:00.400 Well, Hugh and I look at each other. Makets for 0:38:00.440 --> 0:38:03.279 eighteen dollars, but fifty bucks each. Now my friends come 0:38:03.280 --> 0:38:05.480 back and they've got a motel room. They're all excited. 0:38:05.880 --> 0:38:08.640 It's one hundred bucks for the next two nights and 0:38:08.719 --> 0:38:12.040 there's two beds in a couch. I said, we're going 0:38:12.080 --> 0:38:15.239 into the festival with this guy. Well, my receptions looked 0:38:15.280 --> 0:38:16.880 at this guy and she said, I'm not getting in 0:38:16.920 --> 0:38:19.399 the car with that man. I mean he looked rough, 0:38:20.440 --> 0:38:22.880 and so I said okay, And they've gotten kind of 0:38:22.880 --> 0:38:27.560 snugly in the car, and a production guy you know, says, well, 0:38:28.640 --> 0:38:30.400 we'll stay here, man, We've got a room. If it's 0:38:30.440 --> 0:38:32.080 good coming at us, I said, I don't think we're 0:38:32.120 --> 0:38:34.080 going to get you. But anyway, so we get in 0:38:34.120 --> 0:38:36.440 this guy's car and he drives down the road and 0:38:36.480 --> 0:38:38.279 all of a sudden he pulls right off the road 0:38:38.320 --> 0:38:42.279 and crashes into the woods, and we are screaming, but 0:38:42.360 --> 0:38:45.319 all of a sudden he's laughing, and he's driving through 0:38:45.400 --> 0:38:48.000 ruts in the road and branches are flashing off this 0:38:48.239 --> 0:38:53.560 windshield and Eric parents says, you know you got me pot, 0:38:53.719 --> 0:38:55.920 and then Hugh goes, yeah, we got to do before you. 0:38:56.280 --> 0:38:58.400 And this guy goes he bowys wants a pot, and 0:38:58.400 --> 0:39:01.080 he pulls up his bag from under the seat, big 0:39:01.160 --> 0:39:05.319 buds the size of mice, and he sells us two 0:39:05.360 --> 0:39:09.040 of them for fifty each. Long story short. He drives 0:39:09.040 --> 0:39:11.759 through the woods, comes into a field, goes through the 0:39:11.800 --> 0:39:14.200 woods again, comes out and pulls up and drops right 0:39:14.200 --> 0:39:19.000 into the backstage of Woodstock. There's the stage, okay, and 0:39:19.080 --> 0:39:22.680 so security comes running over. Eric Barrett jumps out, Jimmy 0:39:22.680 --> 0:39:27.040 Hendrix wesby Trailsmie laminates and I go where with him? 0:39:27.400 --> 0:39:31.480 And so they give us backstage all stage laminates and 0:39:31.520 --> 0:39:35.759 we never see him again. And that was it. We're 0:39:35.800 --> 0:39:41.279 now backstage at Woodstock with all access laminates in twelve hours. 0:39:41.600 --> 0:39:46.560 Okay, you're there, you're there for three days. Where do 0:39:46.640 --> 0:39:47.160 you sleep? 0:39:47.320 --> 0:39:49.800 No, we don't sleep anywhere, because a girl came along 0:39:49.960 --> 0:39:53.719 very shortly thereafter with two giant mushroom stems. I ate 0:39:53.800 --> 0:39:56.840 my allmine right away. Hugh do doled his out of 0:39:56.960 --> 0:40:00.000 the weekend. He has some stories about what happened to me, 0:40:01.760 --> 0:40:05.319 But nobody slept. There was no sleeping. You might lean 0:40:05.480 --> 0:40:09.440 up against something. I fell in love with the trumpet 0:40:09.440 --> 0:40:12.839 player for Sly and the Family Stone, standing about ten 0:40:12.880 --> 0:40:15.920 feet from her. Abby Hoffman was standing next to me 0:40:15.960 --> 0:40:19.080 when The Who was playing, and between one of their songs, 0:40:19.080 --> 0:40:20.680 he ran out and grabbed the mic and goes, what 0:40:20.719 --> 0:40:22.960 are we gonna do? But John Sinclair, what are we 0:40:22.960 --> 0:40:26.480 gonna do about? John Sinklair and Pete Townsend come up 0:40:26.520 --> 0:40:28.239 and smashes him on the back of the head and 0:40:28.320 --> 0:40:30.880 knocks him out. Roady's drag him off. I'm on mushrooms 0:40:30.920 --> 0:40:34.120 watching this. I never could have an infinity for The Who. 0:40:34.160 --> 0:40:37.800 After that, Janna threw me off the stage. My friend 0:40:37.840 --> 0:40:41.080 was her guitar player, John Till. We're smoking a joint 0:40:41.080 --> 0:40:44.719 behind the amps and she comes out to go on 0:40:44.920 --> 0:40:47.720 and doesn't see John as she goes, where's my guitar player? 0:40:47.920 --> 0:40:50.400 Where's my guitar player? She sees us, He who the 0:40:50.440 --> 0:40:53.320 fuck are you? Are you getting my guitar player's stone? 0:40:53.480 --> 0:40:55.759 Get the fuck off my stage. So Rody's come and 0:40:55.800 --> 0:40:57.680 grab me. I have to get off the stage. Lamit 0:40:57.920 --> 0:41:00.200 or not, you get it off the stage right now. Now. 0:41:01.520 --> 0:41:05.240 Those are some highlights. And then of course Monday morning 0:41:05.320 --> 0:41:10.040 on stage for Jimmy, and that was incredible. I'm down 0:41:10.120 --> 0:41:15.359 by now, and so Jimmy's over and my buddy looks 0:41:15.360 --> 0:41:19.399 at me. He goes, where's that guy with the station wagon? Well, 0:41:19.440 --> 0:41:21.160 of course he was nowhere to be found. But I 0:41:21.239 --> 0:41:24.719 see about one hundred yards away a National Guard helicopter 0:41:24.880 --> 0:41:27.600 and the blades were like it was sort of on, 0:41:27.840 --> 0:41:30.120 like idling. I guess what their blades do? They kind 0:41:30.120 --> 0:41:32.480 of move, So I said, come on, I remember we 0:41:32.520 --> 0:41:34.879 have these laminates. So I come up to this kid 0:41:34.880 --> 0:41:36.880 that looks younger than us, but he's about six ' 0:41:36.960 --> 0:41:39.399 three and he's in a uniform and he's standing next 0:41:39.400 --> 0:41:42.200 to this huge helicopter. So I go, listen, man, can 0:41:42.239 --> 0:41:44.560 you take us to the Montsello Airport? I said, we're 0:41:44.560 --> 0:41:46.759 with the promoters. Very important. We have to get there. 0:41:47.040 --> 0:41:49.719 He goes get in. He slides this door open, this 0:41:49.960 --> 0:41:52.360 like the size of the wall in the one of 0:41:52.360 --> 0:41:56.160 my apartments. And of course when we get in, people 0:41:56.239 --> 0:41:59.239 rush the helicopter. I mean, nobody wanted to ask. I ask, 0:41:59.400 --> 0:42:01.840 that's who I am? So I asked, Now the door's open. 0:42:02.160 --> 0:42:05.359 Finally he had to stop, like he had twelve more 0:42:05.400 --> 0:42:07.480 people in there. I don't know how many, but bum 0:42:07.520 --> 0:42:09.520 bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum 0:42:09.640 --> 0:42:12.560 down right there, and there's the car, and there's my 0:42:12.680 --> 0:42:16.600 production manager and receptionist standing next to it. And that's it. 0:42:16.760 --> 0:42:18.239 We drive home and misleds up. 0:42:20.880 --> 0:42:25.800 Okay, you do the festival in the spring. You've already 0:42:26.000 --> 0:42:31.680 left the venue and the rock pile before you do 0:42:32.040 --> 0:42:35.040 the Rock and Roll Revival sixty nine in the fall. 0:42:35.560 --> 0:42:37.000 Did you do any other shows? 0:42:37.760 --> 0:42:41.880 I did? I must admit that I did Blind Faith 0:42:42.040 --> 0:42:44.719 at the end of July. Kenny wouldn't do it with me. 0:42:45.239 --> 0:42:48.480 The record was now yet. My friend Hugh Curry was 0:42:48.560 --> 0:42:51.319 a DJ on Chalmy at a Sunday night radio show 0:42:51.400 --> 0:42:53.640 called The Dream Machine. He was saying, you have to 0:42:53.760 --> 0:42:56.160 do it, you have to do it. This is the 0:42:56.600 --> 0:43:00.680 super group. You have to bring them here. So Stan 0:43:00.800 --> 0:43:04.920 Freeman at the Electric Circus in Toronto or in New 0:43:05.000 --> 0:43:08.040 York had an electric circus by this time, competing with 0:43:08.120 --> 0:43:10.480 the Rock Pile in Toronto. He said, I'll do it 0:43:10.560 --> 0:43:13.799 with you, and so he and another guy I can't 0:43:13.800 --> 0:43:17.480 remember his name, they put the money up and we 0:43:17.560 --> 0:43:20.480 lost twenty thousand dollars. There's only three thousand people came. 0:43:20.560 --> 0:43:23.320 The record came out the day of the show, and 0:43:25.200 --> 0:43:27.319 it was an incredible show. Of course, it was an 0:43:27.320 --> 0:43:31.400 amazing show, and Hugh and I sat and played records 0:43:31.480 --> 0:43:35.799 with Stevie Winwood and Rick Gretch after the show all 0:43:35.920 --> 0:43:38.320 night long. Back at Hughes Plays, Clapton went off, I 0:43:38.360 --> 0:43:40.840 don't know where with Bonnie Bonnie Delaney. They were the 0:43:40.920 --> 0:43:44.839 opening act. It was a magical experience, but it costs money. 0:43:45.239 --> 0:43:47.560 It was. It was a bomb, as were many of 0:43:47.600 --> 0:43:50.400 those dates because there was no record. If there's no record, 0:43:51.040 --> 0:43:54.080 there's no internet, there's no nothing. There's no tribal drums. 0:43:54.760 --> 0:43:56.040 You know, there's rolling stone. 0:43:57.440 --> 0:44:00.759 Okay, what let's go back to the show. What is 0:44:00.840 --> 0:44:02.360 the exact date of the Spring. 0:44:02.200 --> 0:44:06.359 Festival September thirteenth, No, No, the one in the spring 0:44:06.640 --> 0:44:07.680 June twenty twenty one. 0:44:08.600 --> 0:44:12.760 Okay, so how long after that festival do you start 0:44:13.120 --> 0:44:16.080 deciding you're going to do something in September. 0:44:16.160 --> 0:44:17.640 Like probably the day afterwards. 0:44:19.239 --> 0:44:22.920 And is the initial idea this rock revival thing or 0:44:23.280 --> 0:44:24.920 is anybody saying anything different? 0:44:25.200 --> 0:44:27.400 No? No, I was usually the guy that would call 0:44:27.480 --> 0:44:30.879 the shots on who we were going to book. Kenny 0:44:31.040 --> 0:44:34.320 was the business guy. He always made sure, you know, 0:44:35.000 --> 0:44:37.040 we made money. I don't know how, but he did. 0:44:38.000 --> 0:44:41.160 And so it was this whole thing that Chuck Berry 0:44:41.280 --> 0:44:44.000 stole the show. Everybody's talking about Chuck Berry the next 0:44:44.040 --> 0:44:47.000 few days. So that's when it was let's do all 0:44:47.040 --> 0:44:48.160 the old rock and rollers. 0:44:56.239 --> 0:44:59.920 Okay, so tell me about building the show, getting the tech. 0:45:00.440 --> 0:45:03.080 Well, you know, the talent came together in one day, 0:45:03.200 --> 0:45:06.200 literally the rockers, and that was what was made us 0:45:06.400 --> 0:45:09.680 feel for sure, this is a great idea because just 0:45:09.800 --> 0:45:14.120 two calls to Universal or you know another booking agent 0:45:14.200 --> 0:45:16.960 I can't remember who, didn't matter. We were, you know, 0:45:17.520 --> 0:45:22.160 Jerry Lee's available. Gene Vincent came on later, Kim Fowley 0:45:22.320 --> 0:45:26.120 got us to bring him up there, and little Richard, 0:45:26.239 --> 0:45:29.680 I mean, you know, probably those guys were not getting 0:45:29.719 --> 0:45:31.880 booked very often, and this was like I got a 0:45:32.000 --> 0:45:34.120 date for you. It was probably what their agent said, Hey, 0:45:34.200 --> 0:45:38.040 I got a date for you up in Toronto, and 0:45:38.160 --> 0:45:41.280 we thought it was propitious and you know, a good omen. 0:45:42.680 --> 0:45:45.239 In hindsight, it was probably them excited to get a gig. 0:45:45.600 --> 0:45:48.880 I don't know, nobody knows, but it all came together 0:45:49.040 --> 0:45:50.440 in like a few phone calls. 0:45:51.800 --> 0:45:55.520 Okay, so how did you end up booking the more 0:45:55.600 --> 0:45:59.280 contemporary acts Chicago? The Door's Alice Cooper. 0:45:59.600 --> 0:46:03.160 Well, Chicrgo had a number one record. Okay, they were huge, 0:46:03.880 --> 0:46:06.799 and so they were an obvious buy just because they 0:46:06.840 --> 0:46:12.120 were getting massive radio player. In terms of the doors, 0:46:12.239 --> 0:46:15.080 they did not come along until I saw that this 0:46:15.320 --> 0:46:21.000 was going to be an unmitigated disaster. And that's when 0:46:21.040 --> 0:46:26.000 I bore the money from Edgo the Biker to bring them, 0:46:26.080 --> 0:46:28.120 and I thought, well, for sure, now we're going to 0:46:28.200 --> 0:46:30.640 sell out the doors because the year before we sold 0:46:30.680 --> 0:46:35.239 out the coliseum in like days. But the you know, 0:46:35.800 --> 0:46:38.520 blush was off the rose whatever that expression is, and 0:46:38.719 --> 0:46:42.040 the doors. Remember something else. I believe a lot of 0:46:42.120 --> 0:46:45.080 parents were involved in kids getting permission to go downtown 0:46:45.520 --> 0:46:47.480 and be at a show. They didn't end till eleven 0:46:47.520 --> 0:46:50.279 o'clock at night, and also to have six dollars or 0:46:50.320 --> 0:46:52.319 eight dollars, and then I need money for a hot 0:46:52.400 --> 0:46:54.840 dog and a coke, et cetera, et cetera. This was 0:46:55.520 --> 0:47:02.120 not entrepreneurial teenagers. This was provincial Toronto. Liquor stores closed Sunday, 0:47:02.280 --> 0:47:06.480 bars closed Sunday. I mean, this was still very provincial, 0:47:06.880 --> 0:47:08.920 and I believe parents had a lot to do with it. 0:47:09.040 --> 0:47:12.360 I'm sure the story about Jim Morrison more in Miami 0:47:12.719 --> 0:47:16.240 had spread far and wide on the parental tribal drums. 0:47:17.640 --> 0:47:20.200 Okay, let's go a little slower. Basically, in one day, 0:47:20.280 --> 0:47:24.480 you book all the fifties rockers, do you in from 0:47:24.560 --> 0:47:28.640 the beginning? Do you plan to book contemporary stuff like Chicago? 0:47:28.960 --> 0:47:31.359 Or is an afterthought because those things are a little 0:47:31.400 --> 0:47:34.200 oil and water. They're both music, are both rock, but 0:47:34.280 --> 0:47:35.200 from different erows. 0:47:35.840 --> 0:47:38.640 Yes, we intended to book other acts as well, because, 0:47:38.680 --> 0:47:41.560 of course, from the June show there were acts that 0:47:41.640 --> 0:47:44.759 were so off the wall, like Doctor John, that were 0:47:45.000 --> 0:47:48.480 like incredible, that stunned the audience. Nobody knew who Doctor 0:47:48.600 --> 0:47:53.239 John was. And we booked Tony Joe White, who also 0:47:53.320 --> 0:47:56.080 had a big record and who was he was a 0:47:56.160 --> 0:47:59.680 country guy from Nashville or something like that. But they 0:47:59.760 --> 0:48:03.279 had big records and that was getting airplay. That obviously 0:48:03.520 --> 0:48:08.440 did not translate to ticket sales either. And I think 0:48:08.480 --> 0:48:11.760 you have to remember as a festival, parents were involved 0:48:11.880 --> 0:48:14.359 in approving their kids coming down there. 0:48:15.760 --> 0:48:20.560 How long after you booked the initial talent did you 0:48:20.719 --> 0:48:22.560 decide and then book the doors. 0:48:23.760 --> 0:48:26.080 Well, the doors were the very late booking. That was 0:48:26.120 --> 0:48:28.480 a hail Mary pass right there before we had a 0:48:28.520 --> 0:48:32.760 Hail Mary with Lennon. That was when it was obvious 0:48:32.880 --> 0:48:36.879 the ticket sales were not going to reach any kind 0:48:36.960 --> 0:48:39.920 of line like a stock where you know it's climbing. 0:48:40.000 --> 0:48:45.280 They were flat, and I just felt from the Door's 0:48:45.840 --> 0:48:50.560 performance the year before, and you know, girls were screaming, 0:48:50.680 --> 0:48:55.480 they were like fainting at the coliseum. It was pandemonium. 0:48:55.600 --> 0:48:57.680 Jim had his shirt open and his hair and he 0:48:57.800 --> 0:49:00.720 was the lizard king. That's what I thought we were getting. 0:49:01.680 --> 0:49:05.400 And you know, we didn't get latest photos of people 0:49:05.560 --> 0:49:07.560 sent up to us. Oh wait a minute, here's Jim's 0:49:07.600 --> 0:49:10.360 latest mugshot. No, that didn't come up with the contract. 0:49:12.800 --> 0:49:14.960 So they came and you know it was a very 0:49:15.040 --> 0:49:15.840 different reception. 0:49:17.760 --> 0:49:22.200 Okay, let's talk before the date plays. So when you 0:49:22.320 --> 0:49:25.120 booked the doors, are you aware of what happened in Miami? 0:49:25.280 --> 0:49:27.200 Oh? Absolutely, of course. 0:49:27.440 --> 0:49:30.840 Okay, so tell us about getting the money from the 0:49:31.000 --> 0:49:31.759 biker gang. 0:49:32.920 --> 0:49:36.440 Well, it was from the leader, edgo and I needed 0:49:36.560 --> 0:49:39.760 to borrow the money because he said, look, this is alone, 0:49:39.840 --> 0:49:43.360 this is not an investment. Okay, we don't want anything 0:49:43.480 --> 0:49:45.319 for it, but you know what, I'll help you out. 0:49:45.440 --> 0:49:49.160 But guess what. So that's why when I said to Kenny, 0:49:49.239 --> 0:49:51.279 you know we need twenty five thousand, he said, no, 0:49:51.360 --> 0:49:54.080 I'm not going to do it. Borrow it from somebody, 0:49:54.520 --> 0:49:57.000 and you know, and then when I told him I 0:49:57.080 --> 0:49:59.960 bored it from Edgoe, he said, well, you know that's great, 0:50:00.160 --> 0:50:01.920 but you know, if it's a bomb, it's on you. 0:50:02.239 --> 0:50:08.239 So rolling ahead a little further, when it was like 0:50:08.360 --> 0:50:11.279 the Eatons went and canceled the show, you know, my 0:50:11.440 --> 0:50:13.520 wife was ready to take the baby and move back 0:50:13.560 --> 0:50:16.080 to her parents in California on the next plane, thinking, 0:50:16.160 --> 0:50:18.360 you know, the Eatons aren't going to pony up to 0:50:18.440 --> 0:50:20.759 twenty five thousand. We're Johnny going to get that money? 0:50:20.840 --> 0:50:24.400 I don't know anyway. Then Lennon came alone and saved 0:50:24.480 --> 0:50:25.000 the bacon. 0:50:25.920 --> 0:50:28.399 Okay, is that what the door has cost? 0:50:29.360 --> 0:50:32.000 Twenty five thousand for each day? Donald paid them the 0:50:32.040 --> 0:50:32.880 same in Montreal. 0:50:34.120 --> 0:50:36.560 Okay, how did you know this guy? 0:50:37.520 --> 0:50:39.680 No? What guy ed Joe? He did security for us 0:50:39.719 --> 0:50:42.560 at the rock Pile. Whenever British bands played at the 0:50:42.640 --> 0:50:45.520 rock Pile, the Scotty Mods would come out of Scarborough, 0:50:46.280 --> 0:50:49.080 and I mean the guys that were speaking English came 0:50:49.120 --> 0:50:52.040 from English families, dressed like the Scotty Mods in Scotland 0:50:52.160 --> 0:50:54.359 or in the UK, and they would come and they 0:50:54.360 --> 0:50:56.919 would fly in a v right to the front door 0:50:57.040 --> 0:50:59.680 and smash their way in. Well, they only did that 0:50:59.800 --> 0:51:03.320 one and then we got Edgoe and some of his 0:51:03.480 --> 0:51:06.480 guys to come and be security. And when they did 0:51:06.560 --> 0:51:09.120 that the next time, they never did it again. So 0:51:09.400 --> 0:51:11.800 I knew Edgoe also from the village. Edgo was like 0:51:11.840 --> 0:51:15.880 a character hanging around the village, and that's where we 0:51:16.000 --> 0:51:19.279 all hung around, like in the Diplomat's days. So I 0:51:19.360 --> 0:51:22.920 mean these were characters. I was a character. I think 0:51:23.040 --> 0:51:26.000 in one thing edgo says, you know John Brower was 0:51:26.040 --> 0:51:28.440 another character hanging around the village. I mean we were 0:51:28.480 --> 0:51:30.000 all characters against. 0:51:30.840 --> 0:51:34.200 Okay, where did you think he got the twenty five 0:51:34.280 --> 0:51:35.080 thousand dollars. 0:51:35.200 --> 0:51:38.320 Where did he get it? Probably out of his back pocket, 0:51:38.520 --> 0:51:41.960 I'm not sure. I'm sure they had businesses. I'm sure 0:51:42.000 --> 0:51:46.399 they had enterprises that were enterprising back in those days. 0:51:46.480 --> 0:51:49.279 As he says in the Revival movie, you got to 0:51:49.320 --> 0:51:52.600 remember there's a lot of pot smoke back then. Well 0:51:52.640 --> 0:51:54.680 there were a lot of people selling it back then too, 0:51:54.800 --> 0:51:56.640 and I'm sure they may have been. 0:51:56.560 --> 0:51:59.640 Some of them, so you weren't aware that they were 0:51:59.680 --> 0:52:03.200 in the business. How do you know we had that money? 0:52:04.239 --> 0:52:07.640 Well, you know, I asked a couple of people before 0:52:07.680 --> 0:52:10.120 I asked him. Believe me, Okay, I asked a couple 0:52:10.200 --> 0:52:12.279 of people. I asked a couple of guys from Upper 0:52:12.360 --> 0:52:14.880 Canada College, could you get your mom to loan me 0:52:14.960 --> 0:52:18.600 twenty five thousand? You know, I think one guy asked 0:52:18.640 --> 0:52:22.280 his mom. She laughed him out of the house. But remember, 0:52:22.640 --> 0:52:25.440 my friend got his uncle to give us ten thousand 0:52:25.520 --> 0:52:27.719 to bring the doors. So I mean I was canvassing 0:52:27.760 --> 0:52:32.400 some of those things before I settled on Edgoe. Edgoe 0:52:32.560 --> 0:52:37.080 was very quick to say, yeah, no problem, okay. 0:52:38.640 --> 0:52:41.400 How long after you announced the doors you realized this 0:52:41.560 --> 0:52:42.760 isn't going to sell any real. 0:52:42.680 --> 0:52:45.160 Tickets, probably seventy two hours. 0:52:47.200 --> 0:52:48.799 Then what's going through your mind? 0:52:50.239 --> 0:52:56.480 Well, I don't know, but probably wasn't very good basically, 0:52:56.640 --> 0:53:00.600 you know now what And that's when I believe Thor 0:53:00.719 --> 0:53:02.840 Eaton called and said, we're not going to you know, 0:53:03.239 --> 0:53:05.759 green light the rest of the money because they had, 0:53:05.880 --> 0:53:07.799 you know, stock in the company and they had to say. 0:53:08.760 --> 0:53:10.919 And Kenny didn't want to green light at either. Kenny 0:53:10.960 --> 0:53:13.200 wanted to cancel the show. We didn't want to lose money, Kenny. 0:53:13.400 --> 0:53:16.279 You know, to me, I was losing a reputation. It 0:53:16.400 --> 0:53:19.160 was an unmitigated disaster. I'd never be able to book 0:53:19.160 --> 0:53:22.600 another band all of that. That's what I thought. Kenny 0:53:22.640 --> 0:53:24.520 and Thor were like, we're not going to lose any 0:53:24.600 --> 0:53:28.200 more money. That was just the accountants versus the creators. 0:53:29.480 --> 0:53:31.920 And that's when I went to tell Kim Falley it's over, 0:53:32.080 --> 0:53:33.880 and he said, you got to call John Lennon. 0:53:34.560 --> 0:53:38.120 Okay, Well before we go there. How did Kim Fowley 0:53:38.200 --> 0:53:40.440 and Rodney Bingenheimer get involved? 0:53:42.719 --> 0:53:45.680 God bless him. I'm glad they did. Well. Richie Yorke, 0:53:45.760 --> 0:53:54.600 the journalist, had suggested early on, you should bring Kim 0:53:54.680 --> 0:53:58.600 Fowley and Rodney Bannheimer up to be the MC's. Now. 0:53:58.719 --> 0:54:03.760 I knew Rodney from Rodney's English Disco in La Rodney 0:54:03.920 --> 0:54:07.600 was the mayor of Sunset Strip, so that name was familiar. 0:54:07.640 --> 0:54:10.759 I had no idea who Kim Falley was. But when 0:54:10.800 --> 0:54:14.000 they got up there, you know, they were characters and 0:54:14.800 --> 0:54:17.160 it sounded like they were going to be great MC's, 0:54:17.200 --> 0:54:19.239 and in the movie Kim Fowley is a great MC. 0:54:19.480 --> 0:54:26.080 Rodney drifted off. He didn't do anything on stage, but they, 0:54:26.239 --> 0:54:29.840 you know, were celebrities, and you know, announcing them also 0:54:30.000 --> 0:54:33.799 did not mean anything. It was like way over everybody's. 0:54:33.280 --> 0:54:38.239 Head, and you booked them thinking they would do what. 0:54:38.719 --> 0:54:40.799 Well, the first of all, they'd be the MC's as 0:54:40.840 --> 0:54:43.680 opposed to people from Chum Radio, which would be doing 0:54:43.760 --> 0:54:46.800 nothing but talking about Chum Radio all the time. That 0:54:46.960 --> 0:54:49.880 was the one thing we wanted to avoid. We didn't 0:54:49.880 --> 0:54:52.919 have any MC's at all in June, but a couple 0:54:53.000 --> 0:54:57.319 of DJs did snatch the mic, you know, because they 0:54:57.360 --> 0:54:59.000 were allowed to be there and say, well, we need 0:54:59.080 --> 0:55:01.000 to make an announcement and Chum wants to thank you. 0:55:01.400 --> 0:55:04.280 You know, everybody took credit for everything at radio stations 0:55:04.360 --> 0:55:07.200 wherever possible, So we wanted to avoid that. So it 0:55:07.320 --> 0:55:09.920 sounded great. We'll have the mayor of Sunset Strip and 0:55:10.040 --> 0:55:12.640 some other guy named Kim Fowley, and they'll be the 0:55:12.719 --> 0:55:15.480 EMC's that'll keep the radio guys off the stage. 0:55:17.120 --> 0:55:20.719 Okay, if the show is going to play in September, 0:55:21.040 --> 0:55:24.520 when do you decide to hire Fouley in Bingenheimer? 0:55:25.320 --> 0:55:29.040 Oh? Probably not till the middle of August, or even 0:55:29.120 --> 0:55:29.680 a bit later. 0:55:30.719 --> 0:55:33.440 The movie gives the impression that they ultimately moved to 0:55:33.600 --> 0:55:35.960 Toronto for a month. Is that kind of what happened? 0:55:36.000 --> 0:55:38.479 Now? I don't I've seen the movie one hundred times. 0:55:38.560 --> 0:55:42.919 I don't ever remember anything that indicated that they came 0:55:43.040 --> 0:55:45.840 up like the week of the show to do promotion 0:55:46.719 --> 0:55:49.640 and that was it. They were basically only there like 0:55:49.760 --> 0:55:52.680 two days before I went to tell them that we're 0:55:52.719 --> 0:55:56.279 pulling the plug and we'll send you home. But the 0:55:56.360 --> 0:55:58.239 idea of booking them, the idea of booking them and 0:55:58.320 --> 0:56:01.200 paying them and getting them there line tickets would have 0:56:01.280 --> 0:56:03.920 been several, you know, weeks, at least a couple before that. 0:56:05.280 --> 0:56:08.600 Okay, So now in this great run you have the 0:56:08.960 --> 0:56:15.040 fifties acts you booked the doors, tickets still aren't selling. 0:56:15.800 --> 0:56:17.000 What's going through your brain? 0:56:18.560 --> 0:56:22.960 Like, why was this my idea? You know? 0:56:23.120 --> 0:56:23.319 Why? 0:56:23.440 --> 0:56:24.680 Why was this my idea? 0:56:24.840 --> 0:56:25.040 Why? 0:56:25.239 --> 0:56:26.960 Why did I think of this? What did I think 0:56:27.000 --> 0:56:30.080 about this that was going to be good? Like, you know, 0:56:30.280 --> 0:56:33.919 I'm sure every promoter's had that happened once in their life. 0:56:35.880 --> 0:56:38.600 And if you had brought the show down, how much 0:56:38.680 --> 0:56:41.799 would you've only owed the acts for cancelation. 0:56:43.120 --> 0:56:47.040 That I really don't know, but probably a lot less 0:56:48.080 --> 0:56:50.399 than if they'd had to show up. And I don't 0:56:50.440 --> 0:56:54.120 know what those contracts said. I don't know that there 0:56:54.200 --> 0:56:57.920 was cancelation clauses in our agreements. I don't think we 0:56:58.040 --> 0:57:03.360 ever dealt with anybody canceled before, or US canceling anybody. 0:57:03.400 --> 0:57:06.520 It was like to just let's go back one chapter. 0:57:06.880 --> 0:57:09.200 Why did the Jeff Beck group not show up for 0:57:09.320 --> 0:57:09.960 the matinee? 0:57:11.080 --> 0:57:13.680 I don't have any idea, and we never heard. But 0:57:13.840 --> 0:57:17.440 obviously they were coming by car. They may have had 0:57:17.480 --> 0:57:21.080 a problem getting across the border because I don't know 0:57:21.160 --> 0:57:26.040 where they came from. But they did not fly into Toronto. 0:57:26.720 --> 0:57:29.360 They drove and they came in a station wagon and 0:57:29.440 --> 0:57:33.080 a van, So where they came from, I don't know. 0:57:33.240 --> 0:57:36.440 There were other acts that were delayed getting in. Some 0:57:36.640 --> 0:57:40.600 were even stopped from coming into Canada even though we 0:57:40.680 --> 0:57:44.200 had sold out shows for them. I can't think of one. 0:57:44.400 --> 0:57:50.240 Some guy set himself on fire. What was his name, Northrough. 0:57:49.920 --> 0:57:52.360 Brown Crazy World of Arthur Base, The World. 0:57:52.200 --> 0:57:54.320 Of Arthur Brown. It took him forever to get into 0:57:54.360 --> 0:57:58.560 the country. And there were other acts that were canceled 0:57:58.600 --> 0:57:59.480 that they couldn't get in. 0:58:01.280 --> 0:58:08.560 Okay, between the decision of deciding to hire Foully and Bingenheimer, 0:58:09.200 --> 0:58:13.120 before the John Lennon idea comes, are there any other 0:58:13.280 --> 0:58:15.800 ideas that come up that you either take action on 0:58:16.000 --> 0:58:17.000 or decide not to do. 0:58:17.920 --> 0:58:20.919 No, No, there were no other acts available that would 0:58:20.920 --> 0:58:24.200 have made any difference. There was no budget to spend 0:58:24.360 --> 0:58:30.880 on them because ticket sales were so disastrous and after 0:58:31.000 --> 0:58:34.360 the doors got there twenty five thousand and that didn't 0:58:34.400 --> 0:58:37.600 produce any tickets at all. That would have been a 0:58:37.680 --> 0:58:41.920 fools game to think anybody else would. So, you know, 0:58:42.040 --> 0:58:44.680 it was all moving so fast. Right now. Remember it's 0:58:44.760 --> 0:58:49.400 like winding down to you know, the week before the 0:58:49.480 --> 0:58:52.080 show and there's two thousand tickets. 0:58:53.160 --> 0:58:58.720 Okay, it's the week before the show. Are your partners 0:58:58.760 --> 0:59:00.320 still saying we want to cancel. 0:59:00.760 --> 0:59:03.000 No, they didn't want to cancel till the Monday. The 0:59:03.120 --> 0:59:05.480 show was on the Saturday. Monday was the day they 0:59:05.560 --> 0:59:06.160 pulled the plug. 0:59:07.680 --> 0:59:09.000 And what were you thinking? 0:59:13.800 --> 0:59:16.080 Should I go to LA with my wife and child? 0:59:18.440 --> 0:59:21.880 Okay, So it's Kim Fowley who comes up with the 0:59:21.960 --> 0:59:25.960 idea of John lenn Yes, and this is on the phone. 0:59:26.080 --> 0:59:27.760 Who does he call? What does he say? 0:59:27.960 --> 0:59:29.840 No? No, no. I go to the hotel room to 0:59:29.920 --> 0:59:33.720 tell he and Rodney there were the show's being canceled 0:59:34.240 --> 0:59:35.880 and we're going to get you guys and fly you 0:59:36.040 --> 0:59:38.360 back to LA. Their tickets were for like a week 0:59:38.400 --> 0:59:39.920 from then. We didn't want to keep them in the 0:59:39.960 --> 0:59:43.440 hotel any longer. Get them out of there. And that's 0:59:43.480 --> 0:59:47.760 when Kim Fowley had a meltdown and started stomping around 0:59:47.800 --> 0:59:50.320 the room, going, you can't cancel this show. It's a 0:59:50.400 --> 0:59:53.680 classic show. What's wrong with these guys? Da Da Da 0:59:53.760 --> 0:59:57.360 da da. And that's when he said, look this way 0:59:57.400 --> 0:59:59.600 you need to do. You need to call John Lennon 0:59:59.640 --> 1:00:01.480 in the more And I'm looking at him like you know, 1:00:02.120 --> 1:00:04.280 I know he doesn't do drugs. I heard that already, 1:00:04.320 --> 1:00:07.880 So where's this coming from? And you need to tell 1:00:07.960 --> 1:00:11.200 him You've got Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, 1:00:11.320 --> 1:00:15.200 gen Vincent, Bo Diddley. Don't tell him about the Doors, 1:00:15.280 --> 1:00:18.800 don't tell him about any other bands. He loves these bands. 1:00:19.200 --> 1:00:22.840 The Beatles have played songs by Little Richard and Chuck Berry. 1:00:23.480 --> 1:00:25.919 The Beatles open for Gene Vincent at the Star Club. 1:00:25.960 --> 1:00:28.200 I didn't know any of this. Were citing all these 1:00:28.280 --> 1:00:31.240 things to me, and I go home and tell my 1:00:31.360 --> 1:00:34.880 wife and she goes into a complete meltdown, screaming around 1:00:34.920 --> 1:00:36.800 the house. You're out of your mind. I guess Elvis 1:00:36.960 --> 1:00:39.120 is waiting for your call too, And what about the 1:00:39.240 --> 1:00:41.200 Rolling Stones? Why don't you call them? You know? I 1:00:41.280 --> 1:00:47.120 mean it sounded so completely insane, ludicrous. But at six 1:00:47.200 --> 1:00:50.000 in the morning, Kenny Walker and I with Thor Eaton 1:00:50.120 --> 1:00:51.960 because we brought him to the office, it was like, 1:00:52.040 --> 1:00:54.320 if we get John Lennon on the phone, this has 1:00:54.400 --> 1:00:58.560 to be heard by Thor, not a story and lo 1:00:58.720 --> 1:01:02.440 and be old. We call out and you know, get 1:01:02.600 --> 1:01:05.120 Faucett there on the phone and tell him about the bands, 1:01:05.160 --> 1:01:08.080 and he comes back and it's like, okay, we'll do it. 1:01:16.680 --> 1:01:19.840 A little bit slower. How'd you get the number? What 1:01:19.920 --> 1:01:22.160 do you say when you call the number? 1:01:22.360 --> 1:01:25.840 Kim Fowley gave us the number for Apple. I mean 1:01:25.880 --> 1:01:27.880 it might have been that information too, I don't know. 1:01:27.960 --> 1:01:30.160 But Kim Fowley gave us the phone number. Here's the 1:01:30.240 --> 1:01:32.520 phone number. He went in a book and looked it up. 1:01:33.360 --> 1:01:34.560 He had everybody's number. 1:01:35.160 --> 1:01:38.880 Okay, so you called and someone picks up. Who do 1:01:38.960 --> 1:01:40.920 you say? Who you want to talk to? And what's 1:01:40.960 --> 1:01:41.400 your pitch? 1:01:41.640 --> 1:01:44.720 My pitch is just exactly this. Hi, this is John Brower. 1:01:44.720 --> 1:01:47.640 I'm calling from Toronto, Canada. I need you to write 1:01:47.680 --> 1:01:52.520 these names down please, It's very important. Chuck Berry, Little Richard, 1:01:52.920 --> 1:01:56.560 et cetera. I said, please give this to John Lennon 1:01:56.600 --> 1:01:59.200 and tell them all these acts are playing this Saturday, 1:01:59.760 --> 1:02:02.160 enter on and we want to invite he and Yoko 1:02:02.240 --> 1:02:04.240 to come and be the m Sieves, because that's what 1:02:04.360 --> 1:02:07.280 Folly said, invite them to be the m Sieves. So 1:02:09.320 --> 1:02:12.959 a minute or so later, you know, Anthony Faucett comes 1:02:13.000 --> 1:02:15.840 on and well where is it and when is it? 1:02:15.960 --> 1:02:18.680 It's this Saturday? And da da da da da, And 1:02:18.840 --> 1:02:25.040 then you know Lennon's there and hearing this and goes well, okay, 1:02:25.160 --> 1:02:27.760 we wouldn't want to come less we could play. So 1:02:27.920 --> 1:02:31.680 it was like what the Beatles, No, No, just us, 1:02:31.840 --> 1:02:33.880 me and me and Yoka and will get a little 1:02:33.920 --> 1:02:37.480 band together. All right. That was good enough for us, 1:02:38.320 --> 1:02:40.959 you know. Thor Eaton was like, okay, wow, that was cool. 1:02:41.200 --> 1:02:43.760 John Lennon on the phone, you know, because John Lennon's 1:02:43.840 --> 1:02:46.160 voice came on. He was on the phone. They had 1:02:46.160 --> 1:02:48.960 a speaker, So there you go, John Lennon, the real 1:02:49.040 --> 1:02:52.080 John Lennon. So that's why we went to chum. They 1:02:52.160 --> 1:02:54.720 laughed us out of the place, you know, like get 1:02:54.760 --> 1:02:55.120 out of here. 1:02:55.840 --> 1:02:59.600 Put a little bit slower. How is it left when 1:02:59.640 --> 1:03:00.680 you get off the phone? 1:03:02.200 --> 1:03:04.480 Well, we're jumping out and down, screaming and yelling. At 1:03:04.520 --> 1:03:06.920 six o'clock in the morning downtown in our office on 1:03:07.080 --> 1:03:09.920 Richmond Street. We had to wait three hours to go 1:03:10.000 --> 1:03:10.400 to Chump. 1:03:11.240 --> 1:03:14.160 Okay, but how do you leave it on the apple side? 1:03:14.240 --> 1:03:17.320 Appleside, I'm calling you back tomorrow. I need the names 1:03:17.320 --> 1:03:19.200 for the plane tickets, John said, I'm going to get 1:03:19.200 --> 1:03:23.160 a band together and for immigration and the plane tickets, 1:03:23.280 --> 1:03:25.760 and fine, call back tomorrow. 1:03:26.640 --> 1:03:29.520 Okay, And then you wait till nine o'clock. You go 1:03:29.600 --> 1:03:31.919 to the radio station tell the story there. 1:03:32.160 --> 1:03:38.120 Yes, and it's like, you know, ha ha ha, we 1:03:38.280 --> 1:03:42.440 know your show is bombing and I don't think we 1:03:42.480 --> 1:03:43.880 can go on the air with that. Boys. 1:03:44.000 --> 1:03:44.920 Sorry, you know. 1:03:46.240 --> 1:03:48.560 Now, there is a tiny backstory that came up on 1:03:48.680 --> 1:03:53.680 Tuesday Wednesday when we came back with the tape with 1:03:53.800 --> 1:03:56.640 Anthony Fawson on it. Now, Kenny and I had also 1:03:56.720 --> 1:04:01.200 been given the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour movie and we 1:04:01.520 --> 1:04:04.320 by Natwis, their lawyer guy in New York. They wanted 1:04:04.320 --> 1:04:05.960 to give it out to a few good promoters and 1:04:06.040 --> 1:04:09.600 we got it. So we sold out the O'Keefe Center, 1:04:09.760 --> 1:04:13.000 that's what it was back then. Klein Hands in Buffalo, 1:04:13.880 --> 1:04:16.800 Saint Lawrence Center, I think, in Montreal and at the 1:04:16.960 --> 1:04:20.360 Elegant Theater in Ottawa. It was a complete bus at 1:04:20.400 --> 1:04:23.240 twenty five hundred seat theater with four hundred tickets sold. 1:04:23.280 --> 1:04:25.920 The night before, Kenny and I are having dinner at 1:04:25.920 --> 1:04:28.520 the Chateau Laurier lamenting the fact we're going to lose 1:04:28.560 --> 1:04:34.560 our ass here and I had another idea. And back 1:04:34.600 --> 1:04:36.400 in the day, you always had the phone number of 1:04:36.560 --> 1:04:40.480 the radio station guy in the studio where they were 1:04:40.560 --> 1:04:43.440 on the air in case you had breaking news. And 1:04:44.120 --> 1:04:48.200 it was very organic back then. So I called a 1:04:48.200 --> 1:04:51.280 little hippie girl over that was a bus girl, and 1:04:51.400 --> 1:04:52.880 I said, how would you like to see the Beatles 1:04:52.960 --> 1:04:56.320 Magical Mystery Tour movie tomorrow? And she looked at us 1:04:56.440 --> 1:04:59.040 like I don't know what is that? You know? And 1:04:59.120 --> 1:05:03.200 Kenny's looking at me like, see, nobody knows. Promotion was terrible. 1:05:04.920 --> 1:05:06.720 So I said, Kenny, open me your briefcase. He opens 1:05:06.800 --> 1:05:09.040 his briefcase filled with tickets. I said, I'll give you 1:05:09.160 --> 1:05:11.160 ten tickets for you and your friends to go to 1:05:11.280 --> 1:05:13.160 the movie is playing right down the street at the 1:05:13.240 --> 1:05:16.000 Elgin Theaters, the Beatles movie. But I want you to 1:05:16.080 --> 1:05:18.360 call my friend to tell him that you work here 1:05:18.440 --> 1:05:20.880 and that you saw George Harrison. He's here having dinner 1:05:21.120 --> 1:05:27.520 with friends. That's innocent enough. So she goes okay. So 1:05:27.680 --> 1:05:29.480 she comes back a few minutes later and she's like 1:05:29.600 --> 1:05:31.720 kind of white. She goes, guy, you didn't tell me. 1:05:32.400 --> 1:05:34.400 You didn't tell me that that was the guy on 1:05:34.480 --> 1:05:36.840 the radio. He made me go on the radio and 1:05:37.040 --> 1:05:40.120 describe what was George Waring? And did I recognize anybody 1:05:40.200 --> 1:05:42.600 that was with him? To make it up, But she 1:05:42.680 --> 1:05:44.160 said but I did tell him that me and all 1:05:44.240 --> 1:05:46.280 my friends are going to see the Beatles movie tomorrow. 1:05:46.600 --> 1:05:50.080 I was like, oh my god, yes, okay, I love you, 1:05:50.520 --> 1:05:53.920 so we give her the tickets. Not even twenty minutes later. 1:05:54.080 --> 1:05:56.880 Thirty minutes later, kids were coming into the Chateau Laurier 1:05:57.040 --> 1:05:59.880 looking for George Harrison with Beatle records, wanting to say 1:06:00.880 --> 1:06:03.560 the next morning it was below the fold on the 1:06:03.640 --> 1:06:07.440 Autawa Citizen, George Harrison in town for Magical Mystery to 1:06:07.520 --> 1:06:10.120 our movie question Mark. Of course, we sold the show 1:06:10.160 --> 1:06:12.240 out by ten in the morning. The other twenty one 1:06:12.320 --> 1:06:14.760 hundred tickets were gone, so that became a bit of 1:06:14.840 --> 1:06:16.760 a story ha ha. You know, a little elbow on 1:06:16.800 --> 1:06:20.880 the side back in Toronto. And of course people at 1:06:21.000 --> 1:06:23.320 Chum had heard that, maybe a couple of the DJs 1:06:23.400 --> 1:06:26.120 or something. So when we came in there the second 1:06:26.200 --> 1:06:29.160 day with the tape, that's why they were really upset, 1:06:30.320 --> 1:06:32.960 because they said, you know, the Beatles must love you guys. Right, 1:06:33.440 --> 1:06:36.400 you're bombing with the movie in Ottawa. But George Harrison's 1:06:36.520 --> 1:06:40.480 in town, supposedly nobody sees him, but you sell that out. 1:06:40.920 --> 1:06:44.280 Now your festival's bombing. And John Lennon's coming with a 1:06:44.360 --> 1:06:47.760 band with Eric Clapton, no doubt, get out you guys, 1:06:47.840 --> 1:06:51.720 disgust me, you know, get out of here. That's that's why, 1:06:51.920 --> 1:06:54.680 you know they knew, And this was like that was 1:06:54.880 --> 1:06:57.200 our fault, but you know we had to be victim 1:06:57.240 --> 1:07:01.480 of our own uh you know, skullduggery if you will. 1:07:03.080 --> 1:07:06.000 So you called back Apple the next day and tell 1:07:06.040 --> 1:07:07.080 me about that conversation. 1:07:07.160 --> 1:07:09.560 Well, I asked for John Lennon. I said, he's expecting 1:07:09.680 --> 1:07:13.440 my call. Well, of course, Anthony Fosset comes on the phone. Meanwhile, 1:07:13.480 --> 1:07:16.160 we've got a suction cup on the phone and we're 1:07:16.240 --> 1:07:22.080 taping this and I was like, you know what, I 1:07:22.120 --> 1:07:24.080 didn't want to say, well, we need John Lennon on 1:07:24.120 --> 1:07:26.120 the phone. Nobody believes us. I didn't want to put 1:07:26.160 --> 1:07:31.280 any shade on this thing. So he recites these names, 1:07:31.400 --> 1:07:35.080 John Yoker here, Clappton Club's Forman Ellen White, mel Evans. 1:07:35.160 --> 1:07:38.120 I knew they named mel Evans and it was like, okay, 1:07:38.240 --> 1:07:40.480 So that's what we went up to Chum with that 1:07:40.720 --> 1:07:43.400 tape with him on the phone. Now, if John Lennon 1:07:43.480 --> 1:07:46.400 had come on the phone, Chum would have gone crazy. 1:07:47.160 --> 1:07:49.680 Of course, they would have everybody would have known John's voice. 1:07:49.760 --> 1:07:53.920 But Chum was kind of wondering about this. And that's 1:07:53.960 --> 1:07:58.440 when they call Capitol Records, who called Alan Kline, who said, boys, 1:07:59.560 --> 1:08:01.680 John lenn and it doesn't do anything I don't know about. 1:08:01.840 --> 1:08:05.160 Forget about it. Just forget it. And then the word 1:08:05.240 --> 1:08:07.280 came back to Chaum, it's all b as the Beetle's 1:08:07.360 --> 1:08:09.720 manager said, So well, that was it. We were dead. 1:08:10.160 --> 1:08:13.600 That's why the night before when Edgeo came to my house, 1:08:14.520 --> 1:08:18.599 he said, it's all good. If this is bullshit, that's fine, 1:08:18.640 --> 1:08:22.000 you're a promoter. But if my guys out at the 1:08:22.040 --> 1:08:25.679 airport tomorrow eighty people and there's no John Lennon, he said, 1:08:25.760 --> 1:08:30.200 now is the time to tell me. Not tomorrow. So 1:08:30.800 --> 1:08:33.599 I'm going. We talked. I talked to John Lennon. He's coming. 1:08:33.680 --> 1:08:37.120 We got them plane dikets now. Four in the morning. 1:08:37.160 --> 1:08:39.840 I hit a call Anthony Foss that John's not feeling well, 1:08:39.920 --> 1:08:42.280 doesn't want to come. Send roses and flowers, you know, 1:08:42.560 --> 1:08:45.599 like no, no, no, no, that's not going to fly. 1:08:45.800 --> 1:08:49.280 He has to come. And then Clampton came on board 1:08:49.320 --> 1:08:51.200 and that was it. John wasn't going to come without 1:08:51.200 --> 1:08:53.800 a guitar. Player. Not gonna come with a bass player 1:08:53.840 --> 1:08:57.760 and a drummer. Eric was the lynch pin. It was Eric, 1:08:57.920 --> 1:08:59.840 you know, on his way to the airport. All Riot, 1:09:00.439 --> 1:09:01.200 that's it, let's go. 1:09:02.920 --> 1:09:06.680 Okay, you talked to him if the show's playing on Saturday. 1:09:06.920 --> 1:09:09.920 The first conversation with Apple is what day of the week? 1:09:10.200 --> 1:09:10.880 Tuesday morning? 1:09:11.680 --> 1:09:16.720 Tuesday? It's confirmed on Wednesday. Do you have any contact 1:09:17.560 --> 1:09:21.719 before Anthony Foster calls you the night before saying we're canceling. 1:09:22.240 --> 1:09:24.439 Well, it was the morning of, not the night before. 1:09:24.479 --> 1:09:28.720 It was the morning of. Anthony Foster was canceling at 1:09:29.160 --> 1:09:31.719 nine o'clock in the morning, at four in the morning 1:09:31.800 --> 1:09:35.240 my time when the phone rang. So no, no conversation 1:09:35.400 --> 1:09:39.960 at all. Tickets were sent, immigration papers were organized, you know, 1:09:40.080 --> 1:09:42.160 the tickets arrived, they had them there. They missed that 1:09:42.280 --> 1:09:45.680 first plane. They had to switch all that around. No, 1:09:46.040 --> 1:09:49.400 that was it. And then Anthony, you know, got John 1:09:49.400 --> 1:09:51.040 on the phone and Eric was on board and it 1:09:51.160 --> 1:09:52.759 was like, okay, we're going to get the next plane. 1:09:52.800 --> 1:09:53.280 And that was it. 1:09:53.479 --> 1:09:56.120 And next time, okay, a little bit slower. He calls 1:09:56.200 --> 1:09:57.440 you says you're canceling. 1:09:57.960 --> 1:10:02.840 You say what, no, No, he can't cancel. He can't 1:10:03.000 --> 1:10:05.640 if he cancels, I have to leave my city. I 1:10:05.760 --> 1:10:09.200 have to leave my country. I'm figuring it's now four 1:10:09.240 --> 1:10:11.760 in the morning. I can't phone Edge oh and back 1:10:11.840 --> 1:10:14.000 the thing off. He had guys coming in from other 1:10:14.080 --> 1:10:16.960 cities for this run. This was like the VIP run. 1:10:17.080 --> 1:10:20.280 This was like a big deal for them. There wasn't 1:10:20.320 --> 1:10:22.880 anything about the twenty five thousand anymore. It was like 1:10:23.040 --> 1:10:25.920 I asked them to escort John Lennon in and he 1:10:26.080 --> 1:10:28.600 pulled out all the stops. Now you don't get a 1:10:28.680 --> 1:10:33.160 guy like that to get egg on his face. Okay, no, 1:10:33.840 --> 1:10:37.240 And I needed John Lennon anyway. Our whole credibility was 1:10:37.320 --> 1:10:40.320 based on this. Now we'd sold all these tickets in Detroit, 1:10:40.439 --> 1:10:43.200 Rusk Gid went out on the line, played the tape 1:10:43.240 --> 1:10:46.840 every fifteen minutes at his show. We had to fly 1:10:47.000 --> 1:10:49.240 Dennis down there with their shoe box full of tickets. 1:10:49.800 --> 1:10:53.920 You know, there's no computers. It was like people. Every 1:10:54.000 --> 1:10:57.360 ticket in Detroit Windsor was bought up in like after 1:10:57.520 --> 1:10:59.639 the first hour of Rusk get being on the radio, 1:11:00.320 --> 1:11:02.080 and Dennis had to fly down the next day with 1:11:02.160 --> 1:11:05.599 a shoe box full of tickets packed thousands. 1:11:06.439 --> 1:11:10.519 And when did schum finally say okay? They never said okay, 1:11:11.520 --> 1:11:12.720 So they never went on it. 1:11:12.920 --> 1:11:14.360 Oh yeah, they went on it. Let me tell you 1:11:14.439 --> 1:11:15.880 when they went on it, and it didn't get in 1:11:15.960 --> 1:11:18.000 the movie. And you know what, I brought this up 1:11:18.040 --> 1:11:20.040 with Ron Schoppman, the director. I love him to death, 1:11:20.360 --> 1:11:22.360 but this was something that was missed and I gave 1:11:22.400 --> 1:11:26.439 it to them in my interviews. When John Lennon finally 1:11:26.479 --> 1:11:31.120 gets to Heathrow, and you know, Eric Clapton had been 1:11:31.160 --> 1:11:34.160 there for a while, and Eric Clapton was highly recognizable, 1:11:34.200 --> 1:11:36.439 and the media people that were circling around there, just 1:11:36.479 --> 1:11:40.240 because at any major airport there's always media people. Eric 1:11:40.280 --> 1:11:42.519 wouldn't talk to them. But John Lennon rolls up and 1:11:42.640 --> 1:11:45.760 gives a press conference at the curb that he's out 1:11:45.800 --> 1:11:48.960 his way to Toronto to play a rock show with 1:11:49.200 --> 1:11:53.120 Chuck Berry and Little Richard and all the great rockers. 1:11:53.840 --> 1:11:56.439 And this goes out on the teletype all over the world, 1:11:56.520 --> 1:11:59.120 and then Chum at nine in the morning, because this 1:11:59.240 --> 1:12:01.240 is two in the after it comes up on the 1:12:01.439 --> 1:12:05.920 telemachine whatever those things were, Chik Chuck and I guess 1:12:06.000 --> 1:12:09.360 the guy in the newsroom looked at it and runs 1:12:09.400 --> 1:12:11.960 it into the program director who was ever calling the 1:12:12.040 --> 1:12:16.080 shots at nine o'clock on Saturday morning, and they went 1:12:16.120 --> 1:12:20.520 on the air with it immediately. Chump Presents Worldwide Exclusive. 1:12:20.560 --> 1:12:23.519 They took credit for everything, and they blasted it out 1:12:23.600 --> 1:12:27.479 every fifteen minutes. By one in the afternoon, we had 1:12:27.520 --> 1:12:30.720 pretty much sold out the stadium. People were pouring down 1:12:30.800 --> 1:12:35.160 there because this spread you know what we call now virally, 1:12:35.479 --> 1:12:38.040 people calling each other. I just heard on Chump. John 1:12:38.120 --> 1:12:40.280 Lennon is the airport. He's on his way to Toronto. 1:12:40.479 --> 1:12:43.120 They're playing at that show, and I mean, you know, 1:12:43.320 --> 1:12:45.439 Geddy Lee and them thing. You know. His friend said 1:12:45.479 --> 1:12:47.320 to him that morning, it sounds like a good idea, 1:12:47.439 --> 1:12:50.400 Let's go down there. They didn't have plans to go there. 1:12:50.560 --> 1:12:53.040 They went down there then it sounded like a good idea. 1:12:54.240 --> 1:12:56.920 So it was all last minute and Chump sold the 1:12:56.960 --> 1:12:59.439 show up. That's how I had somebody say to me, 1:12:59.520 --> 1:13:02.800 what didn't people come from? Get? Two thousand tickets sold 1:13:03.000 --> 1:13:07.280 well between Russ, Gibb and Chum in two chunks. That 1:13:07.439 --> 1:13:09.599 place sold out. In fact, I had to let fifteen 1:13:09.680 --> 1:13:12.280 hundred people in at the Northwest gate because we had 1:13:12.360 --> 1:13:15.320 no more tickets to solve the stadium. People were going, 1:13:15.560 --> 1:13:18.760 we have nothing to sell them, and the police were 1:13:18.840 --> 1:13:21.320 on horseback and that was the gate where the bikes 1:13:21.360 --> 1:13:24.080 are going to come in, and I just said, open 1:13:24.160 --> 1:13:26.320 the gates and let them in. We already sold out 1:13:26.400 --> 1:13:29.479 who cares and we could go with your bankrupt are 1:13:29.560 --> 1:13:33.120 going to be let them in. And then that really 1:13:33.280 --> 1:13:36.280 raised the vibe in the crowd. When fifteen hundred people 1:13:36.360 --> 1:13:38.040 came in. It was very exciting. 1:13:39.000 --> 1:13:43.519 Okay, it's four in the morning. You say you can't cancel. 1:13:44.280 --> 1:13:47.840 What's your next communication with Lenin or Lenin's team. 1:13:48.400 --> 1:13:51.160 Well, Faucett calls back and tells me that, you know, 1:13:51.720 --> 1:13:54.439 Eric Clapton's on board and on our way to the airport, 1:13:54.760 --> 1:13:57.880 and John is now on and they're getting in the 1:13:58.160 --> 1:14:01.840 limo and they got to get the next plane and 1:14:02.000 --> 1:14:04.000 he said, you know, I'll let you know when that is. 1:14:04.479 --> 1:14:07.400 And then I guess he was, you know, dealing with 1:14:07.479 --> 1:14:09.639 some paperwork somebody did. Okay, it's going to be five 1:14:09.680 --> 1:14:11.200 o'clock instead of two o'clock. 1:14:18.640 --> 1:14:21.160 Okay, what time does the show start? 1:14:22.000 --> 1:14:25.080 Oh, probably started at like eleven in the morning or 1:14:25.200 --> 1:14:28.519 noon with early local bands. 1:14:30.080 --> 1:14:33.120 Okay, what time is the first real band? 1:14:34.160 --> 1:14:38.679 Well, I think the first real band was Bo Diddley, 1:14:39.680 --> 1:14:42.400 but I may be wrong. You know, I was not 1:14:42.800 --> 1:14:46.200 on stage putting bands on stage. That was Rolly Paklin 1:14:47.640 --> 1:14:50.080 and Dennis Hill. That's what those guys did. They got 1:14:50.160 --> 1:14:52.839 the show going. They were the producers of the stage 1:14:52.920 --> 1:14:56.479 itself and who's coming on and when all of that stuff, 1:14:57.400 --> 1:14:59.960 I'm still dealing with money. People need to get paid. 1:15:00.680 --> 1:15:03.920 Kenny Walker and the lawyers are dealing with Pennybaker, and 1:15:04.040 --> 1:15:07.000 that's a whole not good story. But we finally I 1:15:07.080 --> 1:15:10.360 got that sorted out. They were wanting Pennybaker to give 1:15:10.479 --> 1:15:13.280 us twenty five thousand dollars or they couldn't start filming. 1:15:13.960 --> 1:15:15.960 And when I found that out, I had a meltdown 1:15:16.000 --> 1:15:17.840 and went up to where the meeting was and start 1:15:17.920 --> 1:15:21.160 screaming and yelling, and so the lawyers and Kenny backed off, 1:15:21.280 --> 1:15:24.080 and Pennybaker went and started shooting. But that's why the 1:15:24.120 --> 1:15:27.800 footage of Bo Diddley doesn't capture his whole performance, because 1:15:27.800 --> 1:15:30.439 they weren't allowed to start shooting until about halfway through 1:15:30.840 --> 1:15:32.880 or close to the end, and they caught the encore. 1:15:33.680 --> 1:15:35.680 That was a kerfuffle that I did not like. 1:15:36.439 --> 1:15:38.200 How did Penny Baker even get involved. 1:15:39.600 --> 1:15:44.360 Amazingly enough, Pennybaker called up and said, I'd like to 1:15:44.439 --> 1:15:46.280 come up and shoot your show. I mean, the word 1:15:46.520 --> 1:15:49.960 was out in New York that the show was happening. 1:15:51.040 --> 1:15:53.600 It was off, it was on, the doors were on. 1:15:53.840 --> 1:15:57.920 Now they were going to be on the show. And then, 1:15:58.400 --> 1:16:01.960 you know, that was enough, Pennybaker. It was enough to 1:16:02.080 --> 1:16:04.559 have those four guys up there, That's what he meant. 1:16:04.720 --> 1:16:07.920 Not those four guys meaning maybe the Beatles, Chuck Berry, 1:16:08.000 --> 1:16:13.040 Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Bo Diddley. Those are 1:16:13.080 --> 1:16:15.240 the four guys that he knew about. I don't even 1:16:15.280 --> 1:16:18.320 think Geene Vincent was involved in the promotion. He came 1:16:18.439 --> 1:16:21.240 up as a last minute thing that Kim Fowley got 1:16:21.320 --> 1:16:23.560 him added, and he was available, and he flew in 1:16:23.960 --> 1:16:26.400 and he needed a band, and that's how Alice became 1:16:26.520 --> 1:16:31.880 that band. So Kim Fowley again, if he hadn't brought 1:16:34.400 --> 1:16:38.120 Geene Vincent up, Alice Cooper might have played in the daytime, 1:16:38.160 --> 1:16:40.000 in the morning or something like that. See, that was 1:16:40.080 --> 1:16:43.280 the magic for Alice was that Jean Vincent got to 1:16:43.320 --> 1:16:46.800 play at night after Chuck Berry with the lights and 1:16:46.920 --> 1:16:49.400 so Alice got to have the magic of the lighting 1:16:50.040 --> 1:16:52.960 and the energy at night. I mean that's when the 1:16:53.200 --> 1:16:56.800 energy really was buzzing, and so it all just worked 1:16:56.840 --> 1:16:59.799 out and cheffing the chicken, I mean, it was crazy, 1:17:00.360 --> 1:17:02.960 It was crazy, but it was fortuous for Alice that 1:17:03.120 --> 1:17:05.160 they backed up Jean Vincent, or they'd have been on 1:17:05.280 --> 1:17:05.759 in the morning. 1:17:06.800 --> 1:17:10.200 Okay, are you checking with Heathrow whether Lennon and Posse 1:17:10.680 --> 1:17:11.880 actually get on the plane? 1:17:12.160 --> 1:17:14.880 No, no, no idea, And I'm not never a thought 1:17:14.960 --> 1:17:19.040 of that, never, Just like whatever, get the bikes out 1:17:19.080 --> 1:17:19.719 to the airport. 1:17:20.400 --> 1:17:21.719 Okay, so what's the plan. 1:17:21.960 --> 1:17:24.920 They're going to land, And well, they're going to land 1:17:25.080 --> 1:17:27.160 and we're going to get them into limos and they're 1:17:27.200 --> 1:17:30.160 going to come down the service road where Edgo has 1:17:30.240 --> 1:17:33.320 left enough space between all these bikes for the limos. 1:17:34.000 --> 1:17:37.280 As it turned out, that wasn't the way it was done. 1:17:37.720 --> 1:17:40.360 They realized that many bikes in front of the limos 1:17:40.479 --> 1:17:42.840 was going to be chaos. So Edgo and a couple 1:17:42.920 --> 1:17:45.240 of bikes rode in front and then the rest of 1:17:45.320 --> 1:17:47.760 them road behind. But nobody cared. There was a thrill 1:17:47.840 --> 1:17:53.720 to be riding escorting these limos. That was it, and 1:17:53.880 --> 1:17:56.840 of course, you know after they were delayed, like I 1:17:56.960 --> 1:17:58.800 had to call Edge in the morning and go, look, 1:17:58.840 --> 1:18:02.760 there's been a slight delay, and he goes, that's not good, 1:18:03.960 --> 1:18:07.000 and I go, look, I know they're on next plane. Okay, 1:18:07.240 --> 1:18:11.559 John's at the airport. I know that much. So Edro 1:18:11.680 --> 1:18:14.720 says to me, when are the doors coming in? And 1:18:14.840 --> 1:18:17.360 I said, they're coming in around the same time John 1:18:17.479 --> 1:18:21.479 was supposed to. He goes, okay, we'll go and do 1:18:21.640 --> 1:18:25.280 a dry run with the doors. That'll keep my guys cool. 1:18:25.600 --> 1:18:28.439 I start to tell them now there's a delay. That's 1:18:28.520 --> 1:18:30.879 not going to be good. Some of them are already 1:18:31.160 --> 1:18:34.240 accusing me of being a sucker and that there's going 1:18:34.320 --> 1:18:36.960 to be no John Lennon. I go, okay, well there's 1:18:37.000 --> 1:18:39.040 going to be John Lennon, so you're no sucker, So 1:18:39.280 --> 1:18:42.360 go escort the doors. Well, the doors thought they were 1:18:42.400 --> 1:18:45.160 being kidnapped by the bikers. There was no organization. Nobody 1:18:45.240 --> 1:18:47.880 told their doors anything. They leave the airport and they're 1:18:47.960 --> 1:18:53.120 swarmed by motorcycles like a hornet's nest, and they're in 1:18:53.200 --> 1:18:55.200 the cars. They don't know what's going on. Robbie told 1:18:55.280 --> 1:18:59.120 me Laterry said, we were terrified. Nobody warned us. There 1:18:59.240 --> 1:19:02.880 was no nothing build and know anything sittings and whatever. 1:19:03.080 --> 1:19:07.519 So that was just the bikers having fun, roaring down 1:19:07.600 --> 1:19:09.760 and then they roared back, and they still had to 1:19:09.840 --> 1:19:14.680 wait like another two hours for Lannon or more. But 1:19:14.880 --> 1:19:17.519 ed Joe knew, let these guys ride the doors, you know, 1:19:17.680 --> 1:19:22.799 let them get at their mojo here, at their excitement 1:19:22.880 --> 1:19:25.720 level up. And you can see in the film. By 1:19:25.720 --> 1:19:28.760 the way, this is a whole other thing. I've hat 1:19:28.800 --> 1:19:30.800 people say to me, how in God's name were all 1:19:30.840 --> 1:19:33.600 those bikers able to be drinking and smoking drugs in 1:19:33.720 --> 1:19:37.200 nineteen sixty nine in public, out at the airport like they, 1:19:37.520 --> 1:19:41.760 you know, any other place. They'd all been arrested, I said, 1:19:42.120 --> 1:19:47.320 because the Eatons were involved, hands were off everything. The 1:19:47.479 --> 1:19:52.639 police were told to stand down, okay, And I knew 1:19:52.720 --> 1:19:55.719 that was happening because I was told, don't worry about 1:19:55.720 --> 1:19:57.160 the bikers, they'll be fine. 1:19:58.560 --> 1:20:01.240 People south of the border off familiar with the Eatons, 1:20:01.280 --> 1:20:02.400 tell us who the Eatons were. 1:20:02.600 --> 1:20:06.000 Well. Timothy Eaton was the man that coined the phrase 1:20:06.120 --> 1:20:09.800 good satisfactory or money refunded. He's the first person to 1:20:09.920 --> 1:20:13.599 say that back in nineteen sixty nine. The Eaton's catalog 1:20:13.840 --> 1:20:17.360 was doing one billion dollars a year for twenty five 1:20:17.479 --> 1:20:20.800 or thirty years. People bought ninety percent of everything they 1:20:20.920 --> 1:20:26.120 bought from Eaton's catalog. It was famous, okay, and it 1:20:26.280 --> 1:20:30.799 became Eaton stores all across the country, and so the Eatons. 1:20:30.880 --> 1:20:34.439 When the Queen came in the fifties, she stayed at 1:20:34.520 --> 1:20:36.840 Lady Eaton's estate, which is where we put John and 1:20:36.920 --> 1:20:40.080 Yogo up. Thor was able to ask his mom, and 1:20:40.160 --> 1:20:43.800 his mom said, yeah, okay, no problem. That's why that 1:20:43.920 --> 1:20:46.320 classic picture of the band by the swimming pool, that's 1:20:46.360 --> 1:20:50.600 the swimming pool at the Eaton estate. So there it 1:20:50.760 --> 1:20:53.719 was hands off. The biker's got a free free pass 1:20:53.840 --> 1:20:54.200 that day. 1:20:55.880 --> 1:20:58.160 So John and Yoko and their band land. 1:20:58.680 --> 1:21:01.320 Then what happens get into the limos and we pulled 1:21:01.360 --> 1:21:02.360 down the service road. 1:21:02.720 --> 1:21:03.720 Are you there now? 1:21:04.240 --> 1:21:06.720 I'm in the car with John Roddy Banheimer and I 1:21:06.840 --> 1:21:09.120 went to meet him. So Rodney and I and Johnny Yoko. 1:21:09.720 --> 1:21:12.519 So we see the bikes and John reached down and 1:21:12.560 --> 1:21:14.680 pushes down the two door locks and looks at me 1:21:14.800 --> 1:21:17.280 kind of like you know, okay, and I go, look John. 1:21:17.320 --> 1:21:19.160 I didn't want to say anything till we got here, 1:21:19.439 --> 1:21:23.000 but this is your escort in Toronto. And we pulled 1:21:23.040 --> 1:21:26.560 into the space. Edgoe left and John was like, you know, 1:21:26.640 --> 1:21:28.759 he looked at Yoko and he was like, holy should 1:21:29.760 --> 1:21:33.240 So of course Edgoe has to see that this is 1:21:33.360 --> 1:21:36.880 not some Hollywood double in a wig, and so we 1:21:37.040 --> 1:21:39.000 have to put the window down and Edgoe comes up 1:21:39.080 --> 1:21:41.439 and you know, as Edgoe says, you know, we saw 1:21:41.600 --> 1:21:44.160 that's the real people. He kind of looked at me like, 1:21:44.280 --> 1:21:46.040 I don't know how you did it, man, that's the 1:21:46.160 --> 1:21:51.320 real people, okay, And so window goes up and Edgoe 1:21:51.439 --> 1:21:53.800 does like this with his thing, and eighty bikes fire 1:21:53.920 --> 1:21:56.040 up like firecrackers and off we go. 1:21:58.880 --> 1:22:02.519 Okay, you directly to the venue. What's happening at the 1:22:02.640 --> 1:22:06.160 venue when Lenin arrives, Well. 1:22:06.040 --> 1:22:09.200 It's it's pandemonium because they limos have to come in 1:22:09.600 --> 1:22:12.479 and pull right up to the tunnel and you know 1:22:12.720 --> 1:22:16.679 tent area that connects the dressing rooms with the stage, 1:22:17.280 --> 1:22:20.719 pull right up to that. And of course the crowd 1:22:20.880 --> 1:22:25.439 by now has been told throughout the day somebody specials company, 1:22:25.560 --> 1:22:29.760 somebody bigs coming. Well, once Lenin landed Kim Fowley was 1:22:29.840 --> 1:22:32.960 telling people John Lennon and Eric Clapton are here, and 1:22:33.000 --> 1:22:34.600 they're going to be here soon and they're going to 1:22:34.640 --> 1:22:37.760 play tonight. So now it's madness. And now when these 1:22:37.840 --> 1:22:41.000 limos come in. No other bands came in limos that 1:22:41.120 --> 1:22:43.559 came into the stadium, they might have got dropped off 1:22:43.640 --> 1:22:46.320 outside if there were even any other bands that had 1:22:46.400 --> 1:22:52.320 limos other than the doors. So there was pandemonium. It 1:22:52.479 --> 1:22:54.720 was excitement level as I say in a movie. I mean, 1:22:54.760 --> 1:22:56.519 this was like the thrill of a lifetime. I mean 1:22:56.560 --> 1:22:59.920 it was amazing. From panic at four in the morning 1:23:00.560 --> 1:23:03.080 where I see my life pass before my eyes in Edge, 1:23:03.120 --> 1:23:06.000 you're putting these flowers on my grave. Now I'm riding 1:23:06.040 --> 1:23:11.120 with John Lennon and this chariot into a sold out 1:23:11.320 --> 1:23:15.759 packed stadium and it's all happening. It's like, you know, crazy, 1:23:15.840 --> 1:23:19.800 It's better than any acid trip or mushrooms or anything else. 1:23:20.240 --> 1:23:23.080 That was like the real deal. That was like just 1:23:23.200 --> 1:23:25.520 pure adrenaline, pure incredible. 1:23:25.920 --> 1:23:32.400 Wow. Okay, The original pitch was he's going to be 1:23:32.560 --> 1:23:36.240 there with all these heritage acts. Did Lennon even go 1:23:36.360 --> 1:23:39.040 to look at the axe on stage? Did he hang 1:23:39.160 --> 1:23:41.760 with anybody backstage? Or it was just like he was 1:23:41.800 --> 1:23:43.559 here to headline. The rest didn't matter. 1:23:44.280 --> 1:23:48.360 No, he did come up on stage for a couple 1:23:48.439 --> 1:23:51.280 of things. I think he actually had contact with Little 1:23:51.360 --> 1:23:56.880 Richard and they had conversation together. There was a kerfuffle 1:23:56.960 --> 1:24:00.400 with Little Richard and the Doors and Lennon. That's not 1:24:00.560 --> 1:24:05.479 in the movie. But Bill Siddons and the Doors knew 1:24:05.680 --> 1:24:09.559 that the show was about to be canceled because the agents, 1:24:09.640 --> 1:24:11.679 you know, were calling every day, what's the ticket count? 1:24:11.760 --> 1:24:15.200 What's the ticket count? And on Monday, you know, a 1:24:15.280 --> 1:24:17.040 couple of them were told it looks like this is 1:24:17.120 --> 1:24:21.040 going to be canceled. So now Lennon is coming. So 1:24:23.000 --> 1:24:25.439 Bill Siddons asked me, if you know, can we talk 1:24:25.479 --> 1:24:28.479 to John and you and would you get him out 1:24:28.479 --> 1:24:30.000 of the dressing room. So I get John to come 1:24:30.040 --> 1:24:33.120 out in the hall and the Suddents goes, listen, John, 1:24:33.240 --> 1:24:36.719 you know, we'd like you to close the show because 1:24:36.760 --> 1:24:40.400 they thought if Lennon plays before them, everybody will leave 1:24:40.600 --> 1:24:42.760 because the show would have sold out if they were 1:24:42.800 --> 1:24:47.240 coming to see us. So John like a verge of 1:24:47.320 --> 1:24:51.880 a meltdown, is like you're the headliners. John's nervous enough anyway. Now, 1:24:51.960 --> 1:24:54.880 the Doors wanted him to close the show, like are 1:24:54.920 --> 1:24:57.560 you kidding me? And Siddons just laid this out. He 1:24:57.640 --> 1:24:59.439 didn't tell me in advance what he was going to 1:24:59.479 --> 1:25:05.160 ask John, So I was like, you know, I didn't 1:25:05.160 --> 1:25:07.400 know what to say. But Little Richard had been very 1:25:07.479 --> 1:25:10.760 close by and heard this, and he comes over and 1:25:10.800 --> 1:25:13.280 he goes, I will close the show the way it 1:25:13.320 --> 1:25:16.120 should be closed by me, the king. And he looks 1:25:16.160 --> 1:25:18.360 at Lennin and he goes, you know that, mister Lennon. 1:25:18.720 --> 1:25:20.320 He looks at me and he goes, you know that, 1:25:20.479 --> 1:25:23.040 mister promoter. And he looks at Jim Morrison. He goes, 1:25:23.120 --> 1:25:25.640 you know that, mister Doores. And he didn't know his 1:25:25.800 --> 1:25:29.760 name right, And John and Jim were like dumbfounded. Here's 1:25:29.760 --> 1:25:32.840 little Richard's banking them. And I said, listen, Richard, you're 1:25:32.880 --> 1:25:34.799 going on next. And I said, you know that piano 1:25:34.960 --> 1:25:36.560 was my personal one. I brought it for you. He 1:25:36.640 --> 1:25:38.960 was bitching about the piano, wanted just to get him 1:25:38.960 --> 1:25:42.160 another one, right, and I said it's mine. It's perfectly tuned. 1:25:42.200 --> 1:25:43.519 He goes, okay, thank you, thank you. 1:25:44.080 --> 1:25:45.920 So he walks in, which was a lie. 1:25:46.160 --> 1:25:51.600 Right. Another lie is you know, Live of Convenience. So 1:25:52.640 --> 1:25:56.639 promoters get like elephants. Elephants get to never forget. Promoters 1:25:56.720 --> 1:25:58.920 get to get off with a few lies once in 1:25:58.960 --> 1:26:01.760 a while. Nobody got hurt, nobody was shot, nobody costs 1:26:01.800 --> 1:26:04.320 them any money. But somebody moved on to where they 1:26:04.400 --> 1:26:07.840 needed to be. They needed their ego something a little massaging. 1:26:08.280 --> 1:26:12.640 So I said to John, I said, just go in 1:26:12.680 --> 1:26:16.280 their dressing room. And I said to Siddons and Jim Morrison, look, 1:26:16.400 --> 1:26:17.960 I said, if you don't want to close the show, 1:26:18.680 --> 1:26:20.840 I will let little Richard Clark the show. You guys 1:26:20.920 --> 1:26:23.080 don't even have to play. I got to tell you honestly, 1:26:23.439 --> 1:26:26.360 like I can't have any kerfuffles here. If John Lennon 1:26:27.080 --> 1:26:29.280 does not want to close the show, John Lennon is 1:26:29.320 --> 1:26:31.080 going to play when he wants to play. Today is 1:26:31.120 --> 1:26:36.000 about John Lennon, and that's it. And Siddons looked at 1:26:36.400 --> 1:26:39.040 Jim Morrison, and Morrison looks at me and goes, okay, 1:26:39.320 --> 1:26:42.160 we'll close, but we got to be on stage for 1:26:42.280 --> 1:26:44.640 John and Eric. They got to be going. That's what 1:26:44.800 --> 1:26:47.840 Morrison wanted. As long as you promised me that we 1:26:47.960 --> 1:26:50.720 can be on stage to watch John and Eric. I 1:26:50.880 --> 1:26:54.160 was like, okay, no problem, man, that's easy. 1:26:56.800 --> 1:27:00.400 So tell me about John and the band going on. 1:27:02.240 --> 1:27:05.080 Well, you know, John was very nervous and he did 1:27:05.120 --> 1:27:08.840 a lot of coke that day, and it was very 1:27:08.880 --> 1:27:10.599 good coke because I gave it to him. I got 1:27:10.640 --> 1:27:12.479 it off a guy in the audience that I knew 1:27:12.800 --> 1:27:15.120 had that stuff. I'd never done any made up for 1:27:15.200 --> 1:27:17.439 it in the eighties. But that's not the point. Back then, 1:27:18.360 --> 1:27:21.840 I was terrified holding this vial of like these little 1:27:21.920 --> 1:27:26.679 crystals and little powder and shit. And as Eric Clapton 1:27:26.680 --> 1:27:28.600 said a couple months after the show, I don't know 1:27:28.640 --> 1:27:30.920 how John even played. He was so coked out because 1:27:31.479 --> 1:27:34.920 that coke went directly to John and Yoko and they 1:27:34.960 --> 1:27:37.200 were alone in the dressing room and they asked me 1:27:37.320 --> 1:27:40.000 to ask Eric to come in. Now, remember later on 1:27:40.200 --> 1:27:42.680 it became, you know, public knowledge that they were all, 1:27:43.240 --> 1:27:46.360 you know, on heroin and kicking heroin. So that was 1:27:46.520 --> 1:27:49.640 probably another reason why without Eric coming along, John did 1:27:49.720 --> 1:27:51.840 not want to go. And that's why when Eric said 1:27:51.840 --> 1:27:53.519 all go, it was like, okay, we'll all do the 1:27:53.600 --> 1:27:56.680 Monkey danced together. But as soon as they got in 1:27:56.760 --> 1:27:58.720 the dressing room and I said, you know, can I 1:27:58.800 --> 1:28:01.240 get you or anything? That's what the wanted. And of 1:28:01.320 --> 1:28:03.719 course fool that I was thought they wanted Coca Cola. 1:28:03.760 --> 1:28:06.639 I mean, a complete fool of myself. But regardless got 1:28:06.720 --> 1:28:07.040 them that. 1:28:09.040 --> 1:28:10.200 And that was that. 1:28:10.400 --> 1:28:11.760 Now I did not see a lot of them. I 1:28:11.880 --> 1:28:14.040 was not in and out of the dressing room hobnobbing 1:28:14.120 --> 1:28:17.200 with them or bands or anything else. I mean there 1:28:17.320 --> 1:28:20.560 was business and money, and there was coordinating and the 1:28:20.640 --> 1:28:24.880 filming people, and there was always little problems. There's platform 1:28:25.040 --> 1:28:27.800 for the camera or getting up on stage. Too many 1:28:27.840 --> 1:28:30.160 people on stage, you know, got to get them off 1:28:30.200 --> 1:28:33.120 the stage. Not not a froom for the cameras. I 1:28:33.200 --> 1:28:35.680 mean that stage was, you know, not much bigger than 1:28:36.320 --> 1:28:39.040 you'd have for your kids, you know, birthday party or 1:28:39.120 --> 1:28:40.960 something if they had a band. I mean, this was 1:28:41.040 --> 1:28:45.639 not Woodstock, This was not Strawberry Fields the next year 1:28:45.800 --> 1:28:49.680 that I did. No, this was like a few rock 1:28:49.720 --> 1:28:52.400 and roll bands. That's how it started. And even Steppenwolf 1:28:52.479 --> 1:28:54.439 and Sly in the family Stone in June they played 1:28:54.439 --> 1:28:58.600 in the same stage. I don't know. Maybe the Woodstock 1:28:58.640 --> 1:29:02.439 stage got everything Jack, But back in the day, a 1:29:02.520 --> 1:29:04.479 stage was a stage if there was room for the 1:29:04.600 --> 1:29:07.280 band and the roadies and a couple of people and 1:29:07.400 --> 1:29:07.800 that was it. 1:29:10.160 --> 1:29:15.479 Okay, was the first time the audience saw Lenin when 1:29:15.560 --> 1:29:16.679 he came out with the band? 1:29:17.439 --> 1:29:20.320 Yeah, I would say absolutely. I do not ever recall 1:29:20.439 --> 1:29:23.880 John Lennon standing on the stage even the doors were 1:29:23.960 --> 1:29:27.280 behind the amplifiers, or Jim was on the stairs. I 1:29:27.320 --> 1:29:29.720 don't think Jim wanted to go up and be on 1:29:29.880 --> 1:29:33.439 the stage. He was on the stairs watching. In the 1:29:33.560 --> 1:29:38.000 Chuck Berry scenes there you can see him. And again, 1:29:38.160 --> 1:29:40.080 I was not spending a lot of time on stage. 1:29:40.200 --> 1:29:43.400 That's not my gig. It's not me standing there, you know, 1:29:43.520 --> 1:29:44.240 watching the band. 1:29:44.800 --> 1:29:47.960 Okay, gay, I guess what I'm asking is when Lenin 1:29:48.280 --> 1:29:51.759 actually hits the stage, what is the audience reaction. 1:29:52.600 --> 1:29:55.160 I think it's overwhelming because Kim had asked them to 1:29:55.280 --> 1:29:57.680 light matches and lighters, and there was a sea of 1:29:57.800 --> 1:30:01.479 lights and there was a lot of you know, you know, 1:30:01.760 --> 1:30:04.320 screaming and like, oh my god, you know, and there 1:30:04.360 --> 1:30:07.760 he is. It's real, you know, he's unmistakable in his 1:30:07.880 --> 1:30:11.160 white suit. And I think it was just, you know, 1:30:11.720 --> 1:30:12.519 it was magic. 1:30:13.640 --> 1:30:15.840 So you were watching the show or were not? 1:30:17.240 --> 1:30:19.799 Oh, I was watching that show. Yeah, I was watching 1:30:19.880 --> 1:30:20.479 that show. 1:30:21.560 --> 1:30:25.519 Okay, And what was the vibe as they played thrilling, 1:30:25.840 --> 1:30:27.479 disappointing shock. 1:30:28.640 --> 1:30:34.439 Well, I think it was fabulous until they did Cold Turkey, 1:30:34.560 --> 1:30:38.080 which was, you know, like a bringing a dead fish 1:30:38.160 --> 1:30:41.840 to a birthday party, and Yoko got in the bag. 1:30:42.160 --> 1:30:45.640 And now I think people started to wonder what was 1:30:45.720 --> 1:30:48.560 going on. There wasn't any Beatles songs. Your Blues is 1:30:48.680 --> 1:30:54.200 not a recognizable Beatles song. Okay, it's so obscure, it's unbelievable, 1:30:54.240 --> 1:30:58.720 and it's not even a good song. So I think 1:30:58.800 --> 1:31:01.080 people wanted to hear a Beatles song. There's one of 1:31:01.120 --> 1:31:04.360 the Beatles, it's John Lennon, you know, plain Norwegian Wood 1:31:04.479 --> 1:31:07.439 or something. But John was determined not to play a 1:31:07.479 --> 1:31:12.719 Beatles song. I'm surprised he played Your Blues Give Piece 1:31:12.760 --> 1:31:17.280 of Chance. Everybody came back to life and that was 1:31:17.360 --> 1:31:20.080 a beautiful time. But it was a very pedantic version 1:31:20.240 --> 1:31:24.519 compared to the recording in the hotel in Montreal. It 1:31:24.640 --> 1:31:29.840 kind of slogged along, but nonetheless people had the peace 1:31:29.920 --> 1:31:31.560 sign that were waving it up in the air. That 1:31:31.680 --> 1:31:33.600 was one of the things John told Kleine on the 1:31:34.200 --> 1:31:36.880 plane on the way back. I never felt so good 1:31:36.920 --> 1:31:40.040 in my life. People were jumping up and down, waving 1:31:40.120 --> 1:31:42.320 the peace sign and I want to do my own 1:31:42.439 --> 1:31:45.840 songs with my own band. That moment I think was 1:31:45.920 --> 1:31:47.240 the transfixing moment. 1:31:54.800 --> 1:31:57.880 So you say, Kline on the plane back, did Alan 1:31:57.960 --> 1:31:59.240 Klein actually come to town? 1:31:59.320 --> 1:32:02.000 Oh my god. Ellen Climb flew in on Saturday morning 1:32:02.080 --> 1:32:06.679 on the first plane. When he heard, however, that John 1:32:06.760 --> 1:32:10.240 Lennon was at the airport. Maybe John said, Anthony, possit, 1:32:10.320 --> 1:32:12.120 call Alan, let him know, tell him to come out. 1:32:13.040 --> 1:32:16.560 And because Klein Kleine, what a dog he was, so 1:32:16.760 --> 1:32:20.760 Clin grabs me backstage right and he goes, listen, can 1:32:20.840 --> 1:32:23.200 we talk? So I go, yeah, sure, Well it's pretty noisy. 1:32:23.240 --> 1:32:25.040 We'll go in the men's room. So we go in 1:32:25.080 --> 1:32:27.200 the men's room and he goes, listen, looks like he 1:32:27.280 --> 1:32:28.880 got a lot of people out there. He said, I'd 1:32:28.960 --> 1:32:31.519 like to get something for John. I said, like what, 1:32:32.880 --> 1:32:36.240 and he goes, well, you know, maybe ten thousand dollars. 1:32:36.479 --> 1:32:40.280 He said, look, I don't know what we've spent or 1:32:40.360 --> 1:32:42.360 what we owe or whatever. But I said, you know, 1:32:43.560 --> 1:32:46.600 I can't do anything like that right now anyway, And 1:32:46.720 --> 1:32:47.600 he said, well, I don't know. 1:32:47.600 --> 1:32:48.360 I have to talk to me. 1:32:48.400 --> 1:32:50.040 He might not want to play. And I said, well, 1:32:50.080 --> 1:32:52.080 I know he'll play because he signed a contract at 1:32:52.120 --> 1:32:56.400 the airport. But Clapton had come in, had gone to 1:32:56.520 --> 1:32:59.479 the urino, and Kleine said to him out, no, no, 1:32:59.520 --> 1:33:01.280 I aren't they know they don't want to pay you, 1:33:01.400 --> 1:33:04.880 and clamp And goes, well, piss on them as he's pissing. Okay. 1:33:04.920 --> 1:33:08.880 It was hilarious, classic moment, I said, Well, Tony Joseph 1:33:08.880 --> 1:33:11.960 Fido from the Musicians Union, who I used to take 1:33:12.040 --> 1:33:14.840 bass lessons from, came out to the airport with a 1:33:14.880 --> 1:33:17.479 contract for John to sign so he could play, and 1:33:17.600 --> 1:33:19.719 he signed it for two hundred and sixty five dollars. 1:33:19.760 --> 1:33:22.439 I think we have a check for him somewhere. Klein 1:33:22.520 --> 1:33:26.479 looked at me and he goes, you're good, kid, You're good, okay, 1:33:27.200 --> 1:33:29.280 and that was it. I never heard from him again 1:33:29.320 --> 1:33:32.080 about any money, but he did try to put a 1:33:32.120 --> 1:33:34.679 little scare into me. Well maybe he won't play. Yeah, 1:33:34.680 --> 1:33:37.400 I don't think so. I think I'll play, Okay. 1:33:38.400 --> 1:33:41.760 Lennon leaves the stage. What does Lenin then do? 1:33:42.920 --> 1:33:45.360 Gets into a limo and they go up to Lady 1:33:45.400 --> 1:33:48.880 Eaton's estate, which is, you know, like forty minutes north 1:33:48.960 --> 1:33:54.080 of town out in King so you know, they were 1:33:54.120 --> 1:33:56.280 in the limo together. He and Yoko have no idea 1:33:56.320 --> 1:33:58.920 what they said. I think it was a fabulous experience 1:33:59.040 --> 1:34:01.519 for the two of them. The Oko's face when you 1:34:01.600 --> 1:34:03.880 see her when he finally got her off the mic, 1:34:05.080 --> 1:34:08.160 she was blissed out. I mean, she had done her 1:34:08.400 --> 1:34:13.400 thing and that's what she wanted to do. I love 1:34:13.479 --> 1:34:17.120 Klaus form going. She came down the plane said can 1:34:17.200 --> 1:34:19.519 we do my song now? And John gets up the steers, 1:34:19.560 --> 1:34:21.880 your back up for a cup of tea. He didn't 1:34:21.920 --> 1:34:25.040 want anybody to know what was coming, you know, he 1:34:25.200 --> 1:34:27.320 really didn't. He was smart enough to know, like, we'll 1:34:27.439 --> 1:34:30.439 just roll with it, just you know, follow me. Put 1:34:30.520 --> 1:34:35.080 your aunt guitars up against the amplifiers. It was definitely 1:34:35.280 --> 1:34:40.160 cinema verite and it was flying. They were just flying 1:34:40.360 --> 1:34:42.280 by the seat of their pants. Like Klaus said, we 1:34:42.360 --> 1:34:43.479 didn't know what was coming next. 1:34:44.640 --> 1:34:46.960 So they go to the estate. When do they go 1:34:47.120 --> 1:34:47.839 back to England? 1:34:47.960 --> 1:34:51.640 They go back Monday. The Sunday was spent there on Sunday. 1:34:51.360 --> 1:34:54.160 Night And did you go visit them at the end. 1:34:54.240 --> 1:34:56.040 Yeah, yeah, there was a big dinner party. It was 1:34:56.160 --> 1:34:57.479 like a whole huge thing. 1:34:59.320 --> 1:35:05.000 Okay, now the date is played you make international news, 1:35:05.200 --> 1:35:08.519 you make history. What is going through your brain? 1:35:09.280 --> 1:35:11.480 Well, first of all, I don't think we made international 1:35:11.640 --> 1:35:15.320 news on any level that they had any impact. 1:35:16.120 --> 1:35:18.599 I think you're wrong. There. Everybody knew that John Lennon 1:35:18.640 --> 1:35:19.839 played in Toronto. 1:35:19.920 --> 1:35:24.400 Okay, Okay, well I'm glad to hear that in Toronto. 1:35:26.200 --> 1:35:29.200 It was great. It was like, you know, I don't 1:35:29.200 --> 1:35:31.479 think we could believe what happened. To be honest with you, 1:35:32.560 --> 1:35:36.960 it was stunning. It was successful, It was financially successful. 1:35:37.640 --> 1:35:39.840 I do know one thing. We weren't sitting around going 1:35:39.920 --> 1:35:43.000 what's our next show? I mean, the film had been shot. 1:35:43.800 --> 1:35:46.840 I think there was dealings with Penny Baker. But what 1:35:47.000 --> 1:35:51.759 happened is Alan Klein again comes in and convinces Penny 1:35:51.800 --> 1:35:56.000 Baker to give him the tapes, the recording tapes that 1:35:56.160 --> 1:36:01.000 Penny Baker had paid for Wali Hyder, and he agreed 1:36:01.560 --> 1:36:04.080 to sign a film release, and he reneged on that 1:36:04.280 --> 1:36:06.599 and instead took the tapes and put the album out. 1:36:07.400 --> 1:36:10.839 And it wasn't for quite some time that he actually 1:36:10.920 --> 1:36:13.840 got to put out this Sweet Toronto movie. And that 1:36:14.120 --> 1:36:17.439 was just a you know, a few glimpses of these bands. 1:36:18.320 --> 1:36:22.439 No narration, no nothing, and you know, then John and 1:36:22.560 --> 1:36:25.000 Yoka's performance. You know, that was like in the eighties. 1:36:25.080 --> 1:36:28.320 This was after John was gone, and then Yoko of 1:36:28.400 --> 1:36:30.920 course had to be in the opening of it talking 1:36:31.000 --> 1:36:33.800 about it from an art gallery. It was not a 1:36:33.920 --> 1:36:37.400 movie that Pennybaker wanted to make. It was a desperate 1:36:37.920 --> 1:36:41.080 attempt to get something out of that footage. That's why 1:36:41.120 --> 1:36:44.640 when Ron Chapmin came along, and Ron Chapman has credibility, 1:36:44.720 --> 1:36:48.760 He's made some award winning movies, they went, oh my god, 1:36:48.920 --> 1:36:52.759 here here comes the you know, resurrection of this footage. 1:36:53.240 --> 1:36:56.320 And this guy's got a great idea. Brower's still alive. 1:36:57.040 --> 1:36:59.240 You know. They had to do their interviews with me, 1:36:59.280 --> 1:37:03.360 and by the way, people said to me, man, you'll 1:37:03.400 --> 1:37:05.400 get rough in that movie, you know, And I go, well, 1:37:06.200 --> 1:37:11.479 that was years ago, and you know we were like drinking, smoking, 1:37:11.560 --> 1:37:13.000 having a good time, and all of a sudden, I 1:37:13.040 --> 1:37:14.799 get a call, you have to be on camera tomorrow. 1:37:15.640 --> 1:37:17.600 I wasn't ready. There was no hair and makeup, there 1:37:17.680 --> 1:37:20.559 was no nothing. I needed three days to detox before 1:37:20.600 --> 1:37:24.400 I should have been on film. But Ron couldn't raise 1:37:24.439 --> 1:37:26.880 any money unless he got me on film because they said, 1:37:26.920 --> 1:37:29.880 no one else is alive. If you don't get Brawer 1:37:30.160 --> 1:37:32.960 on camera, then what are you going to do? What 1:37:33.040 --> 1:37:34.720 if he dies while you think you're going to get 1:37:34.760 --> 1:37:38.160 on my camera in three four years? So that became 1:37:39.200 --> 1:37:42.160 him having to get me on camera for several hours 1:37:43.120 --> 1:37:46.560 sweating under lights in a velvet jacket. I don't know 1:37:46.680 --> 1:37:50.760 why it wore. And that's how that happened. That was 1:37:50.840 --> 1:37:54.559 what really triggered the beginning of getting the thing funded. 1:37:56.200 --> 1:38:02.000 According to Ron Okay, what happens in your promotion career 1:38:02.120 --> 1:38:02.519 after that? 1:38:04.280 --> 1:38:08.720 Well, I went to his stan Bull to buy sheepskin 1:38:08.840 --> 1:38:11.559 coats in November and the Eatons were going to sell 1:38:11.600 --> 1:38:15.559 them in every store of the country, And of course 1:38:15.880 --> 1:38:19.519 I got there with another guy and found that all 1:38:19.560 --> 1:38:22.120 the sheepskin coats had been paid for the year before. 1:38:22.520 --> 1:38:25.240 If you wanted sheepskin coats, buy them now, we'll deliver 1:38:25.360 --> 1:38:27.719 them next year. So we bought a few at the market. 1:38:28.520 --> 1:38:31.360 My friend had bought some hash, a few kilos of it, 1:38:32.000 --> 1:38:33.960 and I strapped it on to take it back to 1:38:33.960 --> 1:38:38.680 Toronto to figure it'll cover the expenses of the of 1:38:38.800 --> 1:38:41.720 the debacle of being istan Bull for a month not 1:38:41.840 --> 1:38:45.040 being able to get coats well, I almost got busted 1:38:45.080 --> 1:38:47.519 at Heathrow coming in. I didn't my health card. They 1:38:47.600 --> 1:38:49.519 sent me over to go to a doctor. Take your 1:38:49.600 --> 1:38:53.640 shirt off, they'll look at your vaccination marks. And of 1:38:53.680 --> 1:38:56.040 course if I took my shirt off, either the person 1:38:56.120 --> 1:38:59.000 looking at it would have to be a hash smoker, 1:38:59.080 --> 1:39:00.840 that I could give some of it too, and they 1:39:00.880 --> 1:39:03.320 would green lightning, or I'd be in jail. But my 1:39:03.439 --> 1:39:05.479 friend had the health cards. He waved them in. They 1:39:05.520 --> 1:39:07.040 called them in, they looked at them, and they let 1:39:07.080 --> 1:39:09.400 me go. So I was too traumatized to get on 1:39:09.479 --> 1:39:11.599 the plane to go to Toronto. I got a hotel room, 1:39:11.960 --> 1:39:14.640 sent my friend on, grabbed the sheepskin coat off him 1:39:14.640 --> 1:39:17.600 because it was November. Woke up in the morning and 1:39:17.680 --> 1:39:20.040 realized I'm in London and the last thing John lyn 1:39:20.080 --> 1:39:22.519 And said to me was you know my number? So 1:39:22.640 --> 1:39:24.960 I called Apple and got him on the phone. He 1:39:25.000 --> 1:39:27.479 came on the phone right away. I said, look, I'm 1:39:27.520 --> 1:39:29.479 in London. I got a present for you. He goes, 1:39:29.520 --> 1:39:32.080 we have a surprise for you. Come right over. So 1:39:33.280 --> 1:39:37.120 I rolled some of this hash up. I put the 1:39:37.200 --> 1:39:39.280 rest of it under the mattress in the hotel room, 1:39:39.360 --> 1:39:41.800 smoked a couple of cigarettes in there that covered the stink, 1:39:41.800 --> 1:39:44.439 because it was like waking up in a barn and 1:39:45.280 --> 1:39:47.599 come over to Apple with this big chunk of hash 1:39:48.520 --> 1:39:51.400 and you know, I just said, I come back from 1:39:51.400 --> 1:39:53.880 Miss Dan Bull. I jomped that I was a drug 1:39:53.960 --> 1:39:56.840 smuggler or whatever, it didn't matter back in those days. 1:39:57.400 --> 1:40:01.439 And he said, look, yo, go a Turkish golf ball 1:40:01.680 --> 1:40:04.400 and he rolls across the desk. So we smoked some 1:40:04.560 --> 1:40:07.120 of it, and of course he goes over to the 1:40:07.200 --> 1:40:09.600 record player and takes a record and puts it on 1:40:09.840 --> 1:40:12.800 and it's the live piece in Toronto Record and he 1:40:12.880 --> 1:40:15.360 says Capitol didn't want to put it out, but Alan 1:40:15.439 --> 1:40:18.120 made them. And he said, I'm really excited about it. 1:40:18.160 --> 1:40:20.720 You're the first person to hear it. Well, when I 1:40:20.880 --> 1:40:25.719 heard the beginning Toronto Presents, Broward Walker Present, our names 1:40:25.760 --> 1:40:29.600 were on this record, man, I was like floored. I 1:40:29.720 --> 1:40:31.600 thought I was going to faint or something, you know, 1:40:32.040 --> 1:40:33.439 and he kind of looked at me. I think he 1:40:33.520 --> 1:40:37.439 picked up on that, you know, like yeah, he's tripping. Yeah, 1:40:37.520 --> 1:40:41.200 he's definitely tripping here in that. So we talked about 1:40:41.280 --> 1:40:44.600 doing a peace festival and that's when he, you know, 1:40:44.800 --> 1:40:47.240 having been at Woodstock. That's the thing I didn't tell 1:40:47.240 --> 1:40:51.559 you during that story is on that stage after Jimmy played, 1:40:52.200 --> 1:40:54.360 I had this feeling that I said to you, we 1:40:54.520 --> 1:40:56.720 need to do one of these in Canada. We need 1:40:56.800 --> 1:40:59.360 to do a big festival. This is a real festival, 1:40:59.680 --> 1:41:03.000 not a football stadium. This is real. And I ended 1:41:03.080 --> 1:41:06.439 up doing the Strawberry Fields Festival one year exactly to 1:41:06.520 --> 1:41:09.800 the weekend of Woodstock, after trying to do a peace 1:41:09.880 --> 1:41:15.719 festival with John. Toronto Peace Festival probably considered the biggest 1:41:15.800 --> 1:41:19.240 non event in show business history. Rolling Stone thought five 1:41:19.320 --> 1:41:21.960 million people wanted to come. But John and I were 1:41:22.479 --> 1:41:24.760 very naive and we didn't realize the power of the 1:41:24.880 --> 1:41:27.760 Nixon White House. And I didn't realize the power of 1:41:27.800 --> 1:41:30.200 the Eatons because when I showed up back in Toronto, 1:41:30.760 --> 1:41:33.240 Kenny and Thoris served me with papers instead, we're throwing 1:41:33.280 --> 1:41:36.400 you out of the company, and they voted me out 1:41:36.479 --> 1:41:38.280 and I didn't even tell them I'd met with John 1:41:38.360 --> 1:41:41.280 Lennon and he went to a peace festival. I said, okay, 1:41:41.400 --> 1:41:43.639 and I like, literally, you know, you see in the movies, 1:41:43.680 --> 1:41:46.160 you clean your desk out and you leave. And I 1:41:46.240 --> 1:41:48.640 went home and I got kicked out. But I have 1:41:48.720 --> 1:41:52.400 John Lennon, you know my wife, because John Lennon is better. 1:41:52.720 --> 1:41:55.760 I like him better than Kenny A. Richie York and 1:41:55.840 --> 1:41:58.680 I and Chef's partner Richie Miller went back a few 1:41:58.760 --> 1:42:02.360 weeks later and made a normal presentation to John and 1:42:02.880 --> 1:42:06.400 got letters from him authorizing us to request a meeting 1:42:06.479 --> 1:42:09.600 with the Prime Minister and to launch a festival. And 1:42:09.720 --> 1:42:11.479 then we brought him back a week and a half 1:42:11.600 --> 1:42:14.360 later for a press conference at the Science Center when 1:42:14.400 --> 1:42:17.120 we also launched the Wars Over campaign around the world, 1:42:17.400 --> 1:42:20.720 and Toronto was the biggest of the campaigns because having 1:42:20.800 --> 1:42:23.400 come back with a letter from John Lennon, I was 1:42:23.439 --> 1:42:26.360 able to raise fast hundred thousand dollars and we probably 1:42:26.400 --> 1:42:29.679 spent half of it. People thought there was a Nike campaign. 1:42:29.760 --> 1:42:33.639 We had more billboards. Even Sean Lennon in his ode 1:42:33.720 --> 1:42:37.559 to the Little Movie about War Is Over, makes note 1:42:37.600 --> 1:42:40.600 of the fact that Toronto was the biggest War Is 1:42:40.680 --> 1:42:43.479 Over in the world. Other cities had a billboard. We 1:42:43.600 --> 1:42:46.280 had at least fifteen or twenty, and I had at 1:42:46.400 --> 1:42:49.200 least five hundred kids from Roussdale College out on the 1:42:49.240 --> 1:42:52.160 street with handbills. So we really kicked it off and 1:42:52.280 --> 1:42:54.519 John was very excited and he gave a great press 1:42:54.560 --> 1:42:58.719 conference and then everything sort of began to go downhill. 1:42:59.840 --> 1:43:05.400 Tragic experience watching politics and money and power crush culture. 1:43:07.240 --> 1:43:10.439 A little bit more detail there well. 1:43:13.080 --> 1:43:15.800 From the press conference. Of course, everyone in the world 1:43:15.840 --> 1:43:17.880 wanted to be part of the festival, and we wanted 1:43:17.880 --> 1:43:21.519 it to be at Mostport Ground Prix Racetrack, and that's 1:43:21.600 --> 1:43:23.400 where it was announced by Jean there it would be, 1:43:24.320 --> 1:43:27.360 and it was going to be a wonderful thing until 1:43:28.080 --> 1:43:32.160 Harvey Heudis, the park owner, called me and said there 1:43:32.240 --> 1:43:35.280 was an emergency meeting called by the town council. I 1:43:35.439 --> 1:43:38.639 wasn't allowed to go, but the opp that's the Ontario 1:43:38.760 --> 1:43:42.200 Provincial Police, made a presentation to them, I understand. They 1:43:42.280 --> 1:43:45.600 showed pictures of people frolicking nude and fornicating in the 1:43:45.680 --> 1:43:49.640 woods at Woodstock and mounds of garbage and told them 1:43:49.720 --> 1:43:53.200 this is what's coming to your community, and your permit 1:43:53.439 --> 1:43:58.000 was revoked. All right. That repeated itself four or five 1:43:58.160 --> 1:44:01.240 times over the next couple of months in the province 1:44:01.320 --> 1:44:07.120 of Ontario until we found out through somebody that our 1:44:07.240 --> 1:44:11.599 festival was never going to happen Ontario. John David Eaton 1:44:11.760 --> 1:44:15.080 was claiming at the Toronto Club with a whiskey glass 1:44:15.160 --> 1:44:18.160 up in the air, that festival will never happen in 1:44:18.360 --> 1:44:21.760 my province. That's who the Eatons were, and they were 1:44:21.840 --> 1:44:24.400 my former partners, and now it became a war that 1:44:24.520 --> 1:44:27.519 they declared when they found out that I had come 1:44:27.600 --> 1:44:29.840 back with Lennon and didn't tell them, well, yeah, what 1:44:29.920 --> 1:44:31.439 I'm going to tell you, I just get kicked out 1:44:31.439 --> 1:44:36.240 of my company. So that became very distressing to John 1:44:36.439 --> 1:44:40.040 because he's one that said I'm going to ask everybody 1:44:40.120 --> 1:44:44.639 that's anybody to play. But every week we are losing 1:44:44.680 --> 1:44:48.320 another site every week in rolling Stone park Hill site 1:44:48.439 --> 1:44:55.400 you know, canceled or this site canceled. And so John also, 1:44:55.720 --> 1:44:58.240 you know, was upset by Clin because Clin had called 1:44:58.280 --> 1:45:00.719 me to come to New York and he and Steve 1:45:00.800 --> 1:45:04.040 Lieber were in his office and Steve I knew I 1:45:04.200 --> 1:45:07.880 bought bands from him. He later on went to do Beatlemania, 1:45:08.080 --> 1:45:11.880 but he was a respectable agent head of ICM, I think. 1:45:12.479 --> 1:45:14.479 And he's sitting there with Klein, who's telling me there's 1:45:14.479 --> 1:45:17.880 a world Beatles tour and your festival is screwing it 1:45:18.000 --> 1:45:20.200 up because promoters they're scared you're going to take all 1:45:20.240 --> 1:45:23.960 the people, and I need you to cancel your festival 1:45:24.000 --> 1:45:26.639 and I'll give you all the Canadian dates, five cities. 1:45:27.600 --> 1:45:29.320 So I go, wow, I look at Steve, I said, 1:45:29.360 --> 1:45:32.880 you know, and Steve, yep, I'm booking it. Steve was 1:45:32.920 --> 1:45:35.080 full of shit, but for Alan Kline, he'd do anything, 1:45:35.160 --> 1:45:39.040 I guess, as most people would. So I go home 1:45:39.080 --> 1:45:40.960 and call John and tell him this, and he goes, 1:45:41.360 --> 1:45:44.120 oh my god, he's freaked out. He's full of bullshit. 1:45:44.280 --> 1:45:47.920 That's all bollocks. We're not doing any Beatles World tour. 1:45:47.960 --> 1:45:51.439 And at out of Day's Yelliott Yoko Klins screwing everything 1:45:51.520 --> 1:45:57.040 up in the festival. So he said, you guys need 1:45:57.120 --> 1:45:59.639 to get me the dirt on Cline. Well, Richie Yorke 1:46:00.040 --> 1:46:04.240 own journalists and used to asking tough questions and he 1:46:04.439 --> 1:46:06.960 prepared Adarcier and what people thought of Klein and there 1:46:07.080 --> 1:46:13.080 wasn't much good in it, if any. So then Lennon 1:46:13.160 --> 1:46:15.760 calls me and he wants me to get a guy 1:46:15.880 --> 1:46:19.200 named Don Hamrick to come over to Albert, Denmark. This 1:46:19.400 --> 1:46:23.360 is like in February, close to March, and he's going 1:46:23.439 --> 1:46:28.080 to get them off smoking cigarettes. And because they've changed 1:46:28.120 --> 1:46:32.320 smoked Galway cigarettes. And so we get him a ticket 1:46:32.360 --> 1:46:34.400 to go over there, because remember the Beatles have no money. 1:46:34.439 --> 1:46:38.759 I was paying for everything, you know, Chatau Laurio, hotel, airflights, trains, 1:46:38.800 --> 1:46:41.120 private railway car to meet Trudeau. I forgot to tell 1:46:41.160 --> 1:46:44.000 you that yet. You know, in Toronto we did get 1:46:44.000 --> 1:46:47.000 a meeting with the Prime Minister Greenlit. We rented a 1:46:47.040 --> 1:46:50.160 private railway car with an observation car and two sleeping 1:46:50.240 --> 1:46:53.040 cars went to Montreal so the press wouldn't know we 1:46:53.120 --> 1:46:56.840 were going to Ottawa. Ended up in Ottawa and it 1:46:57.000 --> 1:46:59.240 was a different visit than bringing the Beatles movie there 1:46:59.280 --> 1:47:01.960 because I was bringing and a beadle and Trudeau met 1:47:02.040 --> 1:47:03.880 with him only he and Yoko. None of us got 1:47:03.960 --> 1:47:07.400 to go in there, and it was a very highlight. 1:47:07.479 --> 1:47:08.880 It was for John. It was the first time a 1:47:08.920 --> 1:47:13.040 world leader ever received a rock star. It was unbelievable, unprecedented. 1:47:13.600 --> 1:47:18.160 So he wanted us to come to Denmark and give 1:47:18.240 --> 1:47:20.880 us a report on the festival. I need you know, 1:47:20.960 --> 1:47:23.680 a report, Amy, you know what's going on, and you 1:47:23.760 --> 1:47:25.400 better have a site. You better show up here of 1:47:25.479 --> 1:47:27.360 a site. Well, we didn't have a site, but we 1:47:27.479 --> 1:47:34.360 came Anyway, Richie brought the dossier on Kleine, so we 1:47:34.479 --> 1:47:36.479 had a good time in London. We met some stewardess 1:47:36.600 --> 1:47:38.200 is on the way over there and they were off 1:47:38.240 --> 1:47:40.479 for the weekend, so we changed our flights, booked the 1:47:40.560 --> 1:47:43.320 penthouse at the Playboy Club and had a few days 1:47:43.400 --> 1:47:46.800 in London just to cool out. And we get to 1:47:46.880 --> 1:47:50.719 Alberg and Anthony Fossett tells us, you know what, things 1:47:50.760 --> 1:47:54.680 are really bad here. John has not invited me out there, 1:47:55.320 --> 1:47:57.479 and he just keeps wanting me to get stuff from 1:47:57.520 --> 1:48:00.519 the office and telex and sent out a cab and 1:48:01.520 --> 1:48:04.320 that guy Hamrick you sent over here is still here, 1:48:04.640 --> 1:48:07.720 and John wants you to go meet him. Now. What 1:48:07.760 --> 1:48:09.920 I'm going to tell you right now is written and 1:48:10.000 --> 1:48:14.320 documented in Albert Goldman's book The Lives of John Lennon. 1:48:14.400 --> 1:48:16.400 So this is not new information, but it might be 1:48:16.520 --> 1:48:21.519 newer to your audience. So we go to our hotel room, 1:48:21.600 --> 1:48:23.160 Ritchie York and I and there's a note on the 1:48:23.200 --> 1:48:26.720 door says blue piece to you and love. It's kind 1:48:26.720 --> 1:48:28.320 of weird. We just checked in. We come up in 1:48:28.360 --> 1:48:30.120 the elevator. How can there be a note on the door. 1:48:30.880 --> 1:48:33.400 The hotel was kind of full. There was a convention 1:48:33.560 --> 1:48:39.080 of some sort there. So Anthony says, you know, you 1:48:39.200 --> 1:48:41.200 need to go meet the guy Hammrick. Well, John wants 1:48:41.240 --> 1:48:44.439 you to go meet Hammerck now. So we go up 1:48:44.479 --> 1:48:48.120 to Hamrick's room and knocking the door, and the door 1:48:48.160 --> 1:48:50.120 opens and it was like spider webs came out. It 1:48:50.240 --> 1:48:53.760 was really weird, like this whole energy came out. And 1:48:53.880 --> 1:48:56.040 the door opens and here's this guy six foot two, 1:48:56.360 --> 1:49:00.720 long stringy hair in his underwear and he's motioning us 1:49:00.800 --> 1:49:03.640 to come in. Boys, come in. So he turns and 1:49:03.680 --> 1:49:05.559 walks in. He's got a hole in his back size 1:49:05.600 --> 1:49:07.640 of a mango, and there's stitches and everything, and you 1:49:07.680 --> 1:49:10.160 can see something moving like a lung or. I don't 1:49:10.160 --> 1:49:10.439 know why. 1:49:10.479 --> 1:49:11.360 It was terrifying. 1:49:11.920 --> 1:49:13.840 And he goes, oh, don't worry about that, boys, I 1:49:13.840 --> 1:49:16.519 had a little operation. I'll heel myself better than them. 1:49:17.320 --> 1:49:19.519 So we come in this room. It's dark, the blinds 1:49:19.520 --> 1:49:22.840 are pulled, there's a light on in the corner, and 1:49:22.960 --> 1:49:25.599 he starts to tell us that John has been chosen 1:49:25.640 --> 1:49:28.720 as an emissary between an alien race and Earth, and 1:49:28.960 --> 1:49:31.960 that he's been on a space ship in Norway, and 1:49:32.640 --> 1:49:37.200 that's what's happening right now. So he had a little 1:49:37.320 --> 1:49:40.320 plastic city of toy looked like a toy from Toys 1:49:40.400 --> 1:49:43.360 r US but it was floating above the dresser and 1:49:43.439 --> 1:49:45.240 he goes and runs his hand of her and he says, 1:49:45.520 --> 1:49:49.000 we have the secret of anti gravity and we're building 1:49:49.040 --> 1:49:52.880 a city in the clouds above Brazil. Well, my first 1:49:52.920 --> 1:49:55.400 thought was I want my mom. I was scared to 1:49:55.520 --> 1:49:58.439 get I mean, this was like too much, Matt, you know, 1:49:58.600 --> 1:50:01.400 this was too much. I mean I was terrified. And 1:50:01.560 --> 1:50:03.280 so he said, you know, come and do it. Well, 1:50:03.320 --> 1:50:05.000 I you know, I wanted I want to put my 1:50:05.120 --> 1:50:07.160 arm into there. There's nothing there and that could have 1:50:07.200 --> 1:50:10.439 been magnets underneath the drawer whatever. It was some kind 1:50:10.479 --> 1:50:14.000 of weird thing there. But so Richie Yorke goes, what's 1:50:14.080 --> 1:50:16.599 John's part in this? And he goes, John knows his part. 1:50:16.640 --> 1:50:18.880 And I said, well, look here's the deal. We'll do 1:50:19.000 --> 1:50:23.080 the festival thing, you do all that stuff. And I said, 1:50:23.120 --> 1:50:25.080 but I got to go, and we backed out Richie 1:50:25.080 --> 1:50:26.439 and I backed out of the room. I didn't want 1:50:26.479 --> 1:50:28.720 to turn my back on this guy. So we come 1:50:28.800 --> 1:50:30.840 running down to Faucet's room and go, oh my god, 1:50:30.920 --> 1:50:32.720 you're not going to believe what happened. This guy is 1:50:32.840 --> 1:50:37.759 crazy and he's talking about you know, space people and everything, 1:50:37.800 --> 1:50:39.439 and Anthony goes, I don't know what to do. 1:50:39.600 --> 1:50:39.920 I don't know. 1:50:40.720 --> 1:50:43.720 So anyway, we go decide to go have dinner up 1:50:43.800 --> 1:50:49.200 at the roof Top restaurant. It's nighttime now and we're 1:50:49.200 --> 1:50:52.320 having dinner, beautiful dinner, you know, a lovely restaurant, probably 1:50:52.360 --> 1:50:56.160 the best one in Aulberg. And the matre d comes 1:50:56.200 --> 1:50:58.040 over to the table and he says, mister Brower, which 1:50:58.040 --> 1:51:02.320 you signed the chip for the barber, and you know, 1:51:02.720 --> 1:51:07.240 like like the what he goes, mister Lennon ordered the 1:51:07.280 --> 1:51:09.320 barber this morning to go out to where they're staying 1:51:09.360 --> 1:51:12.080 and cut everyone's hair. And he said to charge it 1:51:12.120 --> 1:51:15.639 to your room. So I said, well, of course, where's 1:51:15.680 --> 1:51:18.040 the barber And he points to this dominion of young 1:51:18.120 --> 1:51:21.640 woman over at the matre d e stand. I said, well, 1:51:21.680 --> 1:51:23.280 ask her to come over. I said, yeah, of course, 1:51:23.320 --> 1:51:26.040 I'll have no problem to sign him. So we asked 1:51:26.040 --> 1:51:28.200 her to sit down. Her name's Renata and she's very 1:51:28.280 --> 1:51:31.639 shy and you mirror maybe in her late twenties, early thirties. 1:51:32.720 --> 1:51:35.439 And Richie Yorke goes tell us what happened, you know 1:51:35.560 --> 1:51:38.519 what's going on? And she goes, well, no, I go 1:51:38.600 --> 1:51:40.479 out there. I won't do her accent the whole way, 1:51:40.560 --> 1:51:43.200 but she's got a little accent. I go out and 1:51:43.360 --> 1:51:45.880 it's very far out. It's past the edge of the 1:51:45.960 --> 1:51:49.479 city where the roads are now not paved, and there's 1:51:49.520 --> 1:51:53.880 a farmhouse and I come in. The taxi waits for me, 1:51:54.880 --> 1:51:58.200 and I am told to cut everyone's hair, like Mia Farrow, 1:51:58.720 --> 1:52:01.519 and mister Cox has a magazine cover with a picture 1:52:01.560 --> 1:52:03.280 of me at Pharaoh. Now she had just had her 1:52:03.320 --> 1:52:08.880 haircut as thin as you know, like makeer marines look long. 1:52:09.760 --> 1:52:13.200 And so they proceeded to have all their haircut. Kyoko, 1:52:13.240 --> 1:52:15.880 the little child, they cut her hair, then they cut 1:52:16.000 --> 1:52:19.519 Melinda Cox, Tony's wife. Then they cut Tony Cox, then 1:52:19.560 --> 1:52:22.240 they cut Yoko. And when they cut John, she said, 1:52:22.280 --> 1:52:25.000 everybody started to cry. And Yoka took his hair and 1:52:25.040 --> 1:52:28.680 put it in a bag. Okay, So this is like 1:52:28.960 --> 1:52:32.840 between the guy in the room with his space story, 1:52:33.040 --> 1:52:37.519 and now I'm starting to feel like, you know what, 1:52:37.840 --> 1:52:41.880 there's something afoot here. So I said, look, guys, do 1:52:41.880 --> 1:52:43.920 you see what's going on? You know, the space guy 1:52:44.320 --> 1:52:46.600 now her and the haircuts. They're trying to freak us 1:52:46.640 --> 1:52:49.360 out before the meeting because a meeting, you know, was 1:52:49.360 --> 1:52:53.960 supposedly coming, so literally on cue, I couldn't believe it. 1:52:54.200 --> 1:52:56.400 The matreat comes over and says, we just got a 1:52:56.439 --> 1:52:59.240 message from mister Lennon and it says, please be here 1:52:59.240 --> 1:53:03.160 tomorrow at eleven in the morning. Bring Anthony. So that's 1:53:03.240 --> 1:53:05.960 our meeting. I said, see this our meetings tomorrow with them. 1:53:06.320 --> 1:53:09.240 They're trying to freak us out. I said, look, we'll 1:53:09.280 --> 1:53:11.599 freak them out. Let's get all her haircut. She's right here. 1:53:12.960 --> 1:53:15.519 Can you cut three haircuts if I pay you doubles? Yeah. 1:53:16.040 --> 1:53:18.040 So we go out down to one of the rooms 1:53:18.439 --> 1:53:20.120 and I get all my haircut out, and it was 1:53:20.200 --> 1:53:22.559 longer than this, and I got the mere Faraoh aircut. 1:53:22.600 --> 1:53:24.840 There's a picture of me in Rolling Stone looking with 1:53:24.960 --> 1:53:29.760 that aircut for posterity. And of course Richie York and 1:53:29.760 --> 1:53:32.320 Anthony Faucet say no, no, no, we're not doing it. 1:53:32.360 --> 1:53:34.080 They got like an inch cut off. So now we 1:53:34.200 --> 1:53:35.800 have to go out the next morning and I've got 1:53:35.840 --> 1:53:38.960 all my haircut off. We come in. Tony Cox gives 1:53:39.000 --> 1:53:40.920 me a weird look when he sees all my hair off, 1:53:42.880 --> 1:53:47.400 and there's Johnny, Yoko and Kyoko and Melinda Cox and 1:53:47.520 --> 1:53:52.960 Tony and she's handing out this stuff they called mar June, 1:53:53.040 --> 1:53:55.000 which when I had a bite of it, it was 1:53:55.120 --> 1:53:57.080 like there was something in it. I did like that 1:53:57.240 --> 1:53:59.600 to Richie because Richie smoke a joint fall over. I 1:53:59.720 --> 1:54:02.160 don't go near this stuff. I took a bite of it. 1:54:03.560 --> 1:54:06.200 John was eating it, and everybody was eating it, and 1:54:06.600 --> 1:54:10.200 Belinda was eating the crackers like full of it. And 1:54:10.720 --> 1:54:14.560 John is very upset. And but first of all, he 1:54:14.640 --> 1:54:16.680 looked at me and goes, had your haircut? You had 1:54:16.720 --> 1:54:20.200 your haircut? And I realized then that that was not 1:54:20.320 --> 1:54:23.160 a setup the night before sending me the bill wanting 1:54:23.240 --> 1:54:25.160 us to know they had their haircuts John, that was 1:54:25.240 --> 1:54:29.080 just John charging me normal stop. He was shocked and 1:54:29.160 --> 1:54:30.640 I said, yeah, I heard it is the latest thing, 1:54:30.680 --> 1:54:33.840 and he goes, we did too, And I was thinking, 1:54:33.920 --> 1:54:37.640 oh man, this is really easy getting crazy. Okay, good. Yeah, 1:54:38.360 --> 1:54:42.000 So he got very upset. You know, the sixties are over, 1:54:42.120 --> 1:54:44.560 Prime ministers are over. You got to have a site, 1:54:44.600 --> 1:54:46.560 this festival, have a site. How can you expect me 1:54:46.640 --> 1:54:49.680 to call bands when every time I talk to anybody 1:54:49.760 --> 1:54:52.080 they tell me, you just lost the last sight and 1:54:52.200 --> 1:54:55.200 I'm way out on this thing, and you know I've 1:54:55.240 --> 1:55:00.840 stood up for it. Knocking the door, Tony Cox goes 1:55:00.920 --> 1:55:04.880 downs it. Oh, by the way, Richie had given John 1:55:05.040 --> 1:55:08.120 the dossier on Klein, which he kind of looked at 1:55:09.360 --> 1:55:13.200 in walks Allen Klein, and I was like, oh my god, 1:55:13.320 --> 1:55:17.360 this is like unbelievable. So John introduces him all around, 1:55:17.440 --> 1:55:19.280 and then John takes the dossier and hands it to 1:55:19.360 --> 1:55:21.240 him and is here, Allan, here's what people think of you. 1:55:21.840 --> 1:55:25.560 John and Richie put it together for us. I thought 1:55:25.600 --> 1:55:28.520 Client's probably got guys outside with shovels waiting to dig 1:55:28.640 --> 1:55:32.720 us into the frozen ground. Because we had called Ronnie Hawkins, 1:55:34.240 --> 1:55:37.360 our mentor, from the hotel room after we came back 1:55:37.400 --> 1:55:41.400 from seeing the spaceship guy, and told him, and Ronnie said, boys, 1:55:41.480 --> 1:55:43.320 I don't think you should go back to that room. 1:55:43.800 --> 1:55:47.720 Doesn't sound good. He said. I talked to Morris, meaning 1:55:47.800 --> 1:55:51.640 Morris leaving. He said. Morris said, Klein is on the 1:55:51.720 --> 1:55:54.640 war path for you boys. You were getting too close 1:55:54.720 --> 1:55:58.520 to his fatted calf. I'd be very careful out there. 1:55:58.920 --> 1:56:01.400 So now here's Kla Right there after we hear this 1:56:01.480 --> 1:56:06.160 from Ronnie Hawkins. So Klein looks at the Dosier and 1:56:06.280 --> 1:56:09.960 you kind of like he would say that, yeah, you know, 1:56:10.480 --> 1:56:13.080 I took a band from this guy. And he made 1:56:13.120 --> 1:56:14.360 kind of light of it. And then he looked at 1:56:14.400 --> 1:56:16.879 me right in the eyes and he said, I wouldn't 1:56:16.880 --> 1:56:19.400 have thought you'd have time for all this, all the 1:56:19.560 --> 1:56:22.960 problems you're having with your little festival. And that was 1:56:23.080 --> 1:56:25.400 like cold. It was like he had us nailed. I mean, 1:56:25.520 --> 1:56:28.240 you know what I mean, yeah, exactly, how do you 1:56:28.320 --> 1:56:30.880 have time for any of this? Well, Baba John asked 1:56:30.960 --> 1:56:33.280 us to whatever. I don't know. All I want to 1:56:33.320 --> 1:56:36.160 do is get out of there. So we promised to 1:56:36.240 --> 1:56:40.920 have a sight within two weeks, three weeks, and we 1:56:40.960 --> 1:56:42.680 would get back to them. And we got out of there, 1:56:42.800 --> 1:56:45.640 left Anthony there, got the cab that was waiting for us, 1:56:46.320 --> 1:56:50.120 and got backpacked and split went back to Toronto and 1:56:50.280 --> 1:56:54.080 got to work trying to get another festival site. So 1:56:54.240 --> 1:56:57.960 now John calls in tells us that they've met us 1:56:58.000 --> 1:57:01.040 some people that are friends with Tony Cox and they 1:57:01.120 --> 1:57:05.680 really get the vibe of the festival and he wants 1:57:05.720 --> 1:57:08.560 to send them to Toronto and work out of our office. 1:57:08.920 --> 1:57:12.880 So I'm like, fine, no problem. So these two guys 1:57:12.920 --> 1:57:15.520 show up. One of them, Leonard Hollihan, long red hair, 1:57:15.880 --> 1:57:18.800 wears a purple suit, tells me he's from the Plates 1:57:19.680 --> 1:57:22.400 and he's got picture of an aircar. The other one 1:57:22.560 --> 1:57:25.800 is David Britton. Tells me his name's Britain. No it's not. 1:57:25.920 --> 1:57:28.720 His name's David Snyderman. He's the guy that I went 1:57:28.840 --> 1:57:31.240 to the microphone for John for the cocaine at the 1:57:31.320 --> 1:57:35.400 revival and said, doctor Snyderman. Plays to the backstage area, 1:57:35.600 --> 1:57:39.080 doctor Snyderman, because I knew he was there, because everybody 1:57:39.160 --> 1:57:41.080 we knew in the world and everyone they knew was there. 1:57:41.160 --> 1:57:45.600 We probably gave out thousands of free tickets. And he 1:57:45.800 --> 1:57:49.800 had this stuff called cocaine. Jazz musicians had it. 1:57:49.880 --> 1:57:50.040 You know. 1:57:50.040 --> 1:57:52.160 I was married with a kid. We were hash smokers. 1:57:52.720 --> 1:57:56.160 So he comes to the back stage snow fence and 1:57:56.280 --> 1:57:57.200 he's like, going, what is it? 1:57:57.280 --> 1:57:57.400 Man? 1:57:57.520 --> 1:57:59.920 Is it a Boston I go listen, John Lennon want 1:58:01.480 --> 1:58:03.640 can you have some? Go? Yeah? I did, I did, 1:58:03.680 --> 1:58:05.320 but I put it in the grass. I thought it 1:58:05.400 --> 1:58:09.200 was a bust. Could you please go get it? So 1:58:09.320 --> 1:58:11.400 he comes back in a couple of minutes literally, and 1:58:11.480 --> 1:58:13.920 he's holding this thing. I got Denis my roady next 1:58:13.960 --> 1:58:15.640 to me, and he's got one of the other guys, 1:58:16.320 --> 1:58:17.720 and I said, look, give it to me. I'll give 1:58:17.720 --> 1:58:19.680 you money, dinner next week, whenever you want. He goes, no, 1:58:20.360 --> 1:58:22.200 I have to give it to John lenn and myself. 1:58:23.040 --> 1:58:26.120 I look at Dennis. Get it, grab his arm and 1:58:26.240 --> 1:58:28.720 rip his hand open, get the vial. Give it to me. 1:58:29.080 --> 1:58:30.880 I go, you can't come in here. I'm sorry. I'll 1:58:30.920 --> 1:58:33.880 take care of this later. I was terrified coming walk 1:58:33.960 --> 1:58:37.320 and there's police everywhere all over the place, policeman in uniform. 1:58:38.120 --> 1:58:41.360 I'm walking in with this vial which I kind of 1:58:41.400 --> 1:58:43.840 looked at and it was all shiny rocks and everything. 1:58:43.880 --> 1:58:46.040 I knew that was good. Whatever it was, that was 1:58:46.120 --> 1:58:49.080 the stuff. And that's why when I gave it to John, 1:58:49.720 --> 1:58:52.160 he looked at me like I was Jesus, because he 1:58:52.320 --> 1:58:56.880 knew that is bad, bad shit, that's the stuff. That's 1:58:56.920 --> 1:58:59.160 why he said, ask Eric to come in. So now 1:58:59.240 --> 1:59:02.200 here's the same guy back from meeting with Lennon telling 1:59:02.280 --> 1:59:06.960 me his names, David Britten. Now well, let's jump ahead 1:59:07.000 --> 1:59:10.160 a little bit to Keith Richards book and Witness X 1:59:10.280 --> 1:59:15.080 that busted the Stones was David Schneiderman from Toronto, who 1:59:15.160 --> 1:59:18.200 we find out had been busted by customs with ten 1:59:18.280 --> 1:59:21.600 thousand tabs of acid in like nineteen sixty three and 1:59:21.760 --> 1:59:26.560 had been ratting people out ever since. So that's that guy, 1:59:28.000 --> 1:59:29.400 all right. So now we get out of there and 1:59:29.440 --> 1:59:31.680 come back to Toronto, and it's like, okay, Now these 1:59:31.720 --> 1:59:34.000 two guys arrive and we have to give them an office, 1:59:34.720 --> 1:59:37.800 and they want to make an announcement about the air cars, 1:59:37.800 --> 1:59:40.440 and I go, no, it's not time for that right now. 1:59:40.960 --> 1:59:44.240 Festival's not ready for that kind of publicity. Just slow down. 1:59:45.080 --> 1:59:48.960 Because also what was happening was Rolling Stone had turned 1:59:49.000 --> 1:59:53.440 against us. Obviously Alan Klein and by the way, Yan 1:59:53.520 --> 1:59:56.800 Winner was not a mogul publisher. He was putting a 1:59:58.320 --> 2:00:01.720 magazine together with Bailing Wire in Scotch tape every two weeks. 2:00:02.360 --> 2:00:06.280 So ads were critical, and I was led to believe 2:00:06.320 --> 2:00:08.760 the client had basically told them, look, you're not getting 2:00:08.760 --> 2:00:11.600 any more Beetles or Stones, ads or anything from their 2:00:11.640 --> 2:00:15.280 record companies if you don't start winding down this festival. 2:00:16.160 --> 2:00:18.440 So they had gotten a guy named John Carr who 2:00:18.520 --> 2:00:21.880 had been interviewing us, and in one of them, I 2:00:22.000 --> 2:00:24.560 had made a stupid mistake. And when I've been in 2:00:24.760 --> 2:00:28.280 La Jogive, Jean had been driving me, my driver, and 2:00:28.840 --> 2:00:30.800 he had told me that in India they had these 2:00:30.880 --> 2:00:33.600 massive festivals with millions of people, and they had pits 2:00:34.160 --> 2:00:36.240 where you would defecate and then they would you know, 2:00:36.400 --> 2:00:39.320 cover the pits up because they never get enough portable toilets. 2:00:40.080 --> 2:00:42.400 So I told John Carr that. So the next week 2:00:42.440 --> 2:00:44.960 in Rolling Stone has said John Brower wants your shit 2:00:45.600 --> 2:00:46.280 in headlines. 2:00:46.360 --> 2:00:46.800 No less. 2:00:46.960 --> 2:00:50.640 Okay. This was like the beginning of the Rolling Stone, 2:00:50.800 --> 2:00:56.320 you know, winding down their support of the festival. At 2:00:56.360 --> 2:01:01.720 that point, we were in a disastrous chaos situation. There 2:01:01.800 --> 2:01:03.560 was no way to get a site. Everywhere you went, 2:01:03.680 --> 2:01:07.720 the opp came with the same movies. Finally, jan Winner 2:01:07.800 --> 2:01:10.320 asks us to come to California to talk to the 2:01:10.680 --> 2:01:15.560 dead and the airplane, and Lennon insisted on these two 2:01:15.600 --> 2:01:19.680 guys coming with me, Snyderman and Britain and this Leonard guy. 2:01:20.920 --> 2:01:23.160 So like John Lennon, Man, what am I gonna tell them? 2:01:23.200 --> 2:01:23.240 No? 2:01:23.800 --> 2:01:27.000 You know, okay, okay, we'll take them. So in the 2:01:27.080 --> 2:01:30.080 meeting it's like been documented in Rolling Stone as well. 2:01:30.600 --> 2:01:32.760 The airplanes, there are some of them Grace is there, 2:01:33.200 --> 2:01:36.520 Jack Cassidy's there, the Couple of the Dead or their 2:01:37.080 --> 2:01:40.760 Ralph Gleason's there. There's a lot of very heavy, respectable 2:01:40.840 --> 2:01:45.040 people from the music community. And before I even speak, 2:01:45.120 --> 2:01:47.880 this guy, David jumps out and starts giving giving them 2:01:47.960 --> 2:01:49.960 this whole story of like the space guy gave in 2:01:50.040 --> 2:01:53.000 the hotel room, and Grace Slick just looked at him 2:01:53.000 --> 2:01:54.680 and goes, you know what, if that's what John lenn 2:01:54.760 --> 2:01:57.240 is into, then fuck John Lennon and fuck the festival. 2:01:57.480 --> 2:01:59.360 We don't want to be part of it, and walked out, 2:01:59.440 --> 2:02:02.080 and everybody walked out with her, and jan Winner looked 2:02:02.080 --> 2:02:04.040 at me hopelessly and goes, you guys are ruining me. 2:02:05.000 --> 2:02:07.640 And my buddy Jerry that was with me said you 2:02:07.800 --> 2:02:10.200 just lost control of your deal and that was it. 2:02:10.440 --> 2:02:12.240 So I told these two guys out on the street, 2:02:12.280 --> 2:02:14.680 I'm not flying you back to Toronto. Get John Lennon 2:02:14.760 --> 2:02:17.560 to fly you back. So that's when Joan Wnder called 2:02:17.600 --> 2:02:19.480 John and said, look, man, this is out of control. 2:02:20.000 --> 2:02:22.720 Like these guys show up here. John must have realized, 2:02:22.760 --> 2:02:25.560 oh my god, Allan was right, it's all going to 2:02:25.600 --> 2:02:27.880 blow back on me. And so they pulled out and 2:02:27.920 --> 2:02:31.360 that was the end of it. And two weeks later 2:02:31.440 --> 2:02:33.680 I meet a guy that's just inherited ten million dollars 2:02:33.720 --> 2:02:35.640 and he gives me two to put on the Strawberry 2:02:35.720 --> 2:02:39.040 Fields Festival. And that began another battle. But we went 2:02:39.080 --> 2:02:42.960 to another province. We got the Prime Minister's lawyer who 2:02:43.040 --> 2:02:47.360 told us, get a motorcycle sanctioned, have a motorcycle race 2:02:47.400 --> 2:02:50.680 at Mostport with added entertainment, and you'll go to court 2:02:50.760 --> 2:02:54.000 and my lawyers will win. And that's what happened. We 2:02:54.120 --> 2:02:56.600 put on one hundred and fifty thousand people at Mostport 2:02:56.680 --> 2:03:00.400 Brown Free Racetrack three days and it was beautiful. People 2:03:00.400 --> 2:03:03.200 could drive under the track and then park and camp 2:03:03.320 --> 2:03:06.200 with the car, so it's no woodstock parking and like, 2:03:06.280 --> 2:03:09.120 I don't know if dude, where's my car? No, I 2:03:09.160 --> 2:03:12.520 mean there was, you know, forty thousand cars parked on 2:03:12.600 --> 2:03:16.560 the site, bonfires at night, campfires. It was an incredible show. 2:03:16.920 --> 2:03:20.480 Sly in the family Stone. Of course Alice Cooper came 2:03:20.520 --> 2:03:22.480 in headlined as well. They were big by then a 2:03:22.600 --> 2:03:29.320 year later Mountain. Ten years after Bonnie Delaney and Friends, 2:03:29.840 --> 2:03:32.800 Melanie I can't remember a lot. Ten years after a 2:03:32.880 --> 2:03:35.280 lot of incredible bands. It was an amazing three day 2:03:35.360 --> 2:03:41.080 show and that became me resolving the whole thing with 2:03:41.240 --> 2:03:43.880 the Peace Festival. It was like we did Canada's Woodstock, 2:03:43.960 --> 2:03:45.880 that's what they call it. That's what I wanted to 2:03:45.960 --> 2:03:49.040 do in the beginning. And we called the Strawberry Fields 2:03:49.080 --> 2:03:52.040 because we moved to Shetty Act, New Brunswick and we 2:03:52.120 --> 2:03:55.040 got a site right on the ocean. There were sheddy acts, 2:03:55.960 --> 2:04:00.120 strawberry Capital of Canada, and so I said, well we 2:04:00.200 --> 2:04:03.040 call Strawberry Feels Festival because we were looking at all 2:04:03.080 --> 2:04:06.560 these strawberries in this field, and Jerry, my buddy, goes, 2:04:06.640 --> 2:04:10.280 that's a good idea. So when we moved it back 2:04:10.320 --> 2:04:14.720 to Toronto with Trudeau's lawyers in this new plan, because 2:04:14.760 --> 2:04:17.720 we were told by her contact in the RCMP that 2:04:17.880 --> 2:04:20.280 Trudeau was not happy with John Lennon and he wasn't 2:04:20.320 --> 2:04:23.920 happy with John David Eaton and this was payback and 2:04:24.120 --> 2:04:27.840 so we basically got tipped in by the Prime Minister 2:04:27.960 --> 2:04:30.120 and his lawyers to pull this off and we did. 2:04:30.320 --> 2:04:31.000 It was amazing. 2:04:32.560 --> 2:04:36.240 So how much longer did you promote concerts? Well? 2:04:36.480 --> 2:04:39.120 I moved to Laguna Beach and Larry Weinstein and I 2:04:39.320 --> 2:04:42.880 formed Laguna Concerts under the Sky. We took over the 2:04:43.680 --> 2:04:46.840 Laguna Bowl, which had never had a concert. He brought 2:04:46.840 --> 2:04:51.120 beautiful acts like Emmy, Lua Harris and different country bands, 2:04:51.240 --> 2:04:55.000 very gentle stuff. And then we did the Tubes with 2:04:55.080 --> 2:04:57.280 Bill Grahame. He gave us all their dates down in 2:04:57.440 --> 2:05:03.000 South we did some rush dates. I did not do 2:05:03.200 --> 2:05:06.560 anything significant along the lines of a festival until I 2:05:06.640 --> 2:05:09.960 had moved back to Toronto and did the heat Wave 2:05:10.080 --> 2:05:14.320 Festival again at Mostport, which was now sanctioned because now 2:05:14.400 --> 2:05:16.800 they saw that there was no nudity, there was no 2:05:16.920 --> 2:05:19.040 mouths at Garbage. It was like okay. And this was 2:05:19.120 --> 2:05:22.800 ten years later. Music had become the big business by now, 2:05:23.760 --> 2:05:27.200 and I was very proud of doing the first, last 2:05:27.240 --> 2:05:30.440 and only punk festival. But as David Byrne said, we 2:05:30.480 --> 2:05:33.720 would never play a festival ever. And then we heard 2:05:33.720 --> 2:05:35.920 about this crazy guy in Toronto that was willing to 2:05:35.960 --> 2:05:39.080 get us seventy five thousand dollars for one show, and 2:05:39.200 --> 2:05:42.360 we didn't make that much all last year, so we said, okay, 2:05:42.520 --> 2:05:46.160 let's take the money, and Jake took money for Elvis. 2:05:48.120 --> 2:05:52.760 We got to B fifty two's Rumor Rock Pile Pretenders. 2:05:52.880 --> 2:05:56.200 It was an incredible show. The clash canceled, my investors 2:05:56.240 --> 2:05:58.320 went around behind my back tried to sign them to 2:05:58.400 --> 2:06:01.240 a movie deal so they could take over the deal. 2:06:01.320 --> 2:06:03.760 Investors are always trying to take over deals. I can't 2:06:03.840 --> 2:06:06.760 understand why they can't just leave well enough. But they 2:06:06.840 --> 2:06:10.160 get producer itis where they want to be the producers. 2:06:10.160 --> 2:06:13.160 They're not happy to just be investors or lawyers whatever. 2:06:14.360 --> 2:06:17.640 They're all necessary investors and lawyers, but you know, sometimes 2:06:17.680 --> 2:06:20.760 they get these visions they see their name up in lights, 2:06:20.880 --> 2:06:25.200 like a brightly lit marquee. Any event, we managed to 2:06:25.400 --> 2:06:30.280 fight past that assault and put on an incredible, beautiful show. 2:06:30.480 --> 2:06:34.360 Was hotest day of the summer. And Dan Aykroyd came 2:06:34.400 --> 2:06:36.600 out there and did an interview with me as Elwood 2:06:36.640 --> 2:06:40.600 Blues and Danny really on a Danny. He's incredible. I've 2:06:40.640 --> 2:06:42.920 known him so many years, but he never fails to 2:06:42.960 --> 2:06:47.360 surprise me. He did the imitation on the radio interview 2:06:47.400 --> 2:06:49.840 as Elwood and he goes to John, I'd like to 2:06:50.320 --> 2:06:51.960 ask you a favor. I go what, And he goes, 2:06:52.000 --> 2:06:54.000 I'd like to invite everybody listening to be on my 2:06:54.160 --> 2:06:58.080 guest list. I go, sure, no problem. So like this 2:06:58.240 --> 2:07:01.760 isn't late in the afternoon. Less than an hour later, 2:07:01.880 --> 2:07:04.160 Harvey Pewdis, the park owner, calls me. He goes, John, 2:07:04.200 --> 2:07:06.040 where are all these people coming from? What's going on? 2:07:06.960 --> 2:07:09.880 I said, Oh, they're on Dan Ackroy's guest list. He said, 2:07:09.880 --> 2:07:13.240 we don't have any tickets left. He said, it's all 2:07:13.280 --> 2:07:15.840 been done. The count's over. I said, they're on his 2:07:16.000 --> 2:07:19.640 guest list. They're coming in for free. He goes, oh, damn. 2:07:19.720 --> 2:07:22.040 I said, well, sell them hot dogs. You got the concession, 2:07:22.240 --> 2:07:25.120 sell them some food whatever. They're coming in free, and 2:07:25.280 --> 2:07:30.800 they well, the audience up significantly. Justice Talking Heads was 2:07:30.880 --> 2:07:33.320 coming on with their nine piece band, and David Byrne 2:07:33.440 --> 2:07:41.320 was so nervous his voice was croaking. That's one of 2:07:41.360 --> 2:07:43.960 the moments, Bob, that that cheers me up. Is the 2:07:44.080 --> 2:07:46.680 magic of some of these moments, you know that I 2:07:46.840 --> 2:07:49.680 recall and I don't recall them often, but once in 2:07:49.760 --> 2:07:52.320 a while a guy like you will pull them out 2:07:52.360 --> 2:07:54.760 of me and I have to just have that moment 2:07:54.880 --> 2:07:57.440 to just remember that, Like being in the limo with 2:07:57.560 --> 2:08:01.240 John coming in. I was too busy then, but on 2:08:01.480 --> 2:08:03.920 stage at heat Wave, you know, I was like, really, 2:08:04.440 --> 2:08:07.720 I just couldn't believe that it was happening anyway, Let's 2:08:07.760 --> 2:08:08.760 get back to your question. 2:08:08.960 --> 2:08:11.080 Sorry, So when was the last show you did? 2:08:13.200 --> 2:08:14.920 A heat wave? Was the last show I did? That 2:08:15.080 --> 2:08:17.280 was it? That was my swan song. I went out 2:08:17.360 --> 2:08:18.640 on a high note. That was the end. 2:08:20.480 --> 2:08:23.720 So you're happy with the movie, you know, I. 2:08:23.760 --> 2:08:27.280 Mean, I'm overjoyed with the movie. I'm a little there's 2:08:27.320 --> 2:08:29.880 a couple of things in the movie that kind of 2:08:30.040 --> 2:08:33.320 like are over the top. Like when it comes on 2:08:33.480 --> 2:08:37.280 on the screen, you know John Brower, I say, the producer, Yeah, 2:08:37.360 --> 2:08:39.320 John Brower, the producer. Was that him in the phone? 2:08:39.360 --> 2:08:42.000 John Brower? When my name comes up four times on 2:08:42.120 --> 2:08:44.840 the screen around some card, Like, I was like, that's 2:08:44.920 --> 2:08:47.360 over the top, man, I mean that's like, really, that's 2:08:47.440 --> 2:08:49.800 not who I am. I'm not like all about t 2:08:49.960 --> 2:08:53.520 shirts with John Brower on them. That was a little 2:08:53.760 --> 2:08:56.160 you know, overwhelming for me. Like I was kind of 2:08:56.200 --> 2:08:59.280 embarrassed by that. It was flattering, and I guess, you know, 2:08:59.400 --> 2:09:02.000 the director wanted to do that, and yes they were 2:09:02.080 --> 2:09:07.640 saying those things. That was on the tape. But you know, 2:09:07.840 --> 2:09:10.120 I will tell you that I was very glad in 2:09:10.160 --> 2:09:12.920 the beginning. I had an agreement with these guys that 2:09:13.120 --> 2:09:16.800 I was an executive producer and Ron Chapman came to 2:09:16.920 --> 2:09:19.960 me before anything went down and said, look, I need 2:09:20.000 --> 2:09:22.640 to ask you a favor. I want you to give 2:09:22.760 --> 2:09:26.320 up that executive producer title. He said, I'm going to 2:09:26.400 --> 2:09:28.120 make this movie. It's going to be your movie and 2:09:28.200 --> 2:09:30.920 everyone else is in it, but if you're an executive producer, 2:09:31.160 --> 2:09:34.720 it's going to look like a vanity movie. And I went, Okay, 2:09:35.040 --> 2:09:37.000 I get it. I see what you're saying. And when 2:09:37.040 --> 2:09:39.120 I saw the movie, I was very glad my name 2:09:39.200 --> 2:09:41.640 was not on the screen as an executive producer. That 2:09:41.760 --> 2:09:44.160 had just said the producers wished to thank John Brower 2:09:44.360 --> 2:09:47.480 for sharing his story. That was enough, because that's was 2:09:47.560 --> 2:09:51.960 what it was. And I am, you know, a little 2:09:52.000 --> 2:09:55.879 overwhelmed by the fact that the movie is being received 2:09:55.920 --> 2:09:59.880 so well, and by you especially. I cannot tell you 2:10:00.240 --> 2:10:04.640 how many times I've read that I don't want to 2:10:04.640 --> 2:10:09.520 embarrasue it. Probably ten times I've read your review, making 2:10:09.600 --> 2:10:13.560 sure that I didn't hallucinate this, that bob Lefsits really 2:10:13.640 --> 2:10:18.040 wrote that. Yeah, so there's been other reviews, et ceter 2:10:18.280 --> 2:10:21.680 but no, there's been nothing like yours. And in the industry, 2:10:21.720 --> 2:10:24.240 there's no one like you, and so that review and 2:10:24.400 --> 2:10:27.920 your love of that movie, that's beyond anything I think 2:10:28.000 --> 2:10:29.800 anybody expected. So thank you. 2:10:31.880 --> 2:10:34.840 Well for those people who have not seen the movie, 2:10:34.920 --> 2:10:37.920 the movie is really that good and I lived through. 2:10:38.040 --> 2:10:41.240 And remember my friend bought the you know, the live 2:10:41.360 --> 2:10:43.880 in Toronto ahilbum with a cloud in the sky, as 2:10:43.960 --> 2:10:48.080 I say international news. I certainly was following the whole thing. 2:10:49.040 --> 2:10:51.880 It was amazing that it happened in Toronto, and we 2:10:52.000 --> 2:10:55.160 didn't know all the backstory until the movie, but the 2:10:55.240 --> 2:10:59.920 fact you got John Lennon was unbelievable. So John, John, 2:11:00.720 --> 2:11:03.080 I want to thank you so much for sharing your 2:11:03.280 --> 2:11:04.720 story with my audience. 2:11:05.240 --> 2:11:07.120 Well, Bob, I want to thank you. It's an honor 2:11:07.280 --> 2:11:09.760 to be on your show to have finally gotten to 2:11:09.840 --> 2:11:12.840 meet you, even though it's electronically. I'll look forward to 2:11:12.920 --> 2:11:15.080 the first time that I can shake your hand and 2:11:15.200 --> 2:11:17.400 give you a hug, and I hope it's this year. 2:11:19.120 --> 2:11:23.480 Sounds good job until next time. This is Bob Left 2:11:23.560 --> 2:11:23.760 said