LOOSE ENDS, ODD JOBS, LONG DAYS & SLAYER in 1991

historydeletesitse
Jul 29, 2022
6 min read

Late in 1990 I decided I'd had enough of John James' bullshit. When I discovered he had been tapping the phone at Wizard Records (I still have the tape to prove it), I confronted him, called him a few choice names, let fly with some fierce f-bombs, and walked out after working for him for 2 years. My frustration with John's behavior, blatant racism, shady business dealings, and numerous other offenses had been building for some time. But when I quit that job it all happened pretty quickly and I had no backup plan. My time at Wizard Records is another story altogether and I do have some great memories there. I will delve deeper into the good, the bad, and the ugly truth about John James in a future installment of My Career in Record Stores. I was at loose ends for only a week or two after quitting Wizard's as my good friend Michael Walter was kind enough to offer me a part-time job working production at Bogart's. In addition to that I also did part time work for a local promoter called Casablanca that was affiliated with Bogart's. Between the two jobs together I was able to eke out a living working more or less 40 hours a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. The year or so I spent working at Bogart's is also another story for another time. Already an experienced record store clerk and a working musician by age 23, my time at Bogart's gave me a whole new perspective on the music industry. Let me tell you about some of the odd jobs I did for Casablanca. As a promoter of all kinds of large scale concerts and other events in and around the tri-state, Casablanca was constantly promoting one thing or another. Many days during the time that I worked for them I would drive around town with posters and flyers and other promotional materials, dropping them off at radio stations, hanging them up at record stores, sometimes taking a staple gun and posting them on telephone poles around town. In those days before the internet, it was posters, flyers and handbills, and good ol' word of mouth that were the most reliable tools for spreading the word about live music events. Local promoters used to run radio ads a lot in the '60s and '70s. But by the late '80s and certainly into the '90s you didn't hear many of those anymore. Occasionally my job at Bogart's included handling backstage hospitality. I was given a manila envelope full of petty cash and a copy of the band's rider, sort of like a contract with the venue listing the artists' food and beverage needs for the dressing room and production office. I would run to the grocery store and other little food shops around town and take all the grub back to the club. Depending on the size of the show, sometimes there was a ton of food. Sometimes you had to do a full brunch setup for the road crew, clean that up in the early afternoon and then set up a whole dinner spread for the band and other sound and light technicians. Backstage refreshments for after the show were fairly common as well. Having shown to be particularly adept at this kind of work at Bogart's, Casablanca set me up as a "runner" for a couple large-scale shows at the Cincinnati Gardens. Those were long days. Believe it or not, when I got to the venue at 8:00am the bands' road manager was usually on the scene, setting up his or her makeshift office for the day. As a Runner, I was spot labor hired by the local promoter and on the day of the gig I'd be assigned to one of the performer's tour managers to assist them with various needs and errands and procurements throughout the day. I only worked a handful of shows in this capacity. Two of the more memorable experiences were Lynch Mob and Nelson opening for Cinderella, and Testament with Slayer.

May 15, 1991: On the day of the Cinderella concert I must have been having car trouble because I drove my roommate Russell's blue Honda Civic CRX to work that day. I know I ran a few errands throughout the day, but I don't recall anything specific. My clearest memories of the day are of driving various members of all three bands' back and forth to the hotel before and after soundcheck, and again for the gig itself. At one point that little Honda ferried a full load of three musicians back to the hotel, one from each band on the bill. Except for providing transportation for the musicians as such, my work was usually done for the day by showtime. So I did get to watch Lynch Mob up close. I found something else to do while Nelson was performing because I didn't really care about them at the time and I still don't. For Cinderella's set I hovered as close to the stage as possible because I really liked them back then as I do to this day. A nightly occurrence on this tour was a big jam session during Cinderella's encore that would feature as many members of Lynch Mob and Nelson who wanted to return to the stage to jam on the Rolling Stones' song "Brown Sugar". I don't remember his name but by the end of the day I had built up a pretty good rapport with George Lynch's guitar tech. As we stood by the side of the stage before the encore, he told me that it was his job to be there with George's guitar at the ready even though most nights Lynch would not return from the hotel for the jam session. So sure was he that George would not be coming back, he strung the guitar over my neck and told me I could play it for a few minutes if I wanted to.

I don't remember much about the guitar except it was dark green. And of course it wasn't plugged into anything at the time. So as I ran my fingers up and down the fretboard it made no sound over the speakers in the venue. As predicted, George did not return. The big jam on the Stones' song at the end of the night would have to go on without him. Years ago when I told my father this story he experienced a flash of anger and disbelief that I didn't run out on the stage and claim my moment of glory in the spotlight. I had to explain to him that roadies and security guards would have tackled me before I took two steps onto the stage and there was no way I was going to run out there and blow away the audience with my amazing guitar skills. Dad reluctantly agreed that was probably true, but I could tell he still saw it as something of a missed opportunity.

The Slayer and Testament show on March 1st, 1991 was even more memorable for me as I am a much bigger fan of that style of music, especially compared to the Hair Metal fluff of Nelson and Lynch Mob. The better part of my day was spent running errands for Testament's road manager. I remember buying guitar strings. Also I specifically recall being dispatched to find a certain cologne preferred by their bass player. Drakkar Noir was only available at Sears department stores. So I drove out to Tri-County Mall to pick up the cologne. Saving the change and receipts, which I would turn in at the end of the day to account for all of the purchases made. Again, by showtime the Runner's job is done. I watched Testament and Slayer from the side of the stage. Far and away the crystal clear highlight of the day was watching Slayer's drummer Dave Lombardo up close for 2 hours. The dude is just a beast. His right foot on the kick pedal is like a hummingbird, moving so fast that it's just a blur.

But my absolute favorite memory of those days, when things got really weird, is when I met and worked alongside the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a day.

Stay tuned for PART TWO: Turtles, Cops & a Dog in a Trench Coat.

Slayer live in Cleveland, just 2 weeks before the Cincinnati show: