On the Road, Again...

When Barry would book a big name band, many times they'd do a series of shows in the Midwest, and we'd go on tour with them. But without most of the glamour. We'd travel in Winnebagos, usually three, and do security at various venues, while they flew, or had really cool tour buses. I particularly remember Neil Young's. Part of the contract in those days, called for food and drink for the band on the day of the concert. It seems like one thing they all had in common was their choice of beer. ALWAYS Heineken. For a long time, I thought of Heinie as THE premium beer, 'cause it was first choice of nearly ALL the bands. Alcohol was never a problem for us, because part of our job was to confiscate booze from people who were way too obvious trying to smuggle it in. There were SO MANY times when I'd check a backpack, or whatever, and find a bottle of wine, a bong and a baggie, and say, "That's illegal", while I took the wine (only) and say, 'Have a nice night". We'd have HUGE piles of contraband at the end of every show, and usually end up splitting it with the local cops at the end of the night. Barry's contracts ALWAYS called for NO COPS on the floor of the show. That's what we were for, but the police were around the perimeter. Got to know several of Denver's Finest by helping them load cardboard boxes of booze to take home. Barry also provided great food for the bands, and that was the job of Dan Fong. He turned into a semi-famous photographer, and recently had a large show in Denver featuring his rock n roll photos. Many of the photos at the new Red Rocks gallery are by Dan. But when I first met him, he was known as a great amateur chef. I soon learned that the Winnie that Dan rode in was gonna have MUCH better food on board than the other ones. Don't know that the other guys ever figured it out, but I sure did. Sometimes I'd help him with menu suggestions and shopping. I do remember he and Tom Swift were the first guys to get into photography. Wish I would have taken more pics, and I did try, buying a big, heavy SLR camera. I got kicked off of one tour for taking pictures of Bob Dylan on a tour where his personal photographer had an 'exclusive' for the tour. I thought that only referred to non-employees. WRONG. Had my film confiscated, and was removed from the tour. Kinda killed my photo career. Too bad, would love to have had my little digital camera back in those days. Could have made a fortune in blackmail. Anyway, Dan Fong went on to become a famous chef and photographer in the Denver area. Some bands, (like the Stones) even liked him so much they signed him for world tours. He was a good guy. Need to look him up some day...