The winter of 1985 I spent dry docked working in RJ’s office and living at his lakefront house. The house, situated on picturesque Lake Minnetonka was KILLER! It was a beautiful place to live and allowed me a tranquil environment where I could think things out. Work wise, I quickly learned that I could easily adapt to working and running a business office, only not for someone else! I knew on the front end from past employers, office personnel make dick for pay and in my eyes this office job was going to be short lived.
All those negative thoughts I’d dealt with in 1984 about time issues kept trying to resurface and that was real fun! Worst of all, my road fever was starting to make me itch for a fix. I thanked god when I received Kip’s second phone call while on the up coming 1985 Autograph tour. That conversation finally smothered to death my situation about future time frame issues.
When spring arrived my lust for the road had me packed and ready to roll. The six weeks I spent working and traveling with the hair metal band I just mentioned named Autograph turned out to be a really good time for all. The band, crew and I traveled together on a single tour bus for the duration. That situation had its good points and bad. Good in the sense of traveling with the band and riding on the bus was big time fun. The bad part was being stuck night after night playing nothing but dive clubs.
Doing a club tour as a concert merchandiser is no doubt the bottom rung on the ladder and builds character, like it or not!
During the tour we pretty much lived on the bus and really didn’t stay at many hotels. All facets of touring were in excess while traveling directly with the band. The partying and the bartering were insane. Hair metal groupies were everywhere and total eye candy to look at. Being with the band certainly had its extra perks! The merchandise sales were horrible and RJ’s investment smelled and looked like the same fate bestowed on Orion the Hunter.
As I said in my book, concert merchandising is a real crap shoot. Let’s say, you put up a hundred thousand dollars to secure a band’s merchandise rights, then after six consecutive weeks of touring and losing more money in pursuit of your original investment you end up a total loser. This shit is not for the weak at heart or someone who doesn’t have a deep pocket. Luckily, RJ had both the gut and cash to persevere a few of these hits and kept the company going.
So, as the tour progressed I was flying high that my affirmation of going around the world in 1986 was going manifest and couldn’t wait. From that point on I instantly recaptured my love affair with touring and felt 1985 was going to be really special. I stayed focused in the here and now, and was operating at full bore every god damn day!
Overall Autograph was a great bunch and the crew too. Unknowingly and to my surprise, months later I was thrilled to hear Autograph was going to be the support act on the upcoming 1985 Motley Crue Theater of Pain tour and request my presence. Meanwhile, my next gig was with the band REM and set to start right after Autograph’s tour finished.
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