Working For The I.A.T.S.E. Union At Age 19 In The 1970's

So my heart’s a flutter with delight as I’m just about to get up and shine my light. Oh wait I’m getting ahead of myself. OK I’ll set the scene. My initial call was for the AS (Angel Stadium in Anaheim, now used for the Dodgers too… anyhow) It was for ZZ Tops that was to head lined the show with Journey as their back-up.

Anyhow, it takes two sixteen hour days to set up a stage at the AS. You’re talking metal scaffolding,hammering it together and ploping sheets of plywood on to it. So there I was, a nineteen year old, taking 1” sheets of 4X8 plywood and tossing it up to other guy as you’re building stages for the speaker stands, three high on each side of the already two-high stage so we’re talking a five story high, of six foot each, and then on top of that a lazar apparatus that goes atop of the speaker stand. It was a show!

OK, so I got all 32 hours of the call for the build up but I wasn't asked for the take-down, why, because I would have been on 2-1/2 times pay. That makes perfect sence in the real worold but this is the entertainment business so it doesn't have to make any sence. They needed someone to guide the band off as they exited stage left, I think it was left, well that doesn't matter, what matters is that I got another call. Another call meant mo-money. It was a four hour call at regular time so I said “Sure I’ll take it”

Besides I got to keep my backstage pass. That meant that I got to stick around and loiter, eating at the catered tables, or I could just watch the show, which is exactly what I did.

So as the band is getting ready to go on stage, one of the bearded guys (Hill I think) said “Hey ole buddy, ain’tcha gonna have a beer or two?” and I said “I’ don’t know man, I gotta go ask my dispatcher and all”, and he said ….Well I don't want to go into the long drawn out conversation between me and this guy from ZZ Tops but needless to say the next thing I knew was that my dispatcher told me that if the band siad to have a beer then have a beer but , I better not get drunk and make a famous person trip and fall on their ass as they walked off stage because if I do I would NEVER EVER get another gig like this again. Well, I took his advice and just grabbed two soda pops.

So all of these young people, my age, are up against a chain link fence, (my wife later tells me she was there too, so she says) and here I am leaning against one of the 4X4X6 base speakers, on stage mind you, with the Dusty Hill on his base six feet from me and Frank Beard ,the drummer, only four feet away from me and I’m drinking a 7-up and smoking my Kools....I'm telling you it was a show.

Now, I thought that LaGrange was the final song so I stood up and was about to get ready with my flashlight. AHH! But it wasn’t. It was the Tush Tour and Tush was the last song. So here’s this guy behind me going “Pssst ….Pssst Hey you…yeah you buddy…hey… get off stage, they're filming us right now”. Now for what I have no idea and I never asked. And I don’t really care. I am hoping that some day I win a ZZ Tops DVD set like I did when I won the complete Rush DVD set, I may see myself someday at an early age being a dork; hey, ya never know.

Anyhow the song ends and the entire stadium goes Jet Black………….. My flashlight goes on and the band exits without even a stumble. Mission accomplished. Now, I can’t tell you about the time when the band invited me backstage into their trailer to smoke weed and to do other drugs to get me high because that didn’t happen but I did meet Jeff Lynn, the lead guitar player for ELO, and he was a real nice guy. I still have one of his guitar pic’s too. :)

Oh yeah, just before the mad 8 hour rush to take down that stage at the Anaheim Stadium, I went back up and grabbed what I could, the towel that Frank Beard used and a pair of drum sticks of his; (many of them went to other people) my first wife made me throw away the sweaty towel. Looking back, I’m not sure even now if it’d be worth something but I know that I still wouldn’t give my son a spanking for breaking off the tip on one of the drum sticks. Now if it had been one of Jon Bonham’s drum sticks then I would have been murder and I would be writing this blog from prison.

That’s the Lazlo Report for Tuesday, January 2nd 2007.