I once told Gene Simmons of KISS you look better with your makeup on. That was the first KISS farewell tour in 2000. I here the tour is still going.

Imagine having tickets to see Rage and Wu-Tang and skipping that to hang out with a girl. Worst decision ever. Don’t be like me.

a buddy of mine was a huge Deadhead, and wanted to meet Jerry Garcia before a show at the universal amphitheater in L.A. He came up with a plan to buy an ounce of blow and bribe his way backstage to meet Jerry. He broke up the bag and doled it out to various security goons, eventually getting to Jerry’s dressing room door. the guard told him to wait while he went inside to tell Garcia he was holding. a few minutes later, the door cracks open, Jerry sticks his head out and says, “Whaddya have?” My buddy holds up the blow, Garcia takes the bag, give my buddy a wink, and shuts the door. security comes back out, gives my buddy a T-shirt, and escorts him out the stage door.

Ah, what the hell, I never win one of these anyway…so I’m going for a Blues story since it is Black History Month.

Saw Koko Taylor, The Queen of the Blues, during the first Chicago Blues Festival in 1984. There were so many people at Grant Park I must have been a mile away! No problem, she was playing at a neighborhood bar on the Southside of Chicago on 95th St. in Evergreen Park about two weeks later. So me and several friends went. The bar was filled with white trash (typical of the racially divided Southside where you could have one neighborhood of all whites next to a neighborhood of all blacks). Koko lived in Robbins, which was a black community around 135th St. (only about 40 blocks south). One guy spit on Koko. Another threw a drink in her face. My friends and I were outraged but were way outnumbered so we sat there rumbling. She still put on a great show (considering). After the show we were walking to the parking lot in back. We saw Koko sticking her head out the back door of the bar so went over to apologize for white people (yes I am one). She told us her and the band were scared to walk to the their van because there were a bunch of the trash taunting them in the parking lot. We volunteered, and they accepted, to walk together as a much bigger group (there were 6 of us). Nothing happened. She was appreciative, we were embarrassed.

May or may not be the best to some, but this last Jack White tour my 13 yo and I were selected for early entry and were on the front row. Even cooler we are in a couple of the Instagram shots. Way cooler than when I saw the monkees at 13.

This story has 2 parts both 100% true, not sure if they are the most rock and roll but never the less worth spinning. I saw Sublime at the Wow Hall in Eugene Oregon with the Wesley Willis Fiasco and the Lordz Of Brooklyn less than six months before Bradley died from a Heroin Overdose. Lou Dog, Bradley’s famous dalmatian was just walking around inside the venue and some kid standing next too me was like “Hey Lou Dog” and reached down too pet him on the head and immediately had his hand torn open. Listen too your parents never pet an animal you don’t know. Also at the same show a roommate of mine named Brendon who was this skateboarding, surfing kid from Los Gatos California and was a little bit of a hot head got in a heated drunken discussion with Wesley Willis (dude was huge) I am pretty sure Brendon didn’t know who he was, about the fact that he had a notebook and pen hanging around his neck (it was the lyrics to his songs apparently) and it ended somehow, (I wasn’t paying much attention just witnessed it), with the two of them each taking a turn headbutting each other, no doubt Brendon got the worst of it.

Truth #2: While in Tech. School I lent someone a couple of my records. He was killed that weekend in an accident with a train. To this day I never “lend” anyone vinyl. The records I lent him were Steppenwolf, “Greatest Hits” and Norman Greenbaum’s, “Spirit In The Sky”. RIP my friend.

metal band “mayhem”! the singer, named “dead” shot himself in the head with a shotgun and slit his wrists, when his body was found, the guitarist took pictures and eventually the scene photo was used as a live album cover. the guitarist also allegedly cannibalized some of dead’s brain. and made necklaces out of skull fragments and gave them to musicians he deemed worthy. after this, another member of the band killed the guitarist (some sources say out of self-defense, some say it was just to be more “metal” than him. went to prison, continued to release music from prison. the drummer was the only member left and reformed the band and kept moving forward

April 13th, 2007. The Original(surviving) Stooges reunite at the Fox in Detroit. A friends rocker dad(Big Joe) and uncle carted five of us downtown to see the greatest show of our 19 year old lives. Us kids had tickets for the front row of the mezzanine on the railing, the adults having more fundage were on the main floor. I had also bought my father(the reason for my love of the Iggy/the Stooges and rock music in general) a ticket for his birthday. Upon arrival i rendezvoused with him briefly in the lobby, he bought me 2 tall Molsons (yeah, yeah, i know that might not be the best parenting) and said have fun and be safe. I rushed back up to my seat as the show was about to start. The show was amazing, if memory serves me right they played all of Funhouse and almost all of the Stooges self-titled. We rocked out so hard that we accidentally snapped the support brackets on the railing. Somewhere near mid-show we got in-touch with a security guard one of the guys knew and got to sneak down to the main floor for a deeper dive into the electricity that was flowing through the atmosphere. During the time Iggy started inviting a small mob of fans onto the stage one of my cronies thought climbing up the amp stack was the path of least resistance to getting there. It was then we blew our cover and were relinquished back to the upper balcony. After the close of the show giddy with the excitement of the history we had just witnessed, we scurried back to the Fox parking structure to meet our “Chauffeur” back at the minivan. As you can imagine the traffic was bumper to bumper with no quick exit in site. My buddies dad decided to go stand in the aisle way to allow for a gap in line so we could back out and begin our exit. It was then a carload of what i guess to be 30 somethings decided to start blowing the horn and yelling at him to move. As he ignored them knowing they were just being jerks the driver decided to show off and give Big Joe a little bump with the car. Although it truly was a fraction of a mph, it was the principle. Who bumps a human with car?!?!??! I couldn’t believe the scene that was unfolding before my eyes. Big Joe rushed over to the drivers window screaming and yelling. After a brief exchange of words the driver spit at Joe! Joe grabbed him shirt, the driver flung the door open knocking Joe to the ground. It was on, our motley crew of Funhouse fueled teens poured out of the van. I grabbed the driver who was making his was to start pounding on Big Joe. As we were locked it what seemed like a WWF era tie up, i was trying to get him to chill and diffuse the situation. It was at the moment we locked eyes and i knew i was in trouble. He broke his right arm free and cold cocked me right in the left eye. It felt like the shot heard round the world. Time seemed to come to a halt as i slowly gathered my eyeglasses that had been displaced by the blow. After that i’m not sure the exact series but my memory is landing a barrage of hits and jamming a dazed and slightly bloodied man back into his car. As i looked around it was absolute melee. The entire car load of both vehicles were brawling all across the parking lot. I do have a very vivid memory of the one female that was with their group jumping on one friends back and twisting his nipples, a Wiley maneuver to say the least. It looked the Anchorman scene when all the news team fight. At this point the driver was regaining himself and jumping back out of the car exclaiming that he was calling the cops. In an adrenaline filled moment of clarity i told him we were minors,by this point my eye had already started swelling and i was certain he didn’t want to have to explain assaulting a kid. Just like that he wrangled his battered posse, as did i and we went our separate ways. While i rarely condone violence i’d be hard pressed not to celebrate this moment. It’s just fitting, The Stooges, Detroit, FRIDAY the 13th, it was almost as if a cosmic force was responsible for it. A powder keg of RAW FUCKING POWER just waiting to erupt. As i reflect back i can’t help but wonder what all the cars lined up behind us must’ve thought.

1979 blue Oyster Cult in Louisville. I bought a joint from a guy just after they finished Godzilla. Two hours later the lights are up, auditorium is empty and a guy pushing a broom up in the stands nudges me and says ‘you gotta leave now’. Its after 1 and the parking garage closed at midnight and it cost me $20 to convince the security guard to let us in to get it.