We'd opened for Head East back in October at the Dallas Agora, but this was their first time at Savvy's.  Their song "Never Been Any Reason" - released in 1975 - had made it to Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart. Their album "Flat As A Pancake" did 500,000 in record sales in 1978. Their one hit was still playing on the radio and could still get people on their feet on a dance floor.  The night turned out to be a success, and Head East became the first of many so-called name acts that would play Savvy's over the years that would follow. 

Head East 1980. (L to R - Gross, Boyd,
 Boatman, Houston, and Odum.)

The Houston Texas Jam was only a few days away when our hopes were dashed once again. In an interviewed on KZEW Lou Messina said, "Savvy has NOT been cleared with REO Speedwagon or Heart yet." He went on to say that he was working on it and did not expect any problems getting Savvy approved for the show. Not getting to play the first Jam at the Cotton Bowl had been a tremendous disappointment for us, but with a year under our belts to get over it, we'd learned a lot more about the music business that we didn't know back in June 1980. If Houston happened, it happened. If it didn't, so be it. 

Life didn't stop for us as we waited to learn our fate. Agora staff member Bill Barger, who had moved away for a while, moved back to Dallas. Childhood friend Kent Calhoun came to Savvy's with a new girlfriend. Everyday things kept on happening. Finally, around July 11th we started hearing reports in the local media about Savvy opening the Jam!  Messina surprised the heck out of us by calling to ask Hud if we would like to open for Heart at the Hemisphere Arena in San Antonio two days after the Jam! Heart? Are you kidding? Heart was in their prime! We jumped at the offer. That meant that if the Jam gig worked out, we'd be opening for Heart twice in three days. So far our biggest accomplishment had been ALMOST opening for the Eagles, Foreigner, Cheap Trick, and the balance of the lineup from the '80 Jam. Our biggest actual gig had been playing with Three Dog Night. While I'd been a tremendous Three Dog Night fan back in high school, I recognized that Heart was in an entirely different league. That would be an ARENA show - not a nightclub gig. This had definitely been great news!

After sorting out all the leads, reports, and rumors that had come in from all over the place, I was able to get a pretty good inventory of where our stolen guitars were -- or were allegedly reported to be. Ricky's Les Paul Jr. along with my white Stratocaster were supposedly in the possession of some guy named Tim. Ricky's Explorer was reportedly under some rocks out at Lake Worth. (The story had them moving again from the bottom of the lake.)  The beautiful Goya acoustic guitar given to me by my uncle Okie was rumored to be hidden away at the home of one "David C." Ricky's Les Paul and my Kasuga were recovered, although the finish had been stripped off the Les Paul. Frankly, the whole burglary thing was a year ago and I had already written everything off as a lesson learned. For all I cared, unless they could roll back time and get back my uncles album they'd broken that night, the punks could have the stuff. Coming in our home while we were at work and helping themselves to all of our belongings must have fulfilled some deep need for them. They never really SOLD the stuff. They just kept passing it around among themselves and their other criminal friends until they'd completely destroyed it all. I'm sorry all that ever had to happen. It was a very sad event which would repeat itself soon enough. 

Sherry and her friend Lisa drove up from Houston again. It was kind of silly considering we would be going to Houston in just three days for (hopefully) the Texas Jam. Lilly cornered me at Savvy's on a break, saying something about her possibly moving to California. I couldn't help help flashing back in my mind to the time that she got really angry at me because I was invited to go to California with Rick during a band vacation. I didn't go on that vacation because of her. Rather than tell her out loud what I was thinking, I just told her I hoped it worked out for her and that she was happy. I'd stopped allowing myself to get upset about things Lilly did. I HAD to. It would have driven me completely insane. As the band achieved more and more notoriety and acclaim, Lilly came around more and more often with little tidbits of trivial news about her life, her loves, and her plans. I just figured she thought of me as a friend and was just being chatty. I didn't realize she was trying to piss me off and get a reaction that might spin us back into our old ways. Over time, it was also her way of letting me know - in her own passive-aggressive way - that she might be going away for good. The game between us might finally be ending for real. We'd been through so much already that it had long been over for me. She was still carrying the torch and I didn't even see it. But it wouldn't have mattered. It was out of my hands. By that point, a cosmic shield seemed to automatically come up when it came to matters pertaining to Lilly. Like an inner force protecting me from falling back into her spell, I wasn't allowed to access those feelings or memories anymore. It was the craziest thing. If only I could control that shield for other things in my life...

Good things were definitely coming our way more and more frequently in those days, but along with the good came our fair share of bad. On the 13th we assembled at the Dallas Agora to play at the Buddy Magazine Anniversary Party. Prior to the set we were having a band meeting in the dressing room about the upcoming Houston schedule, when a phone call came in for Hud from Lou Messina. A silence fell over the room as Hud looked around at each of us with his big, bloodshot, bulldog eyes. Then as he got up to take the call he made a failed attempt at showing optimism by saying something about it probably being a call to confirm things. Of course we'd been through this before and none of us were really expecting to play the Jam show. We'd been initiated into the muck and the mire of the "music business" a full year ago. We knew how easy hopes were born --  and how quietly and effortlessly they could die. 

As we waited for Hud to return with what we felt certain would be a verdict about Houston, I was thinking about the bigger picture. My theory was that it had been a foregone conclusion that Savvy would not be opening the Jam in Houston, and that Messina had given us the HEART show in San Antonio as a consolation gig. I didn't have to mention my theory because it was likely everyone else's theory too. So we basically braced ourselves and waited it out. Damn if I didn't picture ourselves getting possible good news too. What an emotional roller coaster that was. I wanted to not care. I wished that the excitement of playing with Heart in a few days would make up for possibly losing the Jam. But at the same time I was aware of how close I was at that very moment to getting a green light to play at the Astrodome with REO, Heart, Foghat, and Blue Oyster Cult. It wasn't an old-timer's comeback tour either. These acts were still hot and cooking. This would be a show to remember!

I shouldn't have gone there. As Hud entered the room again, his first words were "The GOOD news is that we've got a solid deal for the Heart show in San Antonio. The BAD news is that we may have to find a good lawyer to sue Pace Concerts for screwing us out of another Jam." Everyone finally breathed again. There was a rabid round-robin discussion about how we couldn't take this one lying down. I was truly pissed; I wrote in my journals that night that I was upset enough to consider getting out of the music business. Oh, what a DRAMA QUEEN I was being! I wrote it, but it wasn't true. I was just brooding. Stacie T. came over to cheer me up and break the fall. I had to keep focused. Heart was just three days away and I didn't have a thing to wear!

On the 14th I went to Gary Shaw's house and talked about some video projects. On my way home I rescued Mark West, who'd had a blow out on the FW mixmaster in the Q102 Van. Mark told me that Gary was leaving Q102 soon to go to Denver. Gary hadn't mentioned anything to me about it during our visit. But rumors were always abounding in the radio world. My foot was swelling up as a result of a blister I got from playing tennis in bad shoes. It was a really BIG blister, and it was infected! By the end of the day it was the size of a golf ball. I was beginning to feel the ill effects of the infection, not to mention the horrific pain when trying to walk. Stacie T. went with me to the Satellite Emergency Clinic. I told the doctor about needing to be on stage opening for Heart in 2 days. He gave me the Mother of all Penicillin shots! I started to get up to leave and he stopped me, saying I would need to lay down for a while before trying to get up. After a few minutes I decided I was fine and met Stacie in the lobby. We went to the pharmacy next door to pick up a prescription. As the words came out of the clerk's mouth telling me how much the bill was, I passed out cold and hit the ground like a wet rag!. I was lucky that I didn't crack my head open on the way down. When I regained consciousness there were people standing all around me. The old lady who had filled the order had a look of shock on her face. She was the first one to speak - or at least the first one I heard. She said that she thought I was making a joke about the price being so high and had started laughing, before realizing I was really out cold. They helped me back to the clinic where I was taken back into a room and told to rest for a while. It was just a common reaction to such a heavy dose of medication. It had spooked Stacie, but she was a trouper and wrangled me home and tucked me in. 

I must have gotten over the heartbreak of losing the Jam because on July 15th I wrote the following entry in my journal; "Tomorrow we leave for San Antonio and I couldn't be happier!" What a soft-bellied turncoat I was. The show turned out to be a great experience. We finally got to play for that big crowd we'd been dreaming about. It was a full house. The stage was HUGE! Our equipment was set up in front of Heart's stuff. Most big acts have special things they like to do on stage as sort of a signature, and for Heart it was a big silvery-blue plush carpet on the floor. It was a nice, homey touch. The only inconvenience was the parking situation. In order to get close to the arena, Ricky parked in a nearby lot and we climbed a fence to get where we could walk the rest of the way.

I snapped this photo of Ricky hopping the fence to get to the Hemisphere Arena, where we would
open for Heart later that night. The arrow points to the dome of the arena in the background. 

Our dressing room was a giant, empty cafeteria. One by one the band showed up to get ready. Gary Shaw even flew in for the show. Once everyone was dressed and instruments were tuned, we crowded around together and warmed up our vocals by singing "I Wonder Why." Chris video taped the warm-up,  and we were hoping he would get to video our set as well, but it was prohibited by the arena officials. For that reason, the video of us warming up before our first truly big show ended up being some special golden moments indeed, frozen in time. 

Once the stage manager called for us, it was surreal to make that walk out to that big stage. The arena was pitch black and our path was lit only by Hud's flashlight on the path before us. There was no sense in getting a case of the nerves. We just had to get out there and get into the Savvy zone and do what we'd been doing for six night a week for over 2 years. The way the stage was lit made us feel as if we were inside a huge movie set, or maybe even a life-sized snow globe. The audience was a sea of dark silhouettes spread out before us. After an introduction by a local radio DJ, Rick counted off our first song and before we knew it, the whole thing was over. We were well received and the show went great. Our set list was as follows:  I'll Come Alive, Won't Call It Love, Pistol, Love Light, Lady, Midnight, I Wonder Why, Long Way From Home, and Train Kept a Rollin'. The forty-minute set felt more like five. We'd done what we'd come there to do. We'd warmed up the crowd for the big boys and girls, and we'd let San Antonio know who Savvy was.

We were met back in the dressing room by none other than Lou Messina. He told Hud we did a great job and that we were getting a $500 bonus! He told us he'd been really embarrassed to look us in the eye lately because of how the Jam thing had turned out. But the Jam was still two days away and Messina told us we were still invited to go and watch the show from backstage if we wanted. We didn't want to seem too excited in front of Lou, but Ricky and I looked at each other at that moment and knew we would be going if at all possible. With our axes packed and our street clothes on, we caught most of Heart's show before heading back to the lovely San Antonio La Quinta. As I said my personal farewell to the Hemisphere Arena, I thought of how different it looked at the time compared to seeing it back in 1967 during my visit to the Hemisfair with the Boys Club. Back then, the whole area looked like the heart of Disneyland. There were rides, attractions, and all kinds of colorful things going on all around. It was the closest thing to a real World's Fair. Over the years, Hemisphere Arena would host the biggest names in show business; from Elvis Presley to Led Zeppelin. But in 1996 it was demolished to make way for the new Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and the Alamodome. . 

The Heart show ended early enough for us to go out with some friends for some San Antonio night life. Chuck, Gary Logan, and Bill Barger (from the Dallas Agora) came down for the big show and took us out to the Rock Saloon where our friends RAGE were playing. We were recognized by a lot of people who had gone to the Heart show and we even signed some autographs. Needless to say, we had a real reason to celebrate and celebrate we did! In fact, the next thing I knew I was waking up on a third floor apartment balcony alone - in the buff! It was broad daylight and the sun was high in the sky. I reached for a patio chair cushion (to cover myself)  and began banging on the locked patio door, but nobody answered right away. Eventually, the door slid open and there was a very hung over Bill Barger! He told me that a couple of girls had let us crash at their place and they'd gone to work leaving us there. We weren't sure how I'd ended up on the balcony but my guess was that I'd been the butt of a gag. We took a taxi to the La Quinta and met up with the rest of the band as they were ready to depart for Houston for our gig at the Agora the following night with opening act "True Heart."  (Funny, but I'd never noticed until now that we were playing with a local band called True Heart in Houston at the Agora when we'd just opened for the real thing in San Antonio...) It had definitely been a rip-roaring trip so far, and little did I know that things were just starting to heat up!

CHAPTER 22:   Happily Hanging With Howard in Houston 

SAVVY STORY INDEX

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