We got together over at RJ's new place and re-dubbed another movie. It was a western starring Rory Calhoun called "Wild Fury". Our version was titled "The Larry Patton Story." We ran it on the giant screen TV at Savvy's during a break on December 2nd. An old friend from the past, Donna Hallmark, and her sister Suzy showed up at the club. We hadn't seen Donna since back in the days just after forming the Desperados. I did a Ronald event in Greenville, Texas and I was honored when the mayor presented an official Key to the City to me! It was an 8 inches long replica of an old style door key made of pewter, with the official seal of the mayor imbedded in the handle. During the entire ride home from Greenville, all I could do was think about building a nice display case for the key, along side the official certificate of authenticity that came with it. Who would have ever thought that I would one day receive a key to ANY city? It was a very proud day for me indeed. Regrettably, when I got out of the car at home, it fell out of my lap onto the concrete below and shattered into pieces. I guess I wasn't meant to be a dignitary after all.

On the 6th of December we played Graham Central Station in Arlington. The money we made from the gig that night went to pay Pantego Studios owner, Charles Stewart, for the leftover Savvy Made In Texas albums that hadn't sold. This was a rude awakening for me because I'd never imagined having to pay our "record label" back for unsold units. Since then, I've know several people who got hoodwinked into similar deals, only theirs were much more severe than our small time agreement with Charles Stewart and MIT Records. The worst part of the deal was that all the albums we ended up buying back from MIT were WARPED from sitting in a hot warehouse! Every last one of them!

The Graham Central Station show was tough for me because I was suffering from a cold and a sore throat, and couldn't hear out of my left ear. At the end of the night, Marcella was hanging around. We got together and went to breakfast where we had a nice long visit. Some of the club owners at Savvy's weren't too happy with us for playing the Graham's gig. It wasn't a big deal, but we did get wind of some grumbling. The following night we played at Savvy's again. Drew Pierce appeared to be upset with Rick Miller over something or another, but I never knew what it was about.

Marcella poses holding a T-shirt during a Q102 night at
Savvy's.

I heard that Marty Robbins was in very poor health after a recent heart attack and would probably die soon. Texas executed a man for the first time in 16 years. Savvy played the Hot Stuff club in Longview on December 10 - 12th. I'd become practically addicted to Trinilin for my allergies, but forgot it on the Longview trip. I had to use Sucrets to get me through the night. The Hot Stuff Club was going country after the first of the year and this was our last run there.

After the show in Longview, Ricky asked me if I would mind hanging out in Hud's room for a while so he could have some privacy with a "friend". I figured he meant an hour or so, but he locked me out all night. I was pretty upset with him because my allergy medicine, shoes, and other accoutrements were in there and I couldn't get to them. Hud and I got stuck in a room together with a really strange girl who was upset because Ricky had dumped her for the other girl. We watched a Kung Fu movie with the sound down, and the girl provide the soundtrack as she droned on and on about what a jerk Ricky was. Rich had coined a word a year earlier and it had become the buzz word of the year. His word described me perfectly that night. I was truly "GRILLED."

I went to check out Lee Pickens' group "Easter Island" at OC's Club (previously known as the Hungry I Club). While there I ran into Dave from the Heyoka band.  A girl came up to Dave and me at OC's and said that whoever the band was that had filled in for Savvy the night before sucked! She didn't know that Dave, the guy standing there with me, was in the band that had been filling in for us. It was a bit of an awkward moment to say the least.  After watching Easter Island for a while, Dave and I headed over to RJ's where we caught the ending of Poltergeist, and then we ran "The Larry Patton Story" for him. After Dave left, RJ and I did some re-dubbing. 

Easter Island: (l to r) Lee Pickens, Bobby
Albin, Mike Strelcyzk, Mickey Morrow,
and Rusty Boden.

My ear was completely stopped up again and it was driving me crazy. I was picking at it all the time, which surely just made it worse. It was flu season and everyone was sick; Lee Pickens, Bobby, Ricky, RJ, Rich, and I all had it. In a moment of weakness, I'd written a letter to Sherry hoping to try to figure out if she was still interested in me, or if she had weaned herself off. She called and we talked about the letter. We agreed to keep our options open, but to get together whenever we could.

The Q102 Texas Best Rock album was scheduled to come out on the 15th of December but we knew that the timing for those things never went according to plan. Our song "Run and Hide" was featured on it.  It was getting close to Christmas and we'd been too busy to put up the tree or other cheesy decorations. I set out a box of ornaments to remind me to put the stuff up when I got in from work. I could tell it was nearing the holidays because I was doing inventory in my head to see which girl I would try to spend some time with around Christmas. Sherry had been at the top of the list, but I knew that relationship was pretty much over. Marcella had recently broken up with her boyfriend and I thought that if she could just stay that way, she might be a possibility. But then there was Rhonda, but that hadn't yet evolved to dating status, and I wasn't sure if it was going to or not. We had fun just being friends, and there hadn't been any pressure to step things up. 

On the 16th I gave a friend, Barbara, a ride home to Forest Hill after the club closed. It was extremely cold and I was sick, but she'd been stranded and I wanted to help her out. On the drive home, my car stalled at the traffic light located at Hwy 820 and Forest Hill Road. I was trying to get the motor to turn over when a big truck pulled up behind me, pushed my car into the middle of the intersection, and then drove around me and disappeared into the night. I was left sitting there, wondering what the hell had just happened. Finally I got the car started and made it home, only to discover I'd left my heating pad at the club. That heating pad was the only thing that gave me relief from my ear ache. 

The Q102 album did manage to come out on schedule and it looked pretty good. There weren't as many decent songs on this one as had been on "More Texas Crude" in my opinion. I was listed under Savvy as "Steve Jones: background vocals".  

The ear ache and sore throat had gotten out of hand and I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Hawa, a personal friend of William T's. He fixed me up with some antibiotics. At Savvy's, Ronnie Ward came out with his girlfriend, Vicki Lassiter. Vicki was from the Diamond Hill area and had appeared in the February '81 issue of Playboy Magazine. Just the day before, I'd seen her picture in the magazine posing with Rick Springfield. Vicki caused a lot of head-turning at Savvy's. 

Vicki Lassiter, just a local girl from
Diamond Hill. 

An ex schoolmate, George Papajohn came over and helped us do some re-dubs after the gig. We did "Porky's Acid Trip" which became an instant classic. On the 17th (my brother Chris' birthday) I actually felt good enough to sing Broken Man, my original that was tough to sing because it was in such a high key. The ear, nose, and throat crap seemed to finally be clearing up.  

I went Christmas shopping and ended up buying a bunch of gig clothes. I found a pair of black Spandex pants that zipped completely in two at the crotch. At the club, Rick Miller told us we couldn't run any more of our re-dubbed movies. We also heard through the grapevine that there wouldn't be any Christmas bonuses that year either. We couldn't figure out what all the negative vibes were about, since business seemed to be doing fine. I wore my new Spandex pants at the gig. They felt really tight and uncomfortable for the first two sets, but Spandex was a necessary evil in our business back then. Ricky had started the trend, and before long we were all wearing the stuff - except for Dan and Rick. Rick had taken to wearing colorful overalls, and Dan seemed to either wear small tight shirts that showed off his muscles, or a kimono. Ricky was doing the Spandex / legwarmer thing, complete with bandanas. Rich was into that too. RJ and I did the Spandex pants from time to time, but we didn't get into the bandanas all that much. Actually, my favorite gig shirt was an old 7-Up delivery driver shirt that had belonged to a friend. I liked to wear glittery suspenders and weird ties. Just about anything was fair game. 

Here they are, folks! My black Spandex 
pants that zipped all the way around from
the belly button to where the back belt loop
would be. RJ called them my Seal Pants.

I was getting to know Rhonda more and more each day and was thinking about her a lot. But it still didn't seem like an urgent thing. We were taking it slow. Meanwhile, Marcella showed up again and I forgot all about pacing myself. Marcella brought out the beast in me, but we managed to keep things under control somehow. I went shopping again and ran into Greg Schmidt's girlfriend, Angela. That was another girl who always took my breath away. But Greg and Angela were a tight item and I always managed to behave myself at all costs. (I can't watch ER without being reminded of Angela. One of the actresses on the show looks a great deal like her. At least to me.) 

Long time Savvy friends, Greg Schmidt and his 
girlfriend Angela. They were at RJ's New Year's Eve
party. Greg played drums with Runner and various 
other bands. He is now a camera operator for major 
live sporting events in the area.

I had a really fantastic dream, courtesy most likely of Dr. Hawa's prescription drugs. The dream was so long, and vivid, that I actually was able to write most of it down when I woke up the next day...

 I was an extra in a John Huston movie. It was a movie about a mad man going wild inside a huge old house. My part was to deliver a note to a lady at the front door of the house. We did the scene over about 10 times, and it was so realistic that I felt I was really there. I seemed to notice many small details as I was given direction and we did take after take. In the dream, I go to work the following day to find out my part had been cut from the movie. Huston had finished the movie without me and had sent everyone home. The set was gone. As I walked home, I was kidnapped. From there the dream went into hyper speed. It was the most intricate and complex plot for a dream I'd ever had - and remembered the next day. I couldn't recall too many details after the kidnapping, but did recall there being submarines, Germ warfare, sleeping gas, a jet plane escape, a running chase scene through an airport warehouse, and then I clearly recalled a part where I was hang gliding over a storybook castle on the side of a mountain, with alligators in a moat, chomping at me as I landed nearby. Suddenly I was climbing out of the hang glider and found myself at a familiar house. A dog was yapping in the yard and as I entered the house I saw many friends hiding in the shadows. Steve Allen was playing a piano. Then I was back inside a small, one man submarine making a fast escape. I broke back into the underwater headquarters where I was met by John Huston. He shot me with a paralyzing machine that caused me to move really slow. I made it back to the sub and escaped to the open seas, all in slow motion. The sub broke down in the middle of the ocean and I was rescued by Bird People in space ships. 

I woke up from that dream when the phone rang. It was my friend Leslie calling to say that she'd had a baby girl and that she wanted me to be the baby's Godfather! After accepting the honor, I hung up and wrote down as much of the dream as I could remember. Then I decided to start writing my life story, based on the writings from my journals. I came up with a great working title too; "Nearly Famous - Diary of a Local Rock and Roller - the autobiography of Steve Jones." I came up with that on December 17th, 1982. [A movie came out in 2000 titled "Almost Famous." It was an autobiographical accounting of Cameron Crowe's travels with a rock and roll band when he was a young reporter. My story is about being in the actual band, but Crowe's title was too close for comfort. He beat me to the punch. I knew I'd have to give up "Nearly Famous" and eventually come up with something else to call my story. 

Out in front of Savvy's during the MDA Telethon (from left to right): Leslie (the mother of my God
child), Asshole Mark, and me.

Laurie got a new apartment, and Ricky was spending quite a bit of time over there. That worked out for me since it gave me complete run of the house for a while. It looked like the Dallas Cowboys could be getting really close to a Super Bowl! They would play for the NFC wildcard slot soon. A well-known musician came to Savvy's, but nobody recognized him at first. He was wearing a long haired rock and roll style wig! Everyone liked the guy so we all tried our best not to stare at the furry beast sitting on his head like a Russian fur hat. Out there in the real world, this might have seemed odd, but in our world, it was just another day at the gig. 

December 19th was a good night at Savvy's. A girl we all referred to as "Peterbelly" was going through her regular manic gyrations on the dance floor all night, which meant that the band was entertained too. At midnight, Larry Patton hosted a big game of musical chairs during one of our breaks. I didn't watch it because I was busy playing the new JOUST arcade game. While I was playing, a cowboy looking dude came over and introduced himself to me as the guy who was about to marry my friend Lori D. - one of the sisters that used to live at the Park Springs Apartments. He told me that Lori was now a topless dancer in Dallas, and that she couldn't come because she was working. Hmmm. I couldn't figure out why he felt compelled to share all this knowledge with me unless it was his was of telling me to stay away from her. It wasn't necessary because one of the last times I'd seen Lori, she was pointing a shotgun at me. A simple wet mop would have done the job.

At the end of the night, Rick and Dan got into a shouting match. It seemed to be over the fact that we weren't getting a Christmas Bonus or Christmas party this year. I had to hand to hand it to old Dan. He was speaking up about something we were all thinking. After the club closed we went to RJ's and did some re-dubbing. We made a movie called "Make Room For Kenny." Our final gig before Christmas vacation was the Agora Christmas Party. Alan Kaye was the MC and Windfall also played. We donated our pay to the Agora employees. The entire Six Flags bunch was there cheering for us all during our set, and Ricky's voice broke on the high notes during "Long Way From Home." The lyrics at that point were "I thought I'd found..." and we kidded him afterwards that he thought he'd found some new notes to sing. I took Rhonda as my date. We were still just friends, but things were starting to heat up and we both knew it. But I had to be careful not to go too fast because Sherry was supposed to be coming in during the holidays and I didn't want to mess things up with Rhonda before they even started. We blew the roof off the Agora and the bunch from Six Flags initiated a couple of encores for us, which was a truly great way to finish our final set before the Royal Shit hit the fan. 

CHAPTER 41:   THE KEEPER OF SAD, SAD SECRETS

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