| The Savvy Stories by Steve Jones (continued) |
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| Chapter 44 - Waiting
For the Other Shoe to Drop March 29, 1983 - June 14, 1983 I decided to make the best of my traveling time on the road during the second Cardi's tour by going back in my journals and coming up with some stats about the band. Here's what I came up with: A look back at 1982 - Savvy Activity At a Glance...
1982 Things Worth Mentioning...
On March 29th we played our first of two nights at the Houston Cardi's, followed by one night in Beaumont, and two in Austin. Same drill as before. My feelings about Sherry had been wrong. She showed up in Houston and seemed truly happy to see me. I had assumed that it was probably getting old for her by then, and I was trying not to have any expectations about seeing her. There were two versions of Sherry floating around in my head; the one I'd come to know, and the one her friend Donna had told me about. I didn't know what to think about it any longer and wasn't about to make a deal over it. Sherry insisted that I come and meet her family for lunch. We ate at a seafood place called Willy G's. It was pretty awkward for me because I knew that if I were her dad in the situation, I would be dying to lunge across the table and ring the cocky longhaired bastard's neck. But her folks were great and either accepted things as they were, or didn't care. I couldn't tell which it was. I just wanted to eat and get out of there and scurry back to my safe little world. In Beaumont, we ran into our old pal Gary Shaw. He was program director at a station there and doing well. RJ was into computers at the same time that I was. He took his computer on the Cardi's tour and by patching into the hotel TV, we were able to spend idle time playing Baseball, Football, Auto Racing, and any other sport that came in a game cartridge for our computers. The entire band got involved and we would actually have tournaments that lasted all day. Those were great times. Aside from spending a lot of time with Sherry and playing a lot of computer baseball, the Cardi's tour was otherwise uneventful. Upon arriving home I was met with a ton of bills. Ricky and Laurie were fighting a lot for some reason or other. She seemed to be teary-eyed a lot of the time for a week or so. I knew better than to ask questions. Instead, I rearranged my room. It occurred to me that while I'd been on the road, I'd missed spending Easter with my family for the first time ever.
Coming off the Cardi's tour, we did another week at Savvy's before heading back to Waco for three nights at Inner Visions. We were spending a lot of time on the road away from Savvy's nightclub, but it didn't seem to be an issue anymore. Savvy's Nightclub was rotating in some other bands to play while we were gone and the variety was turning out to be a good thing for everyone. RJ asked if I wanted to split a hotel room and avoid having to drive back from Waco one night. We stayed at the luxurious Sherwood Inn in Waco. It was mid April, 1983 and we were back at Savvy's for just two nights before doing another big road tour. I hadn't realized how much time we'd been spending away from Savvy's Nightclub until so many people commented on it during those two nights. Everyone wanted to know where we were playing and when we were coming back. It was good to hear that we hadn't been forgotten, but we didn't see the big picture of what was really actually happening. By staying away for so much of the time, we'd been literally weaning many of our regulars from coming to see us. As other bands came through and filled in for us, they were gaining support from our fans. In fact, it wasn't even as if other bands were "filling in" for us any more. For the first few years, when we would book somewhere else, the club would hire young inexpensive "filler" bands. But Savvy's had grown to be a popular North Texas music establishment. They needed to have quality acts in there at all times in order to keep people coming. People who had only been exposed to Savvy for years were finally seeing lots of other really good bands too. At least we still had first booking rights to play Savvy's as often as we liked. The ironic thing about all the road gigs at that point was that the band was taking as much road work as we could get in order to try to expand our fan base as much as possible. The idea was that the exposure would be a good thing. The problem with this theory was that the band didn't realize Ricky wasn't going to be around much longer. If they'd known that, it is likely that Savvy would have just stayed at home and played at Savvy's six nights a week until Ricky decided to split. We could have at least held on to our fans and not abandoned them while we were off on our wild goose chase for success. We had as much success as any band could ever hope to locally achieve, and it was right there in our own back yard. Then an interesting opportunity came up for Savvy to possibly play an eight week tour in Japan! We allowed ourselves to get excited about it even though we knew how things usually ended up in the music business. Even Ricky seemed to be cheered up over the prospect. Meanwhile, Randy Patterson showed up at Savvy's to give me some info regarding our upcoming 10 year high school reunion. I realized that If we went to Japan, I'd have to miss the reunion. That created some interesting ideas. One thought I entertained was to video tape myself in a hot tub with a couple of beautiful girls, drinking champagne, and addressing my classmates - telling them I was sorry I couldn't be at the reunion with them because I was stuck in Japan on tour. The plan would be to rent a big screen TV and hire someone to set it up at the reunion and play the tape for everyone there. It was a silly whim, but not out of the realm of something I might have done - had the Japan thing not fallen through at the last minute. Ricky was living a double life. On stage he was Savvy personified. But at home he was desperately seeking a way out of the band. People from all walks of the music business were trying to get a piece of Ricky's future. The phone calls continued to pour in. Sadly, by that point I was actually getting to know many of the callers by name, and they knew me. They knew they were talking to one of the guys in the band Ricky was about to quit. Very surreal. One person in particular caused my stomach to do flips. His name was Mike Pike, and he even had the cajones once to try to comfort me about Ricky's inevitable departure. I was beginning to feel like a patsy. One night while sitting at home watching TV, Ricky and I had a heart to heart about the impending situation. I told him that when he quit, I would quit also. He argued that I should stay with the band and made a big deal out of what a great front man I was. I hated those late night talks. It was never fair. He held all the cards and was calling all the plays. My future was in those cards. The other guys in the band didn't even know there was a card game on. If they had, I wondered how they would have played it out. It was driving me insane. Rhonda went with me to Covington, Texas, to the cemetery where my grandparents were buried. It was a beautiful day and we had the little picture perfect cemetery all to ourselves. I raked the leaves from their graves and we had a picnic before coming back home. My brother Chris cut his finger while trying to start his radio controlled airplane. It always made me nervous watching him and my dad try to start those things by giving the propeller that first spin using their fingers. One finally got him. Rick Miller and Kenny Stocks had words at the club over something I couldn't quite figure out. On one of our rare nights off, I met Rick Miller at Savvy's for a few drinks. I thought about telling him of Ricky's scheme, but decided I wasn't up for dealing with the consequences of all that just yet. Besides, Ricky had assured me it wouldn't be long before he would tell them himself. Hud had been spending quite a bit of time at our house, talking behind closed doors with Ricky mostly. They'd given up on trying to hide the fact that Hud was going to be a part of Ricky's next project. The fact that Hud knew that I knew added an extra level of discomfort to our already strained relationship. I think it may have pissed Hud off that even if he didn't respect me that much as a performer, he had to at least respect the fact that I was making good on my promise to keep their secret. As time wore on, Hud began to crack, and sometimes when he was at the house I could hear him talking about how bad he wanted out of the Savvy thing too. Ricky's girlfriend Laurie talked about wanting to get a boob job. My brother Ray was talking about needing to cut back on his partying. RJ and I were finding an unusual bond in the form of a computer game called Preppie. The next few weeks were spent going back and forth between Savvy's and Waco. Ricky was having secret jam sessions with people from all over the country. At one point I knew he was jamming in Dallas with some guys from Buster Brown, and on another occasion he was playing with Phyrework. There was no sense in worrying about it. I quit doing the personal secretary thing with the phone at home and Ricky was finally forced to take his own calls, or risk missing them. In the midst of all the sadness and anger I felt from knowing he was leaving soon, I couldn't blame him for wanting to try to see what he could do on his own. In a sense, I was envious that he was brave enough, and had the confidence to leave something that was a success, in order to try to take it up a notch. The dark cloud seemed to fade away and we were able to communicate again without the funk that had been hanging in the air for so long. And that was a good thing. I started running scenarios in my head of what I might do to make a living once he was gone, if the band fell apart. I knew that my friend Ron Bradley was in the video production business, and considered checking into that. I'd been involved with the Casa Manana Playhouse in my younger days, and thought about getting back into acting. I could always work in a music store, or try to get a job at the phone company with the help of Rhonda's dad. But most likely I would end up going full time with the Ronald gig until something else came up. It was a nightmare having to weigh all of these things in my mind all the time after being spoiled for so long. I was seeing a lot more of Rhonda and it was good to be somewhat grounded when I was at home, but when we were out on the road it was as if I became another person. It was truly a Jeckyll / Hyde life at that time and seemed to have very little control over it - if any. April 1983 was rounded out with a couple of really fun gigs. We did a show at the Agora with the Beach Boys, and Jan and Dean. There was a Frat Party in Waco for Baylor. We did two nights with Huey Lewis and the News - one in Oklahoma City, and another at the Oasis in Killeen, Texas. At the Oasis, I was laying on top of our van in the middle of the day trying to get a little sun while our crew loaded in. A white VW bus pulled in next to us and Huey Lewis got out of the passenger side. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes that had been rolled up in his T shirt sleeve and as he turned around, he was eye level with me. "Working on that bar tan?" he asked.
I really never did figure out how someone like Huey Lewis, a hot new property with hit records, would be playing a place like the Oasis in Killeen, Texas. It just made no sense to me. Huey and his band were super friendly guys and we had a good time opening for them. From Killeen, we were off to Abilene to play two nights at a club called Caddyshack. Then we had the Frat party at North Texas State before coming home for two nights off. Each and every May 1st I am reminded of something my friend Aye Jaye had once told me. In the circus, rookie clowns are called "May Firsts" - or - "First of Mays." I believe it had to do with the fact that the circus season began in May and so all the new clowns joining a show would be considered May Firsts until they'd completed a season. Clowning in the circus is a very hard job, but those who could stick it out would come back the following year as a "Joey" - or full-fledged clown. Aye Jaye was a clown with the Clyde-Beatty Circus, and to this day he actually celebrates his birthday on May 1st as a tribute to his days as a professional clown. I, on the other hand, would spend this May 1st celebrating the fact that I didn't have to go back to work for two more days!
A crazy thing happened at a concert we played at White Water, a huge water theme park in Garland. After the show, Ricky was mobbed by hundreds of screaming teenage girls! We had to sneak out the back way and be whisked out of the park. This was the first time our audience had been made up mostly of middle school - to high school aged kids. It was like a scene out of a Beatles movie, only in our case, there seemed to be only one Beatle; Ricky Lynn Gregg. We'd all seen the effect Ricky had on the big girls in the nightclubs, but none of us had expected this. We were all blown away. The White Water deal went down on May 6th. We followed that up by playing two nights at Savvy's, then taking a night off. On May 10th, Gregg Allman played at Savvy's. He was doing a solo tour with the Gregg Allman Band. Savvy opened for them. It was moments like that when I had to go way back in the back room and pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. It had been close to two years since we'd opened for the Allman Brothers at the Dallas County Convention Center. A lot had happened with Gregg Allman since that big show in Dallas. Not all of it had been good. Perhaps the most obvious evidence of this was the fact that he was playing Savvy's. I noticed that he didn't have Cher with him this time either. Still, The Gregg Allman Band put on a great show at Savvy's and I considered it a personal honor to get to open for him again.
I created a high resolution Savvy Logo on the VIC-20 computer. My hair was longer than it had ever been, leaving me in dire need of a haircut again. I did a Ronald gig at Mayfest in Trinity Park and got very sick with allergies from all the hay flying around in the kid's area. Asthma kicked in and I wheezed for about 3 days. On May 20th, Savvy played the first of a two-day gig in Beaumont at an event called ZOOMWORLD. ZOOM was a radio station in Beaumont ran by Gary Shaw. He'd been instrumental in getting us on the bill. There was some serious tornado activity in the area on those particular days which hindered attendance, but the fact that the show was indoors helped. It was always good to see Gary again. At one point, Gary, Ricky, Hud, and I ended up in a hotel room together. Ricky decided to take that opportunity to confide in Gary about his plans to leave Savvy. Gary seemed to try to pretend to be surprised by the news. My gut reaction was that Gary probably already knew and they were putting on this little scene for my benefit so it wouldn't appear that Gary had been in on it too. It didn't matter to me one bit either way. They were discussing yesterday's news. On May 28th, Ricky was too sick with the flu to play and we canceled our gig at Savvy's. The next day I called Rhonda to see if she wanted to come over. She said she was going to stay home and lay out by the pool. I ended up going over to her house and while I was there, one of her ex boyfriends showed up. Gary was a singer in another band that had just started up in the area. I got a bad feeling about him coming around when I wasn't expected and started giving Rhonda the third degree. She took off in a huff in her car. I followed her for a few blocks, but then gave up and went home. After trying to locate her by phone, one of her roommates finally told me that Rhonda was over at her friend Kenny's house. I called Kenny, but he told me she'd left. Shifting into James Bond mode, I drove over to Kenny's, only to find Rhonda and Gary talking on the balcony. The moment I saw them up on that balcony, I felt betrayed. I went home and called Kenny back and told him I'd just seen them together on his balcony. I hung up the phone and would have been in for a miserable night, had Ricky not been there to cheer me up. Based on how I felt at that moment, Rhonda and I were finished. One of the real perplexing pitfalls of the music business is the fact that what is fair for the musician out on the road, going city to city, concert to concert, is not fair for the loved one left behind. There is a great double standard that few couples survive. It isn't acceptable in the real world, but it is the law of the land in the music business. It works only as long as the one staying at home is fairly naive, has low self esteem, or is co-dependant. A strong, self-confident, intelligent woman would never put up with such nonsense. Rhonda was smart. She was on the verge of beating me at my own game. On May 29th, I wrote in my journal that I broke up with Rhonda. Later that day, Savvy had to drive to Frisco to play at the Tri-County Music Festival. Other bands on the bill included Turnabout, Texas Renegade, Jimmy Wallace Band, and Bugs Henderson. It was a really warm day, but we were being paid well to play a 35 minute set. We would probably have played for free because of all the radio airtime we were getting from KZEW. This trip was a sad one for me because of the rift with Rhonda. She was on my mind from the time we left home until the time we returned. May turned into June. I bought an Atari 400 computer. RJ had one but it broke. I'd outgrown the VIC-20, and the new Atari format meant much better graphics and games. My half-brother Mike showed up at my parent's house with his wife, Hallie. We all had a good visit, and when his van wouldn't start, I gave them a ride over to his mother's house. I got lost coming home. On Wednesday night, June 1st, I was hanging out at Savvy's on a rare night off, when Rhonda showed up with an incredible story, filled with coincidences and fantastic details, explaining away the entire incident with her and Gary and the balcony scene. Frankly, it was quarter beer night at Savvy's and I was feeling no pain, so I decided to just let it go. After all, it would be inhumane for me to hold her feet to the fire over something like that, when I thought about some of the things I had done. Her ride stranded her at the club, so I gave her a ride home and we made up. The following day, the band headed out for Odessa, Texas for a three night run at a club called Rocky's. We weren't a good fit with that club, and the few people who showed up didn't seem to think so either. A band called Pictures opened for us all three nights. So that trip was going to be all about our stay at the fabulous Holidome Hotel! Except for the few hours on stage for those three nights, the rest of the stay was like being on vacation.
The Holidome was a 5 star resort compared to some of the El Roacho no-tell motels we'd stayed at before. It had an indoor swimming pool, steam bath, sauna, Jacuzzi, ping pong tables, a sun deck, and a variety of other great things to do to kill time. A couple of us spent a day laying out on the sun deck, but unfortunately I didn't use the right sun screen. I went to work looking like a lobster that night, and was in terrible pain for days. Because of the position I was in during the ride home, I also developed a nasty crick in my neck to compliment the lovely sunburn. I came home feeling like I should've been in a body bag. I would have two nights off to get over the sunburn, but the crick in the neck would linger for weeks. We returned to play our first full week at Savvy's in a month. It was the usual deal; play six nights and take Monday off. Then we repeated the process. It was halfway into the second week back at Savvy's - on the 14th of June, 1983 to be exact - that Ricky stepped into my room and said, "Let's go get some lunch." Something about his demeanor sent a shockwave through my soul. In a movie, this would be the scene where the warden steps into the condemned man's cell and say's, "It's time, Cool Breeze. Time to take that walk."
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