subject: A Drummer Who Ran Away From Home [print this page] Where do I begin? Okay, it was in the Summer and in the 70's, I was going to quit school and become a Rock and Roll legend playing in a band that I met from LA. I packed up my Drums, a few ripped up (in all the right places) gauze shirts and 2 pairs of bellbottomed jeans with the bells restitched with huge embroidered patches sewn in and an Army jacket. What a maroon I'd be if I didn't mention the pair of FRY boots and the 4" wooden soled show boots (Still don't remember how I played double bass drums wearing them) and with my best friend (Who was also a Drummer) Andy we were going to California....HOLLYWOOD!!! Andrew as he likes to be called is a Monster, he stands 6'4" and 240 lbs and would eat your arm if you spilled any kind of sauce or dressing on it and also a Monster Drummer. He was a latch key kid when we met at 9 years old (The first time I smoked a cigarette) his dad was an over the road trucker gone 14 days and some times 3 weeks at a clip and his mom worked at IBM and was, well lets say naive...We talked her into driving us to Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania with 2 Drumsets and our clothes to visit his Mom's twin sister out in California and get into this band as double drummer's like the Grateful Dead! We started hichhiking and made it to Denver Colorado from the first ride and we were ecstatic it only took 4 days because we had gotten a ride from Mike, he was a traveling salesman selling Thai Stix and Rorer 714's out of the special compartment welded inside the trunk of a 1968 Cadillac Eldorado Brauham Landau Limited edition. It was HUGE and we drove the car packed with gear through the Rockies smoking Mike's weed while he nodded in and out from all the Qualudes he had eaten....It was beautiful and the mountains were breathtaking for a couple of kid's from New York we were free! Living it up in California and watching the Knack (My Sharona before it was a hit) back stage at a club in Los Angeles called The Whiskey A Go Go on Sunset strip waiting to go on....That was a trip of a lifetime almost 30 years ago and well, maybe Andrew and I didn't become Rock & Roll legends per say, but we sure played drums behind some of them and had some great times, made great friends and in a strange way our dream did come true....
