Hud took four of our songs from the upcoming album project and put together a really strong demo tape. A music agent named John from The Good Music Association in Minneapolis came to the studio to hear our stuff.  I was up at 8:30 am on the next day to leave for San Antonio with the rest of the band in a Winnebago at 9am. We stopped at Denny's on the way, where Dan and Hud got into a tiff over something. Rick Miller slept all the way to San Antonio. 

The Rock Saloon gig didn't go very well. The club hadn't done any promotion to let people know we were coming, there weren't any drink specials going on, and there wasn't much of a crowd.. We did our usual thing and headed right back home.  It's funny to think that a small, handheld, battery powered football game (Football Pro 3) kept us all entertained all the way home. We got in the next morning at 7:30am. By the time we paid for the crew, the Winnebago, and everything else, my cut for that trip came to $40.  It took 24 hours of my time to get there, play four hours, and get back. That means I was paid $1.77 per hour for that entire ordeal. We never thought of it that way back then though. We made good money playing Savvy's when we were there, but the road gigs were more for publicity, and to expose more people in more places to Savvy. That is why most bands fell apart much sooner than we did. We had Savvy's to go home to at the end of a tour.

We had two days off to rest up from the San Antonio trip. I had come home with a cold. Ricky went home to Longview. I got a call from old friend, Reb Burrell. We talked for about 30 minutes. Then I got a call from Karla, the girl I predicted would be out of my league. She just didn't realize it yet because she was wanting to get together again. We went to the Candlelight Inn for one of those good old Mexican Steak Dinners, picked up a bottle of wine, and went back to the apartment where I played some songs for her and we watched 20/20 on TV. (It was a special about the making of the movie BEN HUR. Life was so much more simple then.) It was getting late (in Karla's world) so I took her home and headed to Savvy's to see what was shaking. Windfall was playing.  They seemed to be another one of those bands, like us, that had a lot of things going for them, but just couldn't get to that next level for some reason. 

After the gig, some of the Windfall guys came over to the apartment and I cooked up a big breakfast. We played old live recordings of our bands, watched re-dubbed videos, and then they headed back to the Travel Lodge where they were staying.  Saturday night we played a frat party at North Texas State University for Kappa Sigma. Our friends with the custom bus company donated a tour bus so we went in style. We were a big hit and got a couple of encores. Sunday, I met the mayor of Gainesville during a McDonald's event.  Then on Monday night we taped a performance at SMU for a cable television show called Sign On. We did a set of our originals from the new album, plus a few other newer ones. A bunch of our friends and fans from the club came to the taping and it was a good show. (I still have the tape.) But after the show I got a real heart-stopper news flash from Hud. 

Hud and I somehow ended up one-on-one after the gig when he confided in me that one of the record companies that had checked us out had a few comments about weaknesses in the band, and I'd been one of them. My life pretty much flashed before me and paranoia flushed through my entire being. I couldn't help imagining that the band may have already had some kind of meeting about firing me. But nothing more was ever said about the negative part. Not really. I could tell that RJ had heard because he turned up the needling, and could really hurt with some zingers sometimes. But Ricky and Rick were very supportive and assured me I didn't have to worry. According to them, the Savvy lineup wouldn't be changing. 

It was comforting to hear them say those things, but deep down I'd been flung over into another dimension where sadness and depression ruled. As far as anyone could tell by looking, nothing had changed, but inside I was in turmoil and despair. The intensity lightened up as time went along, but I never completely got over it for the life of the band. That funk never completely went away. Until then, being a part of Savvy had been like living a dream. Everything had been fun, exciting, positive. Those days had changed with Hud's comments.

I wasn't disturbed about being "singled out" as a weakness as much as I was about being "discovered". I'd known all along that I was lucky to be where I was, and that I paled in comparison musically and vocally with a lot of other people in the area who were much less successful than Savvy. But on the other hand, I was well aware that if lightning ever struck for Savvy, it would be all about Ricky. He would most likely end up going solo without us. While we went through the motions of wanting to "make it big", I was convinced that if it happened, very few of the existing band members would be going along for the big ride. 

My world had been shaken, but life went on. I still had a job that many would've given fingers or toes for. I was still in the game. Our album was about to finally come out and who knew what would be over the next horizon? I'd survived a bullet, but there would be many more to come and nobody in the band would be exempt. Not even Ricky. 

It was just a bad time all around. We'd sensed a change in the way clubs were managing their business. First Houston, and then San Antonio seemed to be losing their interest or ability to run a good rock and roll club. What we didn't know yet was that the entire trend in music was about to change, and was actually already changing in key places around the country. Just as we were making our mark as a hot, up and coming "80's HAIR band", little did we know that we were already dinosaurs marked for extinction. But the world wasn't coming to an end quite yet.

One of Ricky's friends from Longview, Ray (Sugar Bear) Conway stayed with us for a few days. We all went to see B.B. King and the Cold Cuts play at the Dallas Agora. Back at Savvy's we had some old friends stop by and set in; Lee Pickens, Rusty Boden, and Terry (Cuz) Salyer. 

I basically had too much free time on my hands. It was far too easy to spend it dating and watching TV. The recent news flash from Hud motivated me to put down the Rubik's Cube and start picking up my guitar more at home. I'd been in bands with some really good guitar players, and had tried to get all of them to give me formal lessons at one time or another, but to no avail. So I decided to start practicing on my own. Oddly enough, in those days when the gig was done, we'd often leave our guitars sitting on stage all the time. How we kept from getting them stolen was beyond me. But we'd found that keeping them at home wasn't failsafe either. Nor could we keep them in our cars or by our sides 24 hours a day. There was some kind of bubble protecting our gear as it sat on the Savvy stage between gigs. That was something that couldn't be done today. 

So I started bringing my guitar home each night and trying to put in as much practice time at home as possible. That lasted for a couple of weeks, and then I gave it up. I reasoned that we already had two guitar players, and even if I started playing really well, it would become a power struggle between Rich and I for the 2nd guitar position. My logic was flawed however. The nightmare of worrying about getting fired had passed and I was settling back into minimal effort mode. (Twenty two years later I would be surprised to discover how easy it would be to play much better by simply applying myself. I will always wonder what would've happened if I'd applied myself back then.)

Since the shakeup, every time a band meeting was called, my stomach felt like it was stuck in my throat until the meeting was over. Basic conditioning. But this particular meeting was focused on Rick Miller and his family's plans to open a second Savvy's Nightclub in Waco. My first response was to feel that Rick might be caring more about the club business than he was about band business. But soon enough, the advantages of having a second location named after our band became evident. It could only be a good thing for us. What we weren't thinking about was how that drive from Ft. Worth to Waco would feel on the 5th or 6th night in a row during weeks we'd be playing there! From the band's point of view, we all knew that the club was making a lot of money because of the band. Yet we didn't really think we were making a fair cut, all things considered. So when talk of a second club came out, we knew it would just mean more money for the club owners and more work for the band. The problem was that other than Rick, nobody else in the band seemed to have much business sense. We weren't thinking about the risk or investments that would have to be made to make a second club happen. We just felt it OUGHT to mean more money for us. We wanted to be sharing the wealth, whatever the wealth was. Basically, we were on the verge of becoming Green Eyed Monsters again. At that point, the idea of opening a Savvy's in Waco was just that -- an IDEA. We did learn that the Miller family had been looking at a little club in Waco called Inner Visions.

The journal I'd been keeping all these notes in was almost full. At the top of the final page I wrote the following; "Well, here it is. The last page of the diary. Something big needs to happen for us (Savvy) by the end of this page." 

Ricky was still up at 7:30am on Thursday morning, working on a new original called "Vicious and Depraved." Marilyn stopped by to pick up the Phantasm video tape. Before leaving, she told me that RJ had asked her to marry him! That was quick. He'd just moved in with her a month ago! Looked like a "master host" situation developing there for sure. It was hard for me to imagine those two living together. Marilyn was very timid and soft spoken. RJ was like a rock and roll Don Rickles driving a Steamroller! RJ's current thing was Blackjack. There had been a game almost every night before he moved in with Marilyn. I wondered where they would hold their games now. Surely not in Marilyn's apartment. Nevertheless, our temporary roomie, Roy, went to one of their games and came back in a huff over losing $60 to RJ. 

Laurie Alford: Ricky's longtime
girlfriend in the early 80's - and 
my PAL!  (Photo taken in mid 90's)

On Sunday night, we had a night off. Ricky's girlfriend Laurie came over and cooked steaks for us. I was intently studying the book on how to solve the Rubik's Cube. I wanted to be able to do it as a sort of parlor trick; a novelty talent. I went to mom's and discussed video taping her upcoming reunion in Covington. From there I went to Baby Dolls, Spencers, I Gotcha, and ended up at Player's. I ran into Butch McReynold's wife Debbie. She was a nice lady. We had a few drinks and I told her to have Butch give me a call sometime, then I went home and re-arranged my studio area. The next day I went to mom and dad's and watched the Cowboy's beat the Redskins 24 to 10! 

The following Tuesday, Gary Shaw, Hud, and I went to the Agora to see Spyrogyra. Comedian Alan Kaye opened for them. Back at home, Ricky kicked my butt in electronic football. Lee Pickens called and asked us if we knew someone who might want to play bass in his new band. I saw Steve Wilson. He confided that the Molly Maguires were going to be making a member change soon. As for my social life, things had really planed off lately. I was enjoying hanging out with my neighbor, Lori Doyle from time to time. She, and her sister Colleen were both just really good people, and relaxing to spend time with. They never hassled me about the fact that I was socially retarded, or that I only thought of myself. They seemed to be ok with it. Good times!

The 14th of November was my brother Ray's birthday. I let him use the apartment while we were working that night. He was in the middle of a longtime relationship with his girlfriend Terri. Ray was living back home after finishing college and didn't get a lot of private time with his lady. On the 19th, we opened for Rare Earth at Savvy's. They sounded great, unlike Badfinger, who played the club on the 22nd. They must have only had one original member. That was the tradeoff for having music legends play at Savvy's. Usually it was the remnants of what once had been a good group. After that night, we understood what "Badfinger" meant. It was the middle one, and most of the audience was thinking about giving it back to them. Still, it was exciting to open for them anyway - just to say we did. Rob Kendrick, who'd played guitar for both Trapeze and Budgie, was at the Badfinger show. He'd been putting a band together with Mike McCaska, who was also in the audience that night. 

Just when one of Ricky's Longview buddies moved out (Ray Conway), another moved in. Terry (Cuz) Salyer had played drums with Ricky in Push just prior to Ricky joining Savvy. Terry was a good guy and I was happy to have him staying with us for a while. His first day with us was also his birthday. Ricky and I bought him a birthday cake, cards, and even put up some cheapo decorations to cheer him up. Steve Wilson and Bart (the light man for the Molly Maguires) came over. I couldn't wait to show off my amazing abilities for doing the Rubik's Cube! 

By December of 1981 I had no idea how much time I was pissing away in-between gigs. I'd spent weeks learning the secret to solving the Rubik's Cube puzzle, and had also taken up - of all things - Calligraphy. That's a skill that every 26 year old male needs to know, right? The band took new group photos at George Jara's photography studio. During our photo session, George mentioned that he'd replaced Lee Pickens as the guitar player in the Lee Pickens Group back in the mid 70's. That didn't make any sense to me. Surely they thought to change the name after Lee left. I'd meant to ask George to clear that up for me, but of course we were too busy getting our rock and roll Glamour Shots done to think to ask about it at the time. 

*Rusty Boden emailed in on 2/22/04 to try to help fill in the blanks here. He wrote:  

"After the shakeup at Capital and they lost their ally there, Lee Pickens left the band (LPG) as did bass player Bobby Wilcox, (who had replaced Gary Owen after the record came out) and keyboardist Milton Walters, who moved back to New Mexico. Enter George Jara, move Eddie Deaton to bass/vocals, add a guy named Ronnie Norman on keyboards, keep Charlie Basham on drums/vocals, and wham-bam... you have a new band called Jet! This was about 1973 or 74. That band lasted a few months.  I (Rusty Boden) met Charlie around 1974-75.  We started playing together shortly thereafter in the band called Saffire. I met Lee around the time I met Charlie."

Speaking of Pickens, he rang our phone off the wall the entire time Terry stayed with us. Pickens was courting Terry to join Easter Island as a replacement for drummer Chuck Cahall. And speaking of Rusty Boden, he was the keyboard player for Easter Island, having replaced Keith Emerson. (Not really!) Our old light man, Kyle, had joined a show band called Superfly and agreed to let Terry live at his house while he was on the road. When Terry moved, the phone mysteriously went silent again!

The band had another vacation coming up around the Christmas holidays. Ricky and I put up a Christmas tree, along with a few other traditional holiday decorations. Martha Stewart would have loved us! I'm sure the old people in the complex thought we were young college girls, or sisters living together. But we were just trying to maintain a part of our family holiday traditions. I always thought it was pretty cool that people would come to our place after seeing us in the band, and find that we had a nice, clean apartment. 

Ricky had been taking a college music course and finished his final lesson on the anniversary of John Lennon's death.  Lori and Colleen came over and visited for a while. Our custom bus buddies insisted on driving us to Longview for a two night run at a club called Hot Stuff. We were on Ricky's home turf, and Longview has always been all about Ricky, Ricky, Ricky! So when his family, friends, and fans came to the club and saw the big tour bus sitting outside, it was really impressive! Impressive that is, until the driver's boss came in to work unexpectedly during the weekend and found the bus missing! The boss demanded the driver return immediately with the bus so we were kicked off, along with our gear, and left stranded in Longview! 

Thank goodness for good friends. My neighbors (and good party pals) Lori and Colleen had driven to Longview for the weekend, along with their friend Kim. They invited me to ride home with them. Big Mike Stewart offered to drive back. The drive back was far more fun and interesting than the trip up in the bus had been. Having the bus pulled out from under us taught us a valuable lesson. I just can't remember what it was.

Upon returning home, bad things started happening. First, actress Natalie Wood died in a tragic drowning incident. Secondly, (and we weren't quite sure if we should count this or not) Lynx broke up. And because bad things tend to happen in three's, we were treading carefully, waiting for the last shoe to drop. We were only back from Longview 3 days when the third "bad thing" happened. On the night of December 15th, while we were playing at Savvy's, our apartment was burglarized! We were only a week away from the first anniversary of the burglary on Green Acres...  

CHAPTER 31:  THE END OF BOOK ONE

SAVVY STORY INDEX

BACK TO JONESLAND

SEND EMAIL