Everything new in the music business at the time would take time to develop. White Zombie was no exception. Case in point, I remember it took months and months of touring to get the interest from the music public at large. Geffen Records released" “LA Sexorcisto” in 1992 and the band toured behind it for over 24 months. The label stuck with them and radio finally came around. I had met the band a couple of times, however on this occasion they were set to headline the Warfield theater SF. I was back stage when one of the doormen stopped in and said that there was someone at the Backstage door looking for Sean Yseult. She said to everyone WTF. It turns out it was an old friend who had a gift for her. She said send them in, the bouncer got it mixed up and thought she meant to send the gift in, and make her friend go through the front doors. She was mad, however the gift arrived in a wooden slip case box. Sean took a moment and slipped the box top open and to everyone’s surprise was a perfectly preserved, acid dipped and cleaned Blue Jay. She was transfixed, saying that she will add this to her collection. She was asking us if we knew how awesome a gift this was, and that Birds have something like 300 bones. The acid cleaned bones is a taxidermist procedure that you really have to see to believe. Indeed an amazing gift.
Vince Gill
A friend is a huge fan of Vince Gill and so am I. Vince was on tour and came to Oakland Coliseum Arena. He was open to receiving guests before show. I have to admit that most of the artists who come out of MCA Nashville are gracious, courteous and humble. Is that just a Southern thing? We made our way to the back stage greet and meet “Green Room”. It was stocked with refreshments, couches, flowers, Nintendo video games, chairs, lamps and table tennis. There was food, candy and beverages a plenty. After a while Vince popped in with other band members and started mingling. He made the rounds meeting everyone, posed for photos, signed autographs and hung out. I got to spend a little more time with Vince when he said to me “hey are you hungry? I said “Oh yeah” He said follow me…we made our way over to a hospitality table which was set up with a Panini press. Vince said how about a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich. So there I was having Vince Gill prepare these sandwiches, and tell me he was so happy that someone else wanted to eat with him.We talked about the traditions of before show and he said “ I like to eat before I hit the stage so I don’t have hunger pains and my stomach does’t growl.
Peter Gabriel
I had the pleasure of working with Peter on his “Us” album, after his major artistic break thru record “So”, His album “So” not only catapulted him for it’s commercial success but it’s respectable achievement here and across the pond. He collaborated with Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson and Youssou N’Dour on his hit ‘In your eyes” which went on to push the album to the top of the Billboard singles, album and Radio charts. It even won him multiple Grammy’s and MTV Music Video awards. Transport forward a few years later and Peter releases a new album and embarks on a World Tour called “Secret World”. It too had all the trappings of success. The tour with Youssou N’Dour opening the show and even walking on as a guest during ‘In your Eyes” was a sold out tour. Peter is a very humble man, I took my wife with me for this show and had passes for a backstage meet and greet. We found the green room which was decked out with Couches, Pool Table, Ping Pong, Bar, Food bites and even a Video screen showing Peter Gabriel videos.. No one was certain that Peter would even make an appearance, but that did not deter everyone backstage from chatting it up and eating and drinking for what seemed like an hour. With time pressing and no Peter Gabriel, people started to slowly leave. The back stage crowd thinned, it thinned even more when Youssou took the stage. I think everyone figured Peter would be a no show. There I was with a few of us in the room and with my wife sitting on the couch talking about making our way to our seats when literally out of nowhere Peter pops in and introduces himself. We had a wonderful discussion about the tour and how he enjoyed the art museums in San Francisco. I told him I had seen him with Genesis on the” Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” Tour years hence in Berkeley, so he got to reminiscing about that time in his life. He talked about melding music and theater to come up with an evocative nuance on stage. The band at the time worked to make the show larger than life, for all to experience. It was a fascinating conversation. He was smart, funny and down to earth…very approachable. It made the whole back stage experience one that I will not soon forget.
Thin Lizzie and Phil Lynott
I was invited to a Thin Lizzie show at The Warfield theater. It was early in my career and a friend asked me to go with her. I was a huge fan and could not refuse. She said she had backstage passes and wanted to get there early. The Warfield backstage is under the stage. We hung out for a while and realized the band was doing a sound check. Charlotte had obviously been here before and knew the way, she grabbed my hand and said follow me as she led me to a private stage door and up this tiny metal spiral staircase onto stage right. It popped us right up onto the stage. After a blistering sound check Phil Lynott came right over to us, kissed Charlotte who then introduced me. She had met him before, and he knew she was coming. Clearly he was interested in hanging with her. I made my way back to the backstage area where I chatted with Neal Schon of Journey who was hanging… Neal later joined Thin Lizzie for a few songs during their amazing set. It was a brief and simple meet, but little did we know that a few years later, Phil would pass from complications from pneumonia at age 36...
Shirley Manson and Garbage
I got to know Shirley while working with Radio Active Records on her Angelfish album. We had some success with the track “Suffocate me”. The Album was produced by Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads. The band came into San Francisco during a tour for their self titled debut Album. I took Shirley round to a few record stores for an impromptu greet and meet and luncheon with some managers. The following year Shirley ditched Angelfish and would front the band Garbage; which was a Butch Vig incarnation. The first Garbage album was done mostly in the studio with Butch playing all the instruments. The Band Garbage recorded a hit with “Stupid Girl” and were a darling at early commercial alternative radio. They decided to hit the road and brought along bassist Danny Shulman from some early Run DMC sessions. The band scheduled mostly Radio Winter Festivals and a handful of club dates. In San Francisco Shirley contacted me and made sure I was going to be at Slims for an intimate club date. She said “Bring all those people I met last time, so they can see my new band” To say the least the band nailed it! Shirley hung around and signed autographs for anyone who wanted one (she was a trooper) Both Butch and Shirley told me later that night Backstage, that they were not sure how the music was going to translate since they were using samples and Midi controllers. After much discussion we convinced them that they sounded amazing and not to worry. Shirley’s stage presence alone was intoxicating. The next day they performed for Live 105’s almost Christmas, and KOME ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas to much larger crowds but unfortunately only a 5 or 6 song set!
Iggy Pop opening for The Cars
I was invited by a friend in the business to see Iggy Pop on his Blah Blah Blah tour open for The Cars at the Oakland arena in the late 80’s. I had a pair of tickets so I asked my wife to go with me and I told her that I had Back Stage passes for Iggy Pop. She was cool with it but was not as keen as I was. When we arrived there was a green room stage right set up for the greet and meet. There were probably about 20 of us. Iggy slid into the room with his manager and came right up to Nancy and I first. I introduced myself and Nancy and Iggy with his steel blue eyes was completely dialed into us. I asked him about his early days and how I had seen him at The Old Waldorf run across the table tops and cut himself with a broken bottle. We dished about the state of music and where he thought it was going. He said he was digging on The Clash recently and a few other bands. It was a great conversation and then he moved along to meet others…We stayed and had a beer all the while waiting for everyone to finish their conversations and then something incredible happened. Iggy came right back over to me and said Hey Ric and Nancy, how are you seats. I said we were all good… he had a sharpie in his hands and I rarely did this in those days but I asked him to sign something for me, he leaned over and signed Nancy’s plain white T Shirt she had on. He Thanked us for coming and exited. What struck me the most about him, was that he made the rounds at the Greet and Meet , made an effort to come all the way back around and over to me and had remembered who we were by name and made contact again to make sure we were all set for the show. Remarkable experience.
Elton John at Shoreline Amphitheater
Elton John had recently signed a new deal to return to MCA Records and was heading out on a National tour called “Sleeping with the Past” It was standard in those days to bring Record Store buyers, managers, and owners to concerts in your respective markets. I had personally invited about 20, the other staffers invited 20 and our radio promoter invited about 20, so we had a whole mess of people together. I arranged a greet and meet with Elton who said he would meet everyone pre show. Upon arriving a bit early to Shoreline, I met with production and we did the Back Stage Pass computation, also I got a chance to meet Elton in his dressing room. His dressing room had been made to order by Bill Graham himself. Bill took great pride in making performers feel special. Bill had specially prepared Elton’s dressing room with 25 hand picked Hats from a Haberdashery in San Francisco, he lined them in columns on the wall. When I met Elton he was having fun trying on the different hats with different colors, feathers, braids, crests and boas. I asked him which one he was going to wear and he said; “ I think I’ll use quite a few of these tonight” True to his word, during the performance he changed wardrobes a few times, including the Hats!
Set list 8/20/89 Shoreline Amphitheater
Smoke filled intro to
Bennie and the Jets
Island girl
Harmony
Tiny Dancer
Sleeping with the Past
The Bitch is Back into Brown Sugar cover
I guess that’s why they call it the blues
Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters Pt.1 & Pt. 2
Funeral for a Friend/ Love lies bleeding
Sorry seems to be the Hardest word
Daniel
Candle in the wind
Sacrifice
Blue Eyes
Philadelphia Freedom,
Burn down the Mission
Levon
Stones throw from here
Sad Songs say so much
Don’t let the sun go down on me
I don’t want top go with you like that
Encore
Saturday Nights alright for fighting
Rocket man (I think it’s going to be a long time)