C H A P T E R  F I V E

we are in the spring of 1988. we have come full-circle, we have been thru the Ringer, drunkenness, bad gigs, bad managers, all the wonderful things that come under the heading of "paying one's dues". it was a scary time, a desperate time. but it seems that when you are at your most desperate....a light shines through the darkness- Fate lifts a finger and gives you a hand. this is the story of the eight months or so that led to our signing by Columbia records. 

in the Spring of 1988 we had nothing....no $$$, no hope. but YET AGAIN Skid took up the Mantle and started writing a new batch of songs, these would later be most of the ones on "Blackout". much has been written about the Whisky "Bozo Jam" and it's contributing to our getting signed. this is the truth. the Sunset Strip was at the height of the "pay to play" scene, bands would have to sell their own tickets to play the coveted Whisky and Roxy clubs in L.A.---we couldn't sell tickets, we never could. we were too un-cute and too anti-social to do that; we were dead in the water....then Louie, the manager of the Whisky, had an idea , why not open up the Whisky on a Monday, traditionally the slowest night of the week, and charge free admission to get in? bands would play short sets on the same gear to save time between sets, and Louie would make up the difference at the bar? it was a
damn good idea, and it was our ticket to a record deal.  

I remember Louie giving us flyers for the first Bozo Jam gig and us walking up and down the Strip hawking them like Town Criers. it was so easy 'cause it was FREE. even then the first gig was almost empty, it was us and a band called Daddy Ray. we started playing there, almost as a weekly thing; it was so cool not to have to be responsible for bringing your own audience, we could concentrate on writing songs and getting better. about 2 months after that first show the Bozo Jam started to catch on, it started to get really crowded every night. at that time there was what could be called collaboration on the songs. Skid would show me a song on acoustic guitar, we would dick around with it for a while , then all of us would go 4-track it in our studio. we seemed to fight less then, maybe 'cause the songs were so good, maybe it's my imagination, I don't know. I remember we were drinking hard back then, especially ME, Blackout Bill. that's right, now you know where THAT name came from....I was truly a fucking loose cannon in those days, drinking all night, fighting, I got 86'd out of every club on the Strip back then, Gazzari's, FM station, the Roxy, I would get drunk and get real violent--angry, bitter, every band in town was getting signed but US, it seemed, and I was pissed off about it--I had a small cadre of protégé's back then, young dudes, full of piss and vinegar, I would lead them on an all-night orgy of sex and violence--fighting, drinking and driving, vandalizing, I would wake up the next morning on some stranger's couch with 2 chipped teeth and an armful of car antennas I had collected--sometimes I would wake up still seat-belted in somebody's car, they had either gone in the house to sleep or having breakfast at Denny's....I would shake off the grogginess, un-strap myself, and sheepishly walk up and down the streets yelling for someone to tell me where I was. I once was on the roof of some 6-story building having a piss when Joey in the nick of time grabbed hold of my shirt and most certainly saved me from plunging to my death. are you getting the picture? I WAS OUT OF CONTROL. Jon hated me, thought I was a psycho, but I think Skid and Joe were amused by my antics, for you see this was " the Hammer of the Gods" , I was Keith Moon and Robert Plant rolled into one, the center of Attention, the Village Idiot--did this contribute to our getting signed? I hope so...  

annnyway, this was the time we recorded our famous 4-track demo that got us signed. I say this because it was so good, it captured the band in such a pure, primal form , that David Kahne from Columbia took the plunge. it was he and Ron Oberman who actually signed us....you may know the name David Kahne 'cause he was responsible for producing Sugar Ray....small world. so, we did this demo...Blackout, Tumbleweed, Fuel to Run, those songs come to mind--we did it and Joe started hand-carrying them to record companies, he being the sober and most presentable one of us. we met some guy , I forget his name, but he worked for New Line Cinema , he got our earlier version of "she's an Angel " on that dumb Freddy Krueger movie. this guy from Mechanic /MCA records was  also interested, they eventually signed Bang Tango---problem was he was interested in the J. xxxxx tapes, he actually liked that music better than the stuff we were doing --we did a showcase for him at the Lingerie club in L.A.---it was us and Bang Tango playing that night....during the gig I ran out into the audience, drunk as usual , and I pitched head-over -heels into a large table full of suits-and ties, spilling their drinks and causing general mayhem--turns out THAT was MCA records ....they signed Bang tango that night...go figure.  

it was actually a blessing, MCA records is the Kiss of Death Label, musicians here call it the Musician's Cemetary Association.... at this time I Skid and I started dating two sisters. my girl worked as a waitress at the Whisky club, Skid's...worked somewhere else. I thought it was SO COOL having my girl work at the Whisky, I felt SO connected, even though she only made about 10 bucks a night. I would hang out all night in the back parking lot of the Whisky with my good friend at the time, Jimmy Ray from the band Daddy Ray, they played Bozo jams with us all the time, anyway he and I would buy a 12-pack and sit in his beat-up van and drink all night. we would play "Tape Wars", I'd play "Tumbleweed" that we'd just recorded, and he's play something HIS band just did....song after song, beer after beer, for hours---then at 2:00 A.M. we'd stumble into the Whisky, causing a scene...what fun...you know, even though I'm grateful for all the good fortune I've had, the records, the $$$, the tours, there was something pure and innocent about making music for MUSIC'S SAKE, not having to write a good song to save your job, not getting freaked out over business, etc.--- hmmm....I'm waxing nostalgic....it'll pass  

so , as I said before, there's always a corrupt manager or lawyer to help you in your time of need by taking your publishing or years of your life away. we met another lawyer who proceeded to try to do that....a ridiculous agreement to let him "shop" our demo tape.... THANK GOD we didn't sign THAT...about that time we met Dennis Rider, another attorney. now THIS was the guy who really helped a lot in getting us our deal it's funny, but to this day Joey actually thinks HE got us our deal....he and Skid had a fight one night and Joe blurted out "I BROKERED OUR DEAL!!!" now THAT is funny...he didn't BROKER anything, Dennis Rider and the band's talent, obviously, got us our deal. .and luck.. it was all right place , right time. we started doing a string of 5 or 6 shows I like to call playing the "$20,000 Pyramid" we didn't rehearse, I was taking a bus into the Valley to do dry-wall with my friend Chris , I had no car and no money, Jon was off somewhere, fucked-up, M.I.A, just showing up for shows...you see we were real LUCKY, that's how it goes, talent has so little to do with it--I direct your attention to all these shitty KORN-Wannabe bands that have sprung up on Roadrunner Records--none of them have one molecule of originality in their whole body, yet there is the PERCEPTION that they will sell, you see. Guns'n' Roses was huge at the time, the L.A. Strip scene was hot, and it was the right time to be there, THAT'S ALL. you see, it could just as easily gone the other way, that's what freaks me out--we could just as easily been passed up, like the billion or so L.A. bands that DIDN'T GET SIGNED--and believe me, there was and still is a million out here...they just play 7-string guitars now. 

so Dennis gets a couple of our demos out and there is finally a BUZZ over the band, the companies are either ignorant or willing to forgive us for the St. John fiasco. there are a couple INTERESTED PARTIES...this is the scariest time of all, your dick is hard, you can FEEL the warm hot pussy...you can feel it. the night was December 16th, traditionally December was the time that the record company execs took their 2- week vacations, this was a time when most bands packed their dreams of glory in and resigned themselves to "get 'em next year". anyway, we played, there was a huge crowd, we looked at the guest list , there were ACTUALLY RECORD PEOPLE THERE---we played, we were good, real good, we went upstairs to the dressing room after the show, it was us and about 8 bands up there, crowded, people talking, some older dude comes up to me and introduces himself , congratulates me on my show-- says his name is Ron Oberman.... I knew that name, other band dudes around me craned their heads to listen, they too knew who Ron Oberman was, he was head of A&R for Columbia records, anyway he splits, we go home, and the next morning....BAMMO... SONY CALLED, THEY WANTED TO SIGN THE BAND , THIS WAS FINALLY IT---THE LONG WAIT WAS OVER...I cannot describe the joy, the absolute sense of complete fulfillment and vindication I had , it is indescribable. to pursue something for so long and so tirelessly , tripping, falling, eating shit, eating crow, over and over for so long and then to finally get that phone call---ohh, brothers and sisters, it was like taking a huge blast of cocaine in both nostrils...  

and that's how it happened , no magic, well, maybe a LITTLE magic. then when all the record companies heard about Sony, then THEY ALL WANTED US---how beautiful, what hypocrites, they who had scorned and chuckled now besieging us with phone calls, calling us the " next big thing"...there was a bit of vindication in THAT as well...so, Dennis negotiated with the company and we signed the deal January 13th, 1989--the band got a $100,000 advance, we each took home almost $20, 000 in our pockets, an obscene sum to me. I remember us , the four of us driving home from the bank, just having received all this $$$, and Jon still bitching , still not satisfied, saying how Sony "fucked" us,...this was a true weirdo, THEY SIGNED US, THEY SAVED OUR FUCKING LIVES, HOW ARE THEY FUCKING YOU??? HOW HOW HOW???  

count on Jon to find a dark cloud BEHIND the silver lining....so, the next installment---the recording of BLACKOUT, Sxxxxx rears his ugly head yet again---stay tuned... J.