#82. Imagine...
December 8th, 1980
Sledd Dogg was playing a gorgeous resort in Picton. It was one of the very few "nice" places our agent, Francine, stumbled into. The rooms were high-end, the food was great - and there was an indoor swimming pool with hot tub.
More of this please…
And on this Monday night, we had a magician for an opening act. It should have been unforgettably wonderful...
The Magician had a tough room. Besides being kind of "basic", he placed his "Magic Trunk" directly under a pot light. That meant that when performing the trick where he switches places with his assistant who is "locked" inside the trunk, you could see right through the curtain as the top of the trunk spit open, the assistant deftly climbed out, and they simply swapped places. I'm sure the magician didn't realize the reason for the limp applause. Too bad, but that was his big trick of the night...and it bombed. After that, we climbed on the stage and did a short set to hopefully retain these skeptical patrons.
Then, as we always did in between sets, we went back to one of our rooms to get high. As a security measure, we always left the TV on to sound like there was always somebody in the room. This night was different.
Instead of a late movie, it was "Breaking News" - on all three channels.
At first we didn't pay much attention - but they kept showing a portrait of John Lennon, so we turned it up. In seconds, our mood went from silly…to devastated.
John Lennon had just been murdered.
When it was time to go back down, we had a decision to make.
The room was full of people having a good time. Should we keep this to ourselves or break the bad news...?
It was decided to start the set with a Beatles song, in spite of having no Beatles songs in our repertoire. After that, Dean somberly broke the news that John Lennon had been shot and is dead.
The room went silent. After another song or two, we looked around and realized we were suddenly alone with the bartender and servers. All were now sitting at the bar watching the news on a small TV - most were in tears.
It didn't make any sense. It STILL doesn't make any sense. But, that is the way of the world. And it hit home very hard on Monday Dec. 8, 1980.
NEXT: #83. Guitar Strap For The Ages