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This summer I have been playing a bunch of shows with Jefferson Starship on the Heroes of Woodstock tour. There were many highlights but I have to say the most triumphant of all the gigs was on the actual 40th Anniversary of Woodstock when we played Bethel Woods Amphitheater, a gorgeous outdoor venue built on the site on the original Woodstock. It was like a dream come true, playing for the sold out crowd of 17,000 hippies, young and old. We did get back to the garden, man, and it was far out. The show was filmed in 3D and 2D for an upcoming concert documentary release called the Road Back to Woodstock. For one day, we were the biggest news in entertainment, our picture splashed in newspapers across the globe. I stopped in Starbucks to get a cup of coffee the next day and found my picture in the New York Times. "That's a really big deal," said my barista. Yeah, and your coffee is hot, steaming and delicious. Tell me something I don't know.
While our reviews were mostly positive, there were a few snickers at our tour being named, "the Heroes of Woodstock" you know, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, and Joe Cocker, arguably the "real" heroes of Woodstock, were all notably absent. We had Jefferson Starship with no Grace Slick- although you would be shocked at how many people have suspended disbelief about that fact- Ten Years After without Alvin Lee, Big Brother and the Holding Co without Janis. You get the picture. No, I am not Grace Slick and I was born in 1969 so I wasn't at the original Woodstock. My heroine status, however, was in full force a few days earlier, when in a New York minute, I came upon a burning hot dog cart just outside of Central Park.
As I rounded the corner on 8th Avenue, I met with the wild eyes of
an apparent crazy man yelling, "GET BACK!" Well, his eyes were sort of crossed and glazed over and therefore, they didn't actually meet mine so at first, I didn't know he was talking to me. I thought, "oh, here is your average lunatic on the streets of New York... who is he yelling at?" I looked over my shoulder and didn't see anyone, further confirming my suspicions of lunacy (there was a full moon that night, after all) but as I approached, he became more panicky, waving me back and screaming and it was at that time that I noticed that his hot dog cart was in flames. There was a little open door on the side of the cart revealing two tanks of propane, one with fire shooting out of it with a plume of black smoke rising above it. Oh, ok I get it.
Another lady passerby said, "shouldn't somebody call the fire department?" but I noticed the crazy hot dog man was on his cell phone, simultaneously waving people away from his potential-bomb cart with one arm and alerting the authorities with the other. Rachel was with me and fearing for her safety and mine, I said "ok, he's on the phone with 911 and he's worried it's going to blow up, so let's get out of here" and I started pushing her back towards the corner. She didn't want to leave, though, which I didn't understand. I was like, "honey, that thing could blow up, let's get out of here. Come on." I really didn’t get why her feet weren’t moving but I had forgotten for one second that my wife is the sweetest human being on earth. She said, in the sweetest, most innocent voice I’ve ever heard, "...but... what about… him?" And even though I was totally annoyed, I realized she was right, we couldn't just leave the hot dog man there to die and I had to do something. "All right, " I sighed. "I'll save him."
I immediately turned into the nearest store and asked for a fire extinguisher. Every store has one. I think it's pretty much the law. This store was a Lenscrafters. "Do you have a fire extinguisher?" I asked calmly. "Why?" was the inquisitive reply from the glasses salesperson, who was outfitting another smart lady in some stylish frames. "Because there's a hot dog cart on fire outside and it's gonna blow up!" This time I was not so calm. She snapped out of her chair and ran into a back room.
I could see the fire extinguisher on the wall on the outside of the door she had just run into. "Ummm... it's out here! Hurry!" and I waited for her, cuz she said, "I'm coming! Just a second!" but I couldn't figure out what she was doing back there and truth be told, I still don't know. "Uhhh, we don't have much time, there are propane tanks on fire, let's go! HURRY!" She emerged, breathless, with no fire extinguisher but now wearing a black trenchcoat. It wasn’t even cold out… but she looked fabulous. "It's right here," I tell her again, anxiously pointing to the fire extinguisher. This time, rather than grabbing it or giving it to me or telling me to go ahead and take it, she inexplicably knocks on another door.
"SUZIE JANE! (not her real name) Can I use the fire extinguisher?" "What for?" comes Suzie Jane's voice thru the door. Are these people for real? Precious moments are being wasted here. I had half a mind to grab the thing and run out there myself but I hesitated because I thought if they didn’t give it to me after I asked, it might be stealing and I sure as hell wasn’t going to get arrested for trying to do a good deed. "Joe's cart is on fire!" glasses lady yells to Suzie Jane thru the door, who responds with something like, "well duh, yeah if something's on fire, why would you even ask me" Thank you, Suzie Jane. We were out the door.
Glasses lady truly wanted to steal my thunder as quick thinking heroine and ran towards Joe, arms outstretched with the extinguisher, black coat waving in the breeze... "JOE! HERE!" but alas, she was just too fricking slow and a random man ran up and grabbed it out of her hands, completely extinguishing the fire in 1.5 seconds. Well, there ya go. Wasn't that easy? In the next second, the fire department showed up. I felt happy for Joe that his cart was out and it didn't blow up and kill him or my wife and we could now continue walking down the street. "Good job," said the lady passerby who had apparently stayed with Rachel on the sidewalk to watch the drama unfold. Thank you, lady on the street. "Yes, let a woman figure out what to do but let a man actually do it," I joked back to her. "It takes a village." We were all heroes that day.
Now that I've told that story, I can't remember any other particular event quite as outstanding about the tour. I am sure a lot of other stuff happened. We had a lot of fun shows. I flew in a helicopter. I was a Grand Martian in the Roswell UFO Parade and I met Miss New Mexico. I talked to a lot of star-struck people who claimed to be lifelong fans of mine but I have to guess actually believed I was Grace Slick. I always signed my name when they asked for an autograph and was as "gracious" as I could be. (if you will) We played a show with Edgar Winter in Fort Worth, TX. With his white hair and bangs, he could be easily mistaken (from a great distance) for Tom Constanten, the Grateful Dead keyboardist who jammed with us throughout the tour. Or vice versa, as it were, many people excitedly approached TC after our set exclaiming, "Great set, Edward! I've been a huge fan my whole life!"
There were a few weeks and days here and there that I had a chance to be home in Chicago and I took advantage of that to work with a great engineer that I love, Larry Sturm, who mixed nine songs for the record I have been working on for the past three years. TO BE CONTINUED…
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