1976 was a fine year. America celebrated its 200th birthday. I met and went to work for Leon Russell. And on April 3rd, Charlene and I were married. We headed off to Nashville to tackle the country music business. That lasted about 5 weeks. Back to Oklahoma - to Oklahoma City where I took a job as an engineer at Benson Recording Studio. That lasted about 2 weeks until Larry Benson fired me. I was a little too ambitious for Larry. Charlene worked as a legal assistant and maybe at a restaurant as well. We were really broke. Then I got the gig as Leon's monitor mixer on the Leon & Mary tour, and we moved to Tulsa. My mom lived there. Charlene ran a leasing company office and hung out with Mom while I was on tour with Leon. After the tour, we moved out to California for the first time. We moved back and forth between Oklahoma and California a couple of times. Charlene has worked as many as three jobs at a time to help keep us in the stupid music business. Her employers always loved her. I've had three "real" jobs total - and got fired from each one. It's been an adventure. The adventure continues. Thirty-two years.

Oh yeah... We had that 1976 Bi-Centennial Chevy Chevette with the eagles on the seats. That's a nice car to drive after you get married.