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Friday, January 6, 2017

SOME THINGS ARE FORBIDDEN EVIL!!!

I met Jason Rainey in 1984, at a bar I owned called the Bootleggers.  He would come in and stand at the end of the bar and visit.  I didn't know he was only a teenager (16 years old or so) because he had a killer fake ID!  Occasionally he would be hungry and not have any moola, and I would whip him up some lunch.  One day, he shyly said "I have a band."  That was news to me!  I hooked him up with a gig on our next open date and it all took off from there.

Sacred Reich was special from the start.  I could tell because when I see a band that is going to be successful, I get this feeling inside.  I can't really explain it; it just hits me.  I got it when I first saw Flotsam with Jason Newsted.  It appeared again with Sacred Reich and also the first time I ever saw Sepultura.  It still  comes and goes through the years.






Sacred evolved, changed members, and eventually landed a record deal.  I started managing them in 1985.  It was at this time that the adventure began!    During these early years, I cultivated a friendship with one of the dearest woman in Metal, Debbie Abono.  Debbie was from the Bay Area and was managing Forbidden Evil.  When I first met Debbie, she invited me to the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, to see The Possessed, who she managed at the time.  Debbie had immense faith in all her bands.   Through the years I knew her, she helped many bands nurture and invested her time and a good deal of money, into each of them.  Many bands and band members today, owe their career to the jump start she gave them.....

I loved Debbie.  We were about to become a team, on the road.  I had gotten Sacred Reich on a good footing.  They were a hot commodity in the '80's, and in demand.  Hanging with Debbie in San Francisco one evening,  I saw Forbidden in a small club,  and really loved their live show.  Majestic vocals, windmill hair flying, drums throbbing. I offered the European and the North American legs to her, for Forbidden.  It was on!


We both took our daughters, Christina and Julie, to sell merch.  That was one big gig and we needed people we could trust. I double-dutied many of the Sacred crew, I had been using.  Eventually, we all fit on one bus...and off we went.

In the '80's and '90's, I would enter a country with a band and play in as many cities as possible.  France and Germany were like monster size Texas's, with loads of popping' venues.  Sometimes, we would tour a country for 3 weeks or more. The standard tour we did was normally 2-3 months minimum.



Keep in mind, there were no computers, no wifi, no cell phones, no fax machines and not even a damn pager, in those early Metal years. There was a border at each country and they weren't fooling around. I would have to change money in each country, find a pay  phone and figure out how to dial and make a call. Some of the pay phones were in areas that seemed like a replay of Dusk to Dawn!   I raised my children like this.  I broke up their fights like this.  I dealt with the school and doctors like this.  I made tours, advanced gigs, dealt with lawyers, agents and labels on the pay phone.  And you know what?  You can do it!  You can do anything you want to do.  Piece of cake!

Class dismissed......