On Tour

I lived in Chicago for the better part of a year. It was where the band I was in was based, and Buddy Guy owned a small but legendary nightclub, The Checkerboard Lounge, on Chicago's South Side...which was Chicago's ghetto...and almost entirely black folks...but the truth is, we spent a great deal of our time on the road. I was getting my first chance to travel and "see" things, and at the same time being paid for doing it...and for doing what I loved. I was only 20...and I just soaked everything in as it came to me...I was very open...and I was living a dream. I travelled across a lot of the U.S. and Canada, and I remember how disappointed I was when the band went to Australia for a two week tour, very soon after I had joined the group, and I had to stay in Chicago, because trying to get work visas on such short notice was  nearly impossible, or so I was told. I drove out to California to meet the band on their return from Australia, where we were to do a tour up through the entire state. The Fillmore West...The Winterland Ballroom...The Whiskey A Go-Go....California was everything I had heard it was, and it being 1972, and me actually being in San Francisco, I felt like I was in the center of the Universe during the "Big Bang", and I loved all of it. We swung back East, across the country, back to Chicago, then New England, and then Canada, and with every place I visited, I realized that I was being well received by nearly all the audiences, and after six months of touring, I started thinking about putting together my own band, because after all, blues wasn't the "voice" of the Counterculture...and I still thought I was a part of something very important that was happening on a global scale. So after playing Canada, we did another swing through New England, and when the band returned to play Connecticut, I decided it was time for me to take a risk...I had gained a lot of confidence and experience while I had toured with this band...but it had not all been great...there had been some problems, as there always is on the road, but touring was new to me, and I hadn't developed the experience and awareness of that as much as I would over time. Plus, I was the only white guy in the band, and I felt a little bit lonely...and a little bit like I was "on the outside...looking in"...something I realize today had very little to do with the band...but had everything to do with the Disease of Addiction. So I said good bye to Buddy and Junior, and all my Chicago friends, and returned to Connecticut, to start my own project. I was very grateful and appreciative of the opportunity I had been given by them...and I was also very optimistic about my future....