WP They took place between October 1972 and June 1973 at the Capricorn Studios. There were lengthy sessions with Johnny Sandlin producing over that time period.
JW When Jaimoe got Lamar Williams an audition for the band, were you there at the audition and if so what was it like? WP Yeah I was there. Of course I wasn't sit- ting in on all the playing. And there were a couple of other guys who came up. It seems like one of the guys from Firefall came up to audition.
JW Where these auditions held over at Capricorn studio. WP Yeah. So again, after Berry's death it was like nobody is going to break this band up by killing us off. The band will break up when they decide it's going to break up. Not from outside sources. That was the thing about im- mediately getting the band together and then going out.
JW When did you first meet Scooter Herring? WP I started hearing about this guy named Scooter Herring who was supposedly a bad influence on Gregg. Then I kept hearing well, he is a good guy trying to do the right thing. I called him in for a meeting. I was kidding with Scooter later on and told him that when we had that first meeting that I was either going to hire him afterwards or have him shot. I wasn't really too far from that. He told me. "I know I've been a bad influence on Gregg but I really love the guy and I want to help him." I ended up hiring him and I've never regretted it. He was not as some would have it, Gregg's personal drug dealer. He was really Gregg's assistant. He kept a lot of unde- sirable people and things away from Gregg. And technically he was able to be convicted on some drug charges later on. But Scooter is a great guy. It was just an unfortunate thing.
There were a lot of pressures on the band at that point. A lot of it was caused by drug use. There was not a lot of clear thinking going on.
JW Do you ever hear from him. WP Yeah. After I read the Midnight Riders book last year, I said to myself. I've got to find Scooter. So I worked and worked and worked and finally tracked him down.
JW Had he read or heard about the book. WP I don't think he had read it.
JW Tell us about some of your recollec- tions of the before, during, and after proceedings of the Scooter Herring trial and how did it influence your rela- tionship with both the band members and management? WP Basically, it was everybody against Gregg is the way it went down then. All you have do is look at this White Water thing to see what federal prosecutors will do to make a case against somebody. They try to divide people and don't give a shit about whose lives they destroy. All they are looking for is to make their case. So a lot of pressure was put on Gregg by the government. I would have pre- ferred that he would have dealt with it in a better way. Anyway I don't hold it against Gregg. At the time I did. My God, I've worked with Gregg since then a lot. You know he was put in an untenable position. Everybody thinks they would know what they would do if they were put in that position. But you don't really know until you've been put in that posi- tion. And that had something to do with the breaking up of the band. But that wasn't all of it. The creative differences were a factor. Like the Sea Level offshoot and the musical direc- tion the band was going with, the Gregg thing, all together played a part in it. Fatigue had set in.
JW Can you describe your memories of
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