When did you first become interested in the music business? Back when I was a freshman in High School. The Junior girls wanted to get a band for the prom. They didn’t know what to do. I overheard them and I said “I can get you a band.” There was a band in Jacksonville at the time called The Jay Notes, and they wanted them, so I got in touch with their manager and asked what it would cost. So, they raised the money to hire the band. After- wards, I was working with Sidney Drashin of Jet Set Enterprises, and they pretty much controlled what came in and out of Jacksonville. He had WAPE in his back pocket for the most part. He hired the disc jockeys to work his shows. He could take a band and in 30 days make them a hit artist and sell out 3,500 seats. Sidney is a great character. He said “I need your help. I’ve got Janis


Joplin coming in and I need to make sure she makes it to the show. I want you to go by the hotel and pick her up.” She was at the Hilton on the river. He wanted me to bring her to the Ar- mory downtown. There was another California band with her. I picked her up and, oh my good- ness, what an afternoon that was! She was so crazy. She got onstage at sound check and had a bottle of Jack Daniels she was drinking from. Some girl came up to her and said, “Will you sign my driver’s license?” She says “Sure honey.” And starts to do it. A cop walks up and says “You can’t do that.” Janis says, “Fuck off! What are you gonna do, arrest me? You wanna have a problem tonight? Go ahead and arrest me, you asshole!” I said “Oh no!” Then she walks down past the guy from WAPE radio and he asks her, on the air, “So, are you ready to rock and roll Jacksonville?” She says, “You dumb ass, Why else would I be here?” She goes over to my car, a ’67 Ford Calaxy- this was in 1967, and it had the bench style seat in the front. She got in next to me- there’s three of us in the front, and she’s wearing this purple cotton dress, and there’s a little bit of skin showing. She had this fluffy boa around her. Well, I glanced over at her, and she says, “What, are you trying to look at this?” She pulls her dress back and shows me her boob.” I got her back to the hotel. I told Sidney all was well. He said I needed to stay with her, and I said “No. I did you a favor. I’m done. I can’t deal with this woman anymore.” She was a


Lynyrd Skynyrd real handful. But it was an interesting experience.


Tell me about your connection with Lynyrd Skynyrd. I had just graduated from Mercer University in Macon, and I came back to Jacksonville and re- ceived a notice from Uncle Sam, saying in three days I was to be down at the Greyhound bus ter- minal, and we’re going to take you for a wonder- ful ride to Fort Benning, Georgia, where we will indoctrinate your ass and send you to Vietnam. Well, I ran into the principal from my old High School, and he asked what I’d been up to. I told him about the draft, and he said, “No. Tomorrrow morning you are coming with me downtown to the draft board, and I will get you a deferment. I told him I had graduated and really


wanted to go to Dental School. He said, well they won’t do a deferment for Dental School, but they will give one for Law School, I’m pretty sure. So, I went in. They interviewed me for about thirty minutes and I told them, “Look, I don’t have a problem with serving my country, but here is my acceptance to Mercer Law School. I will go in and also join the ROTC. If you give me a deferment for a year, I will graduate and then serve my country as an officer.” I had a brother who had just received a Silver Star, a Cross of Gallantry, a handful of medals and a purple heart for his fighting in Vietnam. I had another brother serv- ing in Panama in the Canal Zone. They saw that I was from a family of eight- six boys and two girls,


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