Lake Tahoe

When we finished up at Harrahs Reno our next stop was Harrahs Lake Tahoe.  It was winter time.   Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.  Lake Tahoe in the winter can be really cold but it’s so dang pretty it’s worth it.  Sometimes the snow is measured in feet not inches.   Harrahs Lake Tahoe is much different than Reno.  The stage is much smaller and much more difficult to get groups on and off when you’re alternating shows.  It was just as much fun though.  Glen Campbell was appearing in the showroom.   Our former drummer and present booking agent, Gary Nieland knew him from their days together with The Champs.  He came down from Oregon while we were there, I think more to see Glenn Campbell than to see us.  He contacted Glen Campbell’s people and requested a meeting.  It was set up to go see him in his dressing room before his show on Sunday night.  I’m not sure how I fanageled an invitation to go with him but I did.  We were ushered into his dressing room and sat down for a visit.  Talk about nice.  His dressing room was just a wee bit nicer than ours. It had food, waiters, make up people and the whole nine yards.  I didn’t have much to say during the visit, after all I didn’t know him.  He was very inice and he and Gary shared some laughs and reminisced about their time together. It came time for his show so we hung around backstage for a while and watched from there..  it was pretty cool to see how the big stars lived.

We had a good stay in Lake Tahoe.  While we were there my sister, Corrine and her husband came over from San Jose to see us.  They came to see us several places we played over the years.  It’s kinda strange but I think only three of my siblings ever saw me perform on stage.  I’m not sure but I don’t think my mother ever saw me perform.  We were living in a motel just a few blocks from the Casino.  One day Susan needed to take a trip to Reno for something.  She took Shannon with her and left in the morning.  A snow storm moved in.  Keep in mind all this was long before cell phones.   She headed back up the mountains to come back to Tahoe and ran into a road block.   No one was allowed to proceed without chains on their tires.  We didn’t have chains but we did have studded snow tires. She pled with them and they allowed her to proceed from one check point to the next and they radioed back to let the troopers know she wasn’t stranded in between.  She made it fine and Shannon thought it was a great adventure.  Shannon was only about four years old.  No seat belts, no child seat just a four year old child bouncing all over the inside of a van having a great time watching all the snow.  When they got back Shannon and I went out and played in the snow.

When we finished in Lake Tahoe we were booked back in the Pacific Northwest.  I think our next stop was Hood River Oregon.  A city located on the Columbia river  near The Dalles  which is a bigger city located on the Columbia..  it’s a real pretty area..  right in the mountains with a beautiful river down  below.  Some real pretty  falls in the area.  Things were beginning to get a little shakey.  Our drummer Bob Compeau had never really settled in with the group.  He was starting to cause some problems.  He was trying to drive a wedge between the guitar player and Gary and me.  We weren’t paying Bob as much as the rest of us made because after all he was brand new and we had been together for years.  It was getting to the point it looked as though we might lose the both of them.  We felt like we could save Stotler and just replace the drummer but weren’t sure.  We had tried once before to hire a hometown boy, Dewayne Grissom, on drums but he wasn’t available at the time and we heard he was now available.  That was in the back of our mind.    Gary Sullivan and I had many late night conversations with our wives trying to decide exactly what we were to do.  In one way we were tired.  Really tired of starting over with new people.  In another way we had just gotten to where we had worked so hard to get to.  Personally I had another problem.  Shannon was rapidly approaching school age.  I knew for a fact my marriage couldn’t survive separation.  Her living in one place and me on the road playing music would not work.  So we had quite a delemma.   We hashed it over for hours on end.   Neither of us Gary or me, really wanted to give it up but all signs were pointing that direction.

I think I should try and describe the relationship Gary and I had during these years.  I hear people refer to others as friends.  I tend to use that word sparingly because I know what a true friend is.  I have had people say you two are like brothers.  In many ways We were closer than brothers.  In those days the two of us were inseparable.  Sometimes the wives got aggravated about it, especially mine.  A common phrase today is “ I got your back”.  I chuckle when I hear people say that because I know in most cases “no you don’t.” In our case we did.  I was always secure in the knowledge that Gary would always be there for me.  My mother use to say “ the night will never get so cold or dark that I won’t be there for one of my kids”.  That’s the way I felt towards Gary.  I don’t know how we became so close.  Partly I’m sure because early on we we were away from home and we learned to rely on each other.  The wives learned to live with it.   Mainly because they had occasion to see us look out for each other.  The other band members knew that we stood together and there was no way they were gonna turn one against the other.  Not to say we didn’t disagree or even get into vocal fights.  Yeah that happened but heaven help you if you bad mouthed Gary to me or the other way around.   I say all this to say neither of us would make a decision about our future without consulting and including the other.

Next    The breakup