The Breakup

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I’m not sure exactly when and how the final decision was made but we, Gary and I , decided to quit and come back home to Oklahoma.  We still had some reservations so we decided we would let Beau and Bob go and we would either go home to stay or to rest and refresh and regroup.   We had always had in the back of our mind to hire Dewayne Grissom.  We had talked to him and he was available and maybe even eager to join us.  When you’re traveling as we were you can’t always take everything you own with you.  For instance Gary still had his dune buggy and we still had our boat.  We had stored them in Salem Oregon which was kinda our home base.  We kept our agent informed at all times as to what was going on with the group.  So we worked up a deal where we would be booked back into Salem and we would finish up there and end it with the guitar player and the drummer.  We had learned a few months earlier that Leon had left the group he left us for and had put his own group together .  The funny thing was he was playing the club in Salem where we were going back to.  We had long been the favorite band of that club because we drew the biggest crowd.  We could play there anytime we wanted to.  So when Leon learned he would have to move out for a week to make room for us he worked out a deal so that he could stay there at no pay and play opposite us.  In other words continuous music with alternating bands. I think he felt like he could upstage us.  We knew better because we had known for some time Leon was traveling down a bad road with his drinking.  Our plan was to finish up there get all of our possessions gathered up and make the long trip to Oklahoma. That last week was a very emotional week knowing it very well might be our last week in the business.  We knew for sure it would be the last week with the current personnel.  We had no problem at all being upstaged by Leon’s group.  Yes they were pretty good, Leon was as good as ever but he definitely had a drinking problem and most nights by the second hour he was wasted.  I never felt threatened by competition I just felt sad to see what was happening to him.  We worked every night and in the daytime we were making preparations to travel home.  I guess we had learned our lesson with Leon because I think it would have been easy at that time to hire him back, hire Dewayne Grissom and just keep going.  It never even occurred to us.   I guess being burned by him so many times we finally learned.   When our final night arrived I was sad very sad.  I remember the night very well.  The people were talking to us about when we would be back but I knew we never would.  The crowd was huge and we were busy all night saying goodbye  and so on.  When it came time for the last song I was almost in tears.  I would look over at Gary and I could tell he was the same way.  I still remember the last song we played  I still remember introducing the song and thanking the people for the great welcome we received.  I still remember lying to them when I told them we would see them again soon.  The only people in the room that knew it was all over was Gary and me.  As I write this the emotions of that night come back to me.  All the years we had worked so hard to be a successful group and we were down to one last song.  I didn’t want it to end.  I looked out over the crowd to see a packed house of smiling faces.  People who had followed us for years.  Some people who had traveled to other cities to see us.  It was time.   I said “ for our last song of the night we would like to feature Gary on a song by Three Dog Night  when all else fails TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS”

next.   The trip home