Hangin' with the Doobies....the full story
The Doobie Brothers were in town and we were there. Wouldn't have missed it. And as you may have read several weeks ago, we were provided backstage passes by Cris Simmons, wife of co-head Doobie Pat Simmons. We wouldn't have missed it even without this special invitation.
The concert was magnificent, especially in a smaller venue which allows an upclose experience. The darkened stage was awakened by the gut wrenching rumble of a Harley and when the lights came up, there were the Doobies into the first chords of "Rockin' down the highway"
The crowd went bonkers as they transitioned into "Jesus is just alright with me.." Non-stop hits for about 30 minutes and then somewhat of a respite as they performed some of their more recent cuts including Pat Simmons on a Hawaiian slack key guitar number and some blues. Great stuff.
The final half an hour was filled with some of their biggest hits, and as the beer and hard rock n' roll worked it's magic on the crowd people started edging towards the stage. And so did we as the time had come for us to worry about getting backstage after the frenzy. So for 15 minutes or so, we stood about 25 feet in front of the Doobies, but very near the backstage entrance.
I had prepared myself for a throng of perhaps 100 people backstage and probably just the chance to say a quick hell-o to Pat Simmons and tell him the "We Were Soldiers" photos I had sent to Cris and him were on the way to his home. And maybe get one quick photo with him. We had met the Doobies road manager a few moments earlier and he quickly ushered us back without much of a wait.
What we found backstage had us dumbstruck. Instead of a hoarde of wellwishers, Julie and I basically found ourselves alone with the Doobies and only three or four other VIP's including the kid who had bought the Doobies signed guitar at the auction before the show. We walked into the room and there were my rock n' roll heroes all eating dinner. I introduced myself to Cris Simmons and then we decided to give the guys some privacy while they finished their steaks.
As we stepped out of the room back towards the stage, I spied drummer Mike Hossack and introduced myself. After explaining who I was we got into a friendly conversation about the military [he is a Vietnam Vet..Navy] and the subject of the movie "We Were Soldiers" came up [I had my WWS movie hat on]. Turns out he has seen the movie 6 or 7 times and when I told him that I would be glad to get him an autographed book and photo similar to the one I gave to Pat Simmons, he was so overjoyed he gave me his home mailing address...with instructions that he'd kill me if it got into the hands of groupies.
Mike, Julie and I walked back into the performers lounge and had a nice chat with Cris Simmons who led us over to hubby Pat with the comment, "this is Wallace, the one who's sending the WWS photos". This intitiated the start of a great talk with Pat, photos all around and my mentioning that the We Were Soldiers survivors have a reunion in Washington every year, and how would the Doobies like to attend sometime. And knock me down....but Pat said, "We'd like to try and come, when is it, let me check our schedule and please email me with the details."
While I was talking to Pat, Julie had made her way over to the groups super bass player, "Sky", a name aptly applied to the big guy. As I made my way into the conversation with him I found out that he also has a military connection, his Dad was a career Air Force NCO.
The night turning late and with the Doobies off for Ft. Worth early in the morning we decided to take our leave after another round of thank you's and autographs. Our trip home had us talking about what a great group of people these were, and I'm still agog about the experience. After being on the road for days and having just finished playing a knock down concert I wouldn't have blamed Pat, Mike, Sky or the other Doobies for being polite, saying "hi" to us and then, "sorry we gotta' go". But they stayed as long as we cared to talk. Hope I get to see them again in Washington soon. Here are some photos of the evening...Hangin' with the Doobies
Julie and me with Doobie Pat Simmons
The Doobie Brothers were in town and we were there. Wouldn't have missed it. And as you may have read several weeks ago, we were provided backstage passes by Cris Simmons, wife of co-head Doobie Pat Simmons. We wouldn't have missed it even without this special invitation.
The concert was magnificent, especially in a smaller venue which allows an upclose experience. The darkened stage was awakened by the gut wrenching rumble of a Harley and when the lights came up, there were the Doobies into the first chords of "Rockin' down the highway"
Got those highway blues, can't you hear my motor runnin', Flyin' down the road with my foot on the floor
The crowd went bonkers as they transitioned into "Jesus is just alright with me.." Non-stop hits for about 30 minutes and then somewhat of a respite as they performed some of their more recent cuts including Pat Simmons on a Hawaiian slack key guitar number and some blues. Great stuff.
The final half an hour was filled with some of their biggest hits, and as the beer and hard rock n' roll worked it's magic on the crowd people started edging towards the stage. And so did we as the time had come for us to worry about getting backstage after the frenzy. So for 15 minutes or so, we stood about 25 feet in front of the Doobies, but very near the backstage entrance.
I had prepared myself for a throng of perhaps 100 people backstage and probably just the chance to say a quick hell-o to Pat Simmons and tell him the "We Were Soldiers" photos I had sent to Cris and him were on the way to his home. And maybe get one quick photo with him. We had met the Doobies road manager a few moments earlier and he quickly ushered us back without much of a wait.
What we found backstage had us dumbstruck. Instead of a hoarde of wellwishers, Julie and I basically found ourselves alone with the Doobies and only three or four other VIP's including the kid who had bought the Doobies signed guitar at the auction before the show. We walked into the room and there were my rock n' roll heroes all eating dinner. I introduced myself to Cris Simmons and then we decided to give the guys some privacy while they finished their steaks.
As we stepped out of the room back towards the stage, I spied drummer Mike Hossack and introduced myself. After explaining who I was we got into a friendly conversation about the military [he is a Vietnam Vet..Navy] and the subject of the movie "We Were Soldiers" came up [I had my WWS movie hat on]. Turns out he has seen the movie 6 or 7 times and when I told him that I would be glad to get him an autographed book and photo similar to the one I gave to Pat Simmons, he was so overjoyed he gave me his home mailing address...with instructions that he'd kill me if it got into the hands of groupies.
Mike, Julie and I walked back into the performers lounge and had a nice chat with Cris Simmons who led us over to hubby Pat with the comment, "this is Wallace, the one who's sending the WWS photos". This intitiated the start of a great talk with Pat, photos all around and my mentioning that the We Were Soldiers survivors have a reunion in Washington every year, and how would the Doobies like to attend sometime. And knock me down....but Pat said, "We'd like to try and come, when is it, let me check our schedule and please email me with the details."
While I was talking to Pat, Julie had made her way over to the groups super bass player, "Sky", a name aptly applied to the big guy. As I made my way into the conversation with him I found out that he also has a military connection, his Dad was a career Air Force NCO.
The night turning late and with the Doobies off for Ft. Worth early in the morning we decided to take our leave after another round of thank you's and autographs. Our trip home had us talking about what a great group of people these were, and I'm still agog about the experience. After being on the road for days and having just finished playing a knock down concert I wouldn't have blamed Pat, Mike, Sky or the other Doobies for being polite, saying "hi" to us and then, "sorry we gotta' go". But they stayed as long as we cared to talk. Hope I get to see them again in Washington soon. Here are some photos of the evening...Hangin' with the Doobies
