Riverdale is one of the few places on the outskirts of Manhattan that really allows you the comfort of the suburbs while still being city accessible. Most of the people that move to Queens, Brooklyn and “just over the river” New Jersey with the promise of, “I’ll be in the city all the time” are never seen again. My wife and I resided here to have some sort of calmness during the storm of rock and roll. We had two afghan dogs that I walked in the morning to afford me exercise with an attitude (the dogs had the attitude). When I walked in the door after our walk, my wife greeted me with – “Bill Graham is in your office and is pissed that you are walking the dogs and not there for him “, of course I needn’t discuss the fact that my wife (ex-wife) told him I was walking the dogs.
Let’s go back a few weeks: A large package arrived at my desk at ABKCO Industries where I was continuing the illusion that the tour was being done by ABKCO so that it would not be known that I had quit and was doing the tour alone ( I had insisted that the Stones get Allen Klein’s (my uncle) permission for me to do the tour so there wouldn’t be a family problem–boy, was I naive) . This package was a press kit bestowing the life, times and experience of Bill Graham. He wanted to promote the entire tour and was preparing me for his pitch with his four inch deep press kit.
I informed Mick of Bill’s intentions and asked what they would like to do. Mick immediately answered that on no uncertain terms did he or the Stones want the ego of Bill Graham involved with the Rolling Stones. They didn’t want me to tell him no. They wanted it presented in such a way that Bill would refuse and the Stones would not be subject to his trying to convince them that he was the man for the job.
Bill was at my office due to an early arrival of his flight. To know Bill you would realize that when my wife told him that I was walking my dogs instead of being there ahead of his arrival – I had disrespected him.
How to not tell Bill no and yet have him pass—-First I began by asking if he had done anything “big”. At the time the upcoming tour would be largest of its kind and most unusual as it would be an entire package conceived by the Stones. Prior to the 1969 tour, rock and rollers played dates usually filled with the local promoters groups that he managed. The only lighting was usually a follow spot that, if you were lucky, you could contact the handler to describe lighting. A pink spotlight during certain songs. To say that Bill blew up at the mention that he had never done anything “big”, would be an understatement. Now off to this wonderful start, we talked further – I told Bill that he could do the tour…he would receive 10% of the gross proceeds….but…he could not put his name on the tour or be associated with the tour…he would be like an agent booking the dates from behind the scenes….He said, “Definitely not, I will not do the tour under these conditions.”
The next day in the New York newspapers, I read how rudely and horribly I had treated Bill Graham. Mick was right about his ego. More grief would follow at the dates we gave Bill in San Francisco and Oakland which I will recount later..