Me and the Rolling Stones

It’s got a bit crazy when you would leave a concert–Chicago as an example–we came out from the underground garage and once we hit the regular parking area, a few cars came chasing us.. we had a police motorcycle escort..(man, the amount of times I sat in a lime going over 100 while we had a police escort stopping traffic  One officer would race ahead to stop the traffic at the light, then the other  motorcycle officer would speed ahead to the next light and they would leap frog).  This time in Chicago the motorcycle officer at the light in front of us waved to us that he noticed the line of cars chasing us.. and stood by his cycle and pulled his gun and stopped that part of the chase..
Another time they chased us onto the tarmac of the airport..cops grabbed them but not after the girls attacked Mick…he did fake karate….yeah, I know where was the security then..

The heavies came about because of John Jaymes.  Chipmonck said he had a guy that  represented Chrysler and could deliver car rentals for us and help on transportation.  All Chrysler wanted was a photo of the Stones in a car at the end of the tour.  Sounded like a great deal and that’s how John got started on  infesting the organization (Sam Cutler in his new book has an interesting theory about John..the book will be out the beginning of next year..) John said he could help with our security and he delivered an intense security force…I have to say they kept us secure and that was a big deal in those days–like I have said, those were the days of teargas and overturning buses and 100 mile an hour limo chases.  (little story detour)

When I went out into the audience–I didn’t only stand backstage but would venture all over the venue to get a feel of what was gong on during the concerts. I said to the Stones that I felt they had a large fan base to count on.. there were the fans: of Mick, the lead singer with those big lips and gyrations; fans of Keith, more of the bad boy lead guitar fan; fans of Brian, the pretty boy artistically driven musician; fans of Bill Wyman, Stone faced quite intense base player (Bill got more women than everybody-mostly because he wanted to); fans of Charlie, the drummer–drummers always have their own following –(more on Charlie at some other posting as I always admired his love for his wife). I would tell them about my observations and they would say “Shut Up”, they didn’t care.
and then there was their attitude..The Rolling Stones was a job. Off the stage they were these individuals similar to any group of guys.. or girls for that matter.. With the typical dynamic.. Mick and Keith would come to me and say…Ron let’s do this..but don’t tell Bill or Brian as we just want to do it.. or Bill would come to me and say let’s do this..and don’t tell Mick.. Typical group dynamic. But when it came to their job…they all got on the stage and went to work..being the Rolling Stones.. The ability to separate the job from their lives was something else that I think led to their longevity. They never took it serious nor tried to live up to fan expectations…they didn’t pay attention to the press. The people that tried to live up to the what the fans thought and press thought, are dead or in rehab..

Why I said “get even with Ed Sullivan”: As I stated earlier, there was a few hour battle at the show as Ed and his producers did not want Mick to sing the lyrics–’let’s spend the night together’-and wanted them to be changed to ‘let’s spend sometime together’-network TV in those days did not allow anything sexual, so for hours, Mick wrestled with his artistic integrity and that of commercial success..it was very tuff, but Mick decided to go with the revised lyric. Prior to the decision as I wondered thru the rehearsal I noted a ‘covy’ of Nuns, there were about 10 of them. They were the ‘Singing Nuns’and they were doing the Ed Sullivan Show. I thought it would be great to have a picture of the Stones with the Nuns..and started to try and organize that. Seems Ed and his producers didn’t find it apropos so they tried to have me thrown out. We prevailed on my remaining and Mick sang.

When they aired the show, you couldn’t hear any of the lyrics as they seemed to have laid in a very loud audience track. It seemed to me that they didn’t trust Mick and put in the track so no one would hear either way. Really pissed us off after the long ethical fight.

Fade back into 1969, Ed’s ratings have dropped and he needed a boost for the show, so they wanted to book the Stones.. I was not that cooperative and said that the only place that we had the time to do the show was in Los Angeles, Ed filmed in NY and was prohibited from filming in LA but finally agreed and we set up a date in LA..one of his provision’s was that he was not to announce that the filming was in LA, union problem–Ed’s mind seemed to be a bit out of it and when he came on stage to greet Mick,he said ‘what to you think of Los Angeles?’ the director yelled cut and they had to redo the greeting… Six times Ed said the same thing and six times the director yelled cut and start over. Further to making the mountain come to the us, part of the revenge was having Ed pitch the album and we made him say the album title..”Let It Bleed”. Just having Ed say that balanced out the ‘spend some time together’ BS I never signed the release for the show and am waiting for it to ever air again..actually would like to see it..

I have always had a problem with dates…I don’t care about them, what is most important to me is the events. At one time I was told that we have just so much memory capability and that new memories overwrite less important ones so I immediately stopped memorizing phone numbers (technology and my cell phone help that prob). Now with that said..please excuse my chronological errors. I do appreciate the corrections as it does help with my memory..
The picture that Tom Monaster took (I connected with him last week after eons) with us at Ondine’s was after the Ed Sullivan show (it was the show where we fought with Ed about the lyrics –Let’s Spend the Night Together-Ed wanted it changed to Let’s Spend Sometime Together–when we saw the show, they had put in a loud audience applause track so you couldn’t hear what was said..I got even in ’69 when Ed needed the Stones) and it was Brian that had his hand pushed thru the glass door. We originally arrived with our limo at the stage door entrance to the theater, no one was there and it was locked. Within moments a crowd started to form around us, we decided to make a run to the front of the theater. We got to the front doors and they were locked as well. We were pounding on the doors to get let in when more fans started pushing and crushing us forward. Brian’s hand got pushed thru a glass panel and he was cut..
JIMI..was playing with the Druids at the time of Ondine’s but the times I remember most are when he was there and played solo on the small stage..It was incredible, the way he could take the guitar in any position and make music..playing it with his teeth, behind his back, over his head…that and watching James Brown live in a small club in Harlem..one of the other benefits of hanging out with Mick and Keith..
I notice there is a More Hot Rocks member here… I am in the photos inside the album jacket of More Hot Rocks.. It is a photo of me and Keith with Winchester rifles and a horse. We were in Scottsdale, Arizon.. At some point I will go into horse back riding with Keith..you should note those photos on my site..

Do not hesitate to correct what you think may be my errors.. I am posting now before the memory totally goes (I will be expanding a blog on my site..for longer stories..I have one about my battles with Bill Graham and will put some of my replies from here to there as well).
When we toured it was often the case of “this is Tuesday, what city are we in?” Every place looked the same, we drove past the same KFC, Dairy Queen, and small malls so please understand that the memories fall into that category. The Stones would perform, we would leave the show, get in our little Martin 404 charter and fly to the next city, arrive after 1 or 2 in the morning..drive to the hotel or motel, settle into the rooms and search for food.. This usually led us to the nearby greasy spoon diner (and I do mean greasy)that was the only place open where the choices were, fried chicken or chile. Crash… get up in the early afternoon and go for the sound check.. go eat dinner and do the show…leave the show, board the plane and the next city..on and on…

I haven’t read the entire articles above (I will)as usually I realize that since i was there and party to the staging and creation of the events I know more than what I can read about plus after Altamont, Rolling Stone put out a special edition, and in this edition that have pages of quotes from me…all bull shit, I never spoke to anyone from Rolling Stone–once I was put in contact with a reporter for the New York Post, Alfred G. Aronowitz. I had come across a series he was doing in January 1971 on Altamont in the NYP and there were a lot of inaccuracies in the article adn I complained to a PR woman, Candy Leigh about it. She said she knew Al and that he would want to get it right. He called me and interviewed me over the phone for about 4 hours. And the he did what the press should do–he published a new well balanced article with the actual facts.

Ok so now for a comment about Altamont. The evening before was magic the next day was tragic. From the moment we got off the helicopter it was weird – the security guard tried to take us thru the crowd to the front of the stage and a kid punched Mick. At a point in time the atmosphere was deadly, a girl next to me, got hit in the head by a thrown can and her head was bleeding terribly (that’s where I learned that head wounds were quite bloody but not as bad as they seem). I absolutely felt death about us –I was told that a tower had collapsed and about 30 people were trapped under it–after running all around the grounds it turned out to be a rumor and that shows the mind set of the people close to the stage. People 100 yards back had a great time but those around the stage felt something was wrong and it was only further exemplified by the violence. I was told that someone was stabbed and that I needed to get the Ambulance. I knew where the ambulance was but couldn’t find the driver. As I was running around screaming for the driver a policeman said that I needn’t run anymore as the guy was dead..