Devils & Blue Dresses: My Wild Ride as a Rock and Roll Legend

for.
    The band and I toured and Megan always accompanied me. At first there was some resentment because the boys could no longer have their drinking buddy along while they continued to drink, but over time they saw the professionalism and quality performances they could turn in without having to think like a bar band.
    Back in America the same mentality existed with the band headed by Barry George. His brother, Bobby, was a great singer and performer and he sang very well, but he liked to drink before the show. The same was true of his other brother, David. Pat Harwood sometimes drank and sometimes not. This was the case with Robert Gillespie, as well. I tested these waters quite a few times with the German band and the American band until Megan threw down the gauntlet. Little by little I begrudgingly gave ground to her demands. Even when she wasn’t on the road I abstained from drinking.
    But then we began to do more casino gigs, and that was another challenge. And in the same way it was beaten back. I don’t know why I can’t just embrace her philosophy. I mean, we have four casinos in the Detroit area that I never frequent, but when I’m on the road and there is nothing else to do, so every once in awhile I believe I can win some money. God knows we can always use more of that. The costly divorce from Kimberly and having to support a growing family at the same time took its toll, given the reality that my income was so different from year to year.
    Now, because
Rite of Passage
did not ignite the public’s imagination (this had a lot to do with Uwe’s power as a label) he abandoned any future plans to record. We did continue to tour Germany, but without the advantage of fresh product. We never had fresh product in America, but I had done a parody recording for Black Market Productions about Colonel Oliver North, “Good Gollie, it’s Ollie,” on which the Paul Schaeffer Orchestra played.
    Mark Black and his partner Ed Bialak approached me about creating words and melody for sessions they had done with experimental music forms. When I received the music I was asked to integrate myself with, I thought it would be impossible. I simply couldn’t listen to it. It was different from anything I had ever heard and not like anything I would ever create on my own. But, since he was a friend, I spent day after day with the tapes until I finally discovered a way to enter into the music without changing their intentions. It was one of the most demanding and exhausting creative efforts I have ever made, and in the end it was a work of genius totally rejected by the American public.
    Phil Stemelo, an ex-Marine who helped me dress accurately for the Oliver North spoof became an investor and wrote the liner notes for the project that became
Monkey Island
. Phil was also a teacher in the Detroit public school system.
Monkey Island
waspicked up by Uwe for Germany, but because there was no promotion, it disappeared. This project also signaled the end of my relationship with Uwe. Uwe, the man who gave me a start, had a few complaints about issues of trust and honesty with me, and I held an equal amount with him. Once distrust exists in a partnership, you can kiss it goodbye. And that is what we did. Line Records was no longer my recording company.
    Eager, if not almost panicky, to continue a steady stream of new music and continue to improve as an artist, singer, and writer I approached Gert Leiser. Gert said he might be able to get me a deal with the label Engerling was on. It was an older established Eastern Bloc label run by Dr. Klaus Koch. We had a meeting and Dr. Klaus agreed to take me on for a project. We are growing together. He has managed to get my music in all the major retail outlets throughout all of Germany, East and West. He has discovered other delivery systems as well, and we are now at the point where I have given him four albums for the small but wonderful BuschFunk label.
    The first was
The Old Man Springs a Boner
. It was a collection of recordings from four different live performances on one of our tours. We had begun doing incredible shows, shows that would go for two and a half hours without intermissions. My voice was becoming stronger, the confidence in the band was stronger, and our fans were growing more appreciative. Dr. Klaus was not shy about spending money. No, it was not the standard amount prevalent at the time, but it was way more than Tessnow ever invested and it allowed me the time and