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

me for a few of his promotions. A genuine guy without pretense and a veteran performer.
    Jr. Walker: One of the biggest mistakes I ever made. I was opening for Jr., and being that I had too much to drink I said to him as I walked on to perform, “Pay attention, Jr. You might learn something.” He just smiled. When he came on for his show, that seventy-year-old man proceeded to kick my ass out of the state. I’ve never seen such energy from an old guy. Now I always keep my mouth shut.
    Joe Walsh: I spent time in his trailer before he went on, talking about other artists, which is typical. He is special in his approach to guitar. Ry Cooder, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Jimmy McCarty, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck. Those are his equals. It’s the same way with harmonica players. You can create a list filled with accomplished harp players, but at the end of the day you begin your list with the best. In harmonica I always start with Sonny Boy Williamson and go from there.
    Was (Not Was): Having been produced on a couple of different occasions by Don Was, it has become a much closer relationship. In fact, I performed with Was (Not Was) when they appeared in Detroit at the Majestic Theater, and it went very well. If you search, you can probably find it on YouTube. Over the years, Don has become a confidant to whom I often send my work to for criticism.
    Mary Wells: I did an oldies TV special with her. She had so many hits for Motown, but I prefer the early Mary Wells to the later Mary Wells. The “Bye Bye Baby” to the “My Guy” Mary is gone now. Dead from throat cancer.
    The Who: It is well documented that they got their first break in America by opening for me. Peter and I knew each other briefly, and it was fun being on the same bill.
    Jackie Wilson: One day my body guard, Romeo, asked if I wanted to meet Jackie Wilson. I naturally said yes. He was staying in the same hotel. We approached his door, which was partially open, and knocked. We were told to enter, and when we walked in there was Jackie in the nude on a bed with a nude woman and we conversed for maybe fifteen minutes.
    Edgar and Johnny Winter: I was introduced to these brothers on separate occasions while working with Barry Kramer.
    Stevie Wonder: I met Stevie when he was called Little Stevie Wonder and we did a television show together. He’s one of greatest chromatic harmonica players that the world will ever know. I only wish he had written all of his hits because I prefer his writing to the songs that were written for him in early days of Motown. When I was introduced to him for very first time he accidentally spit on me, but I didn’t take it personally because he was blind. His contribution to music is sizable, no doubt about it.
    The Yardbirds: This was the early days of success with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. We approached our show with them the same way we did with all of the early English acts. We saw them as someone to blow off the stage. We succeeded.
    Neil Young: I met Neil in California while he was waiting in the lobby of an agent. He sat there playing his guitar and trying out new lyrics, which I’m sure he had created to perform for the agent. We spoke briefly about nothing too important and I went in for my appointment.
    The Young Rascals: I came to know them all very well. I used to drive or fly from Detroit to Syracuse, New York just to have some of their mother’s lasagna.
    The Zombies: I played on the HippieFest tour one summer with the Zombies. It was a good show.
    That completes the national stars, for the most part but it doesn’t say anything about the thousands and thousands of other musicians I’ve performed with who never made the cut, so to speak. These are men and women who, for one reason or another, couldn’t survive the demands needed to sacrifice everything for a shot at stardom: financial responsibilities, families, health concerns. There is an endless list of demands that must be met for a shot at the big time.
    Fame in America is so perverse that you find people willing to appear for fifteen minutes on national television. They go through every sordid detail, every humiliating experience, and every dark truth they have held onto just to be able to say, “Did you see me on TV?”
    All my sordid details, humiliating experiences and dark truths are now documented for all to see in this book, but it took me much monger than fifteen minutes to survive them. It took me a lifetime. It was a