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

TV, and they could benefit from the many different camera angles, close-ups, controlled sound, and pre-show interviews with the artists.
    Kimberly and I were thrilled to be asked to join the celebration and became very anxious while putting together our travel plans and preparing for our journey. Kimberly’s parents, Russ and Dora, saw us, along with my band, off at the international terminal in Romulus, Michigan, a place I hadn’t seen in many years, and the excitement was barely controllable. Russ and Dora were happy for us, because they could see the happiness in Kimberly’s face and they knew exactly how hard it had been for us since my return to music.
    I must admit it was a big boost to my self-esteem and I settled into my seat on the plane and entered into the land of make-believe. As the plane approached Germany, all I could do was stare out the window and watch the landscape and houses as they became larger and closer. There was nothing to say, because no one in the band had slept. Instead, we all spent the entire night talking and dreaming of the coming adventure.
    As we left the plane and cleared our luggage we were greeted by Uwe, Jorgun the journalist, and Peter Bruning, who was on Uwe’s staff in promotion and public relations. It was strange to compare what I was actually witnessing with the American thought of stereotyped, goose-stepping Nazis hiding behind every wall and around every corner. One thing that was true was the presence of police armed with fully automatic weapons patrolling the airport. Terrorism was already a mainstay in Europe, although it would be decades before our country would come to that.
    This was the beginning of an education that left me bewildered and angry at the great bias that existed in my country toward a Germany that had nothing in common with what we Americans had been taught. It also opened up the forbidden question of who was responsible for such a great misrepresentation of the facts.
    Kimberly and I spent our first day in Hamburg before we headed down to Essen. Unfortunately, our curiosity led us to explore when we should have been resting, and our spirit of adventure carried well into the night until sheer exhaustion forced us to sleep.
    Upon arriving in the Koln/Essen area, we were taken to our rooms and we unpacked. It was always an adventure, sharing a hotel room with Kimberly, because I had to wait to see just how much space was left for my belongings and me. In that way I think Kim was a typical woman traveler. I also think younger people don’t concern themselves with so many necessary personal items. I absolutely know that most European women use much less cosmetic junk than American women; and as a result they have a more natural beauty about them. I wonder if it has to do with having so much less after the war.
    Next we were off to meet the press and the
burgermeister
(mayor) and be officially welcomed to Essen. For a fall afternoon it was unseasonably warm, and we ate an afternoon lunch in a charming outdoor café. Uncle George had mentioned many times the brilliance behind the making of German beers. Most cities and many towns in Germany have their own special breweries and their own local beer. At least that was the case in 1978.
    German beers go back centuries, and are brewed much the same way they were in the beginning, with all natural ingredients, no preservatives and, as with most liquid refreshment at that time, served at room temperature. One of our hosts told us that many Germans believed cold drinks were an unnecessary shock to the human body’s system. We sat down and enjoyed some of the best beer we had ever tasted in our lives. McDonald’s, the burger champ, had just launched two or three restaurants in Germany. One was in a rebuilt, bombed out, church. They served beer on the menu and you didn’t have to be a certain age to buy it.
    My uncle had also told me that Germans believed if you let the young experience alcohol at an early age they would not crave it as a forbidden fruit. There were many cultural things that would, year-by-year, as America’s corporate hold on Germany strengthened, disappear and then quickly reappear as American. Free enterprise. That is what had brought me here.
    Having started the afternoon with an incredible buzz we went on to the venue for our sound check and some promotional events with the other artists. The mood of the band was good, and things went quickly. We then went to a scheduling meeting