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

sidewall where his girlfriend Elizabeth was standing, pinned her up against the wall with my body and began speaking closely into her ear. I looked back and he still wasn’t rattled. Was this the famous British composure that I had vowed to prove a lie?
    I went back to the interview area more determined than ever to take control of the situation, and then the break I had been waiting for appeared. He asked me a question about my host country, Germany. Included in my thoughtful answer came blurting out a drunken attack upon the conservative nature of the government I had thus far been exposed to. If my state controlled television company and crew were now recoiling in horror, the young viewing audience, the few million still awake, turned their heads and lifted their ears. There were a few more questions, but the main image put out to the audience was one of rebellion, the backbone of pure rock ‘n’ roll.
    In spite of the fact that the band and I were totally messed up, we gave a performance that was light-years removed from the entertaining, but predictable, shows of our co-stars. The performance became known as “The Legendary Full Moon Concert.” I interacted with the audience directly, jumped into the crowd, sat with them on the floor, and sang to them. It was like the early days of Billy Lee and the Rivieras. I let them know that I was one of them, and then I went back to that place they either didn’t have the courage or ability to reach. The stage. The show took on a special beauty and only stopped when the band exhausted itself and had given everything.
    After the performance the band knew, as I did, that we had pulled off something special. Unfortunately, Tom and Uwe held a different opinion. Their input from the producers had been very negative, and Tom took me aside and began a sermon. Uwe was crushed, and Tom held me directly responsible for destroying the career of the only man in Europe who was willing to gamble on me. We made the long ride back to Hamburg in complete silence, except for the noise of the wind as it whipped through the back of the car while I held my penis out to piss on the Autobahn.
    Two days later, as I sat in my hotel room waiting for my plane ticket to become useful, I was summoned to a meeting with Tom and Uwe. To my surprise they were very friendly and wanted bygones to be bygones. As if by magic they received wonderful feedback about the show from the young audience, and lots of orders were coming in for my recordings. All of a sudden I was a good guy again. The news of our breakthrough provided a building block for my new career in Europe, and more specificallyin Germany, because during the show it was a young German boy I had chosen to teach me to say, “Was ist das?”
    Using Uwe’s connections and guidance, my future European career would be split into two homes and spheres of influence. For years I operated out of Hamburg, and then out of Berlin. Uwe gave me the best he could give, and hooked me up with one of the bigger booking agents in Germany, Karsten Janke. Unfortunately, I think they usually booked shows for more cultured and civilized artists then they did for someone like me.
    At one point Uwe was a friend. He is a big part of my life today for something he did many years ago, but he is also bitter and feels betrayed. He need not feel that way. In the end, my story with Line Records is very close to the relationship I have with BuschFunk out of Berlin. These are not major labels in Germany, and if we get a hit it will be because the song I create will be so strong that humanity itself cannot deny the rightful place it has in music.
    The long flight home and the hassle at customs, where they marveled at the odd collection of drinking glasses, posters, ashtrays, etcetera, did nothing to dampen our spirits, and for the next few weeks, at all of our little haunts and bars in Detroit, the story of our triumph and the magic of Germany was repeated over and over again to whomever would listen.

Chapter 26
     
    T HE BAND NOW HAD SOMETHING TANGIBLE to hold onto. We were something new and quite different for the Germans, and we also welcomed the change. The days and nights in Hamburg allowed everyone to meet and make new friends, which was important because we would come back many times, due to our success. Most of my time was meant for meetings and interviews and the usual formula, but the band was cultivating lasting and meaningful friendships and relationships with