Story night,,,

Its been a scorcher of a day,   spent it all out in the sun doing hard labor shit and I am WHOOOPED!!!

But, while I was sitting here, a memory of my touring days popped up, and I thought y’all might like to hear what a cocky sumbitch I could be.

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The tour was a Gospel play.  Black cast, Black audience (mostly, occasional lighter types (especially up north,)) and three silly white boys running sound and lights,,,   And where I first learned what the word “Buckra” meant.

We’re down south, Gulf area, Louisiana, and particulary, Baton Rouge.   Holed up in a Casino for the accomadations, but several blocks from the theater, in downtown.

It’s HOT,   ITs SWAMP HUMID.

And the theater’s backstage airmovers are DOWN!!!   (I was monitor engineer, backstage in the darkness, surrounded by the amplifiers for the PA and stage system that are pumping out all sorts of heat as well.)  And I had been on the road for damn near a year at this point. (maybe six months, but third back to back tour and felt like forever,,,)  My hair is kinda long.   (and my hair is really fine but laid on THICK,,,)

I’m dyin’    Musta drank 5 gallons of water and gatorade that first night.

Next day, show call is at 7pm,,, I go wandering around looking for a barber.   (Downtown Baton Rouge,,,,)   Find one about 7 blocks from the casino,,, and walk in.

the silence was sudden, profound and DEAFENING.   I could hear the worn bearings in the only ceiling fan in the place it was so quiet, even though it was packed to standing room only for everyone to get a cut.

I stood out like a beacon bonfire on a mountain-top.

And I grabbed a number from the machine for ‘next served’ and stood my Lily -white ass right there against the nearest wall space I could find and smiled at everyone.

30 minutes,,, no AC, just that ceiling fan and finally my number was called (notably, out of order, but I wasn’t complaining,,, I think they wanted my ass out of there ASAP,,,)  I took my seat in the chair, and when the guy asked what I wanted; “set the shears to 1/4″ and take it off please.   Last night at the theater about killed me.” and that opened the conversation up.   See, the gospel play had 3 national acts involved.   Kaycee and Jo-Jo were the ‘headliners’, and this was like the biggest thing to hit Baton Rouge since Hurricane Katrina. 

Suddenly a COOL factor replaced the shock of seeing a ‘white Dood’ in the house.    And the funniest part, one of the littles in the house came over and tried to ‘rub the paint off’ my hand, thinking I was wearing a ton of make-up or something.  ROFLMAO.   Child might have been three-ish, and probably had never seen a ‘white dood’ IRL.  Everyone in that joint wanted to know if KC was as cool as he acted (sometimes) and the older crowd wanted to know if Shirley Murdock was too (YES!  Auntie Shirley was always cool as hell to me.)

I paid for the haircut, but gave the barber two free tickets as a tip.  He did a fine job, even if what I asked for was as simple as simple could be,

And it made one hell of a difference the rest of that run in Baton Rouge.   5 nights in a sweltering heat, and I had it lucky,,, I was in the dark of backstage,,, the Actors were under 100000 watts of stage lighting!!!  That stage felt like the heat lamps at BurgerKing!