September 6, 2023 • 42 mins
The Stones enjoy a night on the town to distract themselves from fears that the Hell's Angels are plotting to assassinate Mick Jagger as revenge for the disaster at Altamont. While the band blows off steam and revels in the royal treatment, the STP support squad struggle to navigate the peculiar politics of being perpetually fame-adjacent. As they scramble to maintain their place in the tour pecking order, they simultaneously strive to take every precaution against nefarious plots. The Stones survive, but they receive a scary reminder that they can't escape the past quite so easily.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stone's Touring Party is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome Back to San Francisco. It's June nineteen seventy two.
The Rolling Stones have just touched down to perform the
first gigs there in three years. The city had been
the American epicenter of all that was vibrant and hopeful
in the sixties, drawing the young and adventurous to its
streets with the promise of a new way of living,
a more compassionate way, a more humane way, a better way.
(00:33):
Music played an integral part in this consciousness shift. Everyone
who was there knew it, and if you weren't there, man,
you should have been. There was still magic at the
(00:53):
edge of the Western world. Then a good concert would
get people out of their cubbies, where they'd been holed
up for days watching that record go round, getting off
on love or the airplane or the Dead, so very
high that it took a full day to get it
together enough to actually venture out into the city, where
you had to deal with concrete realities like traffic lights
(01:15):
and telephone poles. Freaks didn't known TVs then they collected albums.
If you close your eyes behind Steve Winwood singing forty
thousand head Men or David Crosby's Gwenevere. You could see
all the pictures you wanted. So it was worth all
the paranoia associated with going into the city on the
off chance that it would come together at the concert,
(01:36):
because if it did and the band was right and
the floor wasn't too crowded, there was room inside the
music for everyone, enough space between each bending, soaring electric
note for the whole audience to get together. Even though
you were doing no more than dancing in front of
the amps or passing a joint to a guy next
to you whom you've never seen before, you were part
(01:56):
of the feeling. No one was there just to see
the band. The stage was merely a convenience for those
who were interested in watching. Everyone was there to be
with everyone else, the great Us, all right there, just
hanging out. Incredible things happened, as a matter of course,
and all of it had to do with the mystical
electric energy that the band on stage was pouring out
(02:19):
and that the audience was feeding back. Those words come
courtesy of Robert Greenfield, the legendary rock journalist, served as
the dedicated Stones correspondent for Rolling Stone magazine as a
twenty something in the early seventies. He was there with
the band when they touched down in San Francisco in
(02:40):
nineteen seventy two. By then, the sixties were well and
truly over, both literally and figuratively. It had been five
years since the Summer of Love, that semi mythical micro
era that stretched well beyond a season. No one could
be sure when it began, but most agreed that it ended.
On December sixth, nineteen sixty nine. This was the last
(03:03):
time the Rolling Stones played in the Bay Area, at
a speedway called Altamont. The concert left countless injured and
four people dead, including a young man named Meredith Hunter,
who was stabbed to death by members of the Hell's
Angels motorcycle club. It went down just feet from the
stage while the band played on. Now three years later,
(03:25):
the Stones intended to make it up to San Franciscan's
for the death and destruction they had left in their wake,
but the Hell's Angels were less likely to forgive. They
blamed the Stones for the disaster at Altamont and the
lengthy legal fallout that followed. Word on the street was
the Angels aimed to take their revenge in the form
of Mick Jagger's head. No one was sure if the
(03:46):
rumors were true, but the Stones arrived in the city
scared for their lives. They said as much in interviews
with Robert Greenfield. Now, for the first time, he's sharing
his tape archive, allowing us to sit in on intimate
chats with the Stones in their prime. These tapes have
(04:09):
gone unheard for half a century. Greenfield will also be
joined by his friend and fellow STP tour mate Gary Stromberg,
the Stones pr Suprimo. Who's represented a whole jukebox of
the twentieth century's greatest artists. My name's Jordan Runtog and
this is the Stones touring Party. After touching down in
(04:35):
San Francisco, the Rolling Stones and the assorted cast of
thousands check in at the Miaco, a beautiful boutique hotel
a short drive from the concert venue, boasting green tile
bath tubs with packets of crystals that turn the water
different colors. It's definitely a step up from the previous
hotels on the tour. The elegant lobby is crammed with
(04:55):
endless suitcases and trunks, each with a unique number affixed
to the side with the yellow tape to identify the owner.
But the man with suitcase number one, Mick Jagger, has
a problem. He doesn't like the accommodations. It's dreary, he
tells the STP Tactical Squad. He doesn't look mad, just disappointed.
(05:16):
You can't open a window, he moans, it's suffocating. This
was partially by design for safety reasons. The Stones are
sequestered in their own building, a long and low barracks
like structure with all kinds of separate entrances that lock.
It's perfect for security, but the views leave something to
be desired. Jagger misses that essential vista the bridge, the bay,
(05:39):
the sails, and the sky. For the STP tax squad,
this is a full scale disaster, and they run in
circles to make it right. Some plays frantic calls to
Marin County real estate agents in search of rapid rentals.
Others make quick inspections of more regal hotels downtown. All
this angst in activity results from the whims of one man.
(06:02):
It reminded Robert Greenfield of a highly influential magazine profile
a fellow writer.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Gay Talise, great journalist. His iconic piece about Frank Sinatra
and Esquire, which was mind blowing. The lead is Frank
Sinatra has a cold, and you see that lead all
the time now, But it's about how Frank Mick, same guy, right,
having a cold impacted all of these people. It's the
(06:30):
imperial command that we are not amused. I mean, anything
you say will be taken to task.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Lest you think he's a total diva. It's important to
say that Mick was very aware of his outsized role
in the STP hierarchy and his effect on people in general.
By his mere presence, he changes any event that he's
involved in. It isn't always fun. In fact, it rarely is.
It's deeply unnatural to have your every desire often muttered
(06:59):
in the moment as a passing thought. Take it as
a direct order by a crew of producers. It might
sound awesome, but in practice the responsibility can be crushing.
As a result, Nick took an almost paternal perspective during
the STP tour. Here he is talking about it in
nineteen seventy two, courtesy of our friends at the Northwestern
(07:19):
University Archives.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
I mean a couse. Once on the road and being
in the band was responsible to the band, which is really, really.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Really limiting as well.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
Then you're married to them all.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
And responsible for them all as well, their health well being.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
What you do affects them.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
If you step off the line and it affects everyone else.
If you decide to take a year off, it affects
everyone else. If you decide to take three months off,
it affects everyone else. In your conscious side, yeah, I am.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Once Mick realizes the stress storm he's unleashed among the
STP tactical squad, he immediately begins to walk it back.
Let's stay. He says, it's not so bad as all that.
Greenfield and Gary Stromberg in sys that Mick wasn't unreasonable.
Despite his vaulted status.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Jagger could always rein himself in. He was not imperious,
He was never over the top. He wasn't that difficult.
Considering the level of fame, talent, and stardom. He was
not difficult.
Speaker 7 (08:19):
He didn't make any mistakes. He was always in control,
never made mistakes. Keith Wood was walking, yeah, he was
just a walking blunder. But Jagger was always in control.
Even when he was loaded, he was always in control.
He wouldn't make a mistake.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
As they settled in the rooms, the Stones were visited
by promoter extraordinaire Bill Graham, godfather of the San Francisco
music scene. Bill had Laspin heard from publicly calling Mick
the Sea word in the pages of Rolling Stone Magazine
following the fallout at Altamont and a less than smooth
gig they'd played for him in Oakland around that same time.
(09:00):
Unpleasantries have been exchanged on both sides, but now that
they were again bonded by business interests, it was time
to bury the hatchet. Mick walks straight up to Bill,
extends a hand and greets him warmly. Bill accepts this
as a tacit apology and responds in kind, After all,
he hadn't exactly been mister congeniality. Bill Graham is often
(09:21):
the first to admit that sometimes there's no bigger jerk
than Bill Graham, and the Stones also know they weren't faultless.
The nineteen sixty nine tor had been their first trek
across America since the mid sixties. The live music game
had advanced by light years in that period, and the
Stones's logistics were a shambles. Altamot was just the most
obvious result of that, as far as Keith Richards was concerned,
(09:45):
no wonder they pissed off Bill Graham.
Speaker 8 (09:49):
I mean, he's got on very well with him as
he works as are, and he knows we do, you know,
and he knows that we were that much more vulnerable
in sixty nine because such crappy organization, you know, our
fault really, I mean basically because it was our organization,
you know. But we hadn't toured since the semi buffered this,
(10:09):
you know, and things have changed a lot in those
three years, and we had to find out, you know,
And there's only one way to do it, and that
was the way you went in the first way. You
just have to go there and do it and find out,
you know.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
More importantly, Bill Graham is one of the few trustworthy
figures in an industry filled with hustlers and charlatan's. As
the Stones basis, Bill Wyman was quick to point out
the band knew a thing or two about those.
Speaker 9 (10:35):
They don't play fair, they don't play straight, and there's
very few people that are fairing straight in the music
industry that can get on very well have a good name.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
They all screw you.
Speaker 9 (10:43):
Everybody they all screw you for the extra ten dollars,
the extra fifty dollars, which fucked up their whole scene
with that artist and gives them a bad name. And
then somebody else comes along and just joined up for them,
and it goes on from there, and it happens all
the time, and I just can't understand it.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
In addition to being honest, he treated bands with respect.
That alone made him a unicorn in music circles. Besides,
the guy had class. The shows he produced had an
unparalleled sense of style and gravitas. He made rock and
roll professional. And that's not an insult.
Speaker 10 (11:18):
I've used a very simple knowledge of many years in
my relationship.
Speaker 11 (11:22):
To an artist.
Speaker 10 (11:22):
You get two filets the exact same way, season, the
same way. You put one on a picker plate with
plastic book and the other one a piece of china
with my silver, the same piece of stake. Somehow, Basico,
I made it a point to always be friendly with
all of them, but never to say, never to give
them the feeling that I thought, well, I'm the producer,
I have a right to thread red with you. I'm
the producer. I have a right to coming addressing Hey,
(11:43):
I know I'm Bill Ram but I know they're rolling stones.
I don't know what that means to anybody else. It
does because I have self respect and I think we're
good at what we do.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
With a handshake, the bad blood's gone, the past is erased.
Now there's only the future. Like what to do that night? Bill,
what's going on in town? Mick asks him. So, there's
some good soul music on somewhere, but Bill's got bad news.
It's Monday. The town's dead. Come on, Bill, Mick teases,
(12:16):
this is your town. Let's get out and do something.
Finding himself in the unenviable position of being put on
the spot by his headliner, Bill places a quick call
to Frank Werber. Frank runs The Trident, a sacelito hotspot
famed for innovative, gustatorial offerings like sashimi, espresso and a
full juice bar, and its staff were just as famous.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
The tried and had the most beautiful waitresses and a planet.
Frank Werber, the former manager of the Kingston Trio, also
was a marijuana smuggler.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
He ran it.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
It was the hippest place to eat in marin He
knew how to cater to a vand like no one.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Like the rest of the city, the Tridents traditionally closed on.
Further complicating matters is the fact that Werber's currently serving
a prison sentence for a potbust, but he's out on
furlough and willing to do everything he can to open
his restaurant just for Bill and the Boys. And so
it's settled. The Rolling Stones are going to dinner. But
(13:18):
this isn't like any dinner you've ever been to. You
better get ready. A private dinner for the Rolling Stones
at the Bay Area's best restaurant may sound ideal, but
it provides a unique set of emotional stressors for the
(13:40):
SDP support staff. To understand, you have to consider the
unique politics of being around the band. If you yourself
aren't famous, competition to get close to them is fierce,
and to stay close is even fiercer. It's like a
gabe of musical chairs with junkie level intensity. Proximity to
the Stones. This is a drug, and the drug is
(14:01):
in short supply. If you don't move fast, you'll lose out.
As Robert Greenfield writes in STP, getting close to the
Stones is like getting to see God and sleep with
your favorite movie star At the same time, a milage
of nervous emotions, both sacred and profane. There's no sure
sign that your STP credits slipped than getting shut out
(14:22):
of a limo with one of the principal players. Hey man,
try the next car down. We're full up. Yeah, I'm
sure there's room back there. Devastating high paranoia time, lots
of eye games. People are so intent on maintaining their
own position close to the action that they're afraid to
look at untouchable in the face for fear of contagion.
(14:45):
Greenfield discussed this phenomenon with Charlie Watts back in nineteen
seventy two. Here he is courtesy of the Northwestern University Archives.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
There's a competition to be with the guys who are
in the band?
Speaker 12 (15:00):
Is it feeling that I like, if i'm if we
go out to eat, you know, what did you do?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I went out there with Charlie.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Oh you know, you did something, whereas it.
Speaker 11 (15:06):
We went out to eat with any next toys.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Wouldn't be the same, Yeah, you know, which I thought
was really strange.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
You know, like if I ride with Keith in the
first limousine and so oh far out, you know, if
I who sits next to who in the plane, And
it's something I always felt. There wasn't like just people
sitting with each other.
Speaker 10 (15:19):
There was always always never coach a.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Lot of games.
Speaker 11 (15:22):
I just played a lot as always there's always games.
He's been up with the Rolling Stone though, Fish, I
mean the magazine. You know, there's always games, and I say,
you say you're gonna play them or what you're gonna
do to them?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Like a royal court. The pecking order was constantly shifting.
Eventually you just learned to live with it and take
it day by day.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
It kind of sorted itself out.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Keith and Mick always were separate, you know, and there
were the little subgroups, like if we were in a limo,
would I'd be with Gary Chris O'Dell and Joe Bergman.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
We were in the support group.
Speaker 7 (15:56):
The artists to seem to know who they wanted to
hang out with. I think was whoever you were with
in the moment, especially with Keith. I think anybody that
you if you weren't getting high with Keith that day
you were you were in the limo with him.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
It was also how amusing you were.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
I was always conscious to this, if you were funny
and if you made Keith laugh then he would want
to hang out.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
In the moment.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Yeah, I always in the moment.
Speaker 7 (16:18):
Whatever was worked in the moment.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
But you didn't have to get high to be with Keith.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Just like if you hit it with a funny line
or said so, you could say anything to him like
what are you what the fuck are you doing?
Speaker 5 (16:28):
And he got it. You know, he thought that was cool. Right.
They wouldn't say that to Mick. So never.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Spending extended periods around a famous person is a funny thing.
After a while, they stopped being walking magazines or breathing
album covers and just become another person. When or if
this happens depends on the celebrity. But Gary Stromberg was
surprised at how quickly the Rolling Stones became just the
guys for me.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
At first, I was very tent about my place and
this thing. But they were very easy for me to
deal with, especially Keith. Keith just you know, if you
like Bob said you said something funny, he was you
were in. And if he liked you, you were in.
I just felt very easy around him. Mick I was
always a little bit cautious about not that he was
(17:18):
moody or anything. But he was just reserved and you
just just felt that there were lines that you didn't
cross with him.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Despite months on the road and untold more working with
him as his pr rep Gary Stromberg never felt like
he truly got to know Mick in the way that
he did Keith and the rest of the band.
Speaker 7 (17:37):
Jagger always maintained a distance. You could get only so
far into who him as his personality and really what
drove him, but no further. He never revealed the real
personal stuff. He's very guarded. He's just in control. I mean,
he's probably very very good at it to give them
(18:00):
depression that you're seeing the real Jagger, but he'll only
let you go so far.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Even Charlie Watts, one of just a handful of people
who share the full scope of the Stones experience, would
admit that Mick was sometimes hard to get a handle on.
Speaker 11 (18:15):
A bit of an enigma, isn't he?
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Heyah, are you sure?
Speaker 11 (18:18):
He is an enigmas difficult? And I love him, you know,
I like him an awful lot. I do. I do
like him awful. I respect him a lot of well,
part ben I respect him as far further than being
a performer, and I respect his words.
Speaker 6 (18:35):
And I don't think he's written well and talking to aid.
Speaker 11 (18:39):
I respect him a great deal.
Speaker 7 (18:40):
I do a lot.
Speaker 11 (18:41):
But I also know the thing that people go through
when they see him. For some reason, I think I'm
more pressed than he is.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Well, if you understand why it's himin are you?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
And why it is that miss a.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Better looking point.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
As a fleet of limos took off in the direction
of Sacelito, the weight staff at the trident or ready
ing the premises, pushing tables together and generally getting loose
so that when the stones arrive it'll.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
All be really mellow.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
You see, getting loose so that things will be mellow,
or key concepts in Marin County in nineteen seventy two.
As the evening wears on, the staff start to wonder, Wow,
are they really coming? Will they show? I wonder wow?
Could they? Do you think? By the time the lights
of the small fleet of limos appear on the bridgeway
(19:36):
and turn down the hill in the Saucelito, the expectation
in the room is nyon mannic. Then suddenly a voice
cries out, it's them, They're coming, and everyone freezes right
where they are Luckily they shake themselves out of it.
By the time the Stones enter, Jagger surveys the scene
and grins. He knows it's going to be one of
(19:56):
those nights. San Francisco as a reputation for loose, laid
back mellow, and it was all for him, recall the
mere hours before They'll tried. It was scheduled to be
closed this night. But as it's been well established, the
universe bends around the Stones. No matter what they did,
(20:18):
they played by their own unique set of rules, even
something as simple as going out to dinner. It's a
completely different experience to anything a normal human would recognize.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Much like the Queen. You do not carry any money
or need any money. You never have money. You don't
have a wallet, you don't have a driver's license. I
don't know if you pack your own bag.
Speaker 7 (20:42):
No, you don't do any of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I never saw it.
Speaker 7 (20:45):
You never seen any of the Stones with money at all,
because they never needed money.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
We would go into restaurants and I'd be sitting at
the same table with Charlie and Mick, and they a human,
they got to eat. They never ordered anything that was
on the menu.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Way do it?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Come over and Charles say, ah, could you make me?
And they would come up like could you have tomato
with uh?
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Maybe?
Speaker 3 (21:10):
And there was they knew who the Stones were, and
the guy be writing like a maniac, you know, and
I thought, whoa, this is the way to you, just
whatever you think. And they bring it out and will
hope you like it, you know, like guys in the
kitchen and saying, oh god, man, I never made one
of these before. They didn't have they weren't constrained by
(21:32):
the menu. Okay, so this reminded me. We went to
dinner in Saint Louis. I don't know why I remember this,
but there was a dinner party was thrown for the
Stones in Saint Louis by some promoter or some big shot,
and we had a private dining room and it was
really elegant, and elegant is not Stones.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
And they sent over the wine what do you call
theer with And he brings a presentation of this exclusive
bottle of wine and he shows it to Keith, and
Keith asks for the bottle and he takes the bottle
and he starts drinking out of the bottle and the
sumner almost fainted when he'said it.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Was Keith say a few like don't show me the label,
show me. I don't care what it is.
Speaker 7 (22:18):
Or is here to drink, not to look at.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
No glass, no true glass.
Speaker 7 (22:24):
Yeah, I know how to drink this stuff makes.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Why no total? Why know stuff?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Alcohol?
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Was there to be drunk.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
He was also taking the piss that's the English expression,
like let me see what I can do in this
situation to make it.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Absurd, making this formal.
Speaker 7 (22:40):
And we don't need all of that stuff. I don't
need a guy in tuxedo showing me a bottle and
wanting me to look at the label.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
If you're not going to pour it, I'll drink it nice.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
And speaking of alcohol, Boo's history was made this night,
June fifth, nineteen seventy two. For it was there at
the tried It and sauclid, looking out at the same
view that had inspired Otis Redding to write, sitting on
the dock of the bay that the Rolling Stones discovered
the tequila sunrise. This potent mix of orange juice, tequila,
(23:13):
and grenadine became the official beverage of The Stones nineteen
seventy two Johns across America. According to lore, the SDP
entourage passed the recipe along to every bartender they met
while on the road. Like Tipsy Johnny Appleseed's, they allowed
the drink to flourish across the United States. Hey, this
was at least a year before the Eagles song. In
(23:36):
his twenty ten memoir Life, Keith renamed the seventy two
Trek the Cocaine and Tequila Sunrise Tour Hassver He's honest
to a fault. The sidewalk outside San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom
(24:01):
is choked with kids swaddled in sleeping bags and ponchos,
thumbing through underground zines as they wait to see the Stones.
One guy I've and builds a crude lean to shed
against the wall of the venue. Bill Graham, as usual
as the consummate curmudgeon host, standing at the side door,
shouting at guests, who do you think you are? Johnny
Superstar front door? Do you understand English? Front Door? Like
(24:25):
everyone else. Despite the damage that Altamont had done to
the band's reputation among locals, San Francisco still adored the Stones.
The radio network Cason, whose air waves had previously hosted
the president of the Oakland Hell's Angels slagging off Mick
Jagger in the wake of the murder ran a ticket
giveaway for their concert at Winterland. The prize went to
(24:48):
the most imaginative answer to the question what would you
do to get a pair of Rolling Stones tickets? The
gentleman who won said, shave off all the hair on
my body and smoke it. Ticket demands being it was
the Stones could have easily filled the venue three times
the size of Winterland. In fact, the last time they
came through the Bay Area they did. But now they
(25:10):
opted for intimacy over avidity.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
They played two shows a day at Winterland, an afternoon
show and then a show at night. Okay, and this
is the greatness of Keith and Mick. Their thing was
always to go from big to small. That's what Keith
called it. So in La they played the Palladium, credible gig.
Winterland was small. Wasn't Madison Square Garden. It wasn't that,
(25:33):
you know, eighteen thousand, wasn't Seattle, Vancouver, these horrible arenas. Cold,
sound was spotty, as good as you try to make it.
They loved playing smaller venues always. Winterland was an incredible
place to see a band. There was no seating on
the floor, but there were balconies that went there a lot.
(25:54):
So Winterland was a former ice skating arena that Bill
Graham brilliantly inveigled his way into. Pete Townsend said it
was the perfect venue, the size, the sound, five thousand people,
although Bill could put a lot more in despite the fire.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
Marshals, Okay, the.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Great story about the Dead, Rock Scully is not with
us anymore. The Dead played two nights. They played one
night and Rock had his people outside with clickers, counting
how many people were coming because they knew Bill was
not giving them an honest account. Then the next night
they were like, so many more people and Rock set
to Bill, Bill, what are you doing minutes? So many
more people? He said no, He said, what are you
(26:33):
talking about now? He said, last night everybody was fat.
Tonight they're thin.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
The choice of venue was also an important gesture. Playing Winterlands,
rather than a gargantuan, antiseptic arena like the Oakland Colisseum,
was a small form of penance for the disaster at Altamont.
Though they lost money, it telegraphed San Francisco music fans, look,
we're here to do the city right but the atmosphere
(27:00):
backstage is tense, and not just because of steamed Peers
like Neil Young, Jerry Garcia and the Jefferson Airplane were
in the house. Rumors of retaliation from the Hell's Angels
have reverberated throughout the STP echo chamber for weeks, if
not months. No one's sure what's real and what isn't,
But as bassist Bill Wyman told Robert Greenfield, it was
(27:22):
never far from their minds. Oh where were you of
the angels thin equipments?
Speaker 11 (27:27):
They had ever been explained to you.
Speaker 9 (27:28):
I'd heard rumors. I hadn't been sort of personally talked
about it. I'm sure mckhay. I heard rumors that there's
a bit of travel from the angels and net to
minded all the all the money for the wires, and
it was.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Or where it came from.
Speaker 9 (27:44):
I don't know that, but I just overheard things like that.
I never got involved in the discussions about it.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Even the unflappable Charlie Watts was concerned.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
I never ever the thought of the angels, and there's
never been a big thing in my life.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
But no fear that might come at you on this too.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Yeah, of course, man, I'll tell you why. You know,
I'll tell you why because I had thoughts about it,
but I mean, oh yeah, I'll worry.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Man, I don't don't.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Fucking blown up is so much, so don't any better.
I'm one of those in the booths off, you know.
Speaker 7 (28:20):
I think that we were aware of the potential for
disruption on this tour, that things could happen. But I
think they were as well prepared as you could be
for the eventualities that would occur in terms of security.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Despite this, everyone has their own particular paranoia. Mick Taylor
was worried that hysteria sparked by just one or two
people even would sweep through the crowd like wildfire.
Speaker 12 (28:48):
I was a bit worried about it, you know, because
of what had happened before. But I felt I felt
confident that we've done our best to ensure them nothing
like that would ever happened again. You stayed because you
can be sure.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
And things like that.
Speaker 12 (29:04):
You can't control situations like that.
Speaker 13 (29:06):
When he needs a.
Speaker 12 (29:07):
Few crazy people in an audience to trigger off a
bit of panic, and it's just sprands, Dan bushfying.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Bill Graham has spent tens of thousands of dollars on
dozens of extra private cops and explicitly barred bikers from
entering his hall. He was more concerned with what would
happen after the show.
Speaker 10 (29:26):
What I did theorize is that they are bright enough
not they just storm the front. But I also theorized
that that once they got inside, they could not show
themselves or their colors, because there's enough security around. My
feeling was in a truck with circle of block, and
as the Stones left, somehow three or four of them
would get backstage. Another way would be done. It would
(29:46):
be done like a bank robbery, or a train robbery,
or a heist of some sort. I had this. I
thought maybe they would kidnap one of them or get
And this sounds crazy, but I did think about these things.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Rumors that the Stones would get kidnapped, like a perfectly
planned bank job in some foreign suspense movie seemed a
lot more likely than the rumors of them getting assassinated.
After all, Mick Jagger was worth a lot more alive.
The Hell's Angels had made it clear soon after Altamont
that a little cash would have sufficed in lieu of
(30:26):
an apology. Call it a contribution to their legal defense fund.
After all, one of their brothers, Alan Pissarro, was taken
a trial for the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter. Sure
he was acquitted, but hey, that didn't come cheap. Wasn't
it the Stones fault that they were in this jam
in the first place? And if the band wouldn't fork
(30:46):
over the cash, perhaps they could play some sort of
fundraiser with a necessary coercion. These kidnapping threats, as well
as threats of lawsuits, were taken so seriously that STP
tour manager Peter flew halfway across the country mid tour
in order to meet with Hell's Angels representatives in New
York City. Rather than a serious attempt to broke her peace,
(31:10):
it was mostly just an attempt to appease the gang
and buy time until the tour was over.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
There was no deal going to be made with the
Hell's angel They wanted money, yeah, they want It was
a shakedown.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
It was a shakedown, and Peter knew that. He knew
the litigation had no chance. It was just a hassle.
Speaker 7 (31:30):
I wish I could have seen that, though I would
have loved to see. I'm sure interaction.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I'm sure the Angels couldn't understand half of what Peter
was saying, not because they're stupid, but his accent. How
rapidly he spoke, he must have confused them.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I mean speaking to an alien.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Can I say, even now as I sit here, the
concept of the Rolling Stones doing a benefit angels? I mean,
what are we raising money for so you can buy
more drugs in motorcycles?
Speaker 5 (31:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Keith Richards was less rattled by the whole thing. He
was embarrassed by the bodyguards who accompanied them everywhere they went,
as far as he was concerned a kidnapping attempt would
be a rookie move during the tour.
Speaker 11 (32:12):
Before the tour, you were aware of any specific Cus
angel thinking about they're.
Speaker 10 (32:16):
Going to come out to the band.
Speaker 13 (32:18):
Of I had I heard about it in Texas?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Suit I don't.
Speaker 13 (32:22):
I don't see you don't by the fact, for I
think that it was just an amateur dramatics.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
So a lot of people, for Graham was they expected,
you know, had this fantasy of them coming.
Speaker 10 (32:32):
At you know, at winter Land. Obviously some people thought
it was very real and.
Speaker 13 (32:39):
There's too many cups around for those house angels to
walk into something like you know, I mean every two
and has got his The Riots Bros. Was stationed outside
of the Buck the auditorium, and so they know, no
fucking game work. It's thought it's going to walk into something.
Speaker 12 (32:57):
Like that, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
According to Mick, the vibes were bad even with the
absence of any specific threats.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
I was scared in San Francisco the.
Speaker 12 (33:09):
Angels, who were.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Not specifically no, no, I'm not the Eye Jews, but
we're just we were just kind of scared.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Assassins are no assassins. There was a show to do
to in fact, that day. Once they go on stage,
the Stones are bulletproof. The band slashes into Brown Sugar
in the Bitch, with the bass and drums coming together
like a sledgehammer. The volume is so loud that it
makes the crowd's breastbones vibrate like tuning forks, so that
(33:41):
they feel it as much as they hear it and
have to dance. Sparkles rain down off Jagger's face and hair,
and the bells on his shoes tinkles. He leaps up
and down. The set accelerates as soon as the Stones
go in The Midnight Rambler with Jagger the actor portraying Jagger.
The singer and the band providing background music for the psychodrama.
(34:02):
By the end of the set, jaggers clinging to the
tops of the amps and screaming as Keith rocks and
stumbles through by by Johnny ripping away to his guitar
with his arm fully extended. It's a move that Pete
Townsend of The Hoo first saw him do in nineteen
sixty four and promptly stole, turning it into his trademark windmill.
(34:29):
As they shift into their closer street fighting man, Mick
brings a box of rose petals on stage, kisses them,
and sprinkles them into the crowd, who show their thanks
by throwing joints right back. With that, Nick whirls around,
jumps and vanishes amid a solid wall of applause. The
(34:49):
crowd kicks and howls and whales and stomps on the floor,
demanding an encore. That the band's already gone. They felt good.
Mick Taylor, the new guy.
Speaker 10 (35:01):
In the band.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
The last time the Stones hit San Francisco, knew they
nailed it. I was sixty nine. It was literally a
new band.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
None of us have played together, and.
Speaker 12 (35:16):
We were all a bit sort of timid, and we
were feeling our way, whereas on the book, as reason
to everybody was much looser.
Speaker 9 (35:22):
More of trump.
Speaker 12 (35:25):
I always I thought the music was much better.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
One show down and three more to go. In San Francisco,
word on the street is no longer that the stones
might get killed, but that the stones already killed, and
the scalpers' prices rise accordingly. Even Bill Graham is happy.
He bestows upon them the highest honorific in his vocabulary, professionals,
(35:48):
and those are few and far between in the laid
back Bay area music scene. Here he is talking to
Robert Greenfield in nineteen seventy two courtesy of the Northwestern
University Archive, and the Stone's One time.
Speaker 10 (36:01):
Where the heroes of the revolutionary era, they are now
the heroes of people who appreciate entertainment. The point I've
harped on one way or another few years and years.
Speaker 14 (36:08):
Is there aren't enough professionals in that business. There isn't
enough for a professional attitude in our business that when
the public plays to see you, don't tell me you're
just doing your thing. Don't tell me it's like being
in your living mean, not in the living room.
Speaker 10 (36:19):
You at the avalon you at Economy Hall. If you
walk on a stage and there's somebody out there you.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
Are paid to entertain.
Speaker 10 (36:26):
You may not like the title. One of the things
that you are is that you're a professional entertainer and you, oh,
you can't say like too many musicians' attitude is hey man,
you caught me on a bed like like diggot, What.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Do you mean, biggot?
Speaker 10 (36:39):
I've saved eight dollars on a part time job or
sunny hair show or whatever to come to see you,
and I want to be entertained.
Speaker 7 (36:45):
That's what's part of life.
Speaker 10 (36:46):
There's an exchange there. And I don't want to watch
you knitting in your living room. Jagie. You want to
look at Garcia. There isn't a nicer person in rock
and roll. But hey, I don't want to look at Jerry.
You know for more than ten to fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
He ain't pretty.
Speaker 10 (36:58):
He's a great guitar player. As a dance how many
bands are greedy?
Speaker 7 (37:03):
Entertained?
Speaker 14 (37:03):
And know how? Know how?
Speaker 4 (37:06):
I don't say.
Speaker 14 (37:07):
Just as a producer.
Speaker 10 (37:07):
I were a fan and I went to a pound
to see the Rolling Stones. I said, holy shit, that's
a special Joyce location.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
I thought it was.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
The next three shows were the same story. They were
so hot that somebody called the fire department to say
that Winterland was going up in flames. Five engines arrived
with screaming sirens and flashing lights, which no doubt did
wonders for those under the influence of hallucinogenics. The Stones
had done what they'd set out to do, returned to
(37:39):
San Francisco as champions, and went over the populace. They're
whereabouts inevitably get around, and soon the lobby of the
Miaco Hotel is packed with friends, fans, and well wishers.
Bluesman John Lee Hooker even paid them a visit backstage,
singing along the Stones boogie while Keith filled in on guitar.
(37:59):
Bill throws them a party at his favorite French restaurant,
All gold and burgundy silks gathered at the ceiling and
mirrors on the wall, chilled white wine, s cargo guilt
and continental service the best. They're still riding high when
they climb aboard their private jet due for their next
(38:20):
porter call, Los Angeles. As they took their seats, a
beautiful woman in hot pants talks her way to the
cabin door for probably not the first time nor the
last time on this door. Gee, she says sweetly, could
I ask the band for an autograph for my daughter?
She loves them, so the woman oozes, sunny California goodness.
(38:43):
How could they resist? They invite her aboard. She makes
a bee line for the obvious choice. Are you Mick Jagger?
She asks breathily. He nods yes with a grin. Then
her smile falls. She pulls a stack of papers out
of her back and shoves them under his nose. I'm
here by serving you, Michael Phillip Jagger with the following.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
He thought she was coming on to him or something,
and then she hit him with the subpoenas having to
do with the Hell's Angels litigation against Jagger for Altamont,
And that was a shock that somebody could get access
to serve him. I just have this memory of when
he got served. It was a sheaf of legal papers
and I remember them blowing out of his hand and
(39:28):
flying all over the airport because he couldn't care less.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
The sweet lady is instantly ejected from the aircraft, rocketing
unsteadily down the stairs with cries of he hit me,
he hit me. The son of a bitch hit me.
Keith follows behind her, standing in the doorway with a
stack of legal summons, which he scatters along the tarmac
with a wave of his hand. This is problem solving
(39:52):
rolling Stone style. Alan Passaro, the Hell's Angel acquitted for
the murder of Meredith Hunter at Altamont, was found dead
in a California reservoir in nineteen eighty five. His pockets
were filled with ten thousand dollars in cash. Because of
death was suspicious, but the case was never solved. Interestingly,
(40:15):
just a few years before, in nineteen seventy nine, the
Angels finally mounted their decade delayed attempt to assassinate Mick Jagger.
It failed spectacularly. The plan was to attack Mike while
he vacationed in Montauk Long Island, where he was staying
in a rented beach house belonging to Andy Warhol. The
(40:36):
plot involved assembling a death squad, hiring a boat, and
invading from the water like Navy seals. They would then
detonate bombs they'd set around the perimeter of the house.
The scheme was doomed from the outset when their boat
got caught in a storm and capsized. The water logged
angels barely made it back to shore without drowning. After that,
(40:58):
they gave up on the whole rev mission against Mick
and vowed not to speak of it again. Mick himself
didn't find out about this attempt until almost thirty years later,
in two thousand and eight. It was a strange, albeit
valuable lesson for the Stones and their associates. Escaping the
past would never be easy. Stone's Touring Party was written
(41:39):
and hosted by Jordan.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Runtalk Co Executive produced by Noel Brown and Jordan Runtime,
edited in sound design by Noel Brown and Michael Alder June.
Original music composed and performed by Michael Alder June and
Noel Brown, with additional instrument performed by Chris Suarez, Nick
Johns Cooper, and Josh Thain.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Vintage Rolling Stones audio.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Courtesy of the Robert Greenfield Archives, the Charles during McCormick Library,
and special collections in Northwestern University Libraries. Stone Sturing Times
a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
(42:19):
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
favorite shows.
Stone's Touring Party is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome Back to San Francisco. It's June nineteen seventy two.
The Rolling Stones have just touched down to perform the
first gigs there in three years. The city had been
the American epicenter of all that was vibrant and hopeful
in the sixties, drawing the young and adventurous to its
streets with the promise of a new way of living,
a more compassionate way, a more humane way, a better way.
(00:33):
Music played an integral part in this consciousness shift. Everyone
who was there knew it, and if you weren't there, man,
you should have been. There was still magic at the
(00:53):
edge of the Western world. Then a good concert would
get people out of their cubbies, where they'd been holed
up for days watching that record go round, getting off
on love or the airplane or the Dead, so very
high that it took a full day to get it
together enough to actually venture out into the city, where
you had to deal with concrete realities like traffic lights
(01:15):
and telephone poles. Freaks didn't known TVs then they collected albums.
If you close your eyes behind Steve Winwood singing forty
thousand head Men or David Crosby's Gwenevere. You could see
all the pictures you wanted. So it was worth all
the paranoia associated with going into the city on the
off chance that it would come together at the concert,
(01:36):
because if it did and the band was right and
the floor wasn't too crowded, there was room inside the
music for everyone, enough space between each bending, soaring electric
note for the whole audience to get together. Even though
you were doing no more than dancing in front of
the amps or passing a joint to a guy next
to you whom you've never seen before, you were part
(01:56):
of the feeling. No one was there just to see
the band. The stage was merely a convenience for those
who were interested in watching. Everyone was there to be
with everyone else, the great Us, all right there, just
hanging out. Incredible things happened, as a matter of course,
and all of it had to do with the mystical
electric energy that the band on stage was pouring out
(02:19):
and that the audience was feeding back. Those words come
courtesy of Robert Greenfield, the legendary rock journalist, served as
the dedicated Stones correspondent for Rolling Stone magazine as a
twenty something in the early seventies. He was there with
the band when they touched down in San Francisco in
(02:40):
nineteen seventy two. By then, the sixties were well and
truly over, both literally and figuratively. It had been five
years since the Summer of Love, that semi mythical micro
era that stretched well beyond a season. No one could
be sure when it began, but most agreed that it ended.
On December sixth, nineteen sixty nine. This was the last
(03:03):
time the Rolling Stones played in the Bay Area, at
a speedway called Altamont. The concert left countless injured and
four people dead, including a young man named Meredith Hunter,
who was stabbed to death by members of the Hell's
Angels motorcycle club. It went down just feet from the
stage while the band played on. Now three years later,
(03:25):
the Stones intended to make it up to San Franciscan's
for the death and destruction they had left in their wake,
but the Hell's Angels were less likely to forgive. They
blamed the Stones for the disaster at Altamont and the
lengthy legal fallout that followed. Word on the street was
the Angels aimed to take their revenge in the form
of Mick Jagger's head. No one was sure if the
(03:46):
rumors were true, but the Stones arrived in the city
scared for their lives. They said as much in interviews
with Robert Greenfield. Now, for the first time, he's sharing
his tape archive, allowing us to sit in on intimate
chats with the Stones in their prime. These tapes have
(04:09):
gone unheard for half a century. Greenfield will also be
joined by his friend and fellow STP tour mate Gary Stromberg,
the Stones pr Suprimo. Who's represented a whole jukebox of
the twentieth century's greatest artists. My name's Jordan Runtog and
this is the Stones touring Party. After touching down in
(04:35):
San Francisco, the Rolling Stones and the assorted cast of
thousands check in at the Miaco, a beautiful boutique hotel
a short drive from the concert venue, boasting green tile
bath tubs with packets of crystals that turn the water
different colors. It's definitely a step up from the previous
hotels on the tour. The elegant lobby is crammed with
(04:55):
endless suitcases and trunks, each with a unique number affixed
to the side with the yellow tape to identify the owner.
But the man with suitcase number one, Mick Jagger, has
a problem. He doesn't like the accommodations. It's dreary, he
tells the STP Tactical Squad. He doesn't look mad, just disappointed.
(05:16):
You can't open a window, he moans, it's suffocating. This
was partially by design for safety reasons. The Stones are
sequestered in their own building, a long and low barracks
like structure with all kinds of separate entrances that lock.
It's perfect for security, but the views leave something to
be desired. Jagger misses that essential vista the bridge, the bay,
(05:39):
the sails, and the sky. For the STP tax squad,
this is a full scale disaster, and they run in
circles to make it right. Some plays frantic calls to
Marin County real estate agents in search of rapid rentals.
Others make quick inspections of more regal hotels downtown. All
this angst in activity results from the whims of one man.
(06:02):
It reminded Robert Greenfield of a highly influential magazine profile
a fellow writer.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Gay Talise, great journalist. His iconic piece about Frank Sinatra
and Esquire, which was mind blowing. The lead is Frank
Sinatra has a cold, and you see that lead all
the time now, But it's about how Frank Mick, same guy, right,
having a cold impacted all of these people. It's the
(06:30):
imperial command that we are not amused. I mean, anything
you say will be taken to task.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Lest you think he's a total diva. It's important to
say that Mick was very aware of his outsized role
in the STP hierarchy and his effect on people in general.
By his mere presence, he changes any event that he's
involved in. It isn't always fun. In fact, it rarely is.
It's deeply unnatural to have your every desire often muttered
(06:59):
in the moment as a passing thought. Take it as
a direct order by a crew of producers. It might
sound awesome, but in practice the responsibility can be crushing.
As a result, Nick took an almost paternal perspective during
the STP tour. Here he is talking about it in
nineteen seventy two, courtesy of our friends at the Northwestern
(07:19):
University Archives.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
I mean a couse. Once on the road and being
in the band was responsible to the band, which is really, really.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Really limiting as well.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
Then you're married to them all.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
And responsible for them all as well, their health well being.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
What you do affects them.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
If you step off the line and it affects everyone else.
If you decide to take a year off, it affects
everyone else. If you decide to take three months off,
it affects everyone else. In your conscious side, yeah, I am.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Once Mick realizes the stress storm he's unleashed among the
STP tactical squad, he immediately begins to walk it back.
Let's stay. He says, it's not so bad as all that.
Greenfield and Gary Stromberg in sys that Mick wasn't unreasonable.
Despite his vaulted status.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Jagger could always rein himself in. He was not imperious,
He was never over the top. He wasn't that difficult.
Considering the level of fame, talent, and stardom. He was
not difficult.
Speaker 7 (08:19):
He didn't make any mistakes. He was always in control,
never made mistakes. Keith Wood was walking, yeah, he was
just a walking blunder. But Jagger was always in control.
Even when he was loaded, he was always in control.
He wouldn't make a mistake.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
As they settled in the rooms, the Stones were visited
by promoter extraordinaire Bill Graham, godfather of the San Francisco
music scene. Bill had Laspin heard from publicly calling Mick
the Sea word in the pages of Rolling Stone Magazine
following the fallout at Altamont and a less than smooth
gig they'd played for him in Oakland around that same time.
(09:00):
Unpleasantries have been exchanged on both sides, but now that
they were again bonded by business interests, it was time
to bury the hatchet. Mick walks straight up to Bill,
extends a hand and greets him warmly. Bill accepts this
as a tacit apology and responds in kind, After all,
he hadn't exactly been mister congeniality. Bill Graham is often
(09:21):
the first to admit that sometimes there's no bigger jerk
than Bill Graham, and the Stones also know they weren't faultless.
The nineteen sixty nine tor had been their first trek
across America since the mid sixties. The live music game
had advanced by light years in that period, and the
Stones's logistics were a shambles. Altamot was just the most
obvious result of that, as far as Keith Richards was concerned,
(09:45):
no wonder they pissed off Bill Graham.
Speaker 8 (09:49):
I mean, he's got on very well with him as
he works as are, and he knows we do, you know,
and he knows that we were that much more vulnerable
in sixty nine because such crappy organization, you know, our
fault really, I mean basically because it was our organization,
you know. But we hadn't toured since the semi buffered this,
(10:09):
you know, and things have changed a lot in those
three years, and we had to find out, you know,
And there's only one way to do it, and that
was the way you went in the first way. You
just have to go there and do it and find out,
you know.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
More importantly, Bill Graham is one of the few trustworthy
figures in an industry filled with hustlers and charlatan's. As
the Stones basis, Bill Wyman was quick to point out
the band knew a thing or two about those.
Speaker 9 (10:35):
They don't play fair, they don't play straight, and there's
very few people that are fairing straight in the music
industry that can get on very well have a good name.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
They all screw you.
Speaker 9 (10:43):
Everybody they all screw you for the extra ten dollars,
the extra fifty dollars, which fucked up their whole scene
with that artist and gives them a bad name. And
then somebody else comes along and just joined up for them,
and it goes on from there, and it happens all
the time, and I just can't understand it.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
In addition to being honest, he treated bands with respect.
That alone made him a unicorn in music circles. Besides,
the guy had class. The shows he produced had an
unparalleled sense of style and gravitas. He made rock and
roll professional. And that's not an insult.
Speaker 10 (11:18):
I've used a very simple knowledge of many years in
my relationship.
Speaker 11 (11:22):
To an artist.
Speaker 10 (11:22):
You get two filets the exact same way, season, the
same way. You put one on a picker plate with
plastic book and the other one a piece of china
with my silver, the same piece of stake. Somehow, Basico,
I made it a point to always be friendly with
all of them, but never to say, never to give
them the feeling that I thought, well, I'm the producer,
I have a right to thread red with you. I'm
the producer. I have a right to coming addressing Hey,
(11:43):
I know I'm Bill Ram but I know they're rolling stones.
I don't know what that means to anybody else. It
does because I have self respect and I think we're
good at what we do.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
With a handshake, the bad blood's gone, the past is erased.
Now there's only the future. Like what to do that night? Bill,
what's going on in town? Mick asks him. So, there's
some good soul music on somewhere, but Bill's got bad news.
It's Monday. The town's dead. Come on, Bill, Mick teases,
(12:16):
this is your town. Let's get out and do something.
Finding himself in the unenviable position of being put on
the spot by his headliner, Bill places a quick call
to Frank Werber. Frank runs The Trident, a sacelito hotspot
famed for innovative, gustatorial offerings like sashimi, espresso and a
full juice bar, and its staff were just as famous.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
The tried and had the most beautiful waitresses and a planet.
Frank Werber, the former manager of the Kingston Trio, also
was a marijuana smuggler.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
He ran it.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
It was the hippest place to eat in marin He
knew how to cater to a vand like no one.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Like the rest of the city, the Tridents traditionally closed on.
Further complicating matters is the fact that Werber's currently serving
a prison sentence for a potbust, but he's out on
furlough and willing to do everything he can to open
his restaurant just for Bill and the Boys. And so
it's settled. The Rolling Stones are going to dinner. But
(13:18):
this isn't like any dinner you've ever been to. You
better get ready. A private dinner for the Rolling Stones
at the Bay Area's best restaurant may sound ideal, but
it provides a unique set of emotional stressors for the
(13:40):
SDP support staff. To understand, you have to consider the
unique politics of being around the band. If you yourself
aren't famous, competition to get close to them is fierce,
and to stay close is even fiercer. It's like a
gabe of musical chairs with junkie level intensity. Proximity to
the Stones. This is a drug, and the drug is
(14:01):
in short supply. If you don't move fast, you'll lose out.
As Robert Greenfield writes in STP, getting close to the
Stones is like getting to see God and sleep with
your favorite movie star At the same time, a milage
of nervous emotions, both sacred and profane. There's no sure
sign that your STP credits slipped than getting shut out
(14:22):
of a limo with one of the principal players. Hey man,
try the next car down. We're full up. Yeah, I'm
sure there's room back there. Devastating high paranoia time, lots
of eye games. People are so intent on maintaining their
own position close to the action that they're afraid to
look at untouchable in the face for fear of contagion.
(14:45):
Greenfield discussed this phenomenon with Charlie Watts back in nineteen
seventy two. Here he is courtesy of the Northwestern University Archives.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
There's a competition to be with the guys who are
in the band?
Speaker 12 (15:00):
Is it feeling that I like, if i'm if we
go out to eat, you know, what did you do?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I went out there with Charlie.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Oh you know, you did something, whereas it.
Speaker 11 (15:06):
We went out to eat with any next toys.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Wouldn't be the same, Yeah, you know, which I thought
was really strange.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
You know, like if I ride with Keith in the
first limousine and so oh far out, you know, if
I who sits next to who in the plane, And
it's something I always felt. There wasn't like just people
sitting with each other.
Speaker 10 (15:19):
There was always always never coach a.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Lot of games.
Speaker 11 (15:22):
I just played a lot as always there's always games.
He's been up with the Rolling Stone though, Fish, I
mean the magazine. You know, there's always games, and I say,
you say you're gonna play them or what you're gonna
do to them?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Like a royal court. The pecking order was constantly shifting.
Eventually you just learned to live with it and take
it day by day.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
It kind of sorted itself out.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Keith and Mick always were separate, you know, and there
were the little subgroups, like if we were in a limo,
would I'd be with Gary Chris O'Dell and Joe Bergman.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
We were in the support group.
Speaker 7 (15:56):
The artists to seem to know who they wanted to
hang out with. I think was whoever you were with
in the moment, especially with Keith. I think anybody that
you if you weren't getting high with Keith that day
you were you were in the limo with him.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
It was also how amusing you were.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
I was always conscious to this, if you were funny
and if you made Keith laugh then he would want
to hang out.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
In the moment.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Yeah, I always in the moment.
Speaker 7 (16:18):
Whatever was worked in the moment.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
But you didn't have to get high to be with Keith.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Just like if you hit it with a funny line
or said so, you could say anything to him like
what are you what the fuck are you doing?
Speaker 5 (16:28):
And he got it. You know, he thought that was cool. Right.
They wouldn't say that to Mick. So never.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Spending extended periods around a famous person is a funny thing.
After a while, they stopped being walking magazines or breathing
album covers and just become another person. When or if
this happens depends on the celebrity. But Gary Stromberg was
surprised at how quickly the Rolling Stones became just the
guys for me.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
At first, I was very tent about my place and
this thing. But they were very easy for me to
deal with, especially Keith. Keith just you know, if you
like Bob said you said something funny, he was you
were in. And if he liked you, you were in.
I just felt very easy around him. Mick I was
always a little bit cautious about not that he was
(17:18):
moody or anything. But he was just reserved and you
just just felt that there were lines that you didn't
cross with him.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Despite months on the road and untold more working with
him as his pr rep Gary Stromberg never felt like
he truly got to know Mick in the way that
he did Keith and the rest of the band.
Speaker 7 (17:37):
Jagger always maintained a distance. You could get only so
far into who him as his personality and really what
drove him, but no further. He never revealed the real
personal stuff. He's very guarded. He's just in control. I mean,
he's probably very very good at it to give them
(18:00):
depression that you're seeing the real Jagger, but he'll only
let you go so far.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Even Charlie Watts, one of just a handful of people
who share the full scope of the Stones experience, would
admit that Mick was sometimes hard to get a handle on.
Speaker 11 (18:15):
A bit of an enigma, isn't he?
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Heyah, are you sure?
Speaker 11 (18:18):
He is an enigmas difficult? And I love him, you know,
I like him an awful lot. I do. I do
like him awful. I respect him a lot of well,
part ben I respect him as far further than being
a performer, and I respect his words.
Speaker 6 (18:35):
And I don't think he's written well and talking to aid.
Speaker 11 (18:39):
I respect him a great deal.
Speaker 7 (18:40):
I do a lot.
Speaker 11 (18:41):
But I also know the thing that people go through
when they see him. For some reason, I think I'm
more pressed than he is.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Well, if you understand why it's himin are you?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
And why it is that miss a.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Better looking point.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
As a fleet of limos took off in the direction
of Sacelito, the weight staff at the trident or ready
ing the premises, pushing tables together and generally getting loose
so that when the stones arrive it'll.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
All be really mellow.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
You see, getting loose so that things will be mellow,
or key concepts in Marin County in nineteen seventy two.
As the evening wears on, the staff start to wonder, Wow,
are they really coming? Will they show? I wonder wow?
Could they? Do you think? By the time the lights
of the small fleet of limos appear on the bridgeway
(19:36):
and turn down the hill in the Saucelito, the expectation
in the room is nyon mannic. Then suddenly a voice
cries out, it's them, They're coming, and everyone freezes right
where they are Luckily they shake themselves out of it.
By the time the Stones enter, Jagger surveys the scene
and grins. He knows it's going to be one of
(19:56):
those nights. San Francisco as a reputation for loose, laid
back mellow, and it was all for him, recall the
mere hours before They'll tried. It was scheduled to be
closed this night. But as it's been well established, the
universe bends around the Stones. No matter what they did,
(20:18):
they played by their own unique set of rules, even
something as simple as going out to dinner. It's a
completely different experience to anything a normal human would recognize.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Much like the Queen. You do not carry any money
or need any money. You never have money. You don't
have a wallet, you don't have a driver's license. I
don't know if you pack your own bag.
Speaker 7 (20:42):
No, you don't do any of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I never saw it.
Speaker 7 (20:45):
You never seen any of the Stones with money at all,
because they never needed money.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
We would go into restaurants and I'd be sitting at
the same table with Charlie and Mick, and they a human,
they got to eat. They never ordered anything that was
on the menu.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Way do it?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Come over and Charles say, ah, could you make me?
And they would come up like could you have tomato
with uh?
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Maybe?
Speaker 3 (21:10):
And there was they knew who the Stones were, and
the guy be writing like a maniac, you know, and
I thought, whoa, this is the way to you, just
whatever you think. And they bring it out and will
hope you like it, you know, like guys in the
kitchen and saying, oh god, man, I never made one
of these before. They didn't have they weren't constrained by
(21:32):
the menu. Okay, so this reminded me. We went to
dinner in Saint Louis. I don't know why I remember this,
but there was a dinner party was thrown for the
Stones in Saint Louis by some promoter or some big shot,
and we had a private dining room and it was
really elegant, and elegant is not Stones.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
And they sent over the wine what do you call
theer with And he brings a presentation of this exclusive
bottle of wine and he shows it to Keith, and
Keith asks for the bottle and he takes the bottle
and he starts drinking out of the bottle and the
sumner almost fainted when he'said it.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Was Keith say a few like don't show me the label,
show me. I don't care what it is.
Speaker 7 (22:18):
Or is here to drink, not to look at.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
No glass, no true glass.
Speaker 7 (22:24):
Yeah, I know how to drink this stuff makes.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Why no total? Why know stuff?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Alcohol?
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Was there to be drunk.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
He was also taking the piss that's the English expression,
like let me see what I can do in this
situation to make it.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Absurd, making this formal.
Speaker 7 (22:40):
And we don't need all of that stuff. I don't
need a guy in tuxedo showing me a bottle and
wanting me to look at the label.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
If you're not going to pour it, I'll drink it nice.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
And speaking of alcohol, Boo's history was made this night,
June fifth, nineteen seventy two. For it was there at
the tried It and sauclid, looking out at the same
view that had inspired Otis Redding to write, sitting on
the dock of the bay that the Rolling Stones discovered
the tequila sunrise. This potent mix of orange juice, tequila,
(23:13):
and grenadine became the official beverage of The Stones nineteen
seventy two Johns across America. According to lore, the SDP
entourage passed the recipe along to every bartender they met
while on the road. Like Tipsy Johnny Appleseed's, they allowed
the drink to flourish across the United States. Hey, this
was at least a year before the Eagles song. In
(23:36):
his twenty ten memoir Life, Keith renamed the seventy two
Trek the Cocaine and Tequila Sunrise Tour Hassver He's honest
to a fault. The sidewalk outside San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom
(24:01):
is choked with kids swaddled in sleeping bags and ponchos,
thumbing through underground zines as they wait to see the Stones.
One guy I've and builds a crude lean to shed
against the wall of the venue. Bill Graham, as usual
as the consummate curmudgeon host, standing at the side door,
shouting at guests, who do you think you are? Johnny
Superstar front door? Do you understand English? Front Door? Like
(24:25):
everyone else. Despite the damage that Altamont had done to
the band's reputation among locals, San Francisco still adored the Stones.
The radio network Cason, whose air waves had previously hosted
the president of the Oakland Hell's Angels slagging off Mick
Jagger in the wake of the murder ran a ticket
giveaway for their concert at Winterland. The prize went to
(24:48):
the most imaginative answer to the question what would you
do to get a pair of Rolling Stones tickets? The
gentleman who won said, shave off all the hair on
my body and smoke it. Ticket demands being it was
the Stones could have easily filled the venue three times
the size of Winterland. In fact, the last time they
came through the Bay Area they did. But now they
(25:10):
opted for intimacy over avidity.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
They played two shows a day at Winterland, an afternoon
show and then a show at night. Okay, and this
is the greatness of Keith and Mick. Their thing was
always to go from big to small. That's what Keith
called it. So in La they played the Palladium, credible gig.
Winterland was small. Wasn't Madison Square Garden. It wasn't that,
(25:33):
you know, eighteen thousand, wasn't Seattle, Vancouver, these horrible arenas. Cold,
sound was spotty, as good as you try to make it.
They loved playing smaller venues always. Winterland was an incredible
place to see a band. There was no seating on
the floor, but there were balconies that went there a lot.
(25:54):
So Winterland was a former ice skating arena that Bill
Graham brilliantly inveigled his way into. Pete Townsend said it
was the perfect venue, the size, the sound, five thousand people,
although Bill could put a lot more in despite the fire.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
Marshals, Okay, the.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Great story about the Dead, Rock Scully is not with
us anymore. The Dead played two nights. They played one
night and Rock had his people outside with clickers, counting
how many people were coming because they knew Bill was
not giving them an honest account. Then the next night
they were like, so many more people and Rock set
to Bill, Bill, what are you doing minutes? So many
more people? He said no, He said, what are you
(26:33):
talking about now? He said, last night everybody was fat.
Tonight they're thin.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
The choice of venue was also an important gesture. Playing Winterlands,
rather than a gargantuan, antiseptic arena like the Oakland Colisseum,
was a small form of penance for the disaster at Altamont.
Though they lost money, it telegraphed San Francisco music fans, look,
we're here to do the city right but the atmosphere
(27:00):
backstage is tense, and not just because of steamed Peers
like Neil Young, Jerry Garcia and the Jefferson Airplane were
in the house. Rumors of retaliation from the Hell's Angels
have reverberated throughout the STP echo chamber for weeks, if
not months. No one's sure what's real and what isn't,
But as bassist Bill Wyman told Robert Greenfield, it was
(27:22):
never far from their minds. Oh where were you of
the angels thin equipments?
Speaker 11 (27:27):
They had ever been explained to you.
Speaker 9 (27:28):
I'd heard rumors. I hadn't been sort of personally talked
about it. I'm sure mckhay. I heard rumors that there's
a bit of travel from the angels and net to
minded all the all the money for the wires, and
it was.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Or where it came from.
Speaker 9 (27:44):
I don't know that, but I just overheard things like that.
I never got involved in the discussions about it.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Even the unflappable Charlie Watts was concerned.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
I never ever the thought of the angels, and there's
never been a big thing in my life.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
But no fear that might come at you on this too.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Yeah, of course, man, I'll tell you why. You know,
I'll tell you why because I had thoughts about it,
but I mean, oh yeah, I'll worry.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Man, I don't don't.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Fucking blown up is so much, so don't any better.
I'm one of those in the booths off, you know.
Speaker 7 (28:20):
I think that we were aware of the potential for
disruption on this tour, that things could happen. But I
think they were as well prepared as you could be
for the eventualities that would occur in terms of security.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Despite this, everyone has their own particular paranoia. Mick Taylor
was worried that hysteria sparked by just one or two
people even would sweep through the crowd like wildfire.
Speaker 12 (28:48):
I was a bit worried about it, you know, because
of what had happened before. But I felt I felt
confident that we've done our best to ensure them nothing
like that would ever happened again. You stayed because you
can be sure.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
And things like that.
Speaker 12 (29:04):
You can't control situations like that.
Speaker 13 (29:06):
When he needs a.
Speaker 12 (29:07):
Few crazy people in an audience to trigger off a
bit of panic, and it's just sprands, Dan bushfying.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Bill Graham has spent tens of thousands of dollars on
dozens of extra private cops and explicitly barred bikers from
entering his hall. He was more concerned with what would
happen after the show.
Speaker 10 (29:26):
What I did theorize is that they are bright enough
not they just storm the front. But I also theorized
that that once they got inside, they could not show
themselves or their colors, because there's enough security around. My
feeling was in a truck with circle of block, and
as the Stones left, somehow three or four of them
would get backstage. Another way would be done. It would
(29:46):
be done like a bank robbery, or a train robbery,
or a heist of some sort. I had this. I
thought maybe they would kidnap one of them or get
And this sounds crazy, but I did think about these things.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Rumors that the Stones would get kidnapped, like a perfectly
planned bank job in some foreign suspense movie seemed a
lot more likely than the rumors of them getting assassinated.
After all, Mick Jagger was worth a lot more alive.
The Hell's Angels had made it clear soon after Altamont
that a little cash would have sufficed in lieu of
(30:26):
an apology. Call it a contribution to their legal defense fund.
After all, one of their brothers, Alan Pissarro, was taken
a trial for the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter. Sure
he was acquitted, but hey, that didn't come cheap. Wasn't
it the Stones fault that they were in this jam
in the first place? And if the band wouldn't fork
(30:46):
over the cash, perhaps they could play some sort of
fundraiser with a necessary coercion. These kidnapping threats, as well
as threats of lawsuits, were taken so seriously that STP
tour manager Peter flew halfway across the country mid tour
in order to meet with Hell's Angels representatives in New
York City. Rather than a serious attempt to broke her peace,
(31:10):
it was mostly just an attempt to appease the gang
and buy time until the tour was over.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
There was no deal going to be made with the
Hell's angel They wanted money, yeah, they want It was
a shakedown.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
It was a shakedown, and Peter knew that. He knew
the litigation had no chance. It was just a hassle.
Speaker 7 (31:30):
I wish I could have seen that, though I would
have loved to see. I'm sure interaction.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I'm sure the Angels couldn't understand half of what Peter
was saying, not because they're stupid, but his accent. How
rapidly he spoke, he must have confused them.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I mean speaking to an alien.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Can I say, even now as I sit here, the
concept of the Rolling Stones doing a benefit angels? I mean,
what are we raising money for so you can buy
more drugs in motorcycles?
Speaker 5 (31:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Keith Richards was less rattled by the whole thing. He
was embarrassed by the bodyguards who accompanied them everywhere they went,
as far as he was concerned a kidnapping attempt would
be a rookie move during the tour.
Speaker 11 (32:12):
Before the tour, you were aware of any specific Cus
angel thinking about they're.
Speaker 10 (32:16):
Going to come out to the band.
Speaker 13 (32:18):
Of I had I heard about it in Texas?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Suit I don't.
Speaker 13 (32:22):
I don't see you don't by the fact, for I
think that it was just an amateur dramatics.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
So a lot of people, for Graham was they expected,
you know, had this fantasy of them coming.
Speaker 10 (32:32):
At you know, at winter Land. Obviously some people thought
it was very real and.
Speaker 13 (32:39):
There's too many cups around for those house angels to
walk into something like you know, I mean every two
and has got his The Riots Bros. Was stationed outside
of the Buck the auditorium, and so they know, no
fucking game work. It's thought it's going to walk into something.
Speaker 12 (32:57):
Like that, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
According to Mick, the vibes were bad even with the
absence of any specific threats.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
I was scared in San Francisco the.
Speaker 12 (33:09):
Angels, who were.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Not specifically no, no, I'm not the Eye Jews, but
we're just we were just kind of scared.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Assassins are no assassins. There was a show to do
to in fact, that day. Once they go on stage,
the Stones are bulletproof. The band slashes into Brown Sugar
in the Bitch, with the bass and drums coming together
like a sledgehammer. The volume is so loud that it
makes the crowd's breastbones vibrate like tuning forks, so that
(33:41):
they feel it as much as they hear it and
have to dance. Sparkles rain down off Jagger's face and hair,
and the bells on his shoes tinkles. He leaps up
and down. The set accelerates as soon as the Stones
go in The Midnight Rambler with Jagger the actor portraying Jagger.
The singer and the band providing background music for the psychodrama.
(34:02):
By the end of the set, jaggers clinging to the
tops of the amps and screaming as Keith rocks and
stumbles through by by Johnny ripping away to his guitar
with his arm fully extended. It's a move that Pete
Townsend of The Hoo first saw him do in nineteen
sixty four and promptly stole, turning it into his trademark windmill.
(34:29):
As they shift into their closer street fighting man, Mick
brings a box of rose petals on stage, kisses them,
and sprinkles them into the crowd, who show their thanks
by throwing joints right back. With that, Nick whirls around,
jumps and vanishes amid a solid wall of applause. The
(34:49):
crowd kicks and howls and whales and stomps on the floor,
demanding an encore. That the band's already gone. They felt good.
Mick Taylor, the new guy.
Speaker 10 (35:01):
In the band.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
The last time the Stones hit San Francisco, knew they
nailed it. I was sixty nine. It was literally a
new band.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
None of us have played together, and.
Speaker 12 (35:16):
We were all a bit sort of timid, and we
were feeling our way, whereas on the book, as reason
to everybody was much looser.
Speaker 9 (35:22):
More of trump.
Speaker 12 (35:25):
I always I thought the music was much better.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
One show down and three more to go. In San Francisco,
word on the street is no longer that the stones
might get killed, but that the stones already killed, and
the scalpers' prices rise accordingly. Even Bill Graham is happy.
He bestows upon them the highest honorific in his vocabulary, professionals,
(35:48):
and those are few and far between in the laid
back Bay area music scene. Here he is talking to
Robert Greenfield in nineteen seventy two courtesy of the Northwestern
University Archive, and the Stone's One time.
Speaker 10 (36:01):
Where the heroes of the revolutionary era, they are now
the heroes of people who appreciate entertainment. The point I've
harped on one way or another few years and years.
Speaker 14 (36:08):
Is there aren't enough professionals in that business. There isn't
enough for a professional attitude in our business that when
the public plays to see you, don't tell me you're
just doing your thing. Don't tell me it's like being
in your living mean, not in the living room.
Speaker 10 (36:19):
You at the avalon you at Economy Hall. If you
walk on a stage and there's somebody out there you.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
Are paid to entertain.
Speaker 10 (36:26):
You may not like the title. One of the things
that you are is that you're a professional entertainer and you, oh,
you can't say like too many musicians' attitude is hey man,
you caught me on a bed like like diggot, What.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Do you mean, biggot?
Speaker 10 (36:39):
I've saved eight dollars on a part time job or
sunny hair show or whatever to come to see you,
and I want to be entertained.
Speaker 7 (36:45):
That's what's part of life.
Speaker 10 (36:46):
There's an exchange there. And I don't want to watch
you knitting in your living room. Jagie. You want to
look at Garcia. There isn't a nicer person in rock
and roll. But hey, I don't want to look at Jerry.
You know for more than ten to fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
He ain't pretty.
Speaker 10 (36:58):
He's a great guitar player. As a dance how many
bands are greedy?
Speaker 7 (37:03):
Entertained?
Speaker 14 (37:03):
And know how? Know how?
Speaker 4 (37:06):
I don't say.
Speaker 14 (37:07):
Just as a producer.
Speaker 10 (37:07):
I were a fan and I went to a pound
to see the Rolling Stones. I said, holy shit, that's
a special Joyce location.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
I thought it was.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
The next three shows were the same story. They were
so hot that somebody called the fire department to say
that Winterland was going up in flames. Five engines arrived
with screaming sirens and flashing lights, which no doubt did
wonders for those under the influence of hallucinogenics. The Stones
had done what they'd set out to do, returned to
(37:39):
San Francisco as champions, and went over the populace. They're
whereabouts inevitably get around, and soon the lobby of the
Miaco Hotel is packed with friends, fans, and well wishers.
Bluesman John Lee Hooker even paid them a visit backstage,
singing along the Stones boogie while Keith filled in on guitar.
(37:59):
Bill throws them a party at his favorite French restaurant,
All gold and burgundy silks gathered at the ceiling and
mirrors on the wall, chilled white wine, s cargo guilt
and continental service the best. They're still riding high when
they climb aboard their private jet due for their next
(38:20):
porter call, Los Angeles. As they took their seats, a
beautiful woman in hot pants talks her way to the
cabin door for probably not the first time nor the
last time on this door. Gee, she says sweetly, could
I ask the band for an autograph for my daughter?
She loves them, so the woman oozes, sunny California goodness.
(38:43):
How could they resist? They invite her aboard. She makes
a bee line for the obvious choice. Are you Mick Jagger?
She asks breathily. He nods yes with a grin. Then
her smile falls. She pulls a stack of papers out
of her back and shoves them under his nose. I'm
here by serving you, Michael Phillip Jagger with the following.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
He thought she was coming on to him or something,
and then she hit him with the subpoenas having to
do with the Hell's Angels litigation against Jagger for Altamont,
And that was a shock that somebody could get access
to serve him. I just have this memory of when
he got served. It was a sheaf of legal papers
and I remember them blowing out of his hand and
(39:28):
flying all over the airport because he couldn't care less.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
The sweet lady is instantly ejected from the aircraft, rocketing
unsteadily down the stairs with cries of he hit me,
he hit me. The son of a bitch hit me.
Keith follows behind her, standing in the doorway with a
stack of legal summons, which he scatters along the tarmac
with a wave of his hand. This is problem solving
(39:52):
rolling Stone style. Alan Passaro, the Hell's Angel acquitted for
the murder of Meredith Hunter at Altamont, was found dead
in a California reservoir in nineteen eighty five. His pockets
were filled with ten thousand dollars in cash. Because of
death was suspicious, but the case was never solved. Interestingly,
(40:15):
just a few years before, in nineteen seventy nine, the
Angels finally mounted their decade delayed attempt to assassinate Mick Jagger.
It failed spectacularly. The plan was to attack Mike while
he vacationed in Montauk Long Island, where he was staying
in a rented beach house belonging to Andy Warhol. The
(40:36):
plot involved assembling a death squad, hiring a boat, and
invading from the water like Navy seals. They would then
detonate bombs they'd set around the perimeter of the house.
The scheme was doomed from the outset when their boat
got caught in a storm and capsized. The water logged
angels barely made it back to shore without drowning. After that,
(40:58):
they gave up on the whole rev mission against Mick
and vowed not to speak of it again. Mick himself
didn't find out about this attempt until almost thirty years later,
in two thousand and eight. It was a strange, albeit
valuable lesson for the Stones and their associates. Escaping the
past would never be easy. Stone's Touring Party was written
(41:39):
and hosted by Jordan.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Runtalk Co Executive produced by Noel Brown and Jordan Runtime,
edited in sound design by Noel Brown and Michael Alder June.
Original music composed and performed by Michael Alder June and
Noel Brown, with additional instrument performed by Chris Suarez, Nick
Johns Cooper, and Josh Thain.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Vintage Rolling Stones audio.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Courtesy of the Robert Greenfield Archives, the Charles during McCormick Library,
and special collections in Northwestern University Libraries. Stone Sturing Times
a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
(42:19):
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
favorite shows.
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