Page 113 - Been There… Done That!

Been There... Done That!
From Guam, we headed to Honolulu and just rested and it was then I realized how tough that whole experience had been on me. I slept for 24 hours straight when I got back to Hawaii. Looking back, I think, in Vietnam, I was merely running on adrenaline. I had lost a ton of weight and worn myself down so much that I didn’t even want to stay in Hawaii. Seems like the whole band ended up with PTSD and to this day loud noises will make me duck. I still remember the smell of Agent Orange and napalm. That will never go away. I had not been home in almost two years, so I headed back to California because it was far enough away from everything I had just seen and done.
Another thing I never told the band was that everywhere I looked we were being robbed. I found out Lad Promotions was taking 70% of our money and doing a split with our so-called road manager. Bob and I called Chuck Johnstone in Okinawa, who said he couldn’t book us unless he had the same deal as before, a 60/40 split in his favor. It seems like it always comes down to the money. To top it all off, I had been supporting John Herring for a year with his promise to pay me back. That never happened. I justified that loss with the fact that he got us going in the beginning.
111