Page 144 - Been There… Done That!

Gary Graham
On the way to the airport we were flying down the freeway. Evel didn’t say a word until I pulled up to the airline. As he got out of the car he said, “Never again will I ride with you because you are nuts.” Sure I drove fast, but damn, this was Evel Knievel. He later complained to John Herring about the ride to the airport, but I was running late, and I don’t like being late. Then I found out that he gets nervous when he’s not driving.
In the 90s, when we ventured into the celebrity car collection, I had purchased one of Evel’s jump bikes and a set of leathers used in the famous Wembley Stadium crash from a man named Carl Green who had been owed money by Evel for mechanic and paintwork. I happened to run into Evel in the Maxim Casino in Las Vegas and we started talking about his making a personal appearance at our nightclub in Sedalia. We could get photos of him with the bike and leathers, plus get a few folks around us to pay the expenses.
Later we bought a house in Vegas and Evel came around and started talking about building a museum in the Maxim, for which I would furnish the money and equipment. Going into business with Evel, I started getting a little nervous. We could afford to take a hit, but not to the tune of $350,000. That would be a tough pill to swallow. I went to the CEO of the Maxim, Larry Feil and told him I was a little nervous about having Evel as a partner. His response surprised me “Both of us better run from this deal and cut our losses.” We did and Evel told anybody who would listen that we had backed out. That was the last time I saw Evel and I feel that those two years was time wasted. For payment toward what he owed me,
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