Page 21 - Been There… Done That!

Been There... Done That!
The best part of that experience was in 1970. I went to play a big hotel back in Missouri, The Lodge of the Four Seasons. We were doing two shows a night to sold-out crowds and at the end of the first show Cummins showed up. We got called back on the stage for two encores to the delight of the audience and when we finally got off the stage, I was told somebody wanted to see me.
Hot and sweaty, I did not want to see anyone, but I was told the visitor had said it was essential and claimed to be my former band director. So I agreed and here came Cummins and his wife backstage. When he approached, he looked straight at me and said, “You kind of proved me wrong, didn’t you?”
I responded, “I don’t know, Mr. Cummins, if I did or not. I’m just out here making a living. But I can promise you one thing – I’m making more than ten dollars a night.”
One trait I know without a doubt that I picked up from Carney and effectively utilized in the music business was not to take any shit from anybody. That characteristic definitely owes its existence to the man who helped raise me. Carney was a typical step-dad relationship. Carney did a lot for me and taught me how to deal with life. He was there to care for me until I was on my own, then I cared for him. What he may not have realized was that what he instilled in me; I later used to proceed on and beyond.
My step-dad was a big, tough man and it was nothing for him to take two or three guys out into the street and kick the shit out of them. Captured in World War II by German forces, he escaped by swimming the Rhine River in 20-degree weather, so I mean he was
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