Page 30 - Been There… Done That!

Gary Graham
I still had the pipe in my hand as I walked over to the car and said, “You know what, Mr. Nickerson? I really, really don’t like you and what I don’t like even worse is working in this cold while you are sitting in that toasty car running your trap. So just go fuck yourself.” I turned to Hank and said, “I’m sorry. I’ve had all of that son of a bitch that I’m putting up with.” Hank asked me if I was quitting as if I hadn’t already made it clear to Nickerson.
Out of a job, I found myself hanging around my parents’ club, The Casablanca, which I would describe as more a beer joint than a nightclub. That’s where I struck up a friendship that was basically the beginning of what would be many great times making music and performing the world over.
Bob Allen Nigg and I met in the summer of 1963. He was an aspiring musician and working as a lifeguard on one of the public beaches in the Missouri State Park. We met at my parents’ nightclub in the small Missouri resort town of Lake Ozark. Summertime things were abuzz with tourists, but come Labor Day the doors literally closed except for some locals. Bob was a guitarist and vocalist with a pretty tone to his voice and we talked and decided to start doing a little jam session on weekends just for tips.
Bob was actually both a guitar and bass player and really helped me musically. About a week after we first discussed the idea, we got together and played and the next thing we knew, people were coming around to listen to us play, just the two of us. Whenever they asked if we knew a particular song, Bob would say, yeah. If they asked for another song, I might be the one who knew it. When we
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