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BiTS: Not a good time for anybody.

MH: That was a real hardship. I ended up losing my booking agent over that because he had
worked so hard to get this tour all lined
up. The tour was lined up better than any
blowout tour I'd ever done in terms of

routing. The money was huge, and it was
just like I had no choice and that really
hurt to do that.

BiTS: Yeah, I bet it did too. Tell me
something, Mark, about working with
Brownie McGhee. Did you enjoy it?

MH: Oh, I love Brownie. I mean, yeah. I
mean, I met Brownie through a friend of
mine. I talk about that in the book. My
friend Carroll Peery, who was one of my
closest friends for years and years. He
basically got Brownie to come down to
one of my gigs. I think in 1981, Brownie
showed up to one of our gigs or 80. It might have been 80, and Brownie showed up and sat in
with us and then we went to his house, I think, on New Year's Eve or something and sat around
and he polished off like a fifth of whatever the bourbon he liked was. Old Grand-dad or whatever
the hell it was. I mean, he could drink like nobody I've ever seen, and he would still be upright.
That was the incredible thing.

BiTS: During the time that he and Sonny were falling out, let's call it that, I went to see them in
a gig in South London, and it was one of the most embarrassing things I've ever come across

because Brownie would launch into a tune without telling Sonny what it was and he was left
searching for his harps. Absolutely, unbelievably awful stuff. I did an interview with Mighty Mo
Rogers, who produced their last album, the “Sonny and Brownie” one, and he said that he would
tell Brownie that they were going to go into the studio the following day and he would never
tell Sonny, then Sonny never turned up. It was unbelievable.

MH: Yeah. Well, you think that's bad. One of my favourite stories is one Portnoy told me because
Portnoy used to drive Brownie at one point, right, Jerry Portnoy. Now, he used to drive Brownie
McGhee, and at one point, I think he’d brought his car from New York to California or something.
Maybe either when Brownie was on tour. I can't remember what the story was, but he brought
the car out and then I think he accompanied Brownie on some of the tour, and he said what
would happen is his fans would come back with photos of the two of them and they'd ask
Brownie to sign them, and Brownie would say, [Brownie accent] “Well, I'll tell you what, you
tear that thing in half and I'll sign one side, and Sonny will sign the other”.

BiTS: [Laughing] Oh, wow!

MH: So, I mean, it was super intense, and I remember the last show I saw of those guys was in
San Francisco, and it was truly horrifying. It was a horrible show, and it was the same thing
where, you know, Brownie would just launch into tunes and not tell Sonny, and Sonny would
be blowing the wrong harp on part of it. It was terrible. But you know, the funny thing is they
were the very first guys I saw, so it was like I have that comparison of where they were really
sounding so great together. This was in the early 70s, like 71/72 I saw those guys, and it was