From: Alyssa Garcia
Subject: Covid and touring crews

Hey Bob,

I’ve been receiving your emails for about a decade. I had a music industry teacher in college recommend I sign up. He would actually read a lot of your letters in class. I ended up dropping out of school early when the opportunity to tour came along.

I skimmed through my emails but wondered if you’ve covered anything on touring crews right now or would be interested in it? I have to admit, I haven’t read all your emails this year. My depression has been really bad so if you have covered this, my apologies. I would really love to put a spotlight on this issue. I feel like with the election, stimulus was thrown on the back burner and there just isn’t any real help.

Everyone I know received their $1,000 from Crewnation and some people received $250 from the For The Nomads Fund. Don’t get me wrong, the money was extremely appreciated but for an industry that holds up so many celebrities, why aren’t more bands and artists doing more? Sure, some pop and rock bands took out PPP loans but I work in country music and the help seems to be less in our industry. I was lucky that my band paid me until the end of June, but my boyfriend was not a salaried employee and has been out of work since our tour was cancelled 2 days before we were supposed to fly to Europe.

Even now, I just don’t understand why more isn’t being done. Drop a piece of merch and all proceeds go to the crew. Host an online concert! Frank Turner is hosting one and all the money goes to his crew. All my industry friends are suffering. I’ve had friends kill themselves. I cry at least weekly because I don’t know how I’m going to get through and I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones. I’m supposed to get my job back as soon as it’s safe but no one can last that long!

The Ryman is hosting a benefit concert but the funds go to MusiCares, the Roadies Clinic and CMAF. None of those organizations are really giving out any relief, not like Live Nation did with it’s Crew Nation campaign.

I receive $247 a week from unemployment. We’ve almost blown through our savings and will not have enough money to pay our bills come Jan 2020. I’ve applied for jobs and haven’t had any luck. I had a career and now I’m trying to pivot to another and people aren’t even calling me for an interview. I have so many skills that are transferable to other industries but no one is biting. I don’t say all of this for pitty, I just want to shed a light on this and you reach a lot of people.

Stay safe out there and thanks for all the emails!

Best,
Alyssa

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Re: Group

Bob, as a psychiatrist I particularly appreciated this post. It should be a public service announcement for understanding the differences in training and expertise among the myriad of mental health professionals, and debunking misconceptions about treatment. Outside of urban (and suburban) areas there is still stigma about mental illness. Access to good care is extremely challenging and, as you mention, expensive. Good treatment is out of reach for most people. Our health system has a long way to go in making treatment widely available.

In many ways significant advances have been made in the understanding and treatment of psychiatric disorders. But the brain and mind are the final frontiers in medicine and really great discoveries are within reach, but sadly, probably not in your and my lifetimes. That being said, having access to good psychotherapy is immeasurable and life-changing. I’m glad you have benefitted so much from it.

Please continue being a poster child for good therapy. Especially now, almost everybody I know could use some.

Barry

Barry K. Herman, MD, MMM

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Re: Group

Thanks for highlighting the impact of good therapy, Bob. As someone who works as a psychologist for the touring music industry, I’ve watched therapy save many lives in the last decade. And as a long-time patient on the other side, it’s certainly saved my life.

Fortunately, the pandemic has brought mental health to the forefront, and I’m watching many people who never would have sought therapy previously now showing up, open to their own struggles and to seeking support. We’ve been running a free online therapy/support group for the music industry for 38 weeks already since the pandemic started, and it’s pretty amazing to watch how group therapy has become “family” for touring pros and artists across the world who are struggling through the pain and isolation in this difficult time. Keep waving the therapy flag, and hopefully we can help as many people as possible continue to find their strength.

(One correction to your post. You inaccurately differentiate between psychologists and PsyDs. They’re one and the same. Clinical psychologists can have either a PhD or PsyD degree, the former having a slightly more rigorous research training component. Clinically, they both receive similar training and internship experiences. Most of the country’s top psychology graduate programs, however, are all PhD and not PsyD. That being said, I’ve seen incredible therapists with all types of degrees and training. And what matters most is not the letters, but if it feels right to the patient).

Best,

Dr. Chayim Newman
Clinical Psychologist and Founder, Tour Health Research Initiative. Www.tourhealth.org

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Re: Group

Psychologists have PhDs or PsyDs in the state of California. The PsyD is a relatively recent degree that waters down the research component of the degree as relatively few Clinical Psychologists need the added requirements to do research. The key to a good/great therapist is post license advanced training like Psychoanalysis or Psychoanalytic Therapy. If there is a hierarchy PhD Psychologist would be above the PsyD but that hierarchy is a false characterization. For example Anna Freud a gifted therapist who is credited with the creation of child therapy had no advance degree.
It’s unlike you to get this type of information wrong. If you are trying to educate those reluctant to get into therapy there’s no need to add in misinformation.

Ken Seider

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Re: Group

I’ve had good therapy – individual and group – and yes, it changed my life for the better. The okay/“bad” therapy was merely a waste of time.

Tim Brunelle
Minneapolis

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Re: Group

Like I guess even yourself, I didn’t see that coming… This might have been one of the most important posts I’ve ever read from you and I’ve been a reader for more than 15 years. In my small, Atlantic Canadian, music business world, I’ve had a couple of very dear musician friends decide life wasn’t worth living, and it’s heartbreaking. I’ve also known civilians who’ve taken the same route, with the same effect for those left behind and wondering why?

I’d be a liar if I said the same thing hadn’t occurred to me during the darkest moments – to those on the outside looking in – of my life. I’m OK for the time being but who knows what the future will bring. I’ll be far more open to seeing someone about it than I was before reading this. Thank you.

Mike Campbell

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Re: Group

I’m in grad school studying to be a therapist, so it’s interesting you wrote about this topic. I decided to go back to school because of the state of our country and its people. We have a mental health crisis brewing in the U.S. that will take years and possibly generations to correct. So I’m with you on how critical the need is.

I lived in LA for two years and could not find one therapist who took insurance, so I ended up paying one out of pocket who was marginally talented. I’m from Seattle, so I was surprised by this because healthcare is accessible here and excellent. Most therapists in Seattle take insurance and the going rate is around $120 an hour, some psychologists even have a sliding scale. I think your experience with therapists in LA and NYC is a bit insular; those people are serving the rich of the rich, which excludes middle and lower income folks. Seattle is a wealthy place too, but hasn’t created that type of exclusivity in healthcare. And every other city I have lived in has had way better access to mental health services as well. It’s funny, lack of access to good mental health services was my least favorite part of living in LA, which is ironic because considering the countless people I met there who were justifying their coke addiction, I’d say the people of LA need therapy more than “normals” raising 2.5 kids everywhere else.

My advice? Hire one up here, they are all doing Telehealth sessions because of the pandemic anyhow.

Cheers,

Andrea Bijou

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Re: Group

Interesting topic….mental illness can be so difficult if not impossible to treat. People can be so damaged that it can linger for decades while you’re shackled having to drag it along through life. It’s ballast that can sink you. My take on an untreatable organic mental illness is you’re fucked!

I’ve been a consumer of mental health services and can testify that had I not had that available I would not be writing this email. I’ve learned to go see someone who’s been practicing at least thirty years or don’t waste your time nor money. It can seem like you never get better or more importantly relief.

Growing up in a family with a member mentally ill can seem normal. Your lack of care or love from that significant person allows you to not understand how to provide self care for yourself let alone a significant other.

Now decades on in my sixties I’ve learned to partially quell my inner critic, being able to identify and stay away from people who are themselves “fucked up”, exercise regularly, eat better, try to sleep better, drink periodically and stay away from recreational drugs that can make you paranoid. I thought I’d never get better, but I did.

We can start out with so little it may be impossible to catch up with the remainder of humanity. If you’re not chasing status or “stuff” then you’re always going to be on the outskirts so you’re treated differently.

But everyone has problems. If people tell you they don’t they are full of shit!

“Is my time up? We need to wrap it up…see you next at Thursday at 2 pm…” I know the drill.

Tim Pringle

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Re: Group

Thank you for your piece on mental health. You have touched on so many critically important real-world issues—if/when to seek help, what type of professional to pursue, what type of setting (i.e., individual vs. group), whether to seek/accept medication(s), what medication(s) to take, the social stigma that continues to influence decisions about whether and when to pursue mental healthcare, etc.—all of which highlight so much of the complexity that mental health involves. But perhaps most significantly, the most important aspect of your piece is that you very openly addressed the subject, the importance of mental healthcare and your own experience with it. As someone who has traveled around the country giving talks on the subject—presentations entitled “How to Talk to Someone In Crisis” and “Lawyering with a Healthy Mind”, in addition to participation on panel discussion—I have been mindful that if I don’t share my own experience with suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety and therapy, I can’t expect anyone else to feel comfortable sharing their own experiences. After a long societal history of mental healthcare being addressed, if at all, in the quietest of whispers, we’ve started seeing many high-profile folks openly discuss their experiences with mental healthcare, which has started to create a safer-feeling environment in which to pursue self-care.

From 1999, when I was a volunteer hotline counselor at Los Angeles’s Suicide Prevention Center, until 2018, the annual rate of suicide in the U.S. has increased 35%, and in light of the bad behavior that we’ve seen from our political leaders, which appears to be considered by many to be a license to behave badly, and translates into things like bullying, together with the pandemic and its continuing impact on jobs and the economy, all of which directly affect people’s peace of mind, sense of personal stability and emotional well-being, mental health has never been more important, and more important to talk about, than it is now.

As the founder and head of a nonprofit suicide prevention and action foundation, LightHopeLife Inc., I offer myself as a resource to your readers if and to the extent that anyone feels that they need direction/guidance, and I’m including my cell phone number below for that purpose. Frequently, when mired in a difficult mental/emotional place, determining what the first step is toward the light can be the most difficult, which is commonly made all the more difficult by the reality that being mired in such a place saps one’s energy, rendering it even more challenging to figure out the way forward.

With respect and gratitude for what you’ve just done,
Michael Rexford (partner at Manatt and CEO of LightHopeLife Inc.)
(310) 869-8442

Michael Rexford
Partner
www.manatt.com/Michael-Rexford

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From: Tish Iceton
Subject: “California sealed the deal”

‘California’ sealed the deal.
I quietly sold everything I owned, quit my job, didn’t tell anyone where I was going and headed to California. Joni told me ‘my problems would be gone and I would be free’. I landed in Santa Cruz. It was 1978.
(Being from Canada was a mute point to me)

No musician/songwriter had more influence on my younger self than Joni. I loved to quote “ I told you when I met you I was crazy”. “I can win my hand at poker but I’m a fool when love’s at stake” When your on a free teenage ride how can you NOT live by those lyrics?

In Santa Cruz I discovered my name was written in the California sand and my soul lived in each California ocean wave.
Today I own property on the California sand.

75th birthday at Dorothy Chandler 2 years ago was a must. Graham Nash leading us through a ‘Our House’ sing along – priceless. For any Joni fan a moment of magic. (Graham’s Songs for Beginners is a lyrical gem)

Larry Klein produces Melody Gardot’s new album. I first met Melody when I worked at a jazz station-we were presenting. She walked to the stage with a cane, wore dark glasses and she blew us away. Her story is amazing.

Music. The breath of life. Thanks for the Joni trip Bob.

Tish
Toronto

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From: Jo Faloona
Subject: Re: Bruce Allen-This Week’s Podcast

Bob,
Thank you for having Bruce as your podcast guest, I’ve been working for him over 16 years and I even learned a couple of things. When Bruce talks about staying in the game as long as he’s winning-he means it! And you’re so right, he’s going to keep on winning. But what he doesn’t say, is that the drive to win is for his acts. He works his ass off for their success. He does not take a minute to celebrate, he rarely looks back to reflect – he just keeps moving forward ensuring there’s another win on the horizon.

It’s such an honour to work for this legendary manager. I’ve learned so much from him. I’m forever grateful for his belief in me and the respect & freedom he gives me to do my job. 75 years young with a drive & passion like no other, I have a feeling we’ll be doing this for a few more years to come!!

jo

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From: Larry Butler
Subject: Re: Richard Gottehrer-This Week’s Podcast

Hey, Bob,
Listened to the Richard Gottehrer piece during my morning constitutional and thought I might put a finer point on an event he touched on – where (and how) he met the Rick Z Combo and turned them into the McCoys. For starters, it wasn’t Columbus; it was Dayton.
In the summer of I guess 1965, the two Dayton Top 40s (WING and WONE) would inevitably have competing shows every Friday and Saturday night throughout the summer season. My band, Ivan and the Sabers, had been around town the longest and generally got the first call. This one particular night we were offered either of two shows:
1) to support the Strangeloves in a warehouse north of town for $100, or
2) to headline an amusement park ballroom south of town for $125.
Not only did the latter gig offer more money, but we could get free beer from the park concessionaires and there were girls aplenty. We took that gig and the Strangeloves support slot went to the Rick Z Combo.
Who knew that Gottehrer and friends ran a record company and were looking for bands? Missed our chance to be stars.
Larry Butler

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From: John Brodey
Subject: Re: Even More Covid

My close friend Fred Schepisi (film director) is Australian and Melbourne has always been his home. He is now living/stuck at his vineyard down on the Mornington peninsula on the ocean south of Melbourne. I asked him recently how they were doing with the pandemic there.

He said it has been a total lockdown. Forget coming in or leaving the country. He is in Victoria but cannot cross the border into New South Wales etc. There is also a restriction on how far you can travel from your home daily. In Melbourne it’s about 3 km.s Rural areas higher. Just enough to get to stores. The exception is for medical emergencies etc. I asked what the penalty is for violating the orders…he said it’s a $5000 fine. And they do pay a reward for reporting violators.

I then asked how long they expect the restrictions to be in place and he replied, until there are no new cases. How is it working? Even though Australia only a population of 25million, their death toll to date from COVID is 902! Of course we are bigger and have 14 times the population but if our death rate was the same as theirs, we would have only 12,628 deaths instead of 250,000.

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From: Bettye LaVette
Subject: Re: The Soft Coup

Oh ! Robert, Robert, Robert, Robert!
Did you See a movie called “Something Wicked This Way Comes” ?
We’ve got to have pussies and thank “goodness” we do.
Imagine a country, or world, full of dicks !
Your inciting , the pussies to ” dissrupt be vengeful, cheat and lie…..act like a dick
Like the evil did to the town in the movie.
Don’t you think, ( with your thinking ass ) we could find some way to make both of them work together ?
It would be the difference between fucking and screwing.
B

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From: David Stopps
Subject: Brexit

Hi Bob

Thought you might like to see all the bureaucracy that UK musicians will face after 1 Jan 2021 if they want to tour in Europe.

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1326554078256656389.html

95% of the UK music industry voted to remain.

Love peace, live music and a vaccine

d

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From: sean brickell
Subject: Spencer Davis

SNIFF. . .

So, Spencer Davis died at 81. While I have many terrific musical memories of him through the decades, my favorite recollection was when he was an executive for Island Records in the mid-70s.

I was music editor for The Virginian-Pilot, and Spencer called. He was staying at a hotel next to the newspaper, in town doing advance work for a new Island artist named Robert Palmer, whose debut album was being released in a month.

Of course I walked to the hotel and met Spencer in the bar for a couple of hours of repartee. We talked about his career as an artist, what is was like working with Steve Winwood on classic tunes, and with Bob Marley at Island.

Spencer didn’t hype. He told me Robert Palmer was going to be a huge artist and for evidence gave me an advance of “Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley.” He gave me his business card (which I still have) and told me to call and let him know what I thought after listening.

I was suitably knocked out, telling Spencer such. He arranged an interview at the venue following Palmer’s upcoming concert, insisting I couldn’t possibly do a story correctly without the live experience first.

Spencer was right.

For context, it was March, ’77. Palmer, unknown to most that night in Norfolk Scope, was opening act on a bill headlined by ELO, with Journey in support. Palmer definitely not only held his own but won the crowd.

A year or so later when I was Mid-Atlantic promotions manager for Atlantic Records and Elektra/Asylum Records, my role model for how to do it best was what I learned through contacts with Spencer.

He also taught me a fun hotel game he said his bands always played whilst on the road. They bet on which elevator would arrive first. Seems simple, but he said during a tour, the debts could mount up.

Spencer was not only a genuine musical legend, but a superlative music person on many levels. And a helluva fun guy to be with as well.

Sniff. . .

Sean Brickell
Virginia Beach

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From: Saul Davies
Subject: Re: Big Hit Goes Public

Interesting.
I’m 55 years old, been making a living as a musician, writer and producer for over 30 years, I love Neil Young, Zeppelin etc but also BTS.
They’re a revolution in the making. The dayglo positivity is totally infectious and I love it. I’m a convert, a fan. ?So are my fairly cynical kids ( my 13 year old daughter is mainly a Pink Floyd fan citing Live at Pompeii as her go to Youtube moment) but she also GETS BTS…. and she appreciates that they’re not baring their pecs and arses to sell records…it’s all about LOVE.
There is also some deep ART in what they do. Their videos reference Shakespeare and contemporary art works, their collaboration with Anthony Gormley was brilliant.
I’d rather this than old rockers moaning about not getting played on radio…
Keep up the good fight.

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From: Eric Bazilian
Subject: Even more Eddie

I know the news cycle has already moved past the passing of the most transformational guitarist of a generation, but I thought I’d give you this just for fun.

I met Eddie casually a few times in the 80s and early 90s, he didn’t know me from Adam but he was always friendly and ready to geek out on guitars and guitarists. Then in ‘96 I was re-introduced to him at the Warners Grammy party, the year I’d been nominated for writing One Of Us. The first thing he said was, ‘hey man, how did you play that riff’? I knew exactly what was going on in his mind… I wrote the song around a signature guitar part in E Minor. When I played it with Joan Osborne first the first time the next day I raised the key to F#, a better fit for her voice. The only way to play it comfortably and smoothly was with a capo which, unfortunately, I didn’t have with me at the time, so I was forced to stumble through it without one (which you can hear on the demo version on the 20th Anniversary release of Relish). So, when Eddie asked me how I played it, I knew that it hadn’t occurred to him to do the easy thing and he had toughed it out bareback.

I knew I had a once in a lifetime ‘teaching moment’ with a guitarist way out of my league so I paused a few seconds and gave him a one word reply… ‘capo’. I saw the flash of realization on his face before he smiled at me and said, ‘oh, no, man, it’s way cooler without one’. I smiled back and said, ‘well, it sure is harder without one’. He promised to show me how he did it next time we met which, sadly, never happened.

I doubt I’ll ever make a list of Greatest Guitarists but that smile and those seven words were, for me, the greatest affirmation I could ever receive.

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From: Eric J. Kuhn
Subject: Re: The Queen’s Gambit

Bob –

In my spare time, I’m the co-manager of the number one chess player in America, Fabiano Caruana. He is number 2 in the world. Actually, last year, at 25, Fabiano went to the World Chess Championship, the first American since Bobby Fischer, in 1972. He eventually lost to Magnus Carlson but is one of America’s greatest athletes most people don’t really know about.

Chess is at the zeitgeist right now for a few different reasons, but the game has more players in the U.S. than golf or tennis. Technology (especially AI) has made it a more interesting game as players are competing and learning from computers and the game was recently considered to be part of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The players in it represent everything that is now: mindfulness, pattern recognition, smarts, and focus.

Hope all is well and talk soon.

Eric

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From: Liam Glass
Subject: Re: The Queen’s Gambit

Hi Bob,

I just finished the show. Wow. Never have I seen chess so incredibly accurately represented… from the games to the behavior and even down to the social interactions between players at tournaments. My two chess coaches were first the legendary Miron Sher, who sadly passed away recently, and then second the incredible Bruce Pandolfini, who, along with Kasparov, closely worked on the Queen’s Gambit (Bruce had a cameo as Ed Spencer, the tournament director at the end of the second to last episode). If not for Bruce, I don’t think you’d have thought the story was real! I particularly loved that I could pause to analyze the board, then Beth or her opponent would (for the most part) play the sequence or tactic real chess players would.

I am now certain that I need to get back to playing chess competitively – and I have a new goal of achieving a FIDE Master title. My rating and play certainly have far to go, but I think if I work hard enough I can do it over the next few years (and Bruce agrees, with enough very hard work). I know chess must play a larger role in my life.

Best,
Liam

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arren Miller

I so enjoyed watching this – but it was so sad. He was not connected to his children – I was looking for the connection I had with my son skiing down the powder at Keystone last week. With my new POW skis from Parlor in Vermont (Bob – these are amazing…!!) I can finally beat the 9 year old down the hill – he’s on kids Fischer GS skis, so…

But god I love the style of the 70s ski world.

Skiing is super safe at Keystone. Everyone is masked (it is skiing) and the lifts are just you and your party – so Harvey and I were sitting on a chair for 6. Danger is in the plane getting there, and pre/post ski.

Why not wait a few weeks and we can get a vaccine.

Warren Miller wouldn’t have done that though…

Ross Mollison

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I grew up in Baltimore watching Warren Miller films and learned so much ski geography from watching them. I can name trails and ski resorts all over the world that I will never get to see in person! I moved to Boulder in 1991 and looked for an internship while attending grad school (broadcast journalism) at CU. When I realized Warren Miller Entertainment was based there I was determined to work for them. Somehow I got lucky and was hired as an Assistant to the Director (Brian Sisselman)… 2 days a week PAID!!! I was raking in $100 a week for work I would have done for free. Kurt was of course running the company but it was always so exciting when Warren would come to town. Hearing that crazy recognizable voice in the office was such a trip. I remember one day a guy dropped off his resume, printed on a pair of skis. My memory is that he didn’t get hired, but his skis sat by the front desk for a long time.

I’m looking forward to checking out the doc, thanks for the reminder.
Allison Fell

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Thanks to Bob Gedes and Terry Bassett for helping to make him successful

Whitten Pell

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Re: Warren Miller

Wow!!! Bob!! A one two punch. You hit me with the band Boston and then my ski movie hero and right of passage Warren Miller !

You’re not allowed to ski unless you jam into, yes, a 2500 seat theatre and listen to Warren as much as watch!

I remember the days of him standing by the side of the stage and “live” narration! Not sure who else saw this. Does this make me old! Haha.

Greg stump kinda took up the banner for awhile and I remember my days in whistler making sure SEAL didn’t snowboard over my skis after penning the soundtrack to these movies which ultimately kicked off his career!
Skiing cancelled?? No way. My little mtn here in BC canada welcomes you my fellow planker… silver star ! See you on the backside! High desert dry powder. Just like you Utah days!!

Loving your posts these days.

Andrew Johns.

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Re: Warren Miller

we haven’t seen each other in a while. you sound like you are holding up well. i had been meaning to reply to this and then lost track. coincidentally, i watched the mountain time zone virtual premiere of ‘future retro,’ the new wm presents annual film on Saturday. they are doing a three-time-zone ’tour’ virtually. here is the link if you haven’t checked it out yet:

warrenmiller.com/press/calendar

it was fun and re-solidified the annual ritual. btw, tahoe and mammoth got a nice dump last week and it looks like more is on the way. fingers crossed that they all stay open without incident. i am optimistic. so, thoughts are turning to the first day out, which won’t be long now.

i watched the warren miller film ’ski bum’ a while back as well. i sort of knew his story – the trailer in the parking lot, the wind-up bolex, etc. it’s one of the great stories of chasing your passion into a career that you love. of course, as a kid growing up in San Francisco, warren miller, and the soon to be defunct powder magazine, were my windows to the world of high alpine adventure. and so, every year, my bros and i went to the premiere in the city or at marin civic center to get stoked for the season. it started around 1978 and it’s still going today. But, the real shift was in 1988 when ‘blizzard of aahhhs’ was released. That greg stump movie changed everything for me and my generation. it was real, raw, unsweetened, and totally relatable. and you got to know the rippers who were shredding the big mountain lines. the best was seeing all these Tahoe and west coast hot shot compadres – and they all are – going to Cham and getting spooked…AND raising their games even higher. and the soundtrack music was way better. we all wanted to be extreme skiers.

in fact, when i started my career at EMI in the UK, i was expected to come back to the US and take on a domestic role at one of the US labels. but after three years in London, i got a chance to work at EMI Italy and did not hesitate. it might not have been the best career move, but i was in my early 20’s, had an opportunity to get to know my italain family much better, and was intrigued with the lifestyle aspect of that position. i had a 4 cylinder, diesel, front wheel drive volvo with snow tires, that could get like 600k per tank and crush any alpine pass in any weather. i can report that every ski area worth skiing in the alps is within 4 hours, and one tank of diesel, from milano!

my first and most regular stop was obviously Chamonix. yes, it’s only a 2 hour drive from milano, but mostly because i had tahoe ski bum friends living there, and because of ‘bilzzard.’ it was a new world of climbing, ropes, harnesses, pieps, shovels, ice axes, crampons, randonee/tele skis, skins, and steep, wild, huge, mountains. in the alps, they live in and ski the mountains. i can’t explain what a combination of fear and euphoria it is and how much it changes your skiing. it was a revelation of the highest order. through the years of watching warrren miller and greg stump films, i was inspired to go literally everywhere – italy, france, switzerland, austria. all the towns and ski areas were exhilarating and new and exotic, but also ever so slightly familiar thanks to those films. so, thank you warren miller and greg stump for giving this scrawny little kid from north beach, SF a window to the world of possibilities and the inspiration to travel the globe in search of mountains to climb and new fresh lines to ski. and thanks bob for promoting the film and lifestyle to the masses.

tune ‘em up!

piero giramonti

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Re: Warren Miller

Nobody does nostalgia better than you. As for Miller, we are in distribution and we did work with Warren’s films on DVD and Blu-ray back in the 90s. Didn’t sell much but it was an honor being associated with the brand. I was introduced to Miller’s work back in ’75 when I sold the console stereo I won on a Canadian game show called Definition to my dad in exchange for some cash that I used on my first trip to Aspen which, back then, was a far far different place than it is today. Because you merely were there, it entitled you to have a beer with Bob Beattie at the bottom of Ajax, or hang out with Spider Sabich or Wayne Wong at Annie’s. This was the coolest place on earth. Our apres ski was consistently a bar called The Slope which was a tiered deal with carpeting so you could slouch back and watch whatever the projector was running from Lenny Bruce cartoons to the early work of Miller. Being there, drinking it all in, you were part of a very cool club but what I remember most was the freedom. That’s what Miller was preaching, simple unfettered freedom. And he did walk the walk.

We tried but the ski bum life got very expensive and although I had friends who were stockbrokers who swore they would give it all up for a room slopeside and a job waxing rentals….it never quite happened although they made enough dough to keep up with the lift ticket prices. A lot didn’t and now when you go to Aspen, it’s the domain of very wealthy grandparents and their grandkids. And very very old.

Sad. But as the new world order encroaches on our personal space, we can at least remember what it was like to live, even for a few weeks, by the words and wisdom of Warren Miller. We were offered distribution on this biopic and although we loved it, the virus has killed whatever plans we had to release it in the social halls of ski clubs populated by the aforementioned old white people. I would have loved to have seen the smiles.

Thank you again

Jonathan Gross

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I read your letter on The Warren Miller Documentary. Great piece. It really hit home for me, and I thought I’d share. I grew up in the Canadian Rockies, at a small ski resort called Silver Star. I’ve been skiing since I could walk, and almost every kid I knew growing up has gone on to be a professional skier or snowboarder. My neighbors have won gold, silver, and bronze, at the Olympics, and my best friends have won gold at X-Games numerous times. My Dad was a ski bum at Vail in the 70’s, and His Aunt & Uncle were two of the very first investors in Vail. They were given lifetime passes for them and their family, and a house on the mountain for their contribution. My Dad taught me and my brother everything we know. Growing up in the skiing world, amongst that caliber of skiers, brought a whole new appreciation to the sport. Pushing myself to ski with professionals on a daily basis, made me a fearless skier. I attended college at UBC in Vancouver Canada, just so I could skip school as much as possible and head to Whistler. Me and my friends would count down the days on a calendar until the new ski movies dropped each fall. Being friends with the pros, I would attend every ski movie premier in Vancouver and Whistler. It was a blast.

Skiing, music, and movies have always been my passions, and it was hard for me to pull myself away from the mountains, and head to LA to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter and in entertainment. Skiing is still a huge part of my life, and I make my way back to the mountains of British Columbia, and that small ski resort I grew up at, whenever possible.

Anyway, in reading the last lines of your letter, I was reminded of this quote I read on Newshcoolers.com one time, (skiing website/blog for the avid freestyle skiing community), and I’ve never forgotten it. I think one of my all time favorite skiers, Tanner Hall, said it. I’ll share it with you below.

Thanks for that letter, Bob. I think I’ll go watch another ski film now.

“A Skier: an escape from an overly cluttered world; an example of inovation at work; an inspiration to ski better this year than last; an answer to anyone who ever doubted that skiing and all it stands for can still provide one of the most exhilarating days on the planet; a reason to quit your job, sell your matching bedroom set, and move to the mountains once and for all; a motivational speech to anyone needing some twin tips and a fresh learning curve to revitalize their love for the sport; a few frames of A-roll footage for an up-and-coming filmmaker with a camera and a head full of fresh ideas; evidence that not every kid in the country is sitting around super- sizing himself on drive-through fries and xbox; an education for every person on a passing chairlift watching the sport evolve before their eyes; an expression of freedom like these insignificant string of words could never hope to capture.“

Best,
Magdalena Quintana

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Re: Warren Miller

Did you know I wrote the last two scripts that Warren read for Warren Miller Entertainment? Andy Bigford, with Max Bervy’s blessing, hired me for “Impact,” (if I remember correctly), and I also ghost-wrote the next one (Warren’s last, before the final rupture with WME) and the next, the only one narrated by Jeremy Bloom. It was a good gig, even though I wasn’t in the credits, to maintain the illusion these were Warren’s words. The movies were all assembled well after the footage was shot; the film editor, Kim Schneider, would send me videotapes that I would write to. Kim was a class act in every way.

BTW, Warren was less than thrilled when instructed to read my script. It must have been like eating a bowl of burrs for Warren to read SOME NOBODY’S WORDS WHEN HE IS WARREN EFFING MILLER! I’m still amazed he endured another year of reading my swill.

We never communicated once during this gig. He wasn’t about to participate in the process of being shoveled into obsolescence.

Jackson Hogen

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Re: Warren Miller

Bob
Thank you so much for writing about my Dad and your shared history. It was so great to read all the comments of friends and fans of his films.
For my family we still have a big missing especially this time of the year with the holidays and the ski season bringing up so many beautiful memories of our life together.
All the best,
Chris Miller

“Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life”: https://amzn.to/3kFiCTe

There are two types of people in this world, those who go to therapy and those who don’t. Those who think they need help understanding themselves and their problems and those who think they can buck up, be positive, and maybe with the help of their friends conquer all.

I’m in the former camp.

As for your friends helping you…they’re rarely honest and they’re not professionals, their skills are limited at best.

But to be in the former camp, at first you have to admit you have problems. You’d be surprised how hard this can be, to even say this to yourself, never mind out loud. Social consciousness has changed since the seventies, therapy is no longer taboo, most people don’t think you’re crazy if you see a therapist, although I don’t think you could be elected president if you went through analysis, there’s still a stigma amongst a certain segment of the population, even if you haven’t had shock treatment, like Thomas Eagleton.

Everybody’s got problems, whether you admit it or not. Most men don’t admit it, they just hang tight and sometimes commit suicide. Men are successful if they attempt it, they’re goners. Not that you need to commit suicide if you have problems, just that in most cases with therapy you’d be brought back from the precipice.

But there are good therapists and bad therapists. And the truth is, if you want good treatment it’s expensive, in the neighborhood of $250-$300 a fifty minute hour in Los Angeles. In New York? The 400s are not unknown. But sure, you can look who is covered by your insurance, but I do not recommend this if you want more than a band-aid, because the truth is the greats are never on insurance, I have never seen a therapist that takes insurance, they won’t even file for you anymore, it’s too much of a hassle, as for mental health treatment being covered by your plan…there’s a good chance you’ll have to argue for it, despite the law, you see mental illness and mental health get no respect.

So, there are various tiers of therapists. At the bottom are the marriage and family counselors. Then above them are the licensed social workers. Above them are the psychologists. And above them are the PsyD’s. And at the top of the pyramid are the psychiatrists, MD’s, who can prescribe medication. And in the old days, almost all psychiatrists did talk therapy. But since insurance pays so poorly, many have shifted to becoming medication dispensers. And believe me, medication can help, but you want the most qualified person, a psychiatrist has the most training. But since most people can’t afford an MD for therapy, there is now the aforementioned PsyD, which is like a psychiatrist without the medical degree, as in they learn how to analyze, have similar training to psychiatrists, but cannot prescribe medication.

If you think you need medication, do not get it from your internist or general practitioner unless it’s an emergency, they are not truly prepared to dispense. To see a psychopharmacologist psychiatrist is expensive, in the neighborhood of $350 an hour in Los Angeles, but you don’t go too often, they assess you and prescribe and then you come back a few times for tweaks. As for the medication itself…they’re all so different, some make you calm, others agitate you, some are harder to get off than others, and oftentimes you need a cocktail. And sure, medications all have side effects, each and every one, not only anti-depressants or anti-psychotics, but it’s better than holding on by your finger nails, and sometimes you just need medication to get over the hump, you don’t have to take it forever.

Whew! This was not the path I planned to go down, not at all. But the truth is the mental health world is murky to those not involved in it. And even the best therapist for one person might not work for another. But if you need help…

Christie Tate did, at $70 a pop, back at the turn of the century, for a group!

The beginning of this book is absolutely fantastic, Christie details an existential crisis, she’s #1 in her law school class, but why does she feel so bad, why does she have no romance, why does she have few friends? She runs into an acquaintance who recommends Dr. Rosen and Christie is just close enough to the edge to make the call. Most people do not, she gets credit for taking the plunge. Just to be heard, to have someone listen to your story, helps so much.

But Dr. Rosen is not the typical shrink. Sure, he went to Harvard, sure he’s a psychiatrist, but he does not believe in individual therapy, but group. Christie’s been going for almost two decades.

WHAT???

That’s another thing about therapy, as soon as you start everybody starts bugging you to stop, it takes wherewithal to stay with it, but therapy pays dividends.

Yes, either you’ve had good therapy or you have not. And if you’ve had good therapy you’ll be the first to admit it’s changed your life, opened up possibilities, corralled your worst tendencies.

Oh yeah, there are short term therapies, and they may get you over the hump, but if you want to go deep… It would be great if everybody would go deep. Therapy is a club, and if you’re not in it…it oftentimes shows. The person who loses control at a meeting, the person who doesn’t act in their best interests, all you can do is sit quietly and tell yourself THEY NEED THERAPY! But they won’t go, because they would have to admit they have problems and need help, and that’s anathema.

Last year Lori Gottlieb’s book “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” was a best seller. I read it and enjoyed it, but I was bothered by the lack of insight Lori, a shrink herself, evidenced. “Group” is written from the perspective of a patient, and Christie Tate lays it all out.

Dr. Rosen does not believe in confidentiality. He won’t reveal your secrets, but you revealing the group’s secrets…IT’S OPEN SEASON!

Furthermore, Dr. Rosen gives prescriptions, and I don’t mean medication, and those make me anxious. That’s how behavioral therapy works, via exposures, it’s the only treatment that works for OCD, but for regular therapy? I made the biggest mistake in my life by doing what a therapist told me to, without his direction I never would have taken this action. My present therapist would never ever tell me what to do, which is why I never call him in a crisis, because all he’ll say is we’ll talk about it the next session, he wants me to improve, but not lean on him.

Christie is constantly calling her therapist. And she’s angsting. And getting angry, breaking dishes, not all the time, but when she’s really frustrated. She’s hates her breasts but doesn’t even realize it. She can’t say no, doesn’t believe in arguing, shows up for everybody, and is subservient in relationships. The group breaks her of these habits, they free her! And along the way she realizes oftentimes she wasn’t the problem, it was the other person, but when you’re on the outside looking in it’s hard to see it that way.

So there are a lot of details here, Christie lays out her entire life, all her feelings. she says she “turned out out perfectionistic, frigid, and borderline asexual,” but from the outside she looks perfect! If you’re not a believer in therapy you’ll probably wince, too much sharing, why doesn’t she get over herself. But the truth is all people feel like Christie, but they hold it inside, they’re afraid to share, but in therapy you share.

So you’re along for the ride with Christie. Her family upbringing, feeling like an outsider, her parents not having enough cash to send her out of state for school, needing to be #1 in school to feel good about herself, but what is that worth anyway if your life itself doesn’t work. Believing she’s not good enough to interview at Skadden. It’s like you’re living inside someone’s brain who has the same feelings and experiences you’ve had, or similar, and that makes you feel connected, not alone.

This is not a highbrow book, and at the end it can be a little sickly sweet, but unlike too many tomes, “Group” is highly readable, and it will call out to you to finish it. If you’re in therapy, you’ll dig it. If you’re not in therapy…you probably won’t read it. But if you’re not in therapy and you choose to pick it up…that’s the first step, you’ll suddenly become aware of your issues, see that they can be addressed.

And enough of “first world problems.” This is why people don’t talk about their issues. Sure, people are starving, struggling to make ends meet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have problems, no matter how much money you’ve got, no matter how good your life looks from the outside. We’re all human, we’re essentially the same. Some nights we can’t sleep. We’re flummoxed by relationships. We wonder why we do this or that. We can’t make order of our lives. If only more people had therapy the country wouldn’t be in the shape it is. That’s what I believe.

Have been waiting patiently for this – I working with the Warren Miller team when VHS Home Entertainment took them to a new level… after a few years in LA reaching for the stars, in 87′ I fell back on my degree and got involve in post production – first roll at this post house was to put together a 2000 machine VHS Duplication facility… then put in charge of filling those machines up! Having been mesmerized by Stacy Peralta magazines and films as a teenager in the mid-west, I picked up the phone and called the Peralta company to see if we could Duplicate their VHS – Stacy Peralta himself picked up the phone and we made a deal! Worked with them straight up to the whole “Gator” Rogowski debacle!! Stacey put me in touch with Herbie Fletcher of Astrodeck in San Clemente who had a line of surfing videos – Herbie connected me to Kurt Miller, Warrens son, who was running the biz in Redondo at the time… we made 100,000’s of Warren Miller VHS cassettes and they led the explosion into a power sports on home video…

Chip Viering

Indianapolis

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Great recommendation. I discovered skiing when I transferred to the University Of Colorado in Boulder and the same friends that had me learn by cutting to the backcountry and following them down some unmarked lines also introduced me to Warren Miller films. That voice is ingrained in me just like the impact that skiing had on me from day one. This inside-feeling look at the brightness and darkness of his life and career has moved me. Thanks again for the recommendation. 

Stephen Schloss

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Thanks for sharing! I grew up in Milwaukee, WI and you knew ski season was close when Warren Miller would come to Shorewood High School to show his film.

As a kid, our parents took us to Sun Valley because my Dad wanted to ski where Warren was filming.

Then we started to hit Vail starting in 84. Probably because Warren turn us into it.

Never grow tired of watching the classic Warren Miller films.

Sure hope the ski areas survive.

Maybe someday we’ll bump into each other riding the gondola out of Lionshead.

George Briner

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I’m a big skier. I relate to all these skiing missives you write about. 

I remember going to see a Warren Miller film in my elementary school auditorium!

Therefore I suggest you check out the film “Fire On the Mountain” that just came out. Although it’s not only about skiing (snowboarding and surfing get a little love) it captures some amazing skiing footage set to Grateful Dead music. 

It’s not really a Grateful Dead movie, it’s about the underlying creativity that is common to great athletes and musicians. Indeed the “making of” was on primetime on ESPN a few nights ago. Check it out you’ll love it, even if you’re not a Deadhead. 

Regards, 

David M. Ehrlich 

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Every year, I would drag the kids to Symphony Space on the Upper West Side to see the latest Warren Miller Flick, and over time, the kids got as hooked as me. And for two east-coasters, my merry men know Little Cottonwood and the P-Dog pretty darn well – they’ve hiked/skied Baldy Chutes! Proof I’m a fun dad! Tom Shpetner 

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Nice piece. My brother (who spends winters in Alta) gave me his book awhile back and I really enjoyed it. I’ll check out the film. But the Warren Miller franchise these days — the annual ski film —produces amped up schlock. Last one I went to several autumns ago i swore I’d never go back. Huge deviation from what Warren himself did. 

– Greg Dennis

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Love it, can’t wait to check it out. Remember watching his flicks at the magic lantern in Sun Valley. We already busted out the XC skis a couple times on the golf course. It’ll be interesting to see what they do at Squalpine this year!! 

Joe Weinstein

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You’re right. Watching the latest Warren Miller flick was a seasonal event, like attending those giant ski shows to get the jump on the latest equipment or a bargain on last year’s stuff.

And we would always bring along VHS copies of the older movies. A few times we were snowed in at Mammoth and that’s pretty much all we had to do while the lifts were shut down.

We discovered the movies were even more fun when we muted movie volume and played our own music. It was amazing how an album like Talking Heads “Remain In Light” or

Zep’s “Physical Graffiti” very nearly synced up to what was happening on screen.

Thanks for the memories.

Tom Cartwright

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And Warren Miller! I too remember anxiously awaiting the annual showing of his latest film. Living in LA I was fortunate to be able to see him in person several times. He also frequently had a booth at the LA Ski Show where you could go right up and buy a tape from the man personally. Yes his jokes may have been corny but there was such an enthusiasm for just being in the mountains, forget all the stunts. Of course there was also the dirty pleasure of the falling off the chairlift segment. Still wonder if that was all staged.

By the way did you ever see Ski The Outer Limits? That was probably my favorite ski movie from the 60s. Still have my VHS copy. 

Rob Handler

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Thank you.. I was a semi lifer in Vail for 7 years. Late 80’s early 90’s. Still get there annually. Friends who I met there then, most still turning them now!

Warren’s story so beautiful. I never realized the pain and challenges he had with his loss of his wife so early etc. Sad but her spirit certainly lived on through him… I hope we get to ski Vail this year. I am now 56 living in Minneapolis and our time that we both spent being ski bums always keeps us connected……God Bless…

Edward Charpentier

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Warren has a great line about taking twenty years to become an overnight success.

It was VHS sales that made him some money.

Bill Carle

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Funny, I didn’t like the film very much and thought they weren’t fair to Kurt and Peter. 

Jim Lewi

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Met him in Maui. Good guy. We are supposed to open in Sun Valley Thanksgiving. Got dumped on yesterday. 11 inches or so.

John Hummer

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It was a fall ritual.: going to annual Warren Miller film at the Santa Monica Civic.

Then, when the season opened in the local mountains, it was cut school and go skiing in the morning, and the beach in the afternoon.

It was The Life!

Kathy Freeman 

Uni, Class of Summer’62

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The late fall viewing of the latest Warren Miller movie was a rite of passage to the upcoming ski season! Watching a Miller film with 2000 like minded ski fanatics always psyched me up! You had to read Powder Mag to find out where all the local powder stashes could be found. To this day even with injuries that no longer allow me to ski Corbet’s and other similar terrain, I still get up in the morning and the first thing I do is look at world wide snow reports. Finding out that 3 feet of pow fell at Alta still makes me happy! 

-Rob Teitel. Orchard Lake, MI

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Rite of passage those Miller flicks were. 

Good memories with friends of just partying before the show(s), during, after but just getting amp’d for the season. 

Last one I remember was 93′ or 94′ in Portland at the Schnitzer (holds 5-6K)…Just about sold out but fans were PUMPED.

Living in central NY now is a far cry from skiing on Hood/Bachelor but nothing beats hitting the slopes, anticipation in the morning, and now my kids are into it (sort of), its really my only thing I look forward to here with our long ass winter…

Thanks buddy!

Steve Anderko

Syracuse NY

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Thanks for your great post on Warren Miller. 

I got to be a rock star. But I would much rather have been Phil Mahre or Jean-Claude Killy. 

My dad was around for a lot of the early days, knew Warren when he was sleeping in his trailer in the SV parking lot (because my dad was also sleeping in a trailer in the parking lot). Like you, he almost made it to celluloid — was supposed to do a day of helicopter skiing with Warren near Alyeska Resort in AK in the late 60s or early 70s but the day was stormed out. 

Seeing his films every fall as a kid (and Dick Barrymore’s, too) at the Seattle Opera House was magic. We’d walk out of there jumping off ledges and curbs doing daffys and spread eagles and helicopters, so excited for the season to start.

It was just as exciting as seeing Elton at the Coliseum in 1975 or Wings at the Kingdome in 1976 or Bad Co. at the Coliseum a year later. It’s the same thing, the same vibe, the same passion and opportunity for expression. 

best,

dave dederer

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I’m writing to you from the F train, heading back from a friend’s place in forest hills. We are both well off enough, but not rich. She’s a surgeon, I was a lawyer at a big firm, and I’m now in medical school. It’s a long story, but I was dissatisfied and took a risk. But now I’m wondering why. I was inside and now I’m outside. 

I read your Warren Miller piece. I love his work, he gets me excited to ski. I’m not great, just ok. I have ten-year-old east coast skis. But stuff like Miller gets me excited for the seasons, it makes this whole thing keep turning. Turn the page and it’s winter, there’s Warren, there are some athletes doing amazing things. Maybe we can have some nice weekends on a mountain. Maybe a friend has a friend with a parent who has a house in deer valley. That’s a rare treat. 

I’m a good liberal but I’m single and in my 30s, so covid quarantine is wearing me down. But do you know what’s going to break me? When I see the elite skiing this winter when somehow I can’t—either because I’m not allowed or I can’t afford it. 

I’m smart and capable and committed to my community. But I’m scraping by. Keep writing, I hope you’re reaching the people who need to hear it. 

Hoping to see you on the mountain someday,

Tim Pistell

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Ah man, thank you for writing about Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story.

[The last time I wrote you was in March in regards to COVID and the early shutting down of the ski season. Specifically with Park City when it was top 5 in country for most cases per capita.]

Going to Warren’s movies was like a right of passage to the ski season that lay ahead. Growing up in Park City and being in such close proximity to so many ski resorts meant that Warren would come and do his movies in person. Whether it was at the auditorium in Park City where I went to school or to an auditorium in Salt Lake where my dad would take us down to take in the latest one each year, it was always an event you didn’t want to miss.

I essentially stopped going and/or watching them when Warren was no longer the main voice of the movie. It felt like the soul had left. Watching that documentary brought that childhood value back to introducing this coming season. It’s going to be the strangest season yet – provided it doesn’t get shut down.

Vail and its Epic pass has sent out its mission for this season. The season is set to open in 5 days with a very different set of rules. The general gist is that it will be a reservation system with a limit to the number of skiers on the hill each day. Park City is supposedly going to be something like 3,000 skiers a day with a hope you can get a reservation to actually ski. You can only ride a chair with people you’re skiing with. If you’re a single skier, as I am 95% of the time, you will only be allowed to ride on opposite sides of a quad or 6 person chair with one other rider. I’m assuming any chair less than a quad means you’re riding solo.

Living next to a chair lift and being used to getting up and skiing on any given day is no longer gonna happen thanks to the reservation system. Which is antithetical to Warren’s motto about the freedom of skiing.

As a skier who never skis without a neck gator, I’m used to a “mask” type situation, which Vail is also requiring this year. But will it actually work for them from a financial situation? That’s where my curiosity lays. Will they be able to accommodate enough skiers for it to make financial sense for them to stay open? I hope so. Otherwise, I’m going to be doing a lot of hiking up behind my house this season to get that skiing fix. Especially since it’s snowed a few feet already. Jonesing hard for that feeling of feeling of “ALIVE!” while skiing right now. Will that escape work? We can only hope so.

Despite the early oncoming of snow the explosion of COVID cases in Utah, yet again, has people canceling their holiday reservations to come ski. The double edged sword is: it makes me happy, at the same time, I realize it’s how this town tends to survive.

Jody Whitesides

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Here in Québec skiing is on. There will be no more than two people allowed in a gondola unless they have the same address. Chair lifts for four will allow two people. Masks at all times even on the trails. 

Chalets will be closed except for brief warm ups and bathroom access. No food service. 

Preference will go to seasons pass holders and tickets will have to be bought on line before arriving at the hill. 

Mont Saint Sauveur was open with one trail two weeks ago until a patch of warm weather ruined that. It was mostly for promotion but lots of folks turned up. Only seasons passes. 

One of the problems is that we use a colour code system here that doesn’t allow you to move between, say, a orange and red zone. Montreal is in the red and most of the ski areas are in the orange. 

Fingers crossed. 

Rob Braide

Stay Positive,Test Negative. 

Ski guy from Canada. 

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Didn’t know you were a ski freak, man, very cool.

I grew up ski racing in New England, went to ski academies for high school (GMVS, CVA), knew Bode Miller and half the USST, etc. We would line up every time a new Warren Miller film came out. At least until Greg Stump’s films came along…

Mark Radcliffe

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Some brilliant movies and a legend… but nothing ever came close to Greg Stumps Blizzard Of Aahhh’s. The all time greatest ski movie with probably the greatest soundtrack ever too.

Benjamin Evans

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From: Gregory Stump

To: Bob Lefsetz

I liked your article. However, like all journalism it is incomplete and inaccurate.

I most certainly did not make ski porn.

I am in Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story. I just watched it again the other day for the first time since the unveiling in Park City a few years ago. In my humble but qualified opinion, I find the film annoyingly maudlin and slow. The film dwells far too long on WM’s failures rather than his triumph’s. I am friends with the producers and directors and I have told them the same thing.

And Bob I reject that Barrymore “burnt out” or that Last of the Ski Bums was his crown jewel. Vagabond skiers was excellent and hi K2: The Performers changed the World.

Take a gander at my work and if you have thoughts I would be honored to entertain them.

Respectfully.

Greg Stump

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From: Bob Lefsetz

To: Gregory Stump

No, you did not make ski porn, no way.

It was when the internet hit and then cheap cameras that we hit the era of ski porn.

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From: Gregory Stump

To: Bob Lefsetz

Thank you. I get cranky when people leave me out of their version of ski history.

I am in the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame after all. 

I like your writing except for that one.

Keep up the great work.

Greg

P.S. I suggest looking at: Siberia, Groove Requiem: In the Key of Ski, P-tex, Lies and Duct Tape and Fistful of Moguls. I look forward to your thoughts. 

Constant reader, but have never written to you before. I’ve been on New York rock radio for 47 years now- and sure remember when that Boston album came in. I was doing evenings on WPLJ,/New York’s Best Rock where we were a Monolith in ratings- Boston was a no-brainer- right up our alley- and of course, we played the hell out of it. Tom Scholz- wow- we heard he did the whole thing in his basement!

And yes, for Boston, and so many of the well-produced bands that came after—the derogatory term ‘corporate rock’ and accompanying disdain were coined and fostered by detractors of Boston. At WPLJ, our primary competitor at the time was WNEW-FM, where Boston and ‘corporate rock’ were not favored, and didn’t receive anywhere near the airplay we gave them.

So it was with a certain subversive glee that I remember purposefully playing Boston on my first show when I moved over to WNEW in late ’83. Since WPLJ had gone CHR–well—now I humorously had the monopoly on playing Boston during the evenings on ‘NEW, where I remained until that format change in 1999.

Fast forward to now- in 2020- where I’ve been happy to, yes, be able to play the hell out of Boston on Q104.3 “New York’s Classic Rock” -doing evenings for the last 16 years–and am also happy to play Boston on SiriusXM Classic Rewind.

That’s a lot of Boston—because they sound that good , and the listeners love them!

Now, if anyone can remember the details of the New York radio promotion for Boston, involving a limo ride for us DJ’s, maybe to somewhere in Jersey—-can you please fill me in?

Thanks!—-Carol Miller

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hey Bob…two things I want to say about Boston. They were the first concert I ever went to…December of 1978. seats were behind the stage but that didn’t make the experience any less awesome. the opener was this dude who ran around the stage so much it made me dizzy…..Sammy Hagar

Secondly…..I also remember trying to play those Boston songs as an aspiring lead singer/guitarist. I could pick up pieces here and there but pretty much all I could really master were the chords in the choruses of More than a Feeling and Peace of Mind. trying to play those lead parts was futile. also Brad Delp had a sick range that I could come nowhere near. Have you ever noticed that there are no Boston cover bands? or cover bands that even attempt those songs? I know the production is insane but the rest of it is so original it can’t really be duplicated

Mike Farley
Michael J. Media Group LLC

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During Boston’s ’78 tour, they played the Pontiac Silverdome with Sammy Hagar opening. In conjunction with it, they played a basketball game against the crew of WABX radio in Detroit. While sitting in the bleachers with my dad watching Tom Scholz, Sib Hasheen, and Sammy’s bass player Bill Church(noted he has a bum leg. Polio?) on the court along with crew members vs. the DJ’s. A nice-looking older lady with a younger boy and girl sat behind us and struck up a conversation with my dad. “That’s my boy Tommy out there playing. I’m his mother, and this is his niece and nephew. We came up from Toledo, and he doesn’t even know I’m here. Would you be nice enough to let him know, young man?” I of course ran down to one end of the court and flagged him down, and pointed them out to him, to which he was very appreciative.
Meanwhile, I scanned the bleachers, and out comes Brad Delp with his girlfriend. He got mobbed, mostly by girls, but seemed to be very gracious about it. I turned and looked over my shoulder, and there was Barry Goudreau with his gal. Alone. I quietly walked over and had a nice, short chat with him. Told him I loved his electrifying solo on Long Time. Nice guy.
No idea who won the game.
Tom Moore
Oxford, Michigan

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I love cover songs and have a playlist for Boston. Some good, some obvious and some obscure. Enjoy!
CoverSNGS:Boston, a playlist by sdbruns on Spotify

Steve Bruns

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I got my driver’s license about the same time that the Boston debut album came out. I inherited a 1964 Pontiac Tempest that my father bought when I was two feet tall. It was rusty and I had to put a 2×4 under the hinge of the driver’s seat to keep the seat upright. But I didn’t care. That summer, my family was vacationing in Wildwood, NJ, as we did every year while I was growing up.

I had a part-time job and spent a huge amount of money installing the best Pioneer under-dash stereo system (with separate dedicated amp!) my money could buy at the time. Jensen 6×9 speakers mounted into the rear deck that I cut the holes for myself with a jigsaw.

I got to drive there myself for the first time that year. As I was driving over the causeway, through a small fishing town called Anglesea, Foreplay/Long Time was blasting on my stereo, having listened to the whole album at ear-splitting volume on the ride down.

I can still vividly remember the goosebumps, excitement, ocean scent of the summer air and sheer life-force that was in me that day as I bridged the gap between childhood and adulthood on my way down the shore.

Memories that I still conjure up today as a happy place. One of the most important albums of my life, and they just don’t make ’em like they used to.

Thanks for bringing it back for me.

Stay healthy.

KEVIN DREXLER

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BG (Bob Greenberg) was a sound system engineer/inventor at Werlein’s Music in Boston. He visited me and my girl for dinner one evening around 1977. At the dinner table, my girl mentioned once seeing the Beatles at Boston Garden. I questioned whether the Beatles had ever played the Garden. BG said he could settle the argument, picked up the phone and called the biggest Beatle fan he knew-Brad Delp. Brad confirmed that the Beatles indeed did play Boston Garden, and the he had sneaked into the show by finding an unlocked fire door. He also mentioned that one of his biggest thrills was to eventually meet George Harrison in person.

Stephen Gavigan

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Bob, that ultimate game-changing rock album touched my life as well as my heart and my ears. As it was told to me, Paul Ahern’s vacated Capitol promo post was filled by Dom Silvi , whose Capitol sales post was filled by Paul Crisostamo, whose Capitol merchandiser slot was filled by a local bar band guitarist (me). I spent 30 years at Capitol. My friend and ex-bandmate, keyboardist Neil Miller, designed the Rockman circuit board. His signature is on it. Paul Lanning

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“We saw them a few weeks later at Aerosmith’s rehearsal facility — I think it was in Waltham, a Boston suburb.”

It was indeed Waltham. I worked at Moe Black’s department store, right next to Aerosmith’s “Wherehouse”.

Joey Kramer was a regular visitor for car detailing supplies.

Tom Quinn

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I credit Boston with jumpstarting my career as a television producer. In 1978, I just graduated from NYU and started working at Gotham Advertising, the in-house agency for CBS Records. I started as an assistant producer, but within two months was given the assignment of producing a spot for Blue Oyster Cult. That went well, and the execs at Epic were pleased. Around the same time, the VP of creative services prepared a :30 spot for Boston 2. This was high priority so the label spent more than usual for :30 of beautiful animation of the spaceship coming down from the mountains and landing and transforming into the album cover. Everyone seemed pleased so they sent the spot to the band for approval. And the guys from Boston HATED IT. They vehemently hated it and stated that the spot said nothing about who they were as a band, and that as far as they were concerned, it was :30 of wasted time. So there was a crisis. The label had already bought the ad time on television. One of the Epic execs suggested that they give me (the kid) a chance to salvage it. The band had no music videos to use. So we talked on the phone with the guys, and evidently the band members loved to take photos from the stage of the audience. They sent what they had, which was about a hundred murky black & white slides of the audience. Though the photos lacked in quality, they showed coliseum sized crowds going crazy. So I went into the edit studio and blasted these images rapid fire, around six per second. “Don’t Look Back” starts building and you see crowds going wild. People screaming and going crazy. At :24 we cut to the slick spaceship animation and the voice over delivers the message – “Boston 2 arrives August 26.” And the band LOVED IT! They said that’s exactly how they saw Boston – a group of guys playing music for the people. Giving fans a great time. I felt very relieved, as was the label, that everything worked out and that we were able to convey their vision of who they were as artists. They honed their sound in the studio, but felt their purpose was to engage with a live audience.

After that experience I went on to produce the TV ad campaigns for Springsteen (Born in the USA, The River, Nebraska, Live Box Set), Michael Jackson (Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad), Ozzy, Journey, Cheap Trick, etc. I don’t know if any of that would have happened without that opportunity that Epic and the guys from Boston have me. Huge thanks to them.

Ken Schreiber

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Tom Werman, BELMONT HILL SCHOOL ’63… A friend and soccer teammate…Ron Druker,BHS ’62… Small World…

Also,played on same “law firm”( neither of us were members of the firm!) basketball team in a Boston( not the band!) LAWYERS LEAGUE in the early mid eighties with Tom Scholz as my cousin, Steve Simon, was/is his friend and lawyer…more small world!

Ron Druker

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I remember going to my first concert ever in December, 1976 (Foghat, Rush, and Mother’s Finest at the Palladium in NYC) and sitting in the back of my friend’s Camaro when “More Than A Feeling” came on the radio. It is still a memory that gives me chills me to this day.

A couple of months later in February we saw Boston headline at the Nassau Coliseum along with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes who were booed out of the building, and Starcastle. Boston played almost the entire first album and two songs from their second album which had not come out yet. Surprisingly they were able to sound good in a 20,000 seat arena.

I last saw them at Whitman Auditorium at Brooklyn College in 1979. They were on a college tour and while they were still an arena act but for some reason played smaller venues doing a college routing. They killed in a smaller venue. Later that summer, they came back to headline Giants Stadium in front of over 50,000 people.

Adam Gerstein

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I was 11 when the first Boston album came out. This was in the spring of ’76 in Australia. What an album! When I first heard ‘More Than A Feeling’ on the radio, it was like the heaven’s opened up. I instantly became a fan and when I picked up the guitar a few years later, I sat down and learned a lot of those solos from that album by ear. ‘Hitch A Ride’ solo is king! I learned that note for note. Over the years I’ve bought multiple copies of that album, first it was the vinyl, then the cassette, then the CD and every re-issue after that. More than 40 years later, that album still gives me the same feeling (no pun intended) as the first time I heard it. It takes me back to that time, every time.
Both Boston’s Barry Goudreau and Brad Delp went off and formed RTZ in early ’90s (another fine and under rated band in my opinion) and I was lucky enough to interview Barry Goudreau in the early 2000s. To hear some of the stories behind some of those guitar parts that he and Tom put down on that first Boston album, to me, it was a guitarist’s wet dream. He and Brad Delp had just released their ‘Delp And Goudreau’ album. Brad was one of the finest singers of our time. Was very sad to hear what had happened to him. He was one of a kind.
Joe Matera, Australia

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The best goddamn tip from the mailbag of all time. Thank you Mike Flanagin. Hindley Street Country Club is the real deal. I’d go see them anytime. They killed it and I got excited and that’s from someone who was there in the beginning.

John Brodey

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Hi Bob, loved your passionate piece about Boston and it took me back to my own first encounter with the band.

In September 1976, I was a young agent visiting Los Angeles trying to build a good roster for my fledgeling agency ITB and woo some USA rock acts over to Europe.

I was amazed by the eclectic range of radio in the States compared to my native UK, and I was especially drawn to KMET (the mighty Met) of Southern California. I listened to that station all the time, in my hotel room and in the car driving around. I even made many hours of cassette tapes from the radio to take back and play in England.

When Boston’s ‘More than a Feeling’ blasted out for the first time on KMET I was just knocked out by the amazing experience; totally arrested by Brad Delp’s soaring vocals and the sound of that visceral guitar.

The song was on regular rotation and I just knew that somehow I HAD to sign this phenomenal band. I tracked down their manager Paul Ahern in LA, and hounded him to give me Boston for representation in Europe. By then I’d heard the whole debut album and every track was a winner, especially ‘Foreplay/Long time’ and ‘Rock & Roll Band’ etc.

PA (as he was known) and I became great friends and still are to this day. He invited me to New York on my way back to London in order to see Boston perform. In New York he took me up to CBS records where he (jovially) harassed Walter Yetnikoff and Lenny Petze (who had signed the band to Epic) about their new, huge selling artist. PA had broken his ankle so was hobbling around on crutches from office to office in the CBS building.

At the Boston show in New York I met the late, great Frank Barsalona who had signed the band for touring to Premier Talent Agency. I learnt a lot from Frank over the years so, to a young agent like me, the NY Boston experience also gave me a stepping stone to meet some industry greats.

Eventually PA gave me Boston for agency representation in Europe (Frank and Barbara Skydel at Premier Talent kindly agreed to release the band from a worldwide deal). Well, I was as proud as punch.

Boston came to Europe in October 1979 for their only appearances and played five spectacular nights to great acclaim at London’s legendary Rainbow Theatre. All the shows sold out well in advance. They were lovely guys and despite their massive success they were humbled to be so enthusiastically received overseas.

That’s my Boston story.

Rod MacSween
International Talent Booking, London