In The Wilderness: origin of the band ~ Road Crew: the amazing don'

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"On the road again . . . ." Oh, the joy to be doing something productive with no outer goals in mind other than the unloading of a truck filled with gear and setting up of a production that would make Vegas smile. All the guys in Dad's band had to do was walk on stage pick up their drum sticks--if you're my dad---or plug in their instruments. Once we had thirteen 'one-nighters' in a row--that means you set it all up that day and take it all down after the show that night. It got to be that we just about walked in our sleep like some 'road zombie' to the truck when it came to pick us up early each day.

The road crew consisted of myself, Ed (Jeffthro's dad) and the amazing Don Casay. Within the first couple weeks of touring, I had become incredibly enamored with the amazing Don'. He had stories that would simply mesmerize the listener, whether he was telling us of the times spent with Rod Stewart, Grand Funk Railroad and The King of Bands, The Embers or of the time he was shot in heroic fashion in Vietnam. Hey, whether true or not, these were some damn good stories, but what gave the amazing Don' such credibility was not only the absolutely flawless mix he performed with the band (and in typical Don Casay fashion--draping the soundboard in an American Flag while we were all on break), but also 'amazing' incidences where we actually saw the amazing Don' in action.

For instance, one day we happened to be in a mall parking lot somewhere in North Carolina, when all three of us--myself, Ed, and Don'--heard someone outside say, kind of calmly actually, "Can I have some help over here?" We looked over at the mall sidewalk to see two men tussling with a new television set beside them. Ed and I simply froze, unable to speak, much less deciding on any course of action we should take with the situation. Before we had a chance to even exhale, the amazing Don' hopped out the truck, ran over to the two men and then expertly helped the 'correct' security guard subdue the man for the police. This is the amazing Don' and he would prove his skills to us in confronting those last-minute unknowns many more times before he would eventually take another path, but believe me, we will get to those stories before the amazing Don' leaves us.