Many years ago, I was scheduled to do a night at the U'nI Coffee House in Massachusetts. It got up plenty early enough. Early enough to eat a couple of chicken burritos at Taco Bell. I got out to the place where I was going to play and by the time Ed & Beth Brown arrived to open up, my stomach was doing La Cucaracha. I tried to get everything up a couple of times, but my stomach had more knots in it than a seamans belt. I was in such agony I couldn't even stand up, so I asked Ed & Beth if there was a room I could go in to, and with the door closed, I ended up writhing on the floor. Thank God, I had asked Ed to book my friends The Beans as my opening act, and they were there. When Jim Bean saw me, he asked what he could do, and I asked him if he had a gun.

By the time the concert rolled around, I was rolling around, too. So, the Beans ended up doing the whole evening. When the concert was over, and had to drive home and didn't know if I could make it. I was scheduled to make chili for a thousand people the following morning. Honest. Ed was "reminiscing" about the whole experience when I saw him at NOMAD Saturday. What irony... I suppose it could have been worse. I could have had to make a thousand chicken burritos.

I managed (barely) to make it half way home to a motel and spent the whole night alternately crawling on the floor, lying in bed for five minutes stretches until I couldn't stand it any more, and pacing the room. At sunrise, I hit the road, stopping at a McDonald's to get an Egg McMuffin, hold the sausage, egg and margerine. I managed to get it down, and got back to work just in time to start making the chili.

Ah, the performers life! Such glamour!

I've never had another chicken burrito at Taco Bell, thank you..

Jerry