Chapter 15: KDOT, Bill Compton and a Missed Opportunity By 1976, I had become buddies with several of the people at KDKB. There was a guy who was already god-like when I met him, named Bill Compton, who was working there as both the program director and a DJ. He was the real heart behind…
Chapter 14: Gato Barbieri Not long after the Outlaws show, the great saxophonist Gato Barbieri came in from Argentina. He had been one of my favorites for years. We used to listen to him in high school as kids, along with other jazz greats like Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis, and Coltrane. Shamefully, there is hardly…
Chapter 13: The Outlaws The Outlaws were one of the first big acts I got for Dooley’s. I booked them with an agency called Paragon out of Macon, Georgia, which was run by a man named Alex Hodges. He also had groups like Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels, the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Wet Willie. …
Chapter 12: Chuck Berry Chuck Berry was one of the first artists I booked at Dooley’s, for two shows in January 1977. I’ve heard some messed-up stories about him—that he would arrive for a show and tell you he needed more money than he was supposed to get before he would play. He’d tell…
Chapter 11: Getting the Gig at Dooley’s Tempe A Star is Born came and went. It was a great gig, and it gave me some much-needed confidence. I was marking time at this point, not doing much in the biz … until I finally got a regular gig booking for Dooley’s Nightclub in Tempe in the…
