Nancy, Janis Joplin, and one night in 1968
I met Nancy in 1968. I was wondering around on campus at San Bernardino Valley College, during lunch break, when I heard the most beautiful flute sounds echoing in and around the buildings. I was immediately drawn to that music, like a character in a cartoon when they smell a pie cooling off on the window ledge and then they kind of float over to it, following the ribbons of aroma. Nancy was skinny, (back then we all were) with long flowing black hair and smooth white skin. She looked like Snow White serenading a group of students who had formed a circle around her. I don't remember how or why we started talking, but we did and soon became good friends.
Nancy and I enjoyed getting together and spending hours playing music, her on the flute and me on acoustic guitar. I learned she was a flautist with the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra as well as a student at the college. Apparently she recorded in Hollywood from time to time as a studio musician and knew a lot of people in the music business. I never paid much attention to her stories of famous people because at the time, everybody who played in a band in Southern California, seemed to know somebody famous. You always took these stories with a grain of salt because everybody exaggerated about their acquaintances with rock stars.
Later that year, I was excited to hear that Janis Joplin was coming to San Bernardino. She was going to play in concert at the Swing Auditorium with Chicago, who was then known as Chicago Transit Authority. I always wanted to see Janis, as well as Chicago, in concert so I couldn't wait to get my ticket. I had heard the rumors that she was always drunk when she performed and I wanted to see it for myself.
Right before the tickets came out I was talking to Nancy and she says to me, "I'm playing at the Janis Joplin concert, would you like to go with me and watch from back stage?" My response was something like, "You sounded like you just said....never mind, I know you didn't say that, you couldn't have said that!" She assured me it was for real. I later learned that Nancy was the type of person who always understated things. If she said she knew somebody famous, she probably knew them better than she let on. I had no clue at the time just how connected she was to the recording scene as well as the concert circuit.
Now I had been going to shows at the swing auditorium since I was a little kid. I'd seen everybody from Tennessee Ernie Ford to Ricky Nelson there over the years. So the idea of getting to go backstage was more than a big deal for me, and especially to see somebody up close like Janis Joplin! I wondered if she would be drunk, wow, how cool would that be to see Janis drunk and singing the blues! She didn't disappoint.
Back then there were always three or four bands who played in a concert and it took 20-30 minutes in between acts to break down the previous act and set up the new one. Nancy was somehow connected to a big concert promoter who paid her to play her flute and entertain the audience while the roadies were making the change over for the next band. She did this mostly around Southern California. That night there were actually 4 bands playing. Besides the headliners, there were Lee Michael's and MC5. When we went in back stage, I was surprised to see all these guys from the different bands greeting and hugging Nancy, like they've known her for years! And here was I, this goofy-not-to-cool-short haired 19 year old nobody right in the middle of all these long haired hippie musicians I had seen many times on album cover pictures and listened to on the radio.
But the payoff of the evening was when a drunk Janis Joplin came stumbling into the room, swigging from a bottle of Southern comfort, being propped up by two girls dressed like gypsies, whining about how scarred she was because there were too damn many people out there in the audience. Not only were the rumors true about the southern comfort, I learned that the 2 women she was with were her currant lovers! It was the first time in my life I had ever seen two women kiss, and it was Janis Joplin doing the kissing! Too cool!
So I'm wondering how Janis is going to perform when she's drunk on her ass. She could hardly walk or talk.
And to top it all off, while her band was tuning up on stage a girl from the audience popped her head under the curtain and handed Janis a bottle of cheap wine, which she proceeded to chug in about 2 minutes flat. Now she's so drunk she can't stand or talk, she just starts yelling at her band and mumbling about how she didn't want to be there because she was so scarred. I knew I was about to witness a disaster, history in the making and I'm just 10 feet away watching the whole episode unfold.
What happened next, I will never understand. It shouldn't have happened but it did happen. As soon as she was announced and the curtain went up, Janis sprang to life. She sang with perfection. She talked and danced around the stage like she had been back stage meditating and doing stretch warm ups. But I KNEW what she had drank, I saw it, at least a full bottle of southern comfort and a full bottle of wine. God only knows what she may of had earlier in the day! But here she was, being driven on by the energy of the screaming fans, or whatever enabled her to do what she was doing, and doing it with style and grace. Maybe it was just sheer talent, I'll never know. That night I walked away from that concert with three resolutions ingrained in my mind. #1....I'm starting a rock and roll band, #2.... I'm never cutting my hair again, and #3....From now on, Im going to believe everything Nancy tells me.
Nancy and I sort of drifted apart over the next year. Every now and then, I wonder what became of her. Did she go on to play professionally in a philharmonic orchestra? Did she get married and have kids? I'll never know, but I'll always have the memories of that night back stage at the Swing Auditorium....as well as some sweet gossipy tidbits about Janis Joplin!