Istarted out as a roadie for the Bay City Rollers in 1973.
Who have I worked with over the years? Bay City Rollers, Jethro Tull, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Wham! , Luciano Pavarotti, Black Sabbath, Bruce Springsteen, Oasis, Shania Twain, Franz Ferdinand and many others.
The year I spent with Ozzy Osbourne was one of the toughest. Our guitar player Randy Rhoads was killed in an air crash and I was standing there watching it happen. We were on our way from Atlanta to do a show in Florida. The tour bus driver had his pilot's licence and offered to take me and Don Airey [keyboard player] up for a spin. So up we went. He seemed to know his stuff, doing stall turns and everything. He brought the plane back down and it was fine.
Randy said he fancied going up and Rachel [Youngblood, Sharon Osbourne's dresser] said she'd like to do it too. I took the pilot aside and said, "Take it easy up there." When they were up in the air I noticed they were coming in low.
He must have flown over my head at about 30ft. By then, he was flying on his side and the end of the wing punched a hole in the bus window. Then the plane suddenly flipped over and crashed through the roof of a garage. The whole thing went up [in flames]. All three of them were killed. I saw Ozzy years later and he blanked me. I don't blame him.
I understand why he did that, but he didn't see it happen.
It's an outwardly glamorous life. Let's just say, though, that the people who come into it solely to taste the glamorous life can't make sound check by the fourth day, they're so tired.
I have woken up many a time in a hotel room and had to look at the phone next to the bed - with the name and address of the place - to remember where I am.
I played drums one week for the Bay City Rollers when Derek [Longmuir] was ill. They paid me GBP30. I thought my ship had come in.
I hold a Fifa licence. I don't like the word agent, though. It smacks of someone who turns up, does a little bit of work and gets paid a lot for it. I'm not interested in making millions. I only want to make thousands.
I've had some hairy moments. Once Ozzy was arrested for urinating in front of the Alamo in San Antonio. I convinced the officials to give him bail by telling them that if he didn't play the venue that night they'd have a riot to contend with. After the show, state troopers escorted the tour bus out of Texas and over the state line into Oklahoma.
Doing this job has reduced my threshold of patience. I'm so used to getting things done quickly. Sometime I yearn for the nine to five, but at the end of the day I love what I do.
www. showtimerocks. com
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