2012-04-03 - 7:50 p.m.
I'm picking random things in the past to write about. This entry's called... Playing With The Allman Brothers!
It was Saturday, September 5th 2009 and we were making our first appearance at Red Rocks! This is the site of tons of incredible concerts, none of which I have seen. Playing here will be the first time I have ever seen the place. I'm totally psyched! This will be the first place that I have played that the Beatles played! August 26th, 1964. Apparently it was the only show not sold out on their entire tour. They played the concert under the threat of death over Lennon's remarks about Jesus... blah, blah, blah. Whatever. The cops hated them and refused to place guards up in the hills to look out for the snipers who claimed they would shoot John from up there. They played the show with 1000 yard stares. But I digress.
The place is incredible and totally deserves it's reputation for being the coolest outdoor venue on the planet. There was a bit of a threat of rain so the Allman's kept their gear covered with tarps. Kind of a drag 'cause it meant we played in front of what looked like giant baggies. If you have never been there, it's a huge natural amphitheater carved out of the red rock cliffs of Morrison Colorado. It holds over 9000 people and it was pretty well full when we played. What a trip! I seem to remember we played pretty well. When we were done I wanted to go out to the front of house (fancy talk for where the sound board is) hang with some friends and watch the Allman Bros. I first saw them at Stonybrook University, Stonybrook, NY. It was Sept. 19th 1971. My brother and I and a few friends had tickets for the early show but when we got there we decided to get tickets for the late show too. After getting the tickets we walked out of the student union and just reached the curb under the "bridge to nowhere" (if you went there in the 70's you know what I'm talking about) just in time to see a limo pull up. The rear window came down and a huge cloud of pot smoke came billowing out. A red eyed Duane Allman stuck his head out and said, "Hey, man. Ya'll know where the gymnasium's at?" A dumbfounded me pointed to the right and said, "Yeah, it's that building right there", and the window went down and off they drove. But I digress.
Before I had a chance to even get my stuff fully off the stage the Allman's stage manager pulled me aside and said, "Mr. Haynes would like to see you in the production office", so I go down into the bowels of the place and was led into a room and Warren says, "Hey man we liked what you did up there. You want to come out and play a tune with us?", to which I said, "Sure", and so it was that I would play a tune at Red Rocks with the Allman Brothers. Fuck yeah! Joel and Mike co-ordinated my setup and I was to come out on Come In My Kitchen, an Elmore James tune (I think). I had some time so I went out to check out the first part of the Allman's show. There's a tunnel that leads out under the crowd to F.O.H. It's amazing because it's covered with the signatures of thousands of performers who have played there over the years. Mine's there now. I hung with some friends and it sounded great! I made my way back at the proper time and before you know it, there I was out on stage with the Brothers and we were rippin' it up. Now I'd seen them many times in the past and, not for nothin', I don't ever remember Greg Allman smiling at any particular time or at any particular person but hey... there he was a smilin' at me after I finished up my solo and circling his hand around to tell me to go one more. I played a riff or two and looked over at Derek and he played some shit back at me and we did that for a bit. I always wanted to do that with Derek. I had a conversation with him years ago and it turns out one of his gurus is also mine. We're both huge fans of the great, Indian sarangi master Ustad Sultan Khan. You can hear it in both our playing occasionally. Well much too soon it was all done and off the stage I went. What an amazing experience. Sure hope I get to do that again!
