“As you go through life you meet people, some you want to remember, some you’d like to forget but can’t. “
We had
a private party booked on June 25, 1977 and Greg had to go out of town, so George asked his brother, Craig, if he’d sit in on
bass. He agreed and we got together a few times to rehearse. The gal we had singing with us at the time couldn’t
make it that weekend so we were back to a trio. The person who hired us was none other than John Wayne Gacy.
We
met Gacy at another yard party where he was entertaining as a clown and he asked if we'd play at a private party at
his home. We agreed. When the day came and we began to set up, all we could think was it must have been a pretty
big deal since there were several huge grilles setup in the backyard manned by chefs in tall white hats. We setup in the garage
and played for the pre-arranged time. He asked us to play an hour longer, so we told him it would cost an extra $50.00 and he
agreed. The party ended and we were standing down by the curb in front of the house after packing up our gear. He
didn’t want to pay us the extra fifty. Someone said, “We gotta talk about this” - probably George - so we went inside and
talked it out. He paid us the extra $50.00 and we simply left.
Steve recalls:
Sometime later Gacy called me at home
and wanted to book the band for a similar party the following year. I asked him the date but he wasn’t sure. I remember
this conversation like it happened yesterday. I said, “John, we’re not that busy, just call us when you nail down the date and
we’ll take it from there.” I took down his name and number (and still have that piece of scratch paper in the archives) but
obviously he never nailed down a date. He got nailed instead.
That fateful December when it was all over the TV and radio
things didn’t click in my mind because the media was using his middle name. George called and said, “Looks like we’re not
playing for Gacy next year”. I said, “Who”? When George explained my jaw hit the ground. Enough said.