So, it’s about 7 a.m. or so and the show is over and cleanup has started. I run into an old friend and want to get their phone number, but we don’t have a pen. Bill Graham walks by with his clipboard and a pen hanging around his neck on a chain. I say, “Bill can we borrow your pen for a minute?” He looks at me kind of amazed that I would ask him, he is obviously very busy. I can see his brain spinning about how people think he is such an asshole, and he really isn’t, so he says, “OK” and gives me the pen. I write down the phone number and give him back his pen and he goes off on his merry way.
Finally, at dawn, Bill Graham treated us all to a breakfast buffet. I hadn’t slept, or had a real meal, since the morning of December 30
I could tell he really did not want to do this but he did, he was a good guy. I miss him and what he brought to us. Needless to say, I have no idea who the friend was or what I did with their number. It was that kind of night. And, of course all of this happened with that great smell of bacon wafting through Winterland.
~ Joel Weiner