I briefly saw a piece of an ad for some new movie the other day about Casablanca Records from the early ‘70s or so. A guy named Neil Bogart ran that label and we were signed to it (The Charlie Daniels Band). It was spring/summer of ‘73.

One night we were playing a bar on Long Island called My Father’s Place – there were only about 5 or 6 people in the audience that night. Andy Kaufman the comedian was doing his Mighty Mouse and Old McDonald act right before we played, nobody knew who he was, I think maybe he was just getting started doing standup. We all thought…who’s this weirdo! By the end of his routine we were all laughing til we cried, god, it was hilarious!

At the end of our set we all went down to the basement of the bar – there was an old nasty looking couch that looked like it had been picked up on the side of the road – several of us were sitting on it drinking beer and passing joints around. Neil Bogart was sitting there with us and had this photo album that you put Polaroid instant color photos in, you know, those cheap Walmart pieces of shit where you peel back the clear see through and put in as many photos as possible on a page then press it back down…and they keep falling out as you turn the page! So annoying…

Neil said, “Look here Charlie…this is my next band I’m backing”…

Neil hands the photo album to Charlie and he starts flipping through and of course they start falling out down between us into those nasty couch cushions – I get up so they can retrieve the photos, then walk behind Charlie so I can see the photos better. The band in the photos were all made up with a ton of makeup on…it just all looked like crazy circus shit to me.

Charlie says, “I don’t know Neil…I don’t think this is gonna fly…Alice Cooper’s already done this stuff”…I walked back upstairs thinking how crazy it must be for those dudes having to put on all that makeup, not even knowing if they’re gonna make any money or not, just the thought of having to do that, annoyed me terribly… the stairs at the back of that bar were dark and creepy. As I got to the top of the stairs to turn a corner to re-enter the stage area, I ran smack into Andy Kaufman!…it scared the shit outta me! We nearly slammed head on into each other, we both sorta screamed then went in different directions.

Late that year, bassist Billy Cox and I both gave our notice to Charlie and went to Pittsburgh the spring of ‘74, being backed by big time concert promoters Decesare/Engler productions. They had rented us a house for the entire band to live in and get the act together, and on the weekends we were the opening act for whatever big rock concert they promoted at the bigger venues.

One night all us guys in the band are watching tv – seems like it was Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert maybe?….but there were those guys in the photos we were shaking our heads and laughing about the year before….there were thousands of teeny bopper boys maybe anywhere from 5 to 12 yrs old screaming like they were seeing Superman in the flesh! The band was called Kiss…

That next year in ‘75, my wife was with child and we moved down to Knoxville where I grew up, so I could try raising the kid in a more stable environment- doing electric/plumbing work with my uncle Glenn.

On Saturday night this new show aired called ‘Saturday Night Live’….and, there he was! That crazy weird looking dude that I ran into at the top of the stairs in that shit hole bar on Long Island – miming ‘Mighty Mouse’ and ‘Old Macdonald had a farm’ with a little record player…some of you all know the rest of the story of that unknown comedian and that crazy circus looking band from that strange night in that infamous Long Island bar….