By Jeb Wright
G.D Praetorius has released a book titled Babysitting A Band On The Rocks where he lets the average rock fan take a rare peek behind the rock star curtain of the 1980s.
In the book G.D. tells the story of his youth…a loud rocking youth that saw him producing rock concerts in clubs, theatres and arenas across the Northeast for a promoter during the early 1980s.
G.D. tells tales of working with, hanging with and even snorting with some of the biggest names in Rock history. We are talking Aerosmith, Van Halen, Keith Richards, Roger Waters, Tommy Lee and dozens of others. It is not all salacious details though, as he also lets us know the blood, sweat and tears it took to put on a rock show during the genre’s Glory Daze…err Days!
In the interview below we discuss why he felt the need to write the memoir now…as well as what it was like to do what he did…
We also talk brown M&Ms!
Buy the book here : http://ltcds.com/product/babysitting-a-band-on-the-rocks-book/
Jeb: You are not a professional writer. You are not in the rock business anymore. Heck, you’re even older than me! So where do you get off writing a book on rock ‘n’ roll? All kidding aside…tell me when the itch to do this became so great…you had to do it.
G.D.: After rock, my career has been in marketing and advertising, so I’ve been writing all of my adult life, just not necessarily in a long form narrative format. But my recreational writing began the day after I met Keith Richards on Parrot Cay in 2007. It was such a surreal experience that I had to write it all down the next day even if just to remember it for myself. That led to a formal essay about the evening which was well received by friends and family. That essay led to more essays which eventually led to somewhat disjointed memoir of my first 50 years on earth.
Michael Benson, a college buddy of mine who makes his living as an author (mostly non-fiction, true crime in particular) said it was very good and that I was a great writer, but that there was no market for it. But if I took all of my rock and roll experiences and bound them as a book, well, that might go somewhere. So, I took Michael’s challenge and the result was Babysitting A Band On The Rocks.
Jeb: Go back to before you were in rock music…what bands got you going? What were the Top 5 albums that changed your life?
G.D.: Jethro Tull’s Aqualung and Living in the Past, Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman…those were the first three LPs that I could call my own. But I quickly moved to 8-tracks with The Stones’ Sticky Fingers.
Jeb: What were the challenges of writing this book? How much harder was it than you thought it would be?
G.D.: Finding the time was the #1 challenge. I have a full-time job and a demanding wife with a very extended Greek family. People constantly I ask if I’ve seen Big Fat Greek Wedding. I never fail to tell them that it’s a documentary of my life…
Jeb: Any good stories that was too ‘good’ to put in the book?
G.D.: There are a few things, and they are in the book, but I treated them in a more generic sense so as not to incriminate myself and a few other people too badly. I told the truth, I just didn’t supply all of the details.
Jeb: What were the steps up the ladder to becoming a promoter?
G.D.: To be clear, I was the Production Manager, not the Promoter. The Promoter took all of the financial risk of putting on the show. The Production Manager is the person that does all of the advance planning and then is responsible for the event throughout the day-of-show. But to answer your question of the steps involved: At 15, 16 I helped out with my friends’ band, humping stuff, setting up, breaking down. Then I briefly managed them, got them gigs, etc. At 18 I went to college and got involved with the Concert Committee, first as a stagehand then as Production Manager.
I came to the attention of our local professional Promoter and he hired me. The fact is I was very good at what I did, even at a really young age, and he recognized that. I was way more mature than most my peers at the time, and I was passionate about music and the music business.
Jeb: Tell us in detail what being a rock promoter in your day meant? What was ‘show day’ like from the time you got up to the time you went to bed?
G.D.: Making sure that everything from complying with artist contract demands to the load out runs smoothly is the responsibility of the Production Manager. It’s all in the chapter titled “A Day In The Life.” Despite all of the great memories of specific artists and shows, that chapter was the most satisfying to write; it poured out of me because it all came back like it was just yesterday. There is simply no feeling equal to watching a concert take shape…its construction of a sort, combined with throwing a massive party for 20,000 people.
Jeb: How many concerts did you almost see? You spend so much time working … you know… you miss it all.
G.D.: Great point…and the answer is that I probably didn’t see a single complete show of the almost 200 I list at the end of the book. It was work for me, and I was responsible for making sure that everything went smoothly, and to make the best of it when it didn’t.
Jeb: You were around some pretty amazing classic times. Van Halen and M&Ms…real shit huh?
G.D.: Yeah, I would consider it the “Golden Age” of classic rock meets the birth of Punk and New Wave. My show list includes an incredibly eclectic mix of artists and acts. Van Halen’s M&Ms bit was quite real, and the band upstaged themselves the next year by requesting Coney Island Whitefish.
Jeb: Was Steven Tyler your most loved and most hated artist to work with? Tell me some stuff about him away from the stage at this time.
G.D.: I actually liked Steven a lot. You have to understand what a weird turn of events it was for me. Just a few years before I met him he was one of my personal rock idols. At 16 I was paying to see him and Aerosmith and sitting in the cheap seats. Then I’m quite suddenly responsible for his health, his safety, his performance. That’s crazy shit for a 21-year-old to have to deal with. It was a big enough job just keeping myself out of trouble. Stephen wasn’t a bad guy. He was just incredibly fucked up at the time. He broke up with Joe Perry, for God’s sake!
Jeb: Was it all sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll to these guys? Any good groupie stories? Did you have to shoo them away?
G.D.: There were always groupies around the bands that you would expect to have those kind of followers, Aerosmith and Van Halen obviously, but Devo? Not so much. My long weekend in Detroit with Van Halen in August of ’82 was as crazy as it got, a backstage strip club one night, a bombshell bursting from a cake the next followed by the scene on Van Halen’s hotel floor in Detroit – there a few photos of that party in the book – was about as debased as it got.
Jeb: The Keith Richards part is so cool. That was really just a chance meeting. Wow!
G.D.: Yes, completely a chance meeting, but I give myself credit for taking advantage of the situation. There was another couple across the bar who was scared to death to speak with him. My wife and I just made ourselves at home as if we and he had been friends for years. It didn’t hurt that I was a pretty knowledgeable fan, and one that could speak his language. But the real kick was that he was just a regular guy and we ended up talking more about life than about music.
Jeb: Why did you step away from the business? And how did you avoid getting dragged back in?
G.D.: I didn’t step away from the business as much as my job went away. The promoter that I worked for was getting fewer shows each year. Then I applied to all of the talent agencies. I could have taken a job in the mailroom for $8,000 a year but I couldn’t live on that, so I took a position at an advertising agency that paid $11,000 and freelanced in the rock business on the side for a while. That was the deal when I spent the Detroit weekend with Van Halen.
I never went back to music full-time though because my wife remained in the business and we felt it best to not put all of our eggs in one basket. Her career allowed me to still keep a toe in the water, though. Her career transitioned into Artist Management – Twisted Sister, Zebra, Kix and a few other acts. Later she was in music publishing, and the artists were more pop oriented – Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, J-Lo, etc. The writers, producers and musicians in her world didn’t mind when I came by because I had such a passion for what they were doing and I knew a lot about music.
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Jeb: As you created this book how many memories and emotions came flooding back? How did you deal with that?
G.D.: Honestly a lot of the memories have hung around a long time, so it was just a matter of putting them down on the page. I’d been telling a lot of these tales for over three decades. There were others that came back only as I began doing my research, which was extensive.
Jeb: What was the show you were most proud of to pull off?
G.D.: All of them, but maybe my Ted Nugent show in Providence where they shot the cover for Ted’s live album Intensities in Ten Cities. The equipment showed up only 3 hours from show time and it still happened, though probably minus a few effects.
Jeb: The show that was the hardest to pull off?
G.D.: Probably every one of the Mystery Club Tour shows with Aerosmith. In the clubs you weren’t dealing with professionals, to put it mildly, and the bad situation that you had to make the best of was only a matter of degree, from a three-flight-of stairs load in coked-up club owner accusing Tyler of stealing their mirror to goombahs not wanting to pay the band if not beat the shit out of them. It’s all in the book.
Jeb: And the show you fucked up too bad and it was a mess?
G.D.: Probably Judas Priest and Def Leppard on July 5, 1980. I was exhausted because the ex-college buddies that I lived with had an all-day/all-night 4th of July bash so I was dragging ass to begin with when I showed up at the theatre at 7 a.m. Priest’s own Production Manager was a real hard-ass, and we had major spotlight problems which did not go over well. And it was way worse than it may sound.
Jeb: What are you most proud of in your rock career?
G.D.: I’m really proud that despite my youth I was wholly responsible and incredibly good at my job, I dare say even better than many more experienced guys that held the same position. I was good enough that Van Halen wanted to hire me – and they were the most demanding act out there by far.
Jeb: What do you think of today’s rock landscape?
G.D.: It’s tough to find the real quality stuff. Rock’s not on the radio anymore, other than Classic Rock formatted stations which rotate Oldies from the 60s, 70’s and 80s instead of the 50s and pre-rock 60s. And there is no one curating whatever is new out there on Spotify and other streaming services. I grew up with WNEW-FM in New York opening my mind to an incredibly eclectic playlist, but everything outstanding. Those DJs had great ears, and I trusted their taste. An algorithm just doesn’t cut it for me.
Jeb: On another level, is the music over?
G.D.: No, it’s just harder to find it. Should we let it die? It’s not our choice, but I think it’ll stay around at least a while longer. There are always talented new artists in rock and every other musical style, they just need to get heard.
Jeb: We are both huge Jethro Tull nuts. My favorite is the Songs from the Woods and Heavy Horses era. What about you?
G.D.: I’m actually a huge fan of the two outtakes albums – Living in the Past and Nightcap. I think that “Small Cigars” is simply one of the most wonderful things that Ian ever wrote. There are a lot of gems on both of those records, and I like the albums’ lack of an overriding theme, unlike most other Tull records.
Jeb: You wrote about your life but it really was a snapshot in time to a huge era for rock music. Does that feed nostalgia now?
G.D.: No not nostalgia, but history. What I was going for with the book was for it to be more than my story, for it to be exactly what you’re calling it, “a snapshot in time.” My hope is that maybe a few decades from now someone can read Babysitting… and actually experience the era through my writings. In the movies they call it a period piece.
Jeb: What goes on when you look back and reflect on what you accomplished and saw?
G.D.: I realize that I am happy to have lived through it…and that I came out in one piece, and with most of my brain cells intact.
Jeb: What was the band that surprised you most…a. Onstage… b. offstage.
G.D.: That’s tough to say. Onstage they were all so amazingly talented, that’s how they got there. Backstage no one really surprised me. Surprises were the norm, if that makes any sense.
Jeb: You did coke with Steven Tyler…that’s kinda cool. Did you realize it was cool at the time or was it just a day at the office so to speak?
G.D.: In the late 70s/early 80s, illegal substances were just part of the scenery, and “all of the cool kids” were doing it. The bigger kick for me with Steven was the fact that in a few short years I went from being a paying fan to being paid to be with him, ultimately hanging out with the guy and his wife in their hotel room, friends for a moment sharing intimate conversation at two in the morning. But I was mature enough to realize that the reason I was there was work – Steven needed something from me. So yeah, ultimately it was just another night at the office.
Jeb: I love Van Halen. The Dave era is awesome. Any good thoughts on Diamond Dave?
G.D.: Despite the fact that he tried to pick up my wife, I liked Dave like I liked Steven. He was an amazing showman with a truly unique voice, and I consider the Dave lineup the only Van Halen worth seeing.
Jeb: Would you do another book? Is there another one in there?
G.D.: Already working on it.
Jeb: My best days I truly believe are ahead of me…but some of my favorite days were the good old hard rock days. I miss record stores. I miss dumb rock chicks with big boobs. I miss smoking a ‘J’ during a concert. I miss the hang in the parking lot. It ages us to talk about this stuff. Kids today do not know who Aerosmith, Jethro Tull and Van Halen even are. They are Grandpa Rock.
G.D.: Yes and no. I was just in Urban Outfitters today and they’re selling Beatles and Stones tee shirts, not Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Mumford and sons, etc., all great bands but none yet iconic. I think that the best artists and bands of every generation remain relevant or at least respected, just as the best classical, jazz and blues artists still are. Great songs particularly stick around a long time.
I’m watching TV the other night, a car commercial comes on with some guy playing a wicked piano piece. I’m saying to myself that I know that song, but I can’t place it. It finally dawns on me that It’s my friend Dee Snider’s “I Wanna Rock,” classical-ized. Like it or not, that song and “We’re Not Gonna Take It” are never going away.
Jeb: Tell us where people can get this book?
G.D.: People can order it at LTCDS.com, the online platform of Looney Tunes, Long Island’s largest record store and great supporters of the book. It’s also available at Newbury Comics’ 30 stores on the east coast from Maine to New York. I’m going to start shopping it to publishers soon, so eventually it will be everywhere.
Jeb: Last one: What band was the most fun to work with…
G.D.: The J. Geils Band…just a loose, down to earth bunch of guys plus Peter Wolf. The management and crew were like family to us. There are a few J. Geils after-show episodes that I declined to go into detail about…
Jeb: Who was the worst to work with?
G.D.: I’m not telling.
Jeb: And what one do you wish you had worked with?
G.D.: The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, hands down.
Jeb: Okay…really last one. I am a huge fan of Kansas…the band. Did you ever work with them?
G.D.: No, and I only saw them as a spectator once, when they opened for Bad Company at Madison Square Garden in April of 1976. They also happen to be performing later this year at The Paramount, a great theatre here in my hometown of Huntington, on Long Island. I’m a regular there. It’s just a short walk from my home. In the past few years I’ve seen Slash, Joe Walsh, Jeff Beck, ZZ Top…George Thororgood next month. I’ll never stop.
Buy the book here : http://ltcds.com/product/babysitting-a-band-on-the-rocks-book/
