For nine years, REO Speedwagon drummer Alan Gratzer
had a partner in crime: his drum technician,
James ‘Motor Merritt”.
When the gig ended shortly before Alan’s departure
from REO, Motor left the asphalt jungle of L.A. behind
(much to his relief), and he set out to pursue his own
creative projects. Today he resides waaaay off the
beaten path, enjoying a life of rustic tranquility, where
he divides his time between his own landscaping design
company and a musical theater project with some buddies
from high school, which he describes as
“Dr. Suess meets Frank Zappa”
(A CD will be swiftly forthcoming).
But, lucky for us curious Wagonheads, Motor was more
than willing to, as he puts it, “dust off the grey matter”
and give us a glimpse into what life in the REO world
was like back in the old days. He is very friendly, with a
wicked sense of humor, but charmingly modest (he
apologized in advance because he thought we’d be bored
with his tales of REO yore). He speaks very fondly of Alan,
in spite of such minor inconveniences as having to wrap
“those 747’s he played with” (his drumsticks) with
“miles of gaffer tape”. His skill for the latter
task can be viewed at the beginning of Live Infidelity.
So sit back, pop a tall cool one, and prepare to get the
REO education of a lifetime, from the best teacher of all.
And to all you professional musicians out there, take heed
from Motor’s candor, and be VERRRRRY nice to your
crew. You could be next!
Flying Tuna Chronicle: For the benefit of all those
“REO
virgins" out there, you were Alan Gratzer’s drum tech from
1979 to 1988. Your real name is James Merritt, but you prefer
to be called “Motor”. Age-wise, you will only admit to being
an “old fart”…..yadda yadda yadda.
Where are you from originally?
Motor: I was born in Tucson, Arizona, and was raised by
wolves on a nearby mesa. Actually, I was raised in suburban
Los Angeles. I always hated L.A.
Before going to work for REO, I was a one-man
production company (sound, lighting, stage/road manager) for
a show band out of San Diego, CA. We played ski resorts
all winter and Hawaii the rest of the time. Rough gig, eh? :O)
FTC: Poor dude! :O) At what age did you learn to play
drums,
and was “Little Motor” ever in a band?
Motor: I cut my teeth on the Beatles. They were a huge
influence, and the reason that I traveled the road I did. I played
snare drum in fifth grade band. God, I wanted a drum set! :O)
I ended up playing guitar over the next few years (cheaper to
buy). Then I switched back to drums after high school.
Yes, I played in a bunch of bands over the years. The first
real band was “The Great Apple River Downstream Innertube
Float” (1970-71), and “Brumus” (1972-73). Both were L.A.
bands. Then I moved to San Diego and formed “The
Bowhammy Brothers” from 1973-75, and took this band on
the road playing all over the Midwest. Then later, “Hotel Bill
and the Incidentals” (1981-87), and “Hotel Bill: The Next
Generation”, 1991 to 1993. Recently (and this is pretty
funny), I started playing with a high school punk band
called “Socks Over Pants.” It is hilarious, and a great
sweat! They were the only non-country band that I could
find around here (meaning the town he currently lives in).
FTC: How did you
get the gig with REO?
Motor: I stood in the wrong line. I thought it was a
flight to
Rio. No seriously…yeah, right. Back in 1978. while working
for the show band out of San Diego, I met the Flying
Turkey/Tuna himself, REO’s legendary pilot, John Durkin.
He was a friend of the guitar player’s girlfriend, and he
came up to a gig we were playing in Sun Valley, Idaho. I believe
it was a Sunday night, and it was a dry state on Sundays, and
John asked me if I wanted to fly along with him to Colorado
(or somewhere equally as far away) to buy some beer. I thought,
“Man, this is a beer run!” Anyway, John told me that the band
was getting ready to tour, and gave me the name and contact
information for John Baruck Management, and I guess he gave
them a description of me. I sent a resume and photo of
me & my dog. They called me later while I was working
on the island of Maui and said, “Does your dog know how to
tune drums?” The rest is history.
FTC: What was your initial impression of the band
(especially Alan) when you first met them?
Motor: The first rehearsal
for the Nine Lives tour was my first
day with the band. I remember walking into the sound stage
thinking, “this is really the big time.” I had worked with bands
for a while, but this band had the best deli spread I had
ever seen! I think they were called “REO Lunch Wagon” by
the grocers and caterers of Hollywood. They were regular guys,
a bunch of comedians that loved a good gag. After the initial
awkwardness of getting to know whose roadie was whose,
we soon became family…ala ”Adams Family”. :O)
Alan is one of the best human beings that I have
ever worked with. We were really close for a lot of years. I
mean, you can’t work night after night with your head beneath
a drum throne without developing a certain “closeness”.
FTC: Really now? Hmmmmm…..we’ll have to talk
more
about that later on. Had you ever been on a road crew prior
to REO? Was it harder than you expected?
Motor: I was working for several show bands (70's
dance club bands) doing sound, lights, stage and road managing.
Sort of a one man crew. Going to work for REO was easier in a
lot of ways, but then again when I received my job description,
“junior road manager” (that’s Greek for catering and laundry),
and by the way, do you know anything about drums? The drum
part of the gig wasn’t too time consuming, but chasing spandex
pants around San Antonio…that’s another story. We eventually
added some other tasks such as security, guest lists, and pyro, to
guard against the likelihood of having any free minutes in the
day. But hey, we got ‘er up and down and out of town.
FTC: Who were the tour managers?
Who was the most demanding and who was the most laid back?
Motor: This is probably the easiest question in the load:
Tom Consolo, Tom Consolo, Tom Consolo, and Tom Consolo.
Oooops, I gave one too many Tom Consolos. Hell, he earned it.
Tommy put up with quite a bit of wild shit from all angles. He
always handled himself like a pro. Always a gentleman and most
importantly (with our bunch of loonies), he managed to keep his
sense of humor. He was great. End of story.
FTC: What are the specific aspects of a drum tech’s job?
Motor: You spend a lot of time on your knees, and
sometimes it gets a bit rough with your head directly behind
the drum throne. Lovely picture, huh? But seriously, besides
setting up, maintaining, changing heads, tuning, working with
the drummer during the show, tearing down, and doing it all
over again the next day….not much to it.
FTC: Is there any one REO tour that stands out in
your
mind as being the funniest, hardest, longest, etc.?
Motor: All the tours had their moments, and we certainly
didn’t go too long without a good gag, but I would have to say
that the mother of all tours was the Hi Infidelity tour of 1981.
After the release of the Decade of Rock & Roll album, we
spent the summer on sort of a weekend warrior tour (mostly
festivals and secondary markets) while recording the demos
and some of the basic tracks for H.I. We would fly out of LA
on a Friday, play Saturday and sometimes Sunday, fly back and
go directly into the studio until the next weekend when we
would do it all over again.
By the time we finished Infidelity, the band was near the end of
its fiscal rope. We loaded out of dress rehearsals at S.I.R. in
Hollywood into one semi and “Manson” (our monitor man at the
time) drove a small rider with the leftovers. We really had no idea
of what was waiting around the bend. Well, I guess you could
call it a rags to riches story, or as I have put it…the outhouse
to the penthouse. The rest is history. The album went to the top
of the charts. We were playing sold out shows in every city.
There were huge crowds camped outside the venues and hotels
ala ‘Beatlemania’. It was very cool! Soon we had
three semi’s on the road (I think at one time we had five
rolling…or was that Good Trouble???) Uh oh, a possible
‘old timers’ moment…let’s see, what was I talking about?
Hmmmmmm???
FTC: Who were the other roadies on your crew, and what
did they do? Please include their handles so fans can recognize
them from album liner notes.
Motor: The names have been changed to protect the
innocent.
What a group of crazies! This crew had more personality than
Jim Carrey squared! Our soundman for most of the time that I
was on board was Bubba. He also became crew chief after Mike
the Mangler departed in the summer from hell tour (Decade).
K.C. and Bruce had several techs over the years. When I
first walked on the scene, Sluggo was handling K.C. and Bruce,
and Matt (the guy too dull for a nickname, and travelling
president of the REO chapter of the Dull Men’s Club) was with
Gary. Then they switched. Sluggo stayed with Gary for the
duration. Then Matt became a production manager for the Beach
Boys, and Porque joined the team and stayed with K.C. Rollo
was doing keyboards and taking care of Bruce. He also handled
the carpenter duties and served as stage manager. Then Rollo
retired and we found Fumi in Japan on our first tour there, and
we sort of adopted him. He was on the Japanese crew for the tour
and told us he wanted to become an American roadie. After
I taught him to talk like a sailor, he came on board and today
is one of the best technicians in the business. Fumi was
Trout’s guy up until I left.
Lizard of course was the wardrobe mistress, catering goddess,
and all around band mom and crew nanny. She was very good at
what she did! Slim was the longest running monitor man after
Manson peeled the top off the rider truck and walked into a gig
with his cowboy hat peeled back like the top of the truck. He
was singing a song called “Dead Bugs on My Windshield” that
he composed while driving through the desert on acid. Manson
drove off into the sunset, and Slim became the piano player
in Hotel Bill and the Incidentals.
Was had several production managers over the years, but the one
that stands out was Bobby G. He was a great guy, but for some
reason was the brunt of the majority of our gaffs and practical
jokes. I remember one show he was reaming out a couple of
the lighting crew for being late for stage call. Not real late,
just a few minutes late. That night in the hotel, Sluggo,
Lizard and I gaffer taped him in his room. It took two rolls
and hotel security over an hour to get him out. He walked into
the load-in an hour and a half late to a cheerful chorus of “Good
morning Bob!” and some healthy snickers from the stage crew.
There were some great guys on the various sound and lighting
crew that toured with us, as well as riggers, truck drivers and
bus drivers. We were a big family. I am still in touch with a
few of them, but often wonder how the others are doing.
We were good, we were large, sometimes too large (if you
know what I mean). It was fun!
FTC: How did your job on the road differ from your job
in the studio?
Motor: Live is the best. You have one shot to get it right.
The lights go down, and it’s showtime. You don’t stop
until it is over. I don’t care how many shows you have under
your belt; when the lights go down and the crowd goes nuts, you
get a rush of adrenaline that is hard to describe. Mistakes
are made during shows, but the mark of a real pro is not letting
them show (sort of camouflage). You just keep going.
The studio on the other hand is a process of repetition. Staying
on it until it is perfect (sometimes too perfect). We would be
locked up in windowless rooms for 20 hours at a stretch and
when we finally emerged---feeling like Dracula on a bad date---we
would race home, sleep for four hours, and do it again. We
would watch a lot of MTV (still rock and roll back then) and
cook awesome meals (see REO Lunchwagon). The guys had
ping pong and the G.B.A. to keep them from getting any crazier
(The Gag Basketball Association). The end result of
the studio time was very cool, but getting to that point was
often times very boring. Yes, live is the best!!
FTC: How did you get the nickname “Motor”, and
how did
Alan get his nickname, “The Big Stick”? (Provided you
can repeat it in polite company).
Motor: I think that I had mentioned my first band “The
Great
Apple River Downstream Innertube Float”. Well, we were
heavily influenced by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
(talk about biting off more than can be chewed!) Anyway,
we played high school dances and really confused a lot of
people. One of the Mothers at the time was James “Motorhead”
Sherwood. I was named in his honor. I shortened the handle
around the time I hooked up to the “wagon”.
Now, “Big Stick” on the other hand is something along the
line of the legend of Bigfoot. Few have actually seen it, and
like most legend and lore, it leaves much to the imagination.
Now clean it up! Actually, I think that was in reference to
the “clubs” that Alan used to play with.
FTC: You once referred to Alan’s drumsticks as, quote,
“747’s”, a.k.a. the super huge commercial airplane. How
much gaffers tape did you go through wrapping them every
night, and how fast did he go through them? (If you remember
a brand name, great….we have a lot of drummers in the fan
community).
Motor: When I first began working with the Gratzman, he
was
using Ludwig 5A’s, or something equally unremarkable, What
was different was that he used them backwards. I would run
a layer of gaffers tape around the last 4 to 5 inches of the
shaft, then wrap about an inch ball around the tip (this is
sounding pretty strange….these are drumsticks we are talking
about!) Anyway, I would make sure that the stick bag was full
because he would toss a few out to the audience every show.
I normally would wrap a dozen or so a night. We would carry
cases of gaffers tape just for the sticks. Later a product
came out called “grip tape”, which was originally used on
tennis racquets.
After the Ludwig Drum Company was purchased by the Selmer
Corporation, one of the engineers retired, moved to Florida,
and founded “Silver Fox Percussion”. They made these very
cool, RED, laminated maple sticks. They were very consistent
in weight (HEAVY!) and they would get kinda rubbery before
they would break, giving him time to drop it and pick up a new
one at his convenience. I have to hand it to Gratz, to swing that
lumber with the extra tape weight for an hour and a half at a
time was serious work! Not recommended for your average
weenie drummer.
FTC: What kind of boss was Alan? Easy going? Was he a
perfectionist? Moody? What were his biggest pet peeves
with his equipment? Did he ever have a drum kit that was
more elaborate than the rest, and what year did he use?
Motor: Whoa….let’s see. THE BEST!! Alan was, as I
think that
I had said earlier, the best person I have ever worked for. He
was very easy going, but always had an eye on the business
at hand. One of the things that I miss the most about him was
his great sense of humor. We had a lot of laughs up on the riser.
I guess his biggest pet peeve was getting hit in the shnoz with
the mic when I brought in up for his vocals. We were in sync
most of the time, but every now and then I would tag him, and
get a bit of stink eye for the effort.
(Editor note: If you recall during both of REO’s
commercially
released concert videos, just before Alan sings background
vocals, a microphone miraculously appears from offscreen, then
disappears again after his vocals are done. This miracle can
be attributed to a hand-held mic, moved into place by Motor).
After the Hi Infidelity tour, I went to Chicago and
visited the
Ludwig factory. We put a new kit together for Alan and the
upcoming Good Trouble tour. They made some custom-thin 4
ply maple shells for a better resonance, stained them with
a beautiful cherry/mahogany inside and out, and fitted them
with polished brass hardware (there wasn’t a speck of
chrome on the kit). We were using overhead suspension crash
cymbals that looked pretty cool.
All red and gold…..it was a killer set!
FTC: Wow! So tell me honestly, Motor….is the tour bus really
a den of sin as some rumors contend? (wink).
Motor: I guess it depends on whose bus you are talking about.
Amy Grant’s. I don’t think so. For the most part, a bus is just
a bus. I remember one incident where the crew bus may have
sinned. We were at a ‘holy roller’ truckstop somewhere in
Arkansas or Alabama, and the good folks inside took exception
to our appearance. This began a rapid slide downward in
the friendliness meter, ending up in accusations of tableware
theft (like we really needed rusty forks). Anyway, we cut
the meal short and left before it got out of hand. But, as a
token of our appreciation for their hospitality, we
pulled the bus up to the front door and dumped the holding
(toilet) tank, releasing about fifty gallons of #\\$hold_dollarhold_dollarhold_dollarhold_dollar!@!#@
(our tip). So yes, the bus has sinned, but I think that it
was forgiven later that tour.
FTC: Well that’s a relief! :O) During the ’81 tour, there was a
very special addition to the REO family.
A stray mouse named Rochester…
Motor: Lizard and I found Rochester in a hotel in
Rochester,
New York. Not wanting to see the little fella meet the
exterminator, we rigged up an impromptu carrier until we
could get to a pet store the next day and buy a cage.
Rochester---named for the city of his origin---was a male, and
what a stud he turned out to be (more on this later)! He
traveled with us the rest of the tour, his official dressing room
spot was on top of one of the wardrobe cases. The band guys
immediately adopted him as a tour mascot. Rochester would
ride with us (the crew) on our bus. There was a standing
order that Rochester did not “party” and anyone crossing
this line would be dealt with accordingly. We ended
one leg of the tour on the east coast, and all flew back to L.A.
for the break. We taped Rochester’s cage to the table in the
front lounge, and Dudley (our driver) chauffeured him 3,000
miles west to Los Angeles were he rejoined the entourage.
FTC: Far out!! Talk about your rock and roll excesses! LOL!
Unfortunately, Rochester perished shortly thereafter….
Motor: As we found out, mice don’t live that long. But
this
guy pressed the envelope. He lived to a ripe old age.
FTC: Supposedly the mouse had---how can I put this
delicately?---an overactive love life, and there was speculation
that this led to his demise. Dare I elaborate? (wink).
Motor: After the tour, Liz and I bought him a companion, a
female by the name of Caroline, named for one of Gary’s songs,
‘Lost in Carolina’. We figured that after a long and
grueling tour that Rochester deserved to be ‘lost
in Caroline’. He went on to father over 300 kids. I
never knew that mice litters were so huge and so quick in
coming! We had a ‘habitat’ system of tubes running through
the apartment and before we knew it, we were overrun
with mice. About this time, Gary was having the wedding of
the decade on the grounds of his Malibu Hills ranch. We hadn’t
figured out what to do with our exploding population of
rodents. So, we decided to a Free Willy thing and release ‘the
kids’ at the ranch. Well, the rest is a matter of speculation.
Quite possibly the entire rodent population of southern
California may now be Rochester and Caroline’s offspring.
Rochester and Caroline went on to produce more offspring,
and both died at a ripe old age with smiles on their faces.
Cause of death……?
FTC: Were there any other “randy” pets on tour that
you were aware of?
Motor: Our driver, Dudley, had a Blue Healer (Australian
cattle
dog) named “Rider” that rode along with us. Dudley had
a bay in the front of the bus fixed up for him. Most of the
time, he rode down below, but on occasion, you would find
him riding shotgun with Dudley.
FTC: Speaking of “randy”….let’s switch gears
and talk about the band. For starters, are there any juicy
backstage secrets you’d care to share with us?
Motor: Much of the backstage antics were like a UFO
experience: I saw it, but I had no idea what exactly it
was that I was looking at. At this point I evoke my right to
the fifth amendment as dictated by the Tour Code of Honor. I
have been suffering from amnesia for the last twenty years in
all matters of this nature. What was the question? Their
favorite juice? Orange, I think, or was it passion fruit-guava?
That’s it!!!! Hmmmmmmmm?????
FTC: Guess we’ll have to look elsewhere to get
our daily
dose of juicy band gossip! Can you at least tell us which
of the band members had the most ribald sense of humor?
(Ribald means ‘raunchy’).
Motor: A sense of humor was not on the ‘lacking
list’ with
the guys in the band, although they all had different edges,
much like their personalities. They would feed off each
other and at times it would be hilarious. If I had to pick
one to have had the most ribald sense of humor, it would be a
tie between Alan and K.C.
FTC: Did you and the crew ever work with the band
on video
shoots (as in song videos)? How different was that from
touring and studio work?
Motor: Yes, the L.A. crew (the studio/rehearsal/full
timers,
a.k.a. Lizard, myself, & Sluggo) were at every one. However,
for the first couple of years that I was with the band, the
closest thing that we did to video shoots was our appearances
on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert and “The Midnight Special”.
MTV was still a gleam in its daddy’s eye. One of the
cooler things we did in the form of television was our
appearance on the short-lived ABC television show, “Fridays”.
Michael Richards, a.k.a. Kramer from “Seinfeld”, was one of
the cast members and was as hilarious then as he is today. I
had a hat that I made up from a plastic space helmet
(purchased at Toys R Us) with a three foot long inflatable
airplane gaffer-taped to the top. After the show, he had
commented that he thought that the hat was pretty cool, and
I said, it’s yours. The next year, I was watching the
opening of the show and there he was, wearing that stupid
hat. flying across the screen. Hey!! That’s my hat!!
How cool was that?
Sometime around 1980-81, we began including video shoots
in the album release process. The production shoots were
interesting, but trying at times. The I Do Wanna Know shoot that
we did at the vacant Bethlehem Steel Plant in L.A. was one of
the more memorable ones. Seeing them dressed up in drag and
as the devil was pretty funny! And those dopey angel wings!
The crew was hiding in the bushes, pulling the strings to make
them flap. NOW THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT. Then there was
the That Ain’t Love shoot from the Life As We Know It album.
You know, the one in the revival tent, the dust, the antique
cars, and the entire band, crew, and production staff freezing
their asses off in the California desert. We kept a bonfire
going off set and that became the hangout for anyone needing
to defrost. Did I mention the dust?
The video shoots had their moments, but TV people think
a bit different from live stage people. As I said before,
live is a one shot deal. No retakes. That is the
difference, and the reason I like live best.
FTC: Tell us about the incident in the Boston Hyatt on the
1981 tour. And don’t leave anything out.
Motor: Hmmmmm. I do believe that the statute of
limitations
has run out on this one, so I guess I can feel somewhat
comfortable in telling this.
We were in Boston playing two sold
out shows in the famous Boston Garden. We had a day off,
and some of the crew decided to venture down to the
Commons to take in the sights and do a bit of shopping. We
found this great magic shop that carried all kinds of
practical joke stuff, and left with a bag of tricks that
included several bottles of “Morning Breeze Stink
Perfume”, whoopee cushions, and some other great
stuff. We were staying at the Hyatt in Cambridge, and had
met the chef the night before. Let’s just say that he
had something that we were interested in, and the problem
was that he didn’t get off work until half past impatience.
The hotel was an open-air atrium building. Across from
the room doors was a rail and a multi-story drop down to the
restaurant/lounge area below. It was Sunday, and the chef
was busy preparing the seafood buffet, which was a rather grand
affair, table after table of lobster and crab and a zillion other
delicacies. We snuck a few drops of the potent perfume
over the rail, then stealthily moved to the opposite hallway
and repeated the process. After about a half hour of
what was the equivalent of a shower of rotten eggs, the bus
boys began taking down the buffet. To make a long story short,
the chef called us, telling us that the weirdest thing
happened, the fish must have gone bad and he had to shut
down the buffet. We met downstairs and went off on our quest.
(Although it was pretty funny at the time, the thought of
wasting all that food when there are hungry people in the
world casts a different light on the prank, I think that I
would have played it differently today).
FTC: Describe the most outrageous pranks the band used to
pull, whether on each other, or unsuspecting managers
or opening acts.
Motor: I remember the guys sending a dead fish wrapped in
a
newspaper to another well known artist, in response to a nasty
remark made in the press. I remember another tour manager
from an opening act who spent the afternoon in a road
case courtesy of the crew. Then there were the caterers who
refused to get out more drinks for the crew in Spokane. As I
remember, they spent the show locked in a storage closet.
In Battle Creek, Michigan, we loaded the arial pyrotechnics
with breakfast cereal. The bombs went off during Ridin The
Storm Out,, and the entire arena smelled like Froot Loops.
The last night that a band spent with us on tour was always
good for some laughs. Sometimes the crew would moon them
from behind the barricade. Sometimes we would all appear
onstage for their encore, like the time that we all put on
bathrobes and 16 ounce gloves and shadow boxed to
“Eye Of The Tiger” onstage with Survivor. The gags were so
frequent that it is impossible to name them all. Too many
gags, not enough time.
FTC: When not working for REO, did you work
for any other bands?
Motor: I worked only for REO between 1979 and 1987. I
stayed off the road until 1995, when I went out for a year with
Cheap Trick, working for the king, Bun E. Carlos.
FTC: Your last tour with REO was in 1987.
Did you or anyone else anticipate that either Alan or Gary
were thinking about leaving?
Motor: Liz and I retired in November 1987 and moved to
Hawaii. We found out about Alan’s departure later.
We didn’t have a clue. Gary didn’t leave until
the following year or so. The band played in Hawaii in 1988,
and Gary was still on the bill. I have a great live video
of that show that was shot for Japanese TV. Almost as cool
as Elvis’ last show in the islands!
FTC: Since K.C., Neal, and Bruce will be reading
this interview, is there anything that you would like to
say to them?
Motor: Those were some of the best days of my life.
I just wish that I could remember them! But seriously,
those guys were a very large and special part of my life.
Thank you for including me in yours. I reflect on those times
with newly acquired wisdom that comes with middle age,
and I know that there were things I would have done a bit
differently, knowing what I know now. But the journey was
the reward, and I am very glad and proud that I made it.
FTC: Any pearls of Motor wisdom for Dave Amato
and Bryan Hitt?
Motor: Are you kidding? Those guys need nothing from me.
They are great! Except: The king is dead…long live
the kings! (thirteen years later).
FTC: Allrighty then!
. You remembered a lot of cool stuff.
I wouldn’t worry about ‘old timers’ just yet.
Motor: Thanks for including me in your literary endeavors.
It was fun dusting off the gray matter. What a long
strange trip it’s been!
FTC: Any famous last words before we wrap this project?
(God, I sound like an L.A. resident now! Hehehe).
Motor: Oh, a bit of blatant commercialism….”The Great
Apple River Downstream Innertube Float is available on CD
from biersach@goldstate.net.
FTC: OK, people, you heard the man! Let’s get shopping!
Questions, comments, words of praise, and positive feedback
may be sent to the press office c/o kcroninhead@yahoo.com.
Furthermore, if you are a former or present REO band or crew
member, and you feel brave enough to submit to my unique style
of investigative journalism, e-mail me. But don’t say I didn’t
warn you first!!
And, most importantly, a thousand humble thank you’s to
Motor, for being such a generous and patient interview-ee.
We’d been working on completing this interview via
e-mail since summer 1999! Hehehe. Actually, he has a good
excuse for being so pokey: he and his wife had their first
baby in January 2000. As Motor so aptly put it, “Babies have
a way of setting priorities. “ But he still found time
for our little confab! Bravo, dude!!
Feel free to let him know how much you’ve enjoyed his walk
down memory lane; leave him a message in care of Kimmers,
and she will forward it to him
