Money wasn’t a big deal to me. I just wanted to have a good time! I had a taste for psychedelics and getting lost in music with Tim. It was an escape from the drudgery of daily life. I would have these really deep conversations with him about music – he was a walking Encyclopedia of information on the history of every rock band and musician that had ever existed.
The Allmann Brothers were coming to town and even though I’d heard them on the rock station, I would somehow confuse them with The Marshall Tucker Band – but I did know who they were. At the time, we were enduring one of those really intense, broke moments of our relationship- but we had tickets to that concert. We had just enough change for the toll to get over the bridge and for parking, but no money for drinks. We parked the car and despite our financial woes, we were happy. We were dressed all sparkly and acting like rockstars even though we didn’t have a cent in our pockets – we were just having fun! As were walking down the sidewalk to the venue, this dude came walking up toward us and we eyed each other. He was tall and slender, dressed in a sparkly top hat and vest, jeans and cowboy boots. He smiled and said “Hi”as he walked by. A few minutes later he came back to us and said, “I’ve got some acid, do you wanna buy some off of me?” We told him that we would love to, but we were broker than broke! He was being persistent, but we couldn’t pay him anything. We got into the venue and ran into a couple that were friends of Tim. They bought us some beer. We went up to the bathroom and I came back out before my husband did. When Tim finally came out, the dude with the sparkly top hat was following him. He came over to me and said, “Hey Babe, you’re not going to believe this- that dude approached me again in the bathroom to buy some acid. I literally told him I have no money, I even pulled out my pockets to show him and he said he was going to just give us some for The Brothers, for the show!” He then produced the acid- we unfolded the foil and took two hits each.
We went back to meet our friends and there was a projector running with Betty Boop porn and AC/DC blasting from the speakers. It was funny because AC/DC was pretty far off The Allmann Brothers, but I was totally digging it- it was surreal and cool! As soon as the acid hit us, the show started- one song after another, the vibes were electric. I didn’t realize until then just how many Allmann Brothers’ songs I actually knew! A crowd started to gather in front of the barriers which were about five feet from the stage and right in front of Gregg Allman. They were just dancing and having a great time! I was feeling alive and electric, and just could not sit in my seat anymore. I had to go up there. I got up into the crowd and there was this Grateful Dead hippie vibe all around me. There was this magical and electric glow all around Greg Allman and his keyboard- he was magical. His aura was beautiful. In that moment somebody shoved me, and my instinct was to turn around and punch them- but he was so goofy with his hands and dancing that something just told me to go with it. So, I dropped my fist and just went with it. As we danced, we all pushed forward, and the barrier came down. We were now right in front of Gregg Allman! We spent the rest of the show partying right in front of him- a peaceful protest to a barrier that should never have even existed between us and Gregg. There were so many of us that security really could not do much about it. I understood what the group was doing, and I was a part of it.
The show came to an end, and we were tripping hard, so we headed out. I was screaming at Tim that I would never again say that I did not know who The Allman Brothers were. As we exited the venue, there is Mr. Sparkly Hat! I think we hugged him and laughed at him. He asked us if we wanted to go get a drink, and again we told him we were broke. He said, “It’s on me. Let me take you, I’ve got a place just a couple of blocks from here. We can walk there. “We walked into this bar, and it was like a carnival-people wearing Renaissance corsets and masks- in this tiny, little bar. Of course, the acid made it so much wilder! We sat at a table and shared a few drinks, a few stories, and a lot of laughs. We then exchanged phone numbers and went home.
Sometime later we tried to call the dude, but the phone number did not work. You know, even during our most broke moments we still found the magic in music, acid, and The Brothers!