Phew. Hard to believe that it’s been nearly a year since my last post. We’ve been from Maine to California, with lots of stops in between on tour with the Heroes of Woodstock. We’ve become friends with Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish, Harvey Mandel (aka, The Snake) of Canned Heat, Sam Andrews of Big Brother and The Holding Company, Sofia Ramos, who does the Janis Joplin parts, and many of the members of Ten Years After, Jefferson Starship, Canned Heat, Tom Constanza of the Grateful Dead, and Nancy Nevins of Sweetwater. We’ve played dusty fields in Livermore, Me. and fancy halls like the Greek in LA and the Mountain Winery in Redwood City, Ca.
And tragically, at the end of January, we lost our dear friend, Larry LA Johnson, who was nominated for an Oscar for Sound on the Woodstock documentary and was responsible for me being on the crew of that fabulous film. Larry, who was Neil Young’s right hand man for nearly 40 years, suffered a massive heart attack at the Marina where he docked his boat just as he was about to drive Neil’s son to see a hockey game. His death, mercifully, was instantaneous, and he died in the presence of two people to whom he was close. The news came as a painful shock to me and to all of Larry’s many, many friends. There was a joyful memorial service in San Mateo where there was nearly as much laughter as tears, a fitting tribute to Larry’s creative and eventful life. We will all miss him terribly.