Rudy Valentino
When I first started performing with BPB in the late winter of ’77 I remember we were playing weekends and occasionally we would head to Delaware to perform. Now being from Western NY, Rochester to be exact, my ears were not attuned to the Long Island accent, and Bonnie’s was quite pronounced!
We had a roadie named Eric (can’t remember the last name). Now b4 soundcheck Bonnie in her heavy Long Island accent says “Eric, grab me the tuner”…now Eric lived in his car, or so it seemed because he had taken the back seat out and it was filled with his belongings….so Eric goes to his car and comes back with a can of TUNA and hands it to Bonnie! We were rolling in laughter the entire soundcheck!
– Rudy Valentino
Grand Funk & the The Food Poisoning From Hell
In ’78 BPB (Bonnie, David, Michael and I) toured Illinois and Wisconsin and were based out of Chicago. We had a show in Detroit opening for Grand Funk Railroad.
Back then we were running around the states in Bonnie’s big white Bonneville. Now it turns out that we ate something bad and had some level of food poisoning! Of course we always believed the show must go on so we proceeded to drive from Chicago to Detroit with a bucket on the floor of the backseat…I’ll spare the details but heh, it was RnR!
We performed that night with our faithful bucket sitting behind Bonnie’s amp and every once n a while during the show one of us would disappear for a few seconds and then reappear from behind her amp, what a show!!! RAWK
5 Comments
Michael
Grand Funk & the The Food Poisoning From Hell
That’s one of the stories I was going to tell. It’s a good one. The next day on the way from Detroit to Pennsylvania there was a huge 18-wheeler filled with pigs that passed us. Our stomachs were still queasy. The smell from the pig slop coming from the truck was so bad that we yelled at Bonnie to pull over. We literally flew out the doors of the car and rolled down the embankment puking.
BONNIE
LOL! I remember that time too well! I was the first one to get sick & passed it around. I remember you were in the back seat & said pull over…too late… you couldn’t wait & it ended up on the floor which we had lined with newspaper in case!! That’s RnR!!
Rudy
Michael! Yes the pigs! I forgot about the next day!! Shhhooooeeeeeee!
Rudy
As an addendum to Michael’s Rochester, NY Penney Arcade story and the rauchus crowd fighting after our show: the next time we played the Arcade, Greg Sullivan (R.I.P.) the owner, and all around great guy, called me at my Parents house knowing that we had come into town a couple days earlier than the show. The call was a plea to please only perform one encore because of what had happened before! Greg said he was concerned that the police would be anxious to make their presence felt this time around!! Crazy times!!
Michael
I didn’t know the owner of The Penny Archade’s name. Good info on Greg Sullivan and the post-preformance..