Road Stories

Beginning when he was just fifteen, Randy would spend a good portion of his life as a touring musician. I have compiled a few vignettes from his life on the road.

Larry Soto (The Dynamics): “Playing out of town was always fun because everything was new. A new dance hall, staying overnight, going to the local music stores and meeting new friends. After setting up at the dance hall, we would cruise up and down the main drag, as Randy would say and ‘get the looks.'”

_{The Dynamics, North Platte (NE) prom, May 22, 1964}

Tom Erak (bass player, 1982 tour): “‘Sexual Healing’ (by Marvin Gaye) was a hit on one tour. It was huge, and the rest of the band couldn’t figure out why Randy and I were constantly singing that song and playing it. And also Elvis songs.”

_{L-R: John Corey, Tom Erak, Randy, Japan 1983}

Miles Thomas (Road manager, Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band): “We were wondering about drugs, because we all smoked pot. We wanted to play it real straight, figuring Rick Nelson would be real straight; turns out he wasn’t at all. We all wound up being one big traveling party on the road.”

_{Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band, 1969
Randy, Pat Shanahan, Rick Nelson, Allen Kemp}

Pat Shanahan (The Poor, Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band): “We were playing a big amusement park around Chicago once. We were on our way over to do a sound check and passed by this guy that was getting this one ride ready for when the park opened. And it was one of those very first roller coasters where you went upside down and did the cork screw loops etc. and Randy and I were talking to the guy and he said come back later and you can ride as much as you want for free. So after the show we went over and sure enough, the guy was there and we started riding. And it was the usual white knuckle screamer, but after the 3rd or 4th time it started to get to be old hat. So what we did was put on this normal conversation just like you would have with your pastor sitting in your living room, with the hands folded in the lap, and all the proper nods and smiles etc. while careening through these corkscrews. The people in the car or cars behind us looked at us like we were from another dimension. Anyway we rode that thing 38 times before we decided to give it up.”

_{Pat Shanahan (left) and Randy, c.1967. Photo ©Jennifer Meisner.}

Rick Roberts (Roberts-Meisner Band, 1987-1989): “About three songs into the set, a young woman came up to the stage right in the middle of a tune, and yanked on Randy’s pants. The stage was only raised about three feet from the main floor so he was within reach. He was singing at the time, and he tried to signal her to wait until the end of the song. She ignored the signals and kept on yanking. Finally, Randy stopped and looked down at her and yelled, ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?!’ ‘Could I have your autograph?’ she asked timidly.”

_{Roberts-Meisner Band, Portland, May 1988. (Photo ©Alan Dutton)
L-R: Bray Ghiglia, Rick Roberts, Randy, Cary Park.}

Eagles concert, Baton Rouge, LA, November 5th, 1976: “As the group was arrayed across the stage singing, ‘Tequila Sunrise,’ someone threw an object from the side of the stage which hit bass player Randy Meisner on the side of his head. He grimaced but continued playing until the song’s conclusion when he picked up the object and hurled it back in the general direction from which it had come. Dropping his bass with an amplified thud he stalked offstage in a huff as the rest of the group received the applause oblivious to the whole incident.”

_{The Eagles in Baton Rouge, 1976.}

Larry Soto (The Dynamics): “Bobby Soto and Randy were real pranksters and Paul Asmus and I were usually the victims. One trick they would pull on Paul while he was driving, was to sit in the back of the car and swing back and forth so Paul would think something was wrong with the tires or shocks of his car. When he got out to check out the tires, they would turn the radio, wipers, heater and everything they could, full blast, so when Paul would start the car, the radio was loud, wipers going, heater on. Another was when we stopped for gas, Randy would check the oil, and remove a couple of plug wires. Paul, with the car missing, would pull over and check it out. Randy would honk the horn and that would scare him.”

Pat Shanahan (The Poor, Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band): “The Poor were living at the Albert Hotel in the Village which was famous for its music business clientele. One time we were waiting for an elevator to go up to our room and when the door opened there was Frank Zappa and two other guys. We looked at them and they looked at us. It was this funny smiling nodding exchange of places and the elevator door closed without anyone saying a word. We were looking wide eyed at each other and someone said ‘that was Frank Zappa!’”

Jennifer Meisner (Randy’s wife, 1963-1981): “When the Party Plane landed in Scottsbluff bringing Randy home [for Thanksgiving, 1976]. I cooked and took food to the group. Randy got off the plane wearing a crazy hat with a red light and siren on top.”

_{Randy and Jennifer on the Eagles’ party plane.}

Blake Burkett: “Randy stayed at my house when his tour bus had a fire in front of Park West in Chicago (in 1981). He was good on my drums…he also sat at my piano and played and sang ‘Take it to the limit’..he said he wrote it on the piano.”

_{At Blake Burkett’s home, March 4th, 1981. Photo ©Blake Burkett.}

Steve Cassells (The Dynamics): “We had played a gig at the auditorium in Alliance, NE, and then stopped afterwards at a small truck stop on the edge of town to grab a bite to eat before heading home. There were a couple of drunk ranchers there who took exception with the length of our hair…and they began harassing us. We tried to ignore them, and then when we finished, we got in our cars and headed down the highway.  They began chasing us and eventually got us to stop (can’t remember how they stopped us, but no cars were dented).  At any rate, we got out and listened to them scream at us. One of them had a gun and fired it off in the air.  We all were ducking for cover. Surprisingly enough, they eventually became friendly and backed off. Very strange night…and fortunately the only time something like that happened to us.” 

_{Page from a memo book belonging to Randy, with dates & wages for the Dynamics, written by his mother, Emilie, with Randy’s notes at the bottom. (Courtesy of Jennifer Meisner)}

Patrick Shanahan (drummer for The Poor & Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band): “The first tour with Rick was like living a dream. I mean, from the sleaze mobile (the old car that The Poor traveled in) to the 747 lounge. Hmm, what’s not to like?”

_{Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band, 1969.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Shanahan.}

Mike Thies (WEA Australia rep.): “I was working for WEA in Brisbane that tour and Randy wanted my AWB (Average White Band) t-shirt I was wearing, so we swapped and he gave me his Eagles US tour t-shirt. Pretty sure it was a ‘One of these Nights’ shirt. I am also sure he wore the AWB shirt that night on stage.”

_{Randy on stage at Festival Hall in Brisbane in the Average White Band shirt.}

Jennifer Meisner describes the Hotel Weichmann in Amsterdam, where the Eagles stayed in March 1973: “It was great there. The lobby had a Siamese cat. We all shared a bathroom in the hall. I was the only female! Randy went to raise the window and it fell into the street below…We ate in the little corner restaurant you see in the photo. Randy and I toured the canals along with David Geffen.

_{Hotel Weichmann, Amsterdam. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Meisner.}

Randy on The Poor opening for Jimi Hendrix at a new nightclub called The Salvation in New York, August 1967: “When we got down to the club, they were still pounding nails into the walls. We found some guy who told us if we gave him eighty bucks, which just happened to be every cent we had, he’d score us some weed. We gave him the money and never saw or heard from him again…Finally, the club opened, and the first act was Jimi Hendrix. He’d just come over from England. We were scheduled to play the club that week as the house band. However, we never got on opening night. Of course, no one could follow Jimi. He used to burn his guitar onstage and destroy the PA system. When he finally finished, the manager of the club said to us, ‘Hey, good news, you guys don’t have to go on at all! Come back tomorrow.’ We felt like shit. The whole idea was that we would be the opening act and get some real exposure in New York. We did play a few times the next two weeks, and nothing happened. And then it got worse. We ended the gig and couldn’t find the guy who was supposed to pay us. We didn’t have any money for plane tickets out of there. Nothing…Finally, we found out where the manager of the club lived, went there, pounded on his door until he came out, and tried to scare him by telling him simply, ‘Either you pay us or we’re going to kill you.’ He quickly bought us one-way plane tickets back to L.A.”

Eagles – Convention Center Arena, San Antonio, TX, November 2, 1976: “Meisner received a standing ovation (for ‘Take It To The Limit’) that lasted several minutes. When he realized the crowd wouldn’t stop, he danced and skipped around the stage which made the audience applaud even more.”

_{Randy’s 1977 tour badge with his nickname “B. LEROY” (Baby LeRoy).* The badge was authorized by roadie Tommy Nixon. (Photo courtesy of Jennifer Meisner) *Baby LeRoy was a child actor from the 1930s.}

Randy: “When Walsh came in, boy, it got real fun (laughs). Some of the stuff he did was dangerous. I remember we were in Kansas City one night and we had the Presidential Suite upstairs in this hotel and we were up there having a few beers and He said, ‘let’s throw the TV out of the window into the pool.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ We tossed it out and luckily it hit the pool. If somebody had been down there it would have hurt somebody. But he was wild, we had a good time, funny guy.”

Rick Roberts tells the story of an incident at their hotel in Las Vegas in 1988 when a couple of large explosions rocked their hotel on the morning they were leaving to fly back to LA: “When we went back out into the hall, Randy was standing there with his bags. I said to him come on, and we’d get on the elevator. Randy said there was no way he was getting on any elevator with the hotel shaking around like it was, and he was taking the stairs. 17th floor, remember. When we got down to the lobby and the elevator doors opened, I stepped out. I was just in time to see the door to the stairwell fly open as a panting, red-faced Randy lurched out with a suitcase in each hand. All I could do was gently inquire whether he’d enjoyed his workout. He just stood there trying to catch his breath, and never bothered to answer me.” (*They discovered later that the explosions came from a nearby rocket fuel plant.)

Randy: It was pretty crazy. It was a lot of fun. I mean, it was another kind of lifestyle, that’s for sure. Every night there was the ‘Third Encore’ -on the top floor of the hotel- almost every night. After a while it got to be too much for me. The traveling…just every night. It was driving me a little crazy. I had to get away from it. It works on you after a while.”

_{Backstage passes. Courtesy of Jennifer Meisner.}

Sources

Author correspondence & interviews with Steve Cassells, Jennifer Meisner, Patrick Shanahan.

Tom Erak interview with Rob Leland, Rockstar Superhero Podcast, 2016

KBSG interview with Randy, 1988

Philip Bashe, Teenage Idol, Travelin’ Man: The Complete Biography Of Rick Nelson, 1992

Marc Eliot, To The Limit: The Untold Story Of The Eagles, 1997

Rick Roberts, Lame Brain: My Journey Back To Real Life, 2015

Marc Shapiro, The Story Of The Eagles: The Long Run, 1995

Larry Soto, The Dynamics: A Rock ‘N Roll Retrospect, 1996

Discoveries magazine, September 2006

Sounds, March 27, 1976

Review of San Antonio, TX concert by Pat Crellen, The Ranger, November 12, 1976.

Review of Baton Rouge, LA concert, LSU Gumbo yearbook, 1977.

Public Facebook comments by Blake Burkett & Mark Thies.