Bruce Crump Benefit Concert Review

by Scott Shields

The benefit for Bruce Crump at the Canal Club, Sunday, November 2, 2003, was something to witness. Indeed, a bunch of family, friends, fans and well wishers gathered for the event. Linni Disse, Mike Ritchie, and Greg Constantino did a fantastic job of putting the event together, and rounding up local support, to help their friend, and band mate, Bruce Crump.

I got to the Canal Club at 11:30 Sunday morning, not having spoken with Linni Disse that morning, and pulled into the parking lot right behind him. I had promised to donate a black, BC Rich "Warlock" electric guitar, signed by all of the guys in the Southern Rock Allstars, to be put in a silent auction to help Bruce. The guitar had Dave Hlubek's signature, as it did the rest of the guys in SRA as they signed it for me in Oct, 2002, but I still needed to get Jimmy Farrar's and Duane Roland's autographs on it. Linni had also brought a gold Fender "Squire" electric guitar that was to be signed by all of the performers, also to be auctioned. I also had the snare drum with me, given to me by Shawn Beamer, Molly Hatchet's current drummer, with the head signed by all of the current guys in Molly Hatchet.

Molly Hatchet's first tour manager, Keith "Jughead" Johnson, contributed in helping to organize the benefit. His major contribution was arranging to have the SRA's travel expenses covered. He also had cloth-like, peel & stick passes made for bands, crew, and security.
Linni got a handful of passes, and gave me one.

Around 12:30, Bruce came into the club. Linni and I walked over. Bruce gave me a big hug and said in my ear, "brother Scott, how are you?" His voice, just barely louder than a whisper, broke my heart. I can't even come close to describing it. Still hugging, I asked him how he was doing. He said, with effort, "I'm doing great. I'm so glad you came." I wasn't about to ask him to talk anymore. He made his way to the back of the club, said some quick hello's and then went upstairs to the dressing room, to eat and rest. I wouldn't see him again for about 6 hours.

Things were moving right along.

Standing at the door, it was almost as if someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around as Jimmy walked in. I gave him a hug and introduced him to Linni.

We got him to sign both guitars, which were being displayed at the silent auction table at the rear of the club. The list of items for auction was growing very quickly.

Jimmy and I walked over to a booth and sat down to talk. Jughead came over and gave Jimmy a pass.
Jughead had mentioned a guest list earlier. I mentioned Sharon, Sarah, and Jason. Jughead looked at Jimmy, who said, "write 'em down."

Jughead came back about 20 minutes later and told Jimmy he was headed for the hotel. Jimmy rode back with him.
At this time, there weren't a whole lot of folks in the club, but it was expected that the club would start to fill up around 4:30 or 5:00. It was a beautiful day outside.

At 2:00, Brad Spivey's Honkey Tonk Experience took the stage. A local country band, complete with steel guitar. You could tell right away that this was a practiced and polished band. The drummer, Mike Watts, had his day cut out for him. They dedicated a song to the late Johnny Cash, playing "Folsom Prison Blues" and included covers from Alan Jackson and Travis Tritt, also.

Mike Ritchie, bass player for Daddy-Oh, made announcements to the 30 or so people about auctions and raffles.
Linni came over to me and told me that Brocks Barbecue would have food ready downstairs in about 15 minutes.
Next up were the Reverb Rockets. With Mike Watts on drums. They started off with some original tunes, which Linni and i listened to from downstairs. We were eating and there is a big hole in the ceiling/floor that the club uses to haul equipment up through with an overhead wench. That hole lets the sound through to the downstairs perfectly. The Reverb Rockets finished their set before Linni and I finished eating. I figured that Mike Watts was a tired dude, having played with 2 bands, so far.

The DJ also had karaoke set up and got up and sang the Rolling Stones "Angie" himself. Didn't do bad, either.
The club was gathering more people.

Riff West walked by and i talked with him for a few minutes. I was surprised that Riff remembered me. The last time I saw, or talked to, Riff was 13 years ago, I had long hair and little, if no beard.

Next up was The Boneshakers, a band that Bruce played in, before he played in Daddy-Oh.
The Boneshakers are a band I remember from years back when I still lived in Richmond, even before Bruce played with them. They are a good band. They're also going for Kiss' reunion record. This was their third "final" show in the last year. I'm not knockin' the guys, they really are good and I don't understand why they want to call it quits. Guess who the drummer was - you got it - Mike Watts. They mixed it up with covers and originals and had a few people dancing. Mike was done for the night as far as drumming went.

4:30- Linni says he's getting worried because no one has heard from Daddy-Oh's keyboard player, Kevin Smith. Kevin is a doctor at Chippenham hospital, and while not an oncologist, knew enough to tell Bruce to get to a specialist ASAP.
The next band on stage was the only band that needed some "set up" and the only change in drum kits.
Phat Albert, an 11 piece "motown" band, complete with 3 piece horns, and conga's. Playing songs from K.C. and The Sunshine Band, Commodores, and Aretha Franklin, they had even more folks in the club dancing.
There was a good number of people in the club, now.

I wanted a cup of iced tea, so I went downstairs. I got my tea and was walking back when somebody called my name. I looked over and saw that it was Jimmy, sitting at a booth, talking with two blonde chicks. I had already met one of them, Patricia "Sunshine" Tervit. The other was who I had been asking to meet, and Jimmy Introduced me to Lynn Lippert. That's right, isn't it, Lynn? We're familiar with other from the Yahoo lists, and I got to put a face to a name.
We talked for a few minutes, but I knew that Bruce was going to speak to the club shortly, so I went back upstairs. Phat Albert finished their set, and I guess it's the church band that Bruce plays in set up next. I never caught a name.

Before they started, Bruce came out on stage to a deafening applause and took the mic. I'm guessing that the man at the sound board turned the mic up because it wasn't hard to hear Bruce. In that same voice that shook me earlier in the day, Bruce thanked everyone for all they had done and spoke for a minute. He then let everyone know that he had a lot more to say, but we wouldn't hear it with his voice. Bruce had prepared a written dialogue that he wanted to share with everyone, and his brother beside him read it. Nobody moved. It was heartfelt and inspiring and it touched everyone in the club. After, there was another thunderous round of applause.

I knew Bruce would be hanging around to meet some people for a few minutes, so I rushed out to my car quickly, grabbed a few things, and went back in. I waited for Bruce to start back towards the dressing rooms and motioned to him. He came over and gave me another hug. I uncovered the snare drum. He gave a big smile as he recognized it being the one I had talked about. I leaned over and told him that I wanted him to have it, because I thought he would appreciate the drum itself more than whatever money I could get for it by raffling it. With a tear in his eye, he hugged me and whispered "Thank you so very much." I asked him quickly about the "Live at The Agora Ballroom" cd from Hatchet's tour in 1979. He whispered "I have it." I said, "Well, here's another copy you can give to someone" and gave him the CD. Next I gave him the sealed, double LP of the same show, that I got from Italy 2 years ago. Bruce looked at it, sort of ast! onished, because he didn't know there was a double LP of the show. He tried to give it back to me and I said "That's for you, buddy." Another hug. I knew he wanted to take the drum upstairs and probably rest a little, so I got him to sign my "Live..Agora.." LP, another live Hatchet LP I have, and a FWD picture disc. He posed with me for a pic and took the stuff upstairs.

I was still standing in the same place, when, several minutes later, Bruce's wife, Nancy came out from the dressing rooms and thanked me for giving Bruce the snare drum. Nancy said Bruce really liked it.

Now the Christian band started, and I just happened to be standing at the railing around the hole in the floor. I looked down and saw Jimmy, Duane (Dune as he's known in some circles, lol) and Lynn sitting at a table.

I took my stuff signed by Bruce out to my car and went on over to talk to Duane. I wished Lynn a happy belated birthday. We talked, joked and laughed until it was almost time for Daddy-Oh to go on. I went upstairs and grabbed the Warlock, that Duane hadn't signed yet, and brought it downstairs. He signed it, we talked for another minute, and i took it back up. Since Daddy-Oh was going on, I stayed upstairs.

I was up near the stage when a guy who was helping at the silent auction tables tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I knew Charles Hart. He pointed back to the tables and I headed that way. On the way, he told me that Charles had been looking at the Warlock, saw his own signature, and asked how it got there. I walked up behind Charles, who was signing the Squire, and the guy who had come and got me, said "This guy here says you did so sign that guitar." Charles turned around, says "Scott Shields. I don't know why I didn't know that", and turned around to finish signing the other guitar. Then he gave me a hug and a handshake and we talked for a bit. A short bit.

Daddy-Oh came on with a big round of applause. Bruce usually plays with them, but is still to weak from the treatments to play a set. Mike Scott has been sitting in at the drums for Bruce. Daddy-Oh plays top 40 dance music, with the difference being that they put a lot more energy into the songs than they were originally done with. They change a little thing here, add a little thing there, and clown around a lot. The guy standing in and playing sax, was playing an alto sax and a soprano sax, at the same time. They're really fun to watch, and they're all excellent musicians.

During Daddy-Oh's set, Jakson wandered through he crowd. I waited until he came back my way and flagged him down. He came over, and after giving me a hug that didn't crush me this time, stayed and talked to me for a bit between songs.
Getting pinched for time, Daddy-Oh wrapped it up, and the guys in SRA stormed on stage to set up and plug in. During all that, Sunshine read off the winners of the silent auctions.

The Southern Rock Allstars opened their set with a new song that I forgot to ask the name of, but Jimmy was singing it and it rocks. Straight out of that, into "Train, Train." SRA had a moment of equipment problems, and I thought this was really unusual - both Jay and Duane, at the same time, for different reasons, lost their guitars in the mix. Jay never stopped singing and a few seconds later, with Jay stepping on pedals and Duane fiddling with cords, all was good.

The club was rolling now.

Someone taps me on the shoulder again. I turned around to see my son, Jason.
Charles stopped playing bass long enough to give Jason a high-five.

SRA started playing "Sweet Home Alabama." I looked up at the dressing room balcony overlooking the stage, and there was Bruce, clapping right along, wearing a big smile.

The guys were playing their hearts out. Jay and Duane were trading leads, trading licks, playing each others guitars and just burning it up in general. Charles was jamming on his bass as hard as I've ever seen. Jimmy's voice was in prime shape and he was belting it out, and I thought Jak was literally going to destroy the drum set he was playing. It was a nice set of Tama Rockstars, they just didn't look like they were going to hold up under the assault. I actually heard Jak scream one time as he hit a 2 handed cymbal crash. Jakson punished that kit. It held up.

SRA was running out of time. Charles took his bass off and unplugged.
Riff West plugged in.
Where's Jak?
Who's behind the drums?
Bruce Crump!

The club was going wild, myself as well.
The Southern Rock Allstars finished the night off with Jay Johnson, Duane Roland, Bruce Crump, Jimmy Farrar, and Riff West, playing "Dreams I'll Never See" and "Flirtin' with Disaster."

It sounded fantastic, Bruce was going at it like the old days, and I never would have forgiven myself if I had missed any of it.

Just after the end of "Flirtin'", Mike Ritchie made an announcement, "I just want y'all to know that tonight, for Bruce Crump, with your help, we have raised over $10,000!!"

Bruce came out from behind the drums, overcome with happiness.

Everything that everyone did for him really touched his heart.

He took the final bow with the rest of the band, just as he should.

Bruce was obviously tired and stayed in the dressing room. The rest of the guys came out to sign autographs.
Jason and I made the rounds, and I introduced him to Duane, and Lynn.

I wanted to stick around and talk for a while, but I needed to come home, so I said my farewells and hit the road.

Linni, Mike, Greg, Darryl - Y'all are great guys and it's fantastic what you did for Bruce.
Jakson, Charles, Duane, Jimmy, Jay, Riff, and Scott Mabrey - Thanks so much for coming up and being part of this event.
Jughead - Thanks for all you did. It was good to see you again.
Sunshine - It was good to meet you, I hope to see you again.
Sherry - It was good to see you again, too. Take care of Jak.
Lynn - It was a great pleasure meeting you and talking to you.
Bruce - I wrote this in the beginning - 

You are the man who set the standard by which all other Southern Rock drummers are measured.

Your healthy, positive, lifestyle in the past will work in your favor now.

Believe that the Lord will bring you through this.

I know that Darryl, Linni, Mike, and the rest of the guys, love you and will give you their full support.

You have touched and inspired many people with your music and your friendship.

Your friends, past and present, from around the world, are rallying for your support.

I will join others in prayer for your imminent, complete, recovery and peace for your family.

Please believe that you are dearly loved.

We prayed - we believed - it happened.
We love you.



- Scott Shields