You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Michelle Harris
The Rolling Stones tried to ruin my career. Okay, so it wasn’t the Stones themselves, it was their “people,” but regardless of who gave the order, someone was definitely trying to make my life a bit more difficult. I was working at a fairly large rock radio station. The Stones were on the road to promote Steel Wheels. The tour was skipping our state, but was coming to two cities within driving distance. A bus tour was organized, and I was to attend one of the shows and do a live interview with the opening band at the time, Living Colour. Not too bad for someone who was just starting her radio career.
“flame2W”
After a three hour bus ride to the venue, I headed to the will call window to get my press passes. In what was becoming an all too familiar situation, my passes were nowhere to be found. I began to look for a road manager or any person who could help get me my passes so I could do my interview as scheduled. After about an hour of searching, someone finally comes up to me and says the band is waiting for you to do the interview.
The concert was held at a large football arena that had a wall that was about six feet high separating the seats on the field from the seats in the stands. Unfortunately, I was on the floor and the person waiting to take me to my interview was just over the wall in the first row in the stands. I was able to speak to him, but I couldn’t get to him physically without taking the time to find the entrance to that section. He apparently couldn’t wait, because he asked two very large security/bouncer types to pick me up and basically pummel me over the six-foot wall. I was subsequently thrown over the wall into the laps of fans in the first row of seats.
Once recovered from being a human projectile, the fact that I was very late for my interview caused the man waiting for me to grab my hand and begin to run. He basically pulled me all the way to the backstage area, where a tent full of VIPs and Living Colour awaited. We were almost there, I was backstage at a Rolling Stones show and I could see Living Colour ahead of me. All of a sudden, the heel on my shoe hooked an exposed cable, and my run was now a somersault right into a piece of bicycle barricade. This is when the Living Colour and the VIPs backstage came running over to see if I was all right.
I wasn’t all right, but I was far too embarrassed to say so. I went to the ladies room to collect myself. The interview was canceled. I humbly returned to my seat, too shaken up to admit I had a pretty good whack to the head.
Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I rescheduled the interview to be done a week later at a show in New York City. Meanwhile, the bump on my head turned out to be serious, and I ended up in the hospital.
Fortunately(or so I thought), I recovered in time to make the second interview. Just to add to the confusion, I had my mother (who is a big Stones fan) with me on this trip. Still medicated from my hospital stay and a bit under the weather, I got to New York only to find my press credentials again missing. I tried to get help to correct the situation, but a snotty ambivalence runs rampant in the music business and nobody cared. Never being one for confrontation, I had been pushed to my limit. Using the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” theory, I started to be a bit more pushy about the situation. My mother was waiting for me and I was recovering from an injury caused by this tour. Anyone else would have filed a lawsuit over this type of injury. Unfortunately, this didn’t bring results either. I would never be able to do the job I was sent to do.
The next day would be work as usual, until I was called into the office of my General Manager. Apparently, the Stones publicist was outside the box office when I was trying to get someone to straighten out my desperate situation. Instead of offering to help me, they called my boss and told him that I was making a scene. Those who know could never fathom that I would raise my voice, never mind create some type of incident.
The reality was somewhere in between. I had been at my breaking point and got a little forceful, but I never caused and problems. Fortunately, everyone had a good laugh, I kept my job and was even promoted eventually, no thanks to the Rolling Stones. ◼
