A Heep of driving

At this time a week ago I was in the midst of a road trip, driving 3,600 miles over four days (2,000 by myself in two days), just to see my favorite 1970s British heavy metal rock band, Uriah Heep, on a rare American tour playing at one of those river-side casinos in Missouri.

by Scott Hettrick

OK, sounds kind of crazy, I know, but I’m not one of those people who has seen Bruce Springsteen perform dozens of times, and I’m certainly not of the caliber of California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell who told students and administrators at Arcadia schools last month that he has seen his favorite 1970s rock band Chicago in concert 123 times and attended a couple more just last month.

Evolution of 40-year relationship with Uriah Heep I have only seen Uriah Heep perform in concert three times in 40 years, the most recent being nine years ago at the Greek Theatre. However, I did name my first dog – a Saint Bernard – after lead singer David Byron in 1976 (Lord David Byron of Uriah Heep, AKC).

My high school/college buddies and I reveled in the music of Uriah Heep’s albums in the early-to-mid 1970s even though only a couple of their singles were hits in the U.S. — “Easy Livin’ ” and “Stealin’ ” being the most prominent. We went to see Heep perform live in 1976 and again in 1978 before founding lead singer Byron and the primary writer and soul of the group Ken Hensley left the band.

I included a line on the cover of one of Uriah Heep’s albums in my wedding vows in 1980 – “Life outside can be difficult; life within can be the way you want it to be; but life without you is no life at all.”

I never considered seeing Heep perform again even as I noticed that lead guitarist Mick Box and drummer Lee Kerslake were holding the band together and continuing to tour in Europe and release uninteresting new albums (they did have one fairly big hit in the early MTV music video days of the 1980s, “That’s The Way That It Is”).

Arcadia Heep connection It wasn’t until years after we had moved to Arcadia in 1991 that one of the best friends of my daughter Brittany called for her in the late 1990s and I heard familiar Uriah Heep music playing in the background through the telephone. When I mentioned it to Brittany, she informed me that her friend’s mother, Sherri Terhorst, is a huge fan of Uriah Heep.

Uriah Heep lead guitarist Mick Box (c) at Greek Theatre in August 2001 with my wife Betty (r) and myself.

Turns out Sherri and her husband Greg are much bigger fans of Uriah Heep than I. They had been to many concerts and know Hensley personally. So it was a thrill when Sherri and Greg invited my wife Betty and I to join them in going to see Uriah Heep perform at the Greek Theatre during one of the group’s rare U.S. concert tours in August 2001. Sherri took us backstage afterwards to meet drummer Kerslake and guitarist Mick Box (see photo at right), a great thrill for me that I quickly shared with my high school/college buddies.

A few years later I saw that Heep was playing in Rio de Janeiro and I considered using a trip to see them as an excuse to visit that continent for the first time, but I could not rationalize the expense.

2010: A Heep Odyssey – Dawn of Opportunity Earlier this year I got an e-mail from Sherri alerting me that Heep was coming back to the U.S. this summer but only as far west as Missouri. She bought her front row tickets immediately — about four months in advance — but with drummer Kerslake now out of the band too, leaving Mick as the sole original band member (I call him Mick now, since I met him!), I could not rally any interest from my old buddies to follow suit.

About two weeks before the show, Sherri e-mailed again to inform me that she couldn’t go to the concert after all and that her tickets were available if I wanted them. Once again, I could not rationalize the price of an airplane ticket ($500-plus), but it hit me that one of my buddies, Randy, had recently moved to Albuquerque, which I noticed was exactly half the 1,600 driving miles to Missouri via Interstate 40. If he would pick up half of the gas on his half of the journey, and help me with the driving, the cost would be more justifiable and he and I would have great fun catching up during our 24-hours of driving, and I would get to see his new house and city. Nevermind that the trip for me would be 3,200 miles and about 46 hours of driving, at least 22 on my own, over four of the five days I would be gone.

Randy and I in Seattle, 2007

The potential hurdle was that Randy works normal business hours Monday – Friday and the concert was Friday night. I figured he might be willing to try and wrangle one day off work on a last-minute request, but that would mean we would need to leave at about 5 a.m. Friday to do the 800-mile drive from Albuquerque to Kansas City and, hoping for no major construction, traffic, or mechanical delays, still get to Missouri in time for the 8 p.m. concert that same night.

The unlikely adventures of Randy and Scott I figured there was a good chance Randy would agree. After all, in the past few years he has accepted similar last-minute, seat-of-the-pants offers I have thrown his way, such as a Hall of Fame road trip to Canton, Ohio (NFL) and Cleveland (Rock and Roll). I can’t remember whose idea it was but three years ago we agreed to each fly from our homes and meet in Seattle just to see the pre-Broadway debut of the stage musical version of our favorite movie of 1974, Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein.” Well, I was thrilled to hear that reliable Randy did agree to my latest hare-brained, half-baked adventure.

Albuquerque and Beyond

Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway

I took off on my own last Thursday and drove nearly 800 miles and 10 1/2-hours to Randy’s beautiful new home in mile-high Albuquerque. I got in early enough that he and his wife Jan took me out to dinner and then on the world’s longest (2.7-mile) Sandia Peak aerial tramway during a spectacular sunset to an observation deck at more than 10,000 feet.

Randy and I were back in my car at 5 a.m. Friday and, except for me getting stopped for speeding on a shortcut two-lane highway through a small Texas town where the policeman couldn’t remember if the limit was 40 mph or 45 mph but was pretty sure I was going 52, and except for hitting a perfect storm of Friday night rush hour traffic in Kansas City that was exacerbated by a wreck and one of the few sold-out baseball games of the year, we had time to make a slight detour to grab our local favorite HiBoy hamburgers and still make it to the concert with almost an hour to spare, as planned!

We even met up there with one of my high school buddies Ronnie (he goes by Ron now), who was one of our group at the 1970s concerts.

Not much beyond the finite

The show itself met our managed expectations — kind of like seeing the Beach Boys these days with only Mike Love left from the original group. (Strangely, a couple of Uriah Heep’s “new” members have been with band for decades, three or four times longer than several of the original members.) There were plenty of classic original songs performed fairly well by the new members but Sherri had great seats right in front of Mick, the only guy we really cared to see. (Story continues below the following 3-minute video from concert.)

. It was fun being part of a spontaneous audience chorus of about 700 during songs like “Lady in Black” (heard in video above), and extra fun reaching high over my head to catch a personalized guitar pick that Mick tossed our way (Randy wasn’t so thrilled when some overzealous fans in front of him caused a human domino cascade of bodies trying to catch a drum stick tossed into the crowd, but Randy simply stepped aside and pushed the idiots the rest of the way to the floor before turning back to enjoy the remainder of the show).

It was really all worthwhile for me when, after the final farewell by the group, amidst a throng of faithful followers who had gathered at the front of the stage, a short, overweight, middle-aged woman I had never met turned to me beaming with the happiest and most contented smile and gave me a high-five as she said, “Aren’t you so glad we were here for this?”

Indeed.

I shook hands with Uriah Heep’s Mick Box at Missouri concert June 25, 2010.

There was an extra treat afterwards when I shook hands with Mick and reminded him that we enjoyed meeting him at the Greek nine years ago.

Post-Heep Randy and I spent Saturday visiting parents, siblings and other relatives in the area — my brother Brett and his family were kind enough to put us up at their house Friday and Saturday nights — and eating two days worth of meals within a few hours at several other favorite places — delicious Gates BBQ and a couple of small dive drive-ins called Clem’s (loose meat burgers and tenderloins) and Mugs Up (“zip” burgers and black cows).

By 7 a.m. Sunday morning we were back on the road for another 800 miles and 12 hours to Albuquerque (Randy drove the whole way and also got stopped by a cop in Kansas but was much better at smooth-talking his way out of the ticket and much luckier because the cop couldn’t get his in-car computer to work).

We made it back to Randy’s house in time to enjoy a nice BBQ’d dinner Jan prepared for us on their patio and watch the video and pictures I managed to sneak on my camcorder that Randy had me hook to his TV.

Everything had gone perfectly and without a hitch on what I considered the three most important legs of the journey to get to the concert on time and to get Randy back home in time for work Monday morning. All that was left was for me to get back to Arcadia by Monday night so that early Tuesday morning I could get to a VIP/media preview event for the King Kong 360 3D tram tour attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood, which I would videotape using the same camcorder I used at the concert.

Return to fantasy My final solo 800-mile drive from Albuquerque to Arcadia started off great at 7 a.m. as Randy left for work. I would be in Arcadia by about 4:30 p.m., I calculated as I drove — plenty of time to get unpacked, download the video and photos from my camcorder and recharge the batteries, and have dinner with Betty, followed by a walk and a nice early bedtime to be good and rested for my job the next morning.

Uh, well….

The guitar pick of Mick Box that I caught, with his initials on back (below)

Three hours and 214 miles later after crossing into Arizona and nearing the Painted Desert I was trying to find the apple that Jan had set out for me when it suddenly hit me that I also didn’t see the little black bag with my HD camcorder. I pulled over and checked everywhere, knowing the whole time that I had left it at Randy’s house on the table near his TV after watching the 3 minutes of footage from the concert.

Running through all possible options in my mind, I quickly realized that the one that made the most sense, as daunting as it seemed, was to turn around and go back to get it. I texted Randy, who offered to send it via overnight delivery but it was unlikely it could get to me as early as I needed it the next morning.

He did save me about 20 minutes by driving home to get the camcorder and taking it to his office

where I drove into the parking lot only long enough for him to toss it in the window. (He even thought to grab me another apple — Jan informed us later that the apple I also left sitting on the table was enjoyed during my six hours to nowhere by their dog, Jack, who I shall now remember as Apple Jack).

Deja Vu (translation: Desert View x3) So, after driving 428 miles in more than six hours, I was now leaving Albuquerque for the second time Monday shortly after 1 p.m. About three hours later I was crossing into Arizona again and finally passing the Painted Desert. I eventually rolled into town by 10:30 p.m. without incident (or any further stops by police).

The originally planned 3,200-mile trip had turned into 3,600 miles of driving for 52 hours during four of the five days I was gone, with me behind the wheel for more than 2,500 of those miles, more than 2,000 of them in 28 hours by myself. And all to see an aging 1970s rock band with only one original member play for 90-minutes.

Heep Wonderworld is Very ‘eavy, Very ‘umble But it turns out that the Uriah Heep concert was not only a destination but also the impetus that allowed me to get an enlightening tour of Albuquerque and some gracious hospitality and entertaining from Randy’s wife Jan; to reconnect with my buddy Ron, my mother and in-laws, and Randy’s father and family; to spend rare quality time with my brother and his family; to revisit a quartet of our favorite burger and BBQ joints; and to laugh and reminisce with my friend Randy for 24 delightful and memorable hours on the road.

I can’t tell you what I was doing during any given five-day period even a few weeks ago, let alone months ago or years ago. But I can guarantee you that Randy and I will remember almost everything about those days last week for the rest of our lives.

— By Scott Hettrick