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4/3/73: JL Hooker opened f/Willie Dixon @Richards in ATL.

Nov 22, 2018, 9:33 AM

2 sets each from 8PM till 4AM.

Short story... Got lost in ATL looking for my friend's brother's place. Asked directions f/ security guard @ an empty parking lot @ Richards around 5PM. Got lost again and decided to go back to Richards and see if we could get in for the show.

As we pulled up about 7PM, same guard comes over and says he would have saved us a place if he'd known we were coming back. We said that's okay, we prefer to park out back.

When we walk up, there's a line of 30-40 at the ticket window. The guard greets us and walks us to the front door past the bouncer and then escorts us to some seats on the corner of the main bar. A young lady takes our order for 'Jack rocks'...little plastic cup w/mini cubes. My was gone in a couple of minutes. She comes back, says that won't do, then shows back up with a blender glass w/full cubes and pours it up with at least a pint of Jack. I asked how much. She said, "Don't worry. Everything's on the house."

JL Hooker played f/1.5 hrs. w/30 min. break, then W Dixon played f/1.5 hrs. and at midnight they cleared the bar for the second shows. That's when the young lady came back and gave me a refill in my blender glass. My buddy and I were the only non-employees or band members that were allowed to remain. I never finished that second drink.

Both shows were fantastic, Hooker on a stool wearing sunglasses and 'smoothing out' and Dixon high energy spinning his upright bass on some songs. They both had younger white longhairs for bands. At the end of the night, we walked out with the young blonde (as it turns out, she was the manager), the security guard, and the head bouncer around 4:30 AM.

To this day, the only thing I can think was they thought we were with the bands. Maybe it was our long hair, leather jackets and leather high-heeled rock'n'roll boots... Whatever, everything was free and it was a great night.

We felt like kings. By the way, he was 16 years old. I was 15.