Johnny called me up, one night, all excited, to tell me that he was starting a new band with Wayne Kramer, which, of course, I thought was fucking great. They wanted to start recording right away and needed a drummer. I was in New York and they were in Michigan but before I could blink they had me on a plane that very night and in a studio in An Arbor moments later. I was thrilled to meet Wayne who turned out to be even cooler that I had imagined. There were no rehearsals or anything. Ron Cooke, a friend of Wayne from Detroit was on bass, great guy too. I just sat at the drums having no idea what we were gonna do. They rolled the tape and Johnny just looked at me and said “Bo Diddley” and so I started ..Bam-ba-bala-bam bam-bam.. and we recorded Who Do Voodoo on the spot. Then we did M.I.A., then it was Just Because I’m White, Fats Domino’s I’m Gonna Be A Wheel and I’d Much Rather Be With The Boys, from The Stones. They didn’t like the studio we were in, so the second night we went to another one. One funny thing that happened was that when we got to that studio, the guy who owned it got a little freaked out when he saw us arrive and asked to see everybody’s I.D! Gang War’s “manager” told him:
“You must be joking! These guys happen to be very famous musicians! This is Wayne Kramer from The MC5, and you got Johnny Thunders from The New York Dolls over here!” The owner didn’t seem convinced at all and spat back “Don’t try to pull a fast one on me, buddy, my son was a big fan of The New York Dolls and he’s right here!”. He then proceeded to call his son “HEY, BILLY, COME DOWN HERE A MINUTE, WOULD YOU ?!” and out comes the fat kid in bermuda shorts, eating a sandwich.. “Is this one from the New York Dolls?” he asked, pointing at Johnny. The kid took a close look, hesitated a bit, then declared, amazed “It’s Johnny Thunders, dad, their guitar player!!”. So they let us in…
Johnny put me up in this real nice house where he was staying with his wife Julie and their two babies. We recorded for three nights in a row. The band being brand new, Wayne and Johnny were obviously thrilled to be playing together and sparks were flying! Back in New York, I wasn’t sure what to do, but I couldn’t just dump my own band, you know, we were totally into it. Gang War wanted to tour and The Senders were already booked here and there, so it would have been hard to be able to do both. In the end, for some strange reason, I kinda concluded that, with Johnny on board, Gang War may not survive very long, and decided to stick with my own droogs. But my three nights in Michigan as Gang War’s first drummer remains one of the best memories of my life.
Special thanks to Steve!
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320: https://www.sendspace.com/file/rovl3e
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