the drum company my itinerary, and they’d send me a list of all the music dealers in those towns. I’d do a concert, then catch a flight at two or three in the morning and fly to the next town, check in, get up again about eight, get dressed, and hit all the music dealers to check on the product — / was a sales rep and a clinician. About one I’d go back to the hotel to get some sleep, get up at six for the concert—then bags packed and the same thing again. We did one-nighters like that for three weeks or a month at a time. “...real fast.” you played a lot of grooves back then, you had to play a groove for a long time. The Temptations were the main act, but I had to play for anybody on the show who didn ’t have his own drummer. There were times, like at the Apollo Theatre in New York, where we would do five shows a day. I’d get off the stand after an hour and a half soaking wet, barely able to walk, and all I had time to do was get a towel and wipe off, go to the bathroom, change clothes real quick and go back on. The shows started around noon and we wouldn’t finish until midnight. It was pretty intense. I lived in a lot of places in those days, New York, Memphis, Nashville... I used to do some crazy things. There wasn’t any particular place I called home, and I had girlfriends all over, clothes in every closet. When I’d finish a gig, I’d spin a beer bottle, and whichever direction it pointed, I'd pull out my telephone book and go spend time with that lady. When the Temptations were off, I’d fly down to Chanute, Kansas, where the main office for Cameo Drums was located. I spent a lot of time with the owner, who was only a few years older than me, so we Mel Brown with the Supremes in Mexico. could relate to each other. He had a Lear Jet and would pick me up at the Kansas City airport and fly me back to Chanute...I was moving real fast in those days, real fast. But I dug it. I kind of had a dream about doing certain things, living like somebody in the penthouse. And I did it. So now I don’t have to do that anymore. What got me out of it was I quit the Temptations because the drum company was being sold, and I got first bid on it. I started working really hard on that, had a couple of millionaires as backers, the whole bit. We were all ready to go, and then the energy crisis hit. I had a lot of people lined up, and we were set to manufacture the perfect drum set. But the raw materials had to come from Japan, so it didn't happen. “...the groupintown.” U l f hat brought me back to Port- W W land was my dad being in a car wreck. It was 1973, and I’d been away for eight years. I wanted to get back to let my family know that all the sacrifices they'd made for us six kids weren't in vain, to let them know that I was still the same Mel Brown they knew before I left. So I came back to take pre-law courses at PSU, to help me with the business side of things. My situation with the Temptations was that at the end of the summer I'd call them and maybe go back to work. But when I called they kept putting me on hold. So I said, "All right, I'll just stay around town," and decided to put a jazz scene together. Because there was no jazz here then; I couldn’t even find a jam session. I went by and talked to George Fracasso at the Prima Donna, and Friday night of the week we started there was already a line around the place. There was a line around there for a long time, because I had the group in town as far as jazz goes.... But then I got a call to do some things with the Supremes. I thought I was going out for a few one-nighters, but it turned into two years. I started the drum shop with Greg Warner in 1975, because I didn't want to have a hassle with club owners about the pay. I had been out there, doing milestone stuff, but because I was going to be in town for a period of time they’d say, WWW Clinton St. Quarterly 19
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