Led Zeppelin and the Trident

Mid-seventies. Warm beautiful night. The deck was open and packed. Sitting at a four-top near the bus station in the main dining room was Led Zeppelin and no one had taken notice up until their waitress screamed out, “Fck this shit, I quit!” and walked out of the building leaving a little bit of a conundrum behind with her departure.

Richard, the manager says we have a problem. Oh? “Your friend Harold,” who was in charge of the kitchen that night,” has refused to re-cook four New York steaks that Led Zeppelin said had no flavor and you need to talk to him!” Oh?

I asked Richard if he had any good pot. Harold could smoke up a storm and still perform flawlessly in the kitchen.  Richard said he had “the best.”  Two joints later Harold and I were ripped. Four New York steaks were cooked perfectly to the band’s appreciation which included all the free Henekins I could run back and forth to their table. The only time I  ever waited tables.

A couple of years later Grateful Dead artist Alton Kelley scored for me backstage passes for Led Zeppelin at the Oakland Coliseum and I can’t imagine why they didn’t remember me… 

(Ok I’m kidding about being remembered… but, my takeaway from that night was how smart Richard the manager was. He identified the problem and uniquely resolved it immediately. A few years ago Richard and I participated in an internet commercial for Cuervo Tequila. I’d had another encounter with Pink Floyd where I was pretty sure the Trident had pretty good grounds to fire me but didn’t. I hung out with them for a couple of hours and got shit-faced when I was supposed to be working. Hey, I was distracted. I mentioned it to him when we last met and he laughed. Said we were all young and just living in the moment… miss you Richard and thanks for everything! Best!)

Image from YouTube