[ad_1]
This is the kind of offer that might inspire someone to kick the habit.
Tana Douglas had just lit her second cigarette, about 30 minutes after starting a conversation with George Harrison, when the former Beatle said, “I would marry you tomorrow if you quit smoking.”
It was 1979 and the two were hiding in the kitchen at a party hosted by Harrison’s neighbor, Jon Lord, keyboardist for heavy metal band Whitesnake. In the living room, a stripper – a birthday present to Harrison that embarrassed him – danced to The Beatles’ “She Loves You”.
Douglas was the only woman there who wasn’t a stripper. The first female roadie in rock ‘n’ roll, she hauled gear and directed the lighting for some of the world’s biggest bands – and often saw them at their worst. Besides Whitesnake, she has toured with Elton John (“During his brat years he took drugs and had temper tantrums”), Ozzy Osbourne, INXS, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the police and the Go-Goes.
“They were bringing a guy into the locker room [after a show] and take off her clothes – demeaning, but the guys loved it, ”Douglas recalled of the all-girls group.
As his new memoir recounts, “Loud” (HarperCollins Australia), Douglas, now in his early sixties, got into the business very early on. She ran away from her parents’ home in Queensland, Australia, in 1973 at the age of 15 and joined a group of hippies. When they all got together at a music festival, she helped a local pop group move equipment: “Everyone started laughing when the guitarist said I would help with the loading – and then they went. kept giving me more and more to manage. “At 17, Douglas was recruited by AC / DC and lived with the group.
She was greeted by their crew as family, and she made do.
“I fit in like a guy. I drank, stayed up late, cursed and loaded trucks like everyone else, ”she told The Post.
Then there was the moment when she helped save the life of AC / DC singer Bon Scott – during an overdose.
“We all woke up to a girl screaming that Bon wasn’t breathing,” Douglas recalls. “I did CPR and kept him alive until the paramedics arrived. He survived and we never talked about him. When you’re young, you think you’re bulletproof.
In 1979, Douglas became pregnant with a colleague on a German musical television show. She returned to Australia for the birth, left her son with his mother, and returned to the road, seeing her boy for a few months at a time in the early years of his life.
She moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and her son later came to live with her there. Looking back, says Douglas, who is divorced, “I have regrets. But would I do it differently? Probably not.”
Although she retired happily from the road 20 years ago and has since found new careers – doing logistics for groups, fieldwork for films and writing – There’s one thing Douglas is missing: a lost leather jacket for Iggy Pop.
During a concert in the late 1970s in London, Douglas – whom the rock icon had become friends with on her TV Eye tour – was called into the star’s locker room. “Iggy was holding a mirror with three lines [of cocaine] and he said he wanted me to meet someone, ”she recalls. “There was a guy standing in the corner and I assumed he was the coke dealer. I told Iggy he had to go on stage. He drew a line and handed me the mirror. I was like, “ fuck this guy [in the corner], ‘and I did both lines. Then Iggy said, “I want you to meet David Bowie. “
Iggy rushed over to play, and Douglas hid his beloved leather jacket under a monitor on stage. “The show started, Iggy grabbed my leather jacket – which he had unsuccessfully asked to borrow – and put it on for a song. Then he peeled it off, threw it aside and a fan grabbed it. This is how Iggy Pop made me lose my branded leather jacket. Maybe it was revenge because I played Bowie’s line.
[ad_2]
Source link