- Ozzy with Ratt
- Judas Priest with Great White
- Rush with Gary Moore
- Dio with Rough Cutt
We got Dio/Rough Cutt in 1985 on the first Sacred Heart leg with Vivian still in the band.
Motley Crue and Waysted opened Ozzy's tour here, but I didn't see that. Priest/Great White also played the East Coast. I don't remember who opened for Rush here, Joe could tell us, but I didn't think it was Gary Moore.
We got Rough Cutt with Dio on both Last in Line and Sacred Heart.
Don't bother telling us; none of us are at all interested in hearing about your "incident".
Yeah...I knew I was setting that up. It's a better story when told verbally, but here you go:
During the second half of 1984, my friend Joe and I worked at Del Taco. Back then the store closed at 9 or 10 p.m. Joe and I and a couple others who worked there had figured out that the caulking around the frame for the drive-thru window was trashed, and you could easily push it in, unlock the window, and climb in through the window, so we used to do that sometimes after the closing manager had driven away. We'd make food and drink wine coolers (Bartles & Jaymes).
Joe and I and another friend (who didn't work there) went to the Dio show in November 1984. After the show, we were hungry, and, since this was in the days before everything was open 24-hours or until 2 a.m., nothing was open, so we decided to stop at Del Taco. It was probably 11-11:30 or so. We were all inside and working on the food when a police car doing a normal cruise through the shopping center came around the next building and went through one of those water drainage channel, which resulted in its headlights shining directly into the restaurant. Like the genuises we were, we all dropped to the floor and crawled toward the back - away from the windows. We actually got into the closet where employees could stash their stuff while at work.
After about 10 minutes, we were starting to think we might not have been seen and exited the closet (ha ha). At that point, there was a knock on the back door, and we kind of freaked out. I remember Joe grabbing an employee shirt that was nearby. He tried to pull it over his head, but it was buttoned up all the way, so the buttons broke off as he tried to put it on. Another knock, and one of us said, "who is it?"
We opened the door to find three police cars, about 6 cops with guns drawn, and a German shepherd.
We were taken to the police station and put in a holding cell while we waited for our parents to come get us. it was one of the most mortifying moments in my relationship with my mother. She took me back to the Del Taco parking lot to pick up my car, and we drove home. The next day, Joe and I brought our work shirts back to the store since we knew we were fired. The store manager actually told us that he wouldn't have fired us, but the district manager insisted. We were worried about Del Taco "pressing charges," so we got the phone number of the district manager and called him to apologize. He was a total dick, and we heard from someone who still worked there that he was the only one who wanted to "press charges."
After a couple weeks, we thought we were off the hook when we got a notice from the juvenile court that we had to come in for arraignment on felony burglary charges! The three of us went down to the court with our parents and met with the prosecutor. That's when I learned that it's not up to the victim to press charges. The prosecutor was sympathetic, but he said he had to give us something because the cops would be pissed at him (apparently, the cops thought we were robbing the place and might be armed). We pled guilty to misdemeanor trespassing and attempted petty theft and got 5 days (4 with good behavior) on the county work program, which means four 8-hour days trimming grass at local high schools. Needless to say, no more concerts were in my future until after I turned 18 in October 1985 (which means I missed the Long Beach Iron Maiden World Slavery shows, among others). My next concert was Dio on the Sacred Heart tour. We did not stop at Del Taco afterwards.
Then you realize. Wow. That song was released 42 years ago and we are at a point where adult people in the now are still hearing Rush's most-well known song for the first time. It's something amusing to note.
I remember back in those days thinking that WWII was ancient history (although my father served in that war). The time between the end of WWII and the release date of Moving Pictures was not quite 36 years, and it's been nearly 43 years now since MP was released. When I was a teenager, 43 year old music was a joke.