I didn't join Bill Graham until 1968 in New York. Prior getting into the scene my exposure to music was "Cousin Brucie" and AM radio. The first contemporary rock show I worked at the time was at The Anderson Yiddish Theatre. One of the acts on the bill was Moby Grape. I turned to someone and said, "what the fuck is a Moby Grape?"

I was friends with a guy in the West Village named Tony Lecht. His cousin, Neal Anderson, was a partner with Sandy Pearlman who ran 415 records. They were students at Stony Brook.

Stony Brook University was the first place that started bringing acts (California/England) in and doing shows. There had been some shows in "The Village" but it had all been fly by night stuff.

I was working at Tony's bar from midnight till four in the morning. Neal came and approached Tony about bank rolling this little theater they had on 2nd Ave and 4th Street (The Anderson Yiddish Theatre). It was Theatre and music but all in Yiddish. All Jewish Theatre....from what I hear Michael Tilson Thomas' Family was involved with the Theatre.

They needed like 15 grand and Tony went for it, he brought me over there. I was an usher but the place was totally chaotic so I started organizing it.

I get a call one day from Tony. He thought of me as his muscle, I never thought of my myself that way. He said, "this promoter from California wants to talk with me." They set a meeting at the Tin Angel on Bleecker Street, right above and "The Bitter End."

We order some food and we're waiting for this promoter to show up. Tony thought of himself as a semi-wise guy. He grew up in Brooklyn and went to school with two of the nephews of Carmine Lombardozzi who was one of the Mafia Dons in Brooklyn. He thought he was "connected," but he really wasn't.

This guy walks in with a big shoulder bag and introduces himself as "Bill Graham." I had never heard of Bill, he seemed like a pleasant enough guy.

He opens up his bag and takes out all these yellow legal pads and starts talking about how he's been doing shows out on the West Coast for several years now and he has a great relationship with the acts and managers and their agents.

He had been to The Anderson Theatre and was very impressed by the way it was run, the technical
aspect of the whole thing. He thought, together, we could really do something in New York.

At this point Tony stops slurping his soup and goes totally off the charts. It was like a bad Jimmy Cagney impression....."who the fuck are you coming into my town and tell me you're going to be my partner.

Bill is taken aback but doesn't say a word. Finally Tony stops and Bill says, "well, thank you for your time, I'm sorry you're not interested." He shakes my hand and Tony totally ignores him.

I said, "you know Tony, there's something here and I think you just made a really big mistake."

The Fillmore East opened just about a month after that. Bill must have had the whole thing in the process and he wasn't asking Tony to let him in to his operation. He was inviting Tony to become part of his, which Tony never realized.

A month later The Fillmore East opens up and Tony is totally out of business. His whole tech staff jumped, I didn't because I was his friend so I stayed with him. I stayed with him until the opening night of The Fillmore East with Big Brother and Ten Years After and Albert King.

Tony told me that day that he had printed up 2,000 counterfeit tickets to Bill's show. He was trying to disrupt the whole thing, which for me, crossed a line. I walked on him.

Graham had it under control and it was a great show, it was the opening of a whole new era in New York for Rock & Roll music.