Fact #117043
When:
Short story:
Black Sabbath, Yes and Wild Turkey play at the Sports Arena, San Diego, California, USA. Rolling Stone journalist Cameron Crowe attends the gig to conduct an interview with Wild Turkey, and his experiences on this night eventually form the basis of a scene in his movie Almost Famous.Full article:
Cameron Crowe : My first (backstage) pass was supposed to be at the artists’ gate at the San Diego Sports Arena. The concert featured Yes and Black Sabbath, and I was stranded outside with a tape recorder for many hours, waiting for a road manger to appear with my name and then escort me back to interview the opening band, Wild Turkey. The backstage gate was guarded by an angry, scrawny man in a yellow-checked jacket, who took great delight in telling me that my name was not on the list, never would be, and I was to “go to the top of the ramp with the other girls.”
Not that I will remember that menacing guard or his name for the rest of my life (Scotty!), or even the name of the kind concert promoter who eventually took pity on me (thank you, Larry), but I did re-create this scene in the movie Almost Famous to help exorcise the lingering pain. And it was Larry who knew the power and the iconography of the backstage pass when he finally pulled a stack from his pocket, withdrew one and handed it to me with great aplomb, bestowing a key to the castle with simple advice. “Put it in plain view”, he said, “and look like you belong”.
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Not that I will remember that menacing guard or his name for the rest of my life (Scotty!), or even the name of the kind concert promoter who eventually took pity on me (thank you, Larry), but I did re-create this scene in the movie Almost Famous to help exorcise the lingering pain. And it was Larry who knew the power and the iconography of the backstage pass when he finally pulled a stack from his pocket, withdrew one and handed it to me with great aplomb, bestowing a key to the castle with simple advice. “Put it in plain view”, he said, “and look like you belong”.