Peace and power to my people

Hi folks! It's me right in your face, so open your eyes and you might see me, but watch it cause I'm kinda fast, I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, so don't be shy, I'm not a bad guy, so why did I do this to myself. I admit it was hard, and I'm not a bad fellow. So grab a hold of your chairs everybody. I'm going to let you into my life with Redbone. All the fun we had. Cause them guys were wise. I'll tell you all I know about Redbone: the best band I ever played with…

1. A true Redbone story. We were in England a town called Redcap, it's right across the water from Ireland. We went into this bar, me and Tony were felling good, no pain. So Tony went downstairs to see what was happening there. And 5 minutes later Tony came up the stairs with his cloths torn off, shirt ripped, pants all torn up and all his indian clothes were ripped up. He walked into a hornet's nest, it seems that downstairs there were all these IRA guys and they jumped on poor Tony. I really felt sorry for him, all beat to rat shit. But one thing is, he never messed with the IRA army again… Being in England was not that fun for my brother Tony. True story…

2. Another Redbone story. We were in Fresno CA. We were getting ready to go on and play. So we started off to the stage. I had these two big glasses of beer one in each hand. When we got to the stage, as Iwas walking, Pat had his amps split apart and a cord going from one to the other, so I hit the cord, and tripped with both beers in my hand. Well I fell and split the beer all over the front of me, and in my face and everywhere on the front of my body. Yes folks, all over my indian clothes. Pat, Lolly and Tony were plugging into their amps and saw me fall with all the beer. They started laughing and couldn't stop. Lolly fell over on his back and Tony fell to his knees and Pat too. Well I got up and got on my drums, saying to myself "god dammit Pete, you dummy, stupid fool". But no music yet cause Pat, Lolly and Tony were laughing so hard that we couldn't start playing for five minutes. There were 19.000 people there, and the one's in the front, about 5.000 of them, saw me fall. As I was sitting on my drums, the people that seen it were all pointing and laughing at me. My most dum thing I ever done on stage. True story…

3. One more… We were getting ready to play at Royal Albert Hall in London. We were on our way to the stage and I had to go to the bathroom. So I left the guys and said I have to go. So I had my leathers on, my pants were the lace-up kind, so I had to untie them, so I could pee. My manager came running into the bathroom and said "you have to hurry, cause the guys are plugging into their amps". I took too long, so he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the stage before I could lace my pants up. I was holding them up with both my hands as I got onto the stage. I ran to my drums holding my pants up and sat down. I couldn't get my pants all the way up so I played the whole gig with my pants halfway down. And oh, by the way, the queen of England was there. She gave us our platinum record that night. True story. Man I was embarrassed. But I didn't see anybody laughing. So I guess I snuke one by them. There were 20.000 people there. Plus the queen. True story.

4. This is true, honest "indjin". We were in Amsterdam, Holland, because we were going to play at the Paradisio, it used to be a church. So we went in the afternoon to make a soundcheck, and the stage was thirty feet high, so I walked up on the stage to tune my drums. And as I was walking I noticed a hole in the stage, I said to myself "man, I sure would hate to fall into that". So that night we played, we kicked ass and took names, played great. After we played they turned the lights off. So I started walking off the stage, when all of a sudden, where the hole was somebody layed a rug over the hole. Well you guessed it: I stepped onto the rug and fell through the hole. I just was lucky and grabbed the very edge of the hole. So I was dangling in the air, saying "help, help". And the bass player, Pat Vegas, grabbed me and helped me to get out of the hole in the stage. Well if he hadn't help me, I wouldn't be writing this cause it was a thirty foot fall and I would have been long gone. I had cuts down the front of my body. Ask Leo Bennink, he was there and seen the whole thing, he's on Facebook, write him and ask. So I went to the EM room and got patched up. Man I was sore for a while. So the morale to my story is: watch were the hell you walk, cause somebody could put a rug over a hole on the stage for you to walk on.

5. We were in Denmark, Copenhagen. We had just got through playing to a sold-out crowd. We went back to the dressing room and I was really thirsty. So, dum me, I asked if anybody had something to drink, so this guy had a bottle of wine. I took a big drink of it and handed it to Lolly, he took a small drink too. Half an hour later the sky blue up: it seems that the guy had put LSD in the wine. So Lolly and I were off to the races. Our next stop was Germany, we played in Frankfort, Hamburg and Berlin. I just remember bites and parts of even being in Germany. We stayed in one of Hitler's mansions. I can remember getting up one morning and looked out of my window, which was about fifty feet tall. And there was a lawn with trees on both sides, for as far as I could see. Then I blacked out again. The next thing I remember I was waking up in my bed in London. We were in Germany for five days and to this day, I can't tell you what I did or were I went. Lolly didn't take that much so he was OK. But the guys said I played my ass off. So the morale to this story is: don't drink out of anybody else's bottle when your thirsty. And to this day I never have. Oh, by the way, I haven't had a drink in years. Believe it or not: an indian not drinking, huh, that's odd. True story.

6. Here's another one. We were playing San bernadino ca. And I was singing this chant. And I got into it so much that I picked up one of my drums and walked to the edge of the stage. Well I got too close to the crowd, and they grabbed my leather shirt I had on, with leather pants. I was dressed to the max. Well they pulled me into the crowd. Mostly the girls who were screaming and yelling. And torn almost all my clothes off. With the help of my roadies I got back on stage, all beat to ratshit. I never went to the edge of the stage again. And the morale of this story is: never ever walk into a crowd if you don't know them, cause you will get torn to ratshit like I did. It was like walking into a hornet's nest.

7. We were playing the peace rallies in Washington DC. There were 450.000 people there. Before we went on, I looked out at the crowd. And they turned into one giant living thing, man what a trip. I used to carry my cymbals with me always. So this one time I gave them to my roadie to hold and put up when he set up my drums. Well he put them down and some asshole walked off with them. So I lost every one of my cymbals. I just cried. There all gone, so I asked a drummer if I could use his cymbals. So we played and kicked ass. After we were done I talked to my roadie with my fists, I really kicked his ass, then I fired him. We didn't pay him, so he had to hitchhike from Washington DC, all the way back to Los Angeles. I heard later that it took him a week to get home. So the morale of this story is: never put down the drummers cymbals, cause you are in for a good ass whipping and a long walk home.

8. OK, the Little Richard story. I was 19 years old. A friend and I went to try out for Little Richard's band. My friend played sax and I played drums, you know. Well it went great and he hired us. And then we went back to his hotel. We walked into the room and there were nothing but guys in the room. There were the other band members, sitting there hugging and kissing and everything. Well my friend and I turned around and got the hell out of there. I've never ran from anything so fast in my life. So we didn't play with little Richard. So the morale of this story is: don't never try out for a band that is funny, cause you might get downed and browned. Or they might say, I bet I can throw you and blow you, before you can down me and brown me. The little Richard story.

9. I went Garfield to high school in Seattle, Washington, with Jimmy Hendrix and Bruce Lee at the same time. It was a minority schoo. One time I saw Bruce Lee kick five black guys asses. They surrounded Bruce and in one second he put all the guys down. They were bleeding very much, from the neck and ankles. So they had to go to the hospital. Bruce was not in trouble cause he was out numbered. I played with Jimmy a few times. But I was just starting playing myself. But at the Isle of White, we were sitting under a bus, drinking a bottle of wine. We were talking about recording something together. Jimmy said he was going back to London that night. So he left, and that night he died. Very sad. We did not play cause Tony was crying and Lolly too. Well all of us were crying. Very, very sad times when Jimmy left us.

10. I was in Vancouver BC. We went to the hotel and checked in. The next day, the day we were going to play, I wanted to go some place. So I went to north Vancouver, to the reservation, to see chief Dan Gorge. I visited for a while, when I looked at the clock and it was time to go. So I said I have to go play. My ride was a 1950 Studdbaker filled to the bream with indians. We got across the bridge and the car started to backfire and smoke. Well we got in front of the arena and the car quite running right in the middle of the intersection, in front of the place. aA policeman was directing traffic and told me to move the car. I said I had to play there and if he didn't let us in, there would be no music. So everybody got out and started to push the car, with people allover going to the concert. And me, in my indian clothes, they were all starring at us, pushing the car. I said to myself "Pete here's another fine mess you've got yourself into". But I made the gig. The morale to the story is: if you ever go to visit someone, make sure you have the time.

11. One time we were flying from Washington DC to Boston. And there was this big giant snowstorm when we were landing. And as soon as we touched down, the plane skidded sideways. So I was looking out the window and could see the front of the runway. Man it scared the hell out of me. An indian is not meant to fly. Well the pilot gave more gas to the left side of the airplane and straightened us out. So our next gig was in New-York at Madison Square Gardens and I said I was catching the train back to NY. So I got up at five a.m. and jumped on the train. When we got to Grand Central Station, I got off the train. Carrying all my bags, I had this big suitcase, witch was very heavy. And this little boy came up to me and asked me if I need help. I said "yes that's very nice of you". So I gave him the big suit case. He started to walk very fast, I had trouble keeping up with him. When we got upstairs he broke into a full run with my suitcase with all my indian leathers in it. I tried to catch him, but he was running too fast. So just before we got to the frontdoor, a plain clothes policemen grabbed him and saved the day. Now the morale to this story is: don't hand your shit to anybody they might just run off with it… and watch them goddam airplanes.

12. We were in tucson AZ, on our first tour with Redbone, on a promotional tour for CBS. We played and when we were done I said over the PA system that were having a party at our motel, the Holiday Inn. So about 500 indians showed up. So I ordered fifty cases of beer, cause it was free, CBS said they would pick up the tab. So I said "what the hell you only live once". So later on there were 500 drunk indians in the hallways and all over the place. The next day CBS took us off the tour because we cost them 150.000 dollars in one week. So they said we were to expensive for there taste. So the morale of this story is: don't invite 500 indians to your room after the gig.

13. Redbone in Bordeaux, France, the wine capital of the world. We played in a giant circus tent. So we went on the stage and the crowd went crazy. All the girls were screaming and hollering. I was getting ready to sing my chant. When all of a sudden the girls started passing out and shaking. So ambulances came to bring the people out. And they had to carry them out over the stage. About fifty girls were taken away to the hospital so we couldn't play for about an hour. So we waited, watching them carry the people out. It scared the hell out of me, and Pat, Lolly and Tony too. That's what I remember about Bordeaux France.

14. We landed in London, went to the hotel and we had our first press conference in Europe. Or London. The room was plum full and these two girls came in. They were very pretty. But they were all red, it seems they put red paint all over their bodies. Lolly got up and walked out of the room. He was the leader, so we all followed him. He said for them girls to wash that red paint off and to come back and apologize to the four of us. So that's what they did. I think the girls didn't know any better. I think they were doing that to make a tribute to us. But lolly didn't see it that way and neither did the rest of the band. I felt very sorry for the two girls. They seemed so embarrast for doing what they did. Our first day in London. So the morale to this story is: if you want to impress somebody, don't wear red paint on your body when you meet an indian, or four crazy indians.

15. Redbone on the road. We were in Houston TX. And we were playing on the same bill as Quicksilver Messenger Service. So after the gig we went back to the hotel and Tony and I went to play cards with the other band. We started playing cards with them and Tony started cheating with the cards. Tony never played fair when it came to cards. So one of the guys in the other band caught Tony cheating and said "you're cheating". Tony said "no I'm not". Then they caught him red handed cheating and they got really mad. They told us to leave. Tony said "the hell with you dum m.f." They pulled out their knifes and started chasing us down the hallways. We ran quick, fast, and in a hurry to get to our rooms. I just made it to my room and the guys from the other band were beating on the door saying "come out of there, so I can kill you, you dirty so-an-so". The next morning we went downstairs to check out. And Lolly was not very happy, and Pat either. Lolly said the leader of the other band was in prison for killing somebody else, and had just got out after serving 15 years. So Tony and me got away with a slap on the hand, we were really lucky that time. The morale to this story is: don't play cards with sore losers.

16. We were on the road with Edgar Winter and the White Trash Band. We used to play cards all the time. Tony liked to play Edgar because he is a albino and has pink eyes and couldn't see very well at all. Well Tony cheated Edgar something awful. Edgar would have to hold his cards right up to his eyes cause he was almost blind. So Tony would see what Edgar had for a hand. One time he got poor Edgar for five hundred dollars. Poor Edgar went back to his room broke and really pissed off. He couldn't figure out why Tony beat him so bad. I said to Tony "why do you cheat in cards so much", and Tony said "because I can and will when ever I can". Tony was a real card hustler. I never played Tony in cards, not unless it was against Edgar! I guess I cheated a little too. I sure miss you, my brother Tony.

17. When we landed in London, there were 6.000 screaming kids waiting for us… Man what a trip. And I had the flu. What a bummer to be sick on such a special time in my life. It was a mad house… If you know what I mean.

18. Now you guys, a little about me. Broken bones I have plenty. Starting from my head down. I had four skull fractures, both my collar bones have been broken, my left shoulder broken, my whole right rib cage was broken in a car crash. My back has been broken, both arms broken, all my fingers broken on both hands. My hip has been broke, my right leg broken, my left foot broken, my left hand broken. I've been shot in the war and stabbed four times, all my toes have been broken. And you think you have problems. Three wheels on my wagon, but I'm still rolling along. The Chairakee are after me, cause I can't see. What the hell, next blindness…
Peace and power to my people.

Pete last walking bear Depoe
Isn't life fun, goddam I've enjoyed it so far…