Travelin’ Man: On the Road and Behind the Scenes with Bob Seger

Seger and I used to jam once in a while—always the blues, baby.

28 T r a v e l i n ’ M a n MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Mongrel sessions, Pampa Studios, spring 1970. X Seger and I used to jam once in a while—always the blues, baby. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM T r a v e l i n ’ M a n 29 30 T r a v e l i n ’ M a n MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Y The Bob Seger System, gM Studios (east detroit), fall 1969. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM T r a v e l i n ’ M a n 31 One of the first things Bob did with some of the money from royalties was buy the winner of a Detroit motorcycle show in 1970. It was a show bike, not for everyday use, but he would ride it back and forth from Ann Arbor. We warned, “You shouldn’t be driving it. That’s like a Porsche, man.” But he did, and when stuff started falling off he went back to driving his car. It was a bizarre bike but looked cool. And he looked like a movie star riding it, like someone in Easy Rider. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 32 We used to race and play sports. A lot of the guys liked to play baseball. Scotty Morgan of the Rationals was quite a baseball player. Punch was real good. Seger was good at first base, and he could hit. He was an athlete—good and fast. I was a track star (ha!) when I was a kid; in ninth grade, I set a record for the half-mile, so I thought I was fast. Nobody beat me before Seger beat me like I was standing still. The most unexpected things can happen in sports. W university of Michigan campus (Ann Arbor), June 1970. Z ed “Punch” Andrews, university of Michigan campus (Ann Arbor), June 1970. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM T r a v e l i n ’ M a n 33 The Goose Lake International Music Festival was big fun. Seger played on Sunday, the third day, in front of maybe 175,000 people. We heard the total was everything from 150,000 to 300,000; there certainly weren’t 300,000 people, but there were a lot, so it was a great gig. We did our show and then Richard “Krinkle” Kruezkamp and I had brought a ton of coca-cola there to sell to people and supplement our income. That gig was a great for us, too. I still remember the stage. I’d never seen a stage like this before. It was designed by Tom Wright, the photographer and author (Roadwork: Rock & Roll Turned Inside Out, Hal Leonard Books, 2007) and former Grande Ballroom manager. He was brilliant. He designed a big, round turntable with a wall in the middle. While one band would play on the front part of the turntable, the next band set up behind it on the other half. When it was time to switch, the crew guys would put metal poles into holes on the front of the circular stage and rotate it. Very cool. Y goose lake Pop Festival (goose lake Park, Jackson), August 9, 1970. 34 T r a v e l i n ’ M a n MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM The farm was great. one of our friends and part-time roadies, Gary Gawinek, found it. Rent was $300 a month (Gary, Punch, and I paid $100 each) for about twenty acres, with a big ol’ barn and a pond, on Tienken Road in Rochester, between Livernois and Brewster Roads. The band could practice there, too. We rented it in the summer of 1970. Two of the band members and two of the roadies moved in immediately. Joe Aramimi was in charge of the farm, basically; he and Pep Perrine, our drummer, kind of ran it—made sure it was clean and took care of it. Seger was living in Ann Arbor, so he had to commute there and the farm was a long way for him. We played football games there, baseball, a lot of sports. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM T r a v e l i n ’ M a n 35 Y The Bob Seger System at the farm (rochester), summer 1970. When Punch started the Palladium, the teenage nightclub in downtown Birmingham, Michigan, we’d drive to the farm every Friday and Saturday night after the music ended. Most times, the bands would drive out there, too, as...