Chapter Four "Season Four"

1969

Hollywood/Los Angeles, California

Another Party At Hoyt Axton's House

August ~ September

In The Troubadour

It was sometime during late summer or early fall of 1969. I think this night was one where the Dillard and Clark Band played at the Troubadour, however it could have been The Flying Burrito Brothers, but I don't really remember for sure now. I was there, along with several friends of mine, Suzanne, Kathy West, Mary McCaslin, Norma, Kaye (who went off with Michael Clarke somewhere), and others. During the show we all sat upstairs in the front row, which was close to the bandroom and Doug Weston's office. When the final set of the night ended, Suzanne and a couple of the others invited me along with them into the bandroom, backstage. Among all the people in there, the first sight that caught my eye was Gene sitting on one end of the couch farthest from the door, a "hi ball" glass filled to the top with straight tequila, and this woman I couldn't stand, Ildako, was sitting on his lap. She was a really creepy, nasty bitch who worked as a cocktail waitress, was "evil tempered", and Gene would hang out with her frequently. I couldn't stand her, and always got furious when Gene would be with her. They weren't romantically inclined, in-love, or anything, like that, but they had some kind of mutual self-destructive relationship. Of course Gene knew how I felt about it. The moment I saw Ildako sitting on his lap, and he'd seen me come in, I made some excuse to Suzanne and stuck my nose up at Gene and walked back out of the bandroom and went down into the bar.

As it got even later, near to closing time, there were still a lot of the regulars hanging out in the bar, and I think it was Harry Dean Stanton who told me about how we were all going over to Hoyt Axton's little house he had nearby, for a continuing party once the Troubadour closed. Hoyt was in the bar too. I ended up getting a ride with Suzanne and a couple of other people. Someone gave me some kind of diet pill on our way. Once we got there we all just mingled about at first. As more people arrived I saw Gene, who now was not with Ildako, even though she was at the party. I immediately felt better and excused Gene for having had her sitting on his lap. I could only hold a grudge against Gene for so long. I could not ever really resist him for too much a time, anyway.

At Hoyt's House

The 'Tequila' With a Surprise

The little house was so crowded that pretty soon all the couches, chairs and even the bed were crammed with people. I ended up sitting on the floor, like so many of us. At first I was sitting with Suzanne on one side of me, and someone, perhaps Douglas, on the other. Then after a time she got up and went over somewhere else, and Gene took her place next to me. He was really nice, sweet, and so forth to me. I do remember that once Gene was sitting next to me, Douglas was sitting on the other side. We remained sitting so for the rest of the party. Though I was sitting between both of them, I was clearly "with Gene". Almost all of the people who were musicians had their various instruments out and there were several jam sessions going on at the same time. Gene had his guitar and Douglas his banjo. I remember Gene picked up his guitar and started playing one of the best songs on the first Dillard & Clark album, Train Leaves Here This Morning, and I found myself, free of my usual self-consciousness and shyness, singing along with him. Gene didn't seem to mind; in fact I think he liked it. Then Douglas got his banjo and started playing and singing too. I think we must've sounded pretty good. I know it sounded good to me.

Of course in those days all of us were young, the oldest being perhaps 30 to 35. Also, especially in the Hollywood Scene, it was just natural that we all were pretty buzzed if not down right drunk, as well as stoned and high on various things. Everybody that I could see was smoking pot. It was like having a beer to many of us. There was beer there among other stuff to drink, and for awhile I was drinking that, as were Gene, Douglas and others. As the evening slowly phased into early morning, I noticed someone passing a bigger-than-gallon-size, unlabled glass jug around. I was stoned enough on the pot to be super- aware of my physical body, and wondered if I'd get sick drinking what looked to me from across the room to be Corn Liquor, of which I had a swig when someone brought a big jug of it into the Troubadour Bar one night, or something else so strong that I'd not had much experience with. I wondered if I should take the chance of inadvertently causing myself to throw up. Eventually the jug was passed to Gene. I looked at it up close. The contents were some kind of a cloudy looking liquor, and to my "horror", there was a big gross, fat, long worm, about the size of a banana slug, at the bottom of the jug! It was dead and gently swirling around in the brew, whatever it was. After taking a few swigs, Gene saw my face as he passed the jug to me. I looked askance at the worm in the cloudy liquid. Gene chuckled, and smiling as he passed me the bottle, said in his most persuasive tone, "Oh, Diane,"don't be afraid of it. It won't hurt you. It's Mescal, made from the mescalin cactus, and is good for you. It's psychedelic. The worm makes it even more so. Go ahead, give it a try." In those days, up until 1972, I went by my middle name, Diane; my first name is Elyzabeth.

With both Gene and Douglas, and some others close enough to us, all watching me, I thought at first, there was no way I was going to appear as the 'lame-scardie-cat', and so I took a first careful sip. It wasn't bad; in fact it had a far smoother, not at all rough, taste than regular tequila. I had always trusted Gene, even from the time we first came into contact with each other. He just brought out these feelings of trust, security, closeness, etc., in me. And this is precisely why I took a bigger swig next. If anybody else other than Gene had asked me to try that ominous looking concoction, I know I would have refused, no matter how politely I did so, or even if I would appear as 'lame'. That party was wonderful. I remember Gene had at some point begun to lean his body against mine, with his head on my shoulder, and I was leaning back against him, when he wasn't playing his guitar.

(More to come...as I remember)