SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 2005 TAJ MAHAL AT THE MCDONALD THEATER
DOWNTOWN EUGENE OREGONI've known Taj quite a few years but only get to see him on occasion, last one being a few years back here at the McDonald when the place opened for music venues after it went kaplooey as a movie theater. I got to tak to him in the dressing room last night just before he went on. He was sitting, hunched over his guitar, noodling. I stood in front of him but he didn't look up. Then Andy Vertal, behind me, said, hey, Babbs, and Taj's head popped up and he yelled, B-B-B-B-BABBS!
He stood up and we did the hugshake and rapped about the book, Last Go Round, that Kesey and I first wrote as a screenplay with Kesey wanting Taj to play the part of George Fletcher, even stuck in a scene of Fletcher playing the dobro. "Hey, dig this," Taj said, and began singing: "You ride the broncos and you bite the dust, at the Pendleton rodeo-oh-oh, at the Pendleton, rodeo," and I picked up on it and joined in.
I had brought a hard back copy of the book with me and asked Taj if anyone had ever given him one and he said no he'd never seen it so I had the honor of presenting it to him.
I no sooner signed it than the manger yelled, it's time, and Taj took off for the stage.
