A Yarn of a Rock Warrior

In 1969, Life Magazine published a series of articles examining the current revolutions going on in different parts of the world, with a question as to the probability of a real revolution happening in the states. And while such a conversation seems very appropriate to have in our current-day dark political climate, the reason for bringing these articles up in this forum is for one sentence in its second installment that comes when discussing the current state of America’s counter culture, where it states: “the counter culture has its sacraments in sex, drugs, and rock.”

David Libert’s new autobiography, Rock and Roll Warrior, tells the story of a life led within the height of the chaos of the aforementioned counter culture. During his long tenured career in the music industry, he was a successful artist, manager, road manager, producer and during the downtimes, drug dealer. His is a journey that epitomizes the crazy freaked out world of the music industry of the late 60s through the 80s: from his early days as a member of The Happenings (who had two top 10 national hits) to his work with legends like George Clinton, Prince, and The Runaways to his prison time and ultimate redemption. Libert’s work is a tell-all life chronicle that is raw and illuminating, perfect for any reader who wants to understand what the sex and the drugs and the rock and roll was all about.

Rock and Roll Warrior is out on September 23rd (and you can actually get a signed copy right now). Libert has generously allowed The Signal to publish an excerpt of the book today. We are jumping in as Libert decides to go on the road with Alice Copper during the height of the artist’s popularity (the photos included are all of Libert and Alice Cooper)….

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An excerpt from Rock and Roll Warrior by David Libert….

Alice Cooper’s manager, Shep Gordon, decided to hire me as Alice’s new tour manager. Shep drove me up to Greenwich, Connecticut, where the band, along with their roadies, girlfriends, and pets, were all living in this old, somewhat run-down mansion, the Galesi Estate.

The mansion had a huge ballroom, which was set up for rehearsing and for trying out the new props that the band’s record company, Warner Bros., had constructed for the band as per Shep and Alice’s instructions. There had been an electric chair, a guillotine, and now, a gallows. On this particular day, the road crew was practicing hanging Alice so they wouldn’t actually kill him in the process. They needed to make sure it would be safe to hang Alice on stage every night. To make this scene even more surreal and bizarre, Alice’s parents and his sister Nicki were there visiting from Arizona, watching Alice getting hanged over and over again. They looked horrified. I was amused. This was gonna be a fun gig.

But just as I was starting to get excited about being tour manager for one of the hottest rock bands in the world, an old problem reared its ugly head, one that could very well put an end to my new job before it even got started.

Earlier, I’d mentioned that, while touring with The Happenings, I’d been arrested and charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell. Although this bust had happened years ago, I always knew that there was a chance I might have to deal with it someday. With North Carolina state elections looming, the incumbent District Attorney in Raleigh saw an opportunity to enhance his re-election chances by bringing to justice a relatively well-known band for possession of drugs. As (un)luck would have it, I was served with a subpoena to appear in North Carolina a mere two days after being hired to work for the Cooper organization. Although loathe to do so, I was obligated to tell Shep what was going on. He had hired me at Jonny Podell’s urging, and I owed it to both of them to be honest about it. I went to Shep’s office and laid it all out to him, sparing no detail. He quietly listened, and when I was done, there was this long, eerie silence. I prepared myself for the worst. The silence was then broken by this strange noise. It sounded like Shep was choking on a sardine caught in his throat. This laugh, I was soon to learn, was uniquely Shep Gordon’s, and one that would be heard often by anyone within Shep’s proximity.

“Well, David,” offered Shep, matter-of-factly, “the first thing we need to do is to keep you from going to jail.” He contacted Rex Ryland, a powerful, well-connected criminal defense attorney he knew from Florida. Shep was pretty sure that “good ol’ Southern boy” Rex would be able to navigate the North Carolina legal bureaucracy with ease, push all the right buttons, and get me off with, at the very least, probation. And he did. I don’t know how Rex accomplished this, but I will always be grateful to him for being able to do so. And to Shep Gordon, who at this point in time barely knew me, but came to my rescue anyway, what can I say? He changed the course of my life at a moment when that course could have been very different—and probably not for the better. I soon learned that Shep Gordon has this extraordinary ability to handle the most challenging of situations and with total confidence that the outcome would be pretty much the way he intended it to be. Over the years, he has proven this ability to me time and time again. Thank you, Shep, from the bottom of my heart, for being the person you are, and for believing in me at a time when I needed it most. Without you standing up for me, I might have ended up making license plates for the North Carolina DMV. And fighting to keep from becoming inmate Bruno’s bitch.

By the following week, I was off to my first gig with Alice Cooper. The first show was in Atlanta at the Fox Theater. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do. Shep said, “Don’t worry, David. You’ll figure it out. In the meantime, just observe as much as possible until you start to get the hang of it.”

There was no job manual, no job description, and no one telling me what my job was. My initial perception was a collection of about thirty or so crazy-looking people, completely unsupervised and crawling all over everything like giant insects. Oh God, what have I gotten myself into? I just quit my nice, convenient, cushy job road managing Rare Earth for this insanity? I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life.

You can purchase a signed copy of Rock and Roll Warrior here and a regular copy here.