David Lauser a.k.a. Bro and I in 1970. We might have been calling ourselves The Big Bang, Manhole, or Skinny. Bro and I used to set up by ourselves, guitar and drums, in Riverside Fairmount Park.

They had a little amphitheater and we just went and did it without asking for permission. Nothing. There might be 7-10 people who would stop and listen. We didn't give a fuck, we just jammed. Loaded the truck back up at the end of the day.

Bro was a drummer on 'Standing Hampton,' 'Three Lock Box,' 'VOA,' 'I Never Said Goodbye,' and all Wabos records, starting with 'Red Voodoo.' We came from childhood.

That van took me right up to Montrose, 1972. It carried our equipment from the Inland Empire to San Francisco, back-and-forth for months every week, until we got a gig at the Peppertree lounge on Broadway in San Francisco on the off nights (Monday and Tuesday).

One thing led to another and Ronnie Montrose discovered me at a place called the Wharf Rat in San Francisco. That van was parked out front because we loaded our own equipment in and out every week. The rest I guess is history.

That van, if you read my book, is the one that my first wife Betsy’s dad and brother rebuilt the engine of and made it a new car in Rochester, New York 1969 (the year of Woodstock), so I could drive it back to California with Bucky and my wife Betsy, newly pregnant with Aaron (Happy birthday, 2/24!). Check the license plate, very interesting. I wore that fucking van out! When I joined Montrose, that van could barely make it up the hill, I forget who I even sold it to for $50.