Usually when telling a story I like to start at the Beginning…however, I was going through some of my old pictures last night and came across this one…taken in 1995 at Gregg Allmans house in Novato California…while looking at this picture I started laughing out loud and figured although it’s not the beginning it’s a good start for setting the scene…and looking into the dynamics of the friendship(s) that started when I was 19 and changed my life forever!

I remember every, or most every, detail of that time and place…It was here in this picture at 430 School Road that I lived with Gregg, Pamela, and Delta Blue (the springer spaniel) for the first year…then the family expanded when Island came from Costa Rica to live with her father…soon after Islands arrival came Honey Blue, and Emma Blue another Springer and a Mutt…the circus was complete…the big top was a beautiful 6 bedroom Spanish style house on top of a huge hill, with a coble stone driveway an 1/8 of a mile long, we called it the Driveway from Hell because it needed two switch backs to snake on up to the top…Once you were on top the view overlooked old Oak groves, rolling hills and little valleys over run with sheep and horses…Inside… the house was bustling with One Rock star, 3 dogs, one wild 13 year old, a Saint of a Woman, and myself…this didn’t include the influx of band members, girlfriends of the week, various road managers, visits from Devon and Elijah and their girlfriends, ex-wives and would-be-friends. I often wondered how on earth did I get here…I was 20 years old and 3,000 miles from home when this picture was taken atop the Driveway from Hell…

In order to fully understand why this story, which ends with not one but two of Gregg’s infamous one-liners, continues to surface in my present day life, I’ll give you a little background…

From the beginning I’ve done things My Way, not always the Best Way or the most Subtle Way, but non-the-less My Way…a true product of two supportive parents who encouraged independence…today they admit this parenting strategy gave them a run for their money…In turn they blamed responsibility for my fathers shaggy grey hair on me…from 6th grade until I graduated I wore a suit coat and tie while attending a very competitive prep school in Greens Farms Connecticut…after I graduated the school changed their dress code to limit the number of ear rings and length of hair their students could have…apparently My Way tended to stand out a little more than they felt necessary…

When I arrived in San Francisco at 19 it proved to be an atmosphere that enhanced “My Way” and then some…my 2nd day in the city my motorcycle was impounded by the Military Police turning the 20 dollars I arrived with, plus the 50 dollars I made that day working at a friends food stand in the Presidio during the 4th of July, into a negative 500 dollars…

A year later I had the Dubious Honor of having visited every court house in the Bay Area, with out exaggeration…

I was caught at the Richmond Bridge toll both, (atleast I stopped) after being clocked doing a 120 mph on my bike…I only had a permit, which neither allows you to go on the highways Nor apparently speed on them either…

I was then caught on camera blowing through the Golden Gate Bridge toll booths…numerous times…the toll was 3 dollars back then and too steep for my budget at the time…

I was caught in Berkley days after a cop took down my plate after I avoided a block of stand still traffic and being late to a new job, by taking a detour down the sidewalk…

I figured it was time to start taking it easy…so with 400 hundred bucks borrowed from Dad back east and against all his advice, I bought the 1974 blue bug in this picture…it’s first breakdown occurred that very night on Steiner Street…that car gave me all my first lessons in auto mechanics…often…but I kept out of trouble…for a number of months.

That is until I spotted a vehicle I just had to have… a beautiful 1958 Viking half size school bus…I thought…”this is going to be my first Tour Bus.” I called the number on the windshield and set up a time to see it…there at the bus I met the two Hippies who had converted it…it was outfitted with a bathroom and sink, two full beds, closet, and full kitchen. Looking at the paint job i noticed it had clearly been done with a regular home paint brush…the bristles stuck in the raised bumpy finish kind of gave it away…so I asked… “Did y’all paint this yourself?” I’ll never forget their immediate answer…”Yeah Man, we wanted to paint it to look like a tree!” ...I thought…really now…you took a classic ‘58 Bus and wanted it to look like a tree…”I’LL TAKE IT!” The best selling point was the Big Chrome Shift Knob they made into a Bowl complete with a Secrete Stash place…it was perfect! The front seat wasn’t bolted to the floor but somehow I made it up the Driveway from Hell.

Gregg was home from an ABB run, (If I remember right to support the “Where It All Began” album) when I arrived at the house with my new bus…all day I cleaned and tinkered with the bus…occasionally catching a glimpse of Gregg poking his head out to see what was going on…

Then I heard him yell to Pamela…”Pammy whats that Hippie Bus doing in my driveway?” I thought… “ah man this is cool he is going to love it!” Finally hours later when he could no longer contain his curiosity about the Hippie Bus in his Driveway and walked down to where I had it parked nestled in a little group of Oak trees…the original swinging school bus doors were open…so with one foot on the first step he poked his head in…watched for a moment as I fiddled with some wires in the back…when I noticed he was there “I said come on in check it out man, it’s my first Tour Bus!”...he just shook his head and started to walk away…I went to the steps of the open door and watched him as he walked hoping he would change his mind and come back, or perhaps just shoot me a look of approval…he was about 12 feet away when he turned around…I thought… “See I knew he’d like it”...he paused looked at the Bus from Bow to Stern then looked me straight in the eye and said…”What As If You Don’t Cause Enough Attention To Yourself As It Is…ASSHOLE!”...then walked away.

That was the only time we ever spoke about my Bus again…

Three days later in Mill Valley (Marin County), loaded up with some friends…The Party lights came on behind us and the Bus was pulled over…

It was then I found out those Wires I had been playing with when Gregg poked his head in, were crucial to the Hippies Method of Wiring up the bus’ Break lights, as well as, all the rear lights, which the cops informed me I didn’t have…it was also brought to my attention that the Hippies Secrete Stash Spot in the Shift Knob wasn’t so secrete if you left the cap off the part concealing the bowl, and have cops shinning their flashlights on that big Chrome knob…

After searching the Bus and Us…They hinted at the fact that driving a 1958 School Bus painted to look like a Tree with no rear lights wasn’t the most Subtle way to cruise around…When Pamela came to pick me up later that night, I said “You can not tell Gregg about this!”...I knew I would never hear the end of it.

Three days after that (you know what they say about the power of threes) I was in my old Blue Bug leaving the House on the Hill to go into town, Island and Pamela were waving at me franticly, trying to open the window so I could hear what they were screaming…I was thinking “whats up I’ll be right back!”...I put it in reverse, and looked back at a wall of flames…a classic Volkswagen Bug problem…the fuel line that ran above the manifold had rotted…I threw dirt on it Pamela ran around looking for a fire extinguisher…when the Novato fire department finally showed up to put out the flames…I got my second Greggory one-liner in under a weeks time as he once again shook his head then said…”Pammy our boy Christopher sure is Snakebite”

Still to this day whenever I’m about to do something that may bring a little more attention to myself than needed…

I can still hear Gregg’s voice saying…”What As If You Don’t Cause Enough Attention To Yourself As It Is…ASSHOLE!”