Dave Roth and myself at the L.A. Forum in 1976

I am from Los Angeles and you might say I kind of grew up in the same musical neighborhood as Dave Roth and company. This picture was taken by my then girlfriend, Mary Garson. She was an up and coming photographer on the L.A. scene at the time. For a while her sister, Maggie, was dating Eddie Van Halen and we used to 'double date' now and then with Dave in tow. This was one of those occasions. Queen was touring for their 'Day At The Races' album. Eddie was with us although he is not pictured here. This was prior to Van Halen signing a record deal with Warner Bros. A little known fact is that my band inadvertantly played a role in helping them get that deal. Here's the story...

At that time, I was singing in a band called 'The Boyz' with guitarist George Lynch and drummer Mick Brown, who would eventually form 'Dokken'. In 1976 we played a Halloween show at 'Gazzarris on the Sunset Strip'. The club was packed and most of the kids who came to the show that night were dressed up in 'KISS' makeup. We played mostly our own tunes, but in order to get gigs we played some 'ZZ Top', 'KISS', etc. We ended our first set with "Firehouse', a KISS song. As we were walking off the stage, I noticed an extremely tall guy approaching me. To make a long story short, the man was Gene Simmons. He was at the club partying with Paul Stanley. They weren't wearing any makeup and really enjoyed seeing all these kids dressed up like them. They really liked our version of their song. Gene said that their label 'Casablanca' was looking to sign some new bands. He asked where we were playing next so he could bring the record company out to see us. I told him that we were playing the following week at the'Starwood', another infamous club in Hollywood.

Van Halen had the good fortune to be on the bill with us (we shared billing with Van Halen at several shows in the mid 70's). Gene showed up with the record company, but our show was really off that night. On the other hand, Van Halen had a great set. They impressed Gene so much that he flew them to NY to record some demos. Casablanca didn't sign Van Halen, but after returning to LA with those tapes, Van Halen shopped them to WB and the rest is history. "The Boyz' would never get another chance like that. I parted company with the band about six months later.