“I was there [at the Roxy in Los Angeles in 1991 when Slash jammed with Rory]. The place was absolutely packed! No place to sit, except in the balcony. I’ve never seen the Roxy that full ever… And you could tell Rory wasn’t in good health, but not by the way he played. He somehow managed to reach back and pull a great performance from the ether… As it wound up, it’s became more poignant as time goes by. Had I known that’d be the last time I’d see him perform live, there’s so much I’d do differently. The only advertisement was a blurb in the L.A. Times, under “Lori Gallagher”. Total lucky break on my part, bought my tickets a few hours before they sold it out. More than a few famous lead guitarists were in attendance that night besides “Mr. Slash” as Rory introduced him… If I remember correctly, he played Rory’s Melody Maker, and it wasn’t at all planned, as you could see Tom scrambling to set up Slash with Rory’s backup AC-30 & the guitar. Slash was a pro, adapting to what he was given, and gave an admirable performance, and Rory was his usual graceful self. Slash has said they talked until the early morning hours back at Rory’s hotel… That’s about all my memories of the gig, One more thing, the Fire Marshall was outside, but they couldn’t even begin to get inside, so they wisely let the concert wind up naturally.

With that tiny blurb in the L.A. Times, “Lori Gallagher”, I came so close to not going, but I went to the ticketron outlet & the tickets said “Rory Gallagher”, so I was relieved.  And General Admission should’ve told me the place was going to be crammed, but it had been about 10 years since I saw him last at the Stardust Ballroom promoting “Jinx”. But Slash was very conspicuous in his shades, top hat & t-shirt, sitting in the balcony. Other guitarists were there, though I can’t remember for sure now which ones!  😆

The Stardust ballroom gig was more memorable because of getting to talk with him briefly after the gig. And buying him a Jameson & water after spending the previous 2+ hours at his feet watching him play every note… And meeting Marty Feldman afterwards: his Bentley (Rolls?) was parked behind my 1970 Corvette on Sunset, so both our cars had drawn a crowd, especially his! It was funny having Rory ask me if he sounded okay? It took all my cool, real & imagined, to not answer like a fan-boy 😆 He had a way of just being himself. You were put at ease almost instantly.  Just a really nice guy. All those stories? They’re true. A guy in the crowd said he was around the corner at a bar and Rory was having a pint after his sound check. He said Rory bought him a beer and he bought him one back. He was just a regular guy. The gig must have been late in the year because he got his guitar tangled in cheap Christmas lights wrapped around a wooden truss above the stage. He tried to free it, then tried to act like his guitar was a giant egg beater, then played “jingle bells”, then gave it a good yank,  popping the low E tuberose. It bounced into my hands, I handed it back to him. He went to his Esquire for Bullfrog Blues, & came back for Shadow Play, & Tom had his Strat back in working order…”