A Stray Cat Struts

by Slim Jim Phantom

  The Central was a cool spot. It had been called the Melody Room in the 1950s, and original West Coast jazz musicians played and hung out there. The one-of-a-kind, ultrahip Chuck E. Weiss and the Goddamn Liars played there every Monday night, and it was a staple LA rock-and-roll event for ten years. We all went to that. At some point, Johnny Depp famously took the place over. There is an excellent documentary simply titled The Sunset Strip (which I was proudly a producer on), that gives a whole history on all the joints and legend of the Strip. There’s a section of the film where I interview a few original members of Mickey Cohen’s mob and associates and friends. One friend, gentleman Joe DeCarlo, was Sonny and Cher’s first manager. He wasn’t muscle; he seemed more business minded, but he certainly knew everyone in Chicago and LA. He was one of the first cats with a vision to bring entertainment to Las Vegas. He and I got along very well. I went to visit with him in his condo in Beverly Hills, and we got sandwiches from Greenblatt’s Deli on Sunset. I also interviewed Anton Giordano Hosney, who was a member from Chicago who came to LA in the 1940s to keep an eye on the rackets here. He was with Mickey when he was shot by a member of a rival gang in front of Sherry’s Restaurant—which became Gazzarri’s, which became Billboard Live, which became the Key Club and is now One Oak, where there was a shooting recently at an awards ceremony.

  Full circle—you gotta love the Sunset Strip. There’s another scene in the documentary where Sex Pistol and true pal Steve Jones and I talk about the shenanigans along the Strip in the 1980s while sitting in my old bar the Cat Club.

  So there was a nice little jam at the Central on Tuesdays. Al Kooper used to come, Jeff Baxter, and even Tom Petty a few times. There was a house band comprised of all working LA cats, and a bunch of friends and other musicians would come by and jam on rock and blues standards. This was in the days before these jam nights were en vogue, and some nights there would be only musicians hanging out. This night, I don’t exactly remember who was there, but I’m sure it was good. At 2:00 A.M., Bill, the owner/bartender, locked the door, and I stayed a little while after hours, talking and drinking with whoever was there.

  I walked back down the street heading to the parking lot behind the Roxy to retrieve my car, taking deep breaths and chewing gum. I had a system. As I was approaching, I saw a really big guy trying to get into On the Rox. He was ringing the bell and pulling really hard on the door handle. No one was answering, and he was banging and yelling to be let in. It was not my place, but it was my hangout, and I felt some loyalty, so I quickened my pace a little to reach the guy to tell him to knock it off and go home, that the place was closed. I never felt threatened up there and didn’t think too much of the fact that even from half a block away, this was a mountain of a man. The street was hushed, quiet at 3:00 A.M., and this guy was making a raucous racket. If a West Hollywood sheriff had driven by, he definitely would have stopped and checked this guy out, which would have also blown my routine plan of getting my car from the back and going home without a fuss.

  Boom, bang, bang, boom on the steel door. “I’m the Candy Man! I’m the Candy Man! Let me in!”

  I approached, slowly and calmly—there were, still are, and always will be nuts up on Sunset. So I gently said, “Hey, man, what’s up? The place is closed.”

  Bang, bang on the door again. “I’m the Candy Man! Open up!”

  At that point, I realized that this was the actor John Candy. He was truly a big guy; he had to be three hundred pounds. He was a gifted actor and comedian. I had seen quite a few of his films and TV shows. He stopped banging and gave me a bleary stare. He was holding a Big Gulp cup and rocking back and forth on his heels. If this guy bit the dust, I couldn’t catch him—no way I could hold him up.

  “Who are you? I’m the Candy Man!”

  “Hey, buddy, I recognize you from your movies. My name is Slim Jim; I play with the Stray Cats. I know them here; the place is closed. We gotta go. Do you have a ride? Maybe we can hail a cab,” I suggested. The street was empty, but a cab went by now and again.

  He eyed me warily. “I know them. Which one are you, the drummer?”

  I nodded. A big, meaty handshake and bear hug followed. “Call me Candy Man. I’m the Candy Man. Let’s have a drink!”

  He plopped down on the step and pulled me along with him. He pulled a pint of Bacardi’s rum from his inside coat pocket. He took the lid off the Big Gulp soda cup and poured half of it out on the sidewalk. He refilled it with the rum and swirled it around. He took a good sip and passed it to me. I took my swig and passed it back to the Candy Man. Maybe it was Coca-Cola, maybe it was Dr Pepper or some other redneck soda, I don’t know, but it was half-filled with demon rum and went down smoothly enough. We sat on the step in front of On the Rox for twenty minutes, passing this Big Gulp rum and Coke back and forth, the Candy Man pulling out the pint and topping it off until the bottle ran dry. He had his arm around me, and we were like two old hobo drinking buddies, chatting away about nothing. When the cup was soggy and empty, it was time to go home. By this time, I was properly wasted.

  “I gotta split, Candy Man. You shouldn’t hang out here, either. Want me to call a cab?” I asked. There was a pay phone in front of the Rainbow. I would’ve waited with him. I struggled to help him to his feet.

  “No, you go, kid,” he answered, and he staggered off down the street. A few stumbling, zigzag steps, later, he lifted his head to the sky and again started bellowing, “I’m the Candy Man! I’m the Candy Man!” to the deserted street, lampposts, traffic lights, and sidewalk.

  I headed to the back of the club to get my car. The key was under the mat. I started her up, made sure the lights were turned on, and eased out of the parking lot, making a right onto Sunset, looking both ways about five times. I was driving a 1985 Corvette with illegal mufflers and straight pipes, so it was really loud, anyway. The coast was clear—there was no sign of the cops or the Candy Man. I took the first right turn on Wetherly Drive, cut over to Doheny, and putted along slowly toward the top of the hill.

  17

  Life with Harry

  “Hey, buddy. It’s Slim Jim checking in.”

  “Hey, man. You watching the Game Show Network?”

  “Hold on a minute. I’m changing the channel now.”

  “Well, get it on! Hurry up!”

  “Okay, okay.”

  “Call me back when you’ve got it on!”

  Thirty-three seconds pass, and my phone rings.

  “You got it?”

  “Got it.”

  “This guy is brilliant, one of the smartest guys I’ve ever seen. When he’s on, no one can beat him. He may be a genius!”

  “I agree. He’s awesome!”

  “What did you get for seven across?”

  “Let me go back to the newspaper; I did the puzzle earlier, and I need to bring it back up.”

  “Bring it back up! What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “I do the crossword puzzle on the LA Times Web site. I’ve told you this before—it takes two seconds to reload the page.”

  “Call me back. I just want to fill the motherfucker in; it’s taking too long today!”

  Click. Twenty-seven seconds later, the phone rings again.

  “Well?”

  I give him the answer.

  “That’s a made-up word!”

  “I agree, but that’s the answer.”

  “That’s bullshit. Where did they get that from?”

  “It’s a pop culture term.”

  “They’re really fucking stretching it!”

  This goes on for an hour or so. There could be anywhere from ten to fifteen back-and-forth phone calls. The gravelly, three-pack-a-day-timbered voice belongs to Harry Dean Stanton. This is a conversation we’ve had a thousand times and could be from any time zone. If I’m out of town, the conversation is limited to just the crossword, as I can only get the Game Show Network when I’m home. We trace current world history not by who the president was but who the host of Family Feud was at
any given time.

  Harry has become a little trendy in recent years. His truly impressive career and personality have been acknowledged in a documentary. You’ll recognize Harry as the father in Pretty in Pink, and he’s had roles in Godfather, Part II and cult classic Repo Man. He has hundreds of credits. He’s been doing interviews for all sorts of magazines from all over the world. He loves the attention, and I’m happy for him. It barely scratches the surface, though. He’d much rather be doing the crossword puzzle over the phone with a few deep inside confidants than be at his own screening in Cannes. I feel flattered to be called. I’ve done the crossword with Harry over the phone from dressing rooms and hotels all over the world.

  I first met Harry Dean in 1982 at On the Rox. He was very friendly with Lou Adler, and we became fast pals. We bonded over music and history, trivia and word games, and the love of just hanging out. The longer I know him, the more I find out. He is a brilliant actor who doesn’t have to do much on the screen to be effective. Whether it’s playing the drums or acting, less is more, and the best ones can say a lot without overdoing it. A lot of heavyweight actors, directors, and writers know this about Harry, and he’s rightfully one of the most respected guys in his game. I’ve spent a lot of time at his cabin in the canyon just watching TV, doing anagrams on his little 1980s Game Boy, and listening to music. Marlon Brando would call his house, and he would put him on the speakerphone while holding his finger up to his lips. They, like us, would talk about nothing with a few insightful, brilliant one-liners peppered in the conversation. We’d go to Dan Tana’s, the Roxy, the Mint, and sometimes Mouses’s, an old after-hours club down on Pico. He would come over when I lived in Stone Canyon, and we’d play pool and watch my fish tank. We would drink, but like all my real friendships, it turned out not to be based on getting wasted.

  In 1992, we’d form a true cult classic band that played around in LA and on one notable road trip. We called it the Cheap Dates. We had Jamie James of the famed Kingbees on guitar, Tony Sales from Iggy and Bowie fame on bass, my brother from a different mother, the fabled Jeffrey “Skunk” Baxter on pedal steel (confidentiality agreement with Jeff prohibits me from getting deeper into his life, but he is my adopted big brother and TJ’s godfather). We all sang, and it made for a whacked-out bluegrass, rockabilly, country sound. We played every Friday night for a year at the Roxbury, which was not known as a live-music venue and which added to the nuttiness of the whole thing. My girlfriend at that time, actress and former Playmate Julie McCullough, and her friend Tia Carrere were the promoters, and it made for some memorable gigs. After the first few gigs, Rolling Stone magazine did a half-page feature on us, and we eventually went into the Paramount Studio and cut a demo. I still have it on a cassette. We were going to try making an album and touring, but Harry got a movie, Jeff got a production gig, and it just never happened that way.

  We did take a road trip to San Francisco to play a few shows. We rented a van, and we hired a roadie type who drove and did the gear. We had a movie star and four musicians who hadn’t been in a van with the equipment for a long time. The concept was noble: we wanted to bond as a band. It was all going fine until we hit a little traffic about two hours into the trip. Everyone turned quickly into Diana Ross, and we regretted not flying. Tony Sales called his dad, legendary old-school Borscht Belt comedian Soupy Sales, who was in New York.

  “Dad, it’s Tony. I’m stuck in a van with some guys, and we’re bored. Tell us some jokes.”

  He put him on the little speaker of an old cell phone, and we huddled around, looking for something to beat the boredom of that mind-numbing traffic.

  “What do you get when you mix a Dutch impressionist painter and a New York City cabdriver?”

  We all gave up.

  “Vincent Van Gogh Fuck Yourself!”

  This went on for a half an hour, and the distraction was greatly appreciated. We made it to San Fran and played the gig. We unanimously agreed to fly home. The van ride was fun but not fun enough to do it again. Harry got the senior-citizen discount at the airline ticket counter. That was nineteen years ago. I hope I want to do a gig when I’m that age.

  Harry invited me to go with him to a barbecue at the home of Edward Bunker. He’s a gritty ex-con, a street-style writer from LA, a real character. Harry had done a movie called Straight Time based on one of Bunker’s books. I had read the book and was excited to meet the writer. Harry drove along Mulholland. There was a stub from a valet parking ticket stuck under the windshield wiper. It was really annoying him. I suggested pulling over and I’d take it off. He kept driving and put the windshield wipers on. While steering with his right hand he used his left to try to snatch the stub off every time the wiper brought it close enough. We weren’t slowing down, and Mulholland is the trickiest of roads at the best of times. We were sliding around a few turns while Harry was becoming more intent on plucking this ticket stub off, without slowing down. I was thinking of Eddie Cochran and James Dean and decided that driving off Mulholland Drive in Harry Dean’s Acura was not a fitting rock-and-roll legendary ending for me. Maybe the wind helped, or maybe he got a finger on it, I don’t know, but the ticket flew off the windshield, and we slowed down and had a nice drive into Hollywood. He was listening to “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett over and over. He wanted to learn the words and try to play it at a gig. The car had a cassette player, and each time he tried to rewind the tape, it flipped sides, and it was a whole process to get the song back. There were quite a few snarls of “Goddamn it, Slim!” of varying volumes and intensities flying around the inside of the car. We were sitting in front of the house, and I could smell the barbecue and hear the guests talking, but we sat in the car playing that song over and over, discussing the finer points of that song. I was going crazy; I wanted to go in, but it was his friend’s house, and an introduction from Harry would be better than me walking in cold. We eventually went in, and I had a memorable time with a favorite writer of mine and an assorted cast of eccentrics. Thanks again, Harry.

  The phone rang while I was trying to write this story. It was from a blocked number. It was time for The Chase, a game show that features a three-hundred-pound English trivia genius nicknamed the Beast, so I knew who it was.

  “What’s your middle name?”

  “Thomas.”

  “Full name?”

  “James Thomas McDonnell.”

  “Wow, I’ve known you all this time, and I never knew that. To me, you’ll always just be Slim.”

  Like I said, I’m flattered to just be called.

  18

  Come with Me, Kid

  I was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to being a Bob Dylan geek. It makes the few little experiences I had with him fonder, because they were organic and unplanned. There are a few classic backstage photos that are very dear to me, and they captured moments that won’t be repeated.

  Dave Edmunds was playing a gig with his band at the Palace on Vine Street circa 1987. The Cats were not working, and I was of course upset by it. Lee and I had done a record with Earl Slick, and things were going pretty well with that, but it wasn’t the Cats, and I missed the whole thing of being in the band. Dave is a very important player in the whole Stray Cats story as the producer on the best Cats stuff. He knew what we should sound like and was aware of the need for making it modern and vintage all at once. I stayed in touch with him. He was the musical director for the Carl Perkins and Friends TV special in 1986 that would become so legendary. I think that the TV people probably wanted the Stray Cats as a band, but we weren’t doing anything together, and it was a case of them needing a rhythm section to back everybody up. Carl had come to see the Cats play in the past, and Lee and I had done some recording with him with Dave as producer.

  Dave’s show with his usual band in LA was not too long afterward, so everyone was still in touch. We were all invited to the gig. Brian and I showed up. We sat as a group in the Abe Lincoln balcony box off to the side and above the stage. George was there with Bob
Dylan, Jeff Lynne, and Duane Eddy. Brian and I were friendly, and he went up and did a number with Dave at the end. The audience loved it. A great unrehearsed rock moment and a bonus if you had been taken along to see that Dave Edmunds’s gig.

  We all wound up in the dressing room after the gig. The classic picture that exists from that night was taken by talented photographer Robert Matheu from Creem magazine, who had done a Stray Cats album cover, worked with a lot of people, and was an experienced rock paparazzo. It was the early days of Corona beer being trendy, and it should have been an advertisement; everyone in the photo is holding one. I have a few other fly-on-the-wall shots of everyone chatting, looking relaxed, real dressing room stuff, and a great portrait with Britt that we posed for. Looking back, I think that was one of the moments that contributed to the Cats working together again the next year. Maybe it was an ice-breaking moment for Brian and me. He and I hung out, and I enjoyed seeing him. I felt then and still do that people like seeing us together. With George, Jeff, and Bob all hanging together, talking about music, I like to think that I was watching the loose formation of the Traveling Wilburys that night, too.

  Dave was the natural choice for us to work with and would produce the Stray Cats’ Blast Off album in 1988. We were back in action during December 1988 when Roy Orbison died. We didn’t know Roy personally but of course knew his music, especially his early rockabilly sides, and we were honored to be asked to play on his tribute organized by his wife, Barbara.

  The show was held at Universal Amphitheatre, and there were a lot of heavyweights on it: Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, John Fogerty, and Iggy Pop all did Roy songs. Chris Isaak collected autographs on original Roy sheet music. I wish I could think of those kinds of things. Everyone shared the dressing rooms and greenroom. It was a sad reason to bring this eclectic bunch together, but the vibe was really good and ego-free. Dylan was supposed to perform, and everyone was waiting on him. We took our turn in rehearsal; all was fine. We did “Rock House,” a song from Roy’s rockabilly days at Sun Records. I’m not sure how many of the audience or the other performers knew the earlier stuff; most everyone else did the more well-known songs from the catalog.