An elite club

... those who have been booed

I feel lucky that I have only been openly booed once (that I know of).

It is one of my favorite memories.

Let me set the stage for you.

This was early in my life as a musician. I was maybe 21. I had my first record out on MCA Records Nashville.

I was lucky to land the opening slot on a tour in Canada with a Big Country Star whom I was a genuine fan of.

Now I will freely admit that I was not exactly good. I still had extreme stage fright (not to mention offstage fright.) And I had not yet learned any art of shaping and presenting a set of songs. Or what a group of people might be entertained by. I was merely trying to hit the notes and look cool doing it.

I think I had a handle on looking prit-tee kool. Don't even worry about it. It's exactly how I still look today. ;-)

Fifties/Sixties vintage dress and boots. But add a pompadour ponytail, or god forbid, I may have had a perm. (I was convinced I needed bigger hair for Nashville.)

I tell people this is my natural hair and these days I spend hours everyday straightening it.

We were following this Big Country Star in our 15 passenger van, while they traveled in a tour bus.

Its pretty rugged travel when you are following a tour bus. They have strung dates together that may require overnight drives to make it to the next town in time to play. But they have a driver and beds and a bathroom and a little kitchen. They are sleeping comfortably on the overnight drive.

The opening act, in their van, is taking turns driving while the others curl up against a van door trying to sleep without permanently damaging their necks.

The opening act takes off for the next show as soon as they finish their set. No lingering around to watch the main act. No time to dilly dally!

You have got to get to the next town in time to soundcheck.

Now the way soundcheck usually works is this…

The headliner sound checks first. And you proceed in reverse order sound checking each act until you get to the first one to go on. The opener sound checks last.

In this case, it was just the Big Country Star and me.

The Gruene Mesquite in Austin around this time. Pomp? Check. Vintage dress? Check. Boots? Check. Soundcheck? Check.

Now this star had a reputation back in the day for not giving his openers time to soundcheck. I did not know this yet. But it was across the board treatment. It did not matter who the opening act was. Carlene Carter, Lucinda Williams, whoever. And I’m not sure we ever got more than five minutes to plug in and see if our microphones were simply on.

Which meant all the little sound issues would have to get worked out during our first few songs of the show.

Here's how it would go down each day:

We would arrive at the venue for our scheduled soundcheck time. Having driven all night, and after squeezing in a motel pit stop to shower.

But we could not soundcheck. Because the Big Country Star had not arrived earlier for their scheduled soundcheck. The entire crew would be standing around and we would have to wait side stage, hoping he would get there soon. We would wait and wait. He would finally arrive about 30 minutes before doors would open. His soundcheck would last right up until doors would open. So we would only get the stage to plug in and go. It was stressful, unnerving and always made for a bad sound.

One night we actually ended up with about 10 minutes to check and I rushed up on stage eager to get the sound worked out and was angrily admonished by his sound team NOT to sing on his microphone. I was not aware they switched the mics out. It was embarrassing but also felt intentionally rude. Like the point of all this was to be sure we knew we did not matter.

So, needless to say, it was not fun.

And challenging. But I was still grateful to get to open these shows.

So… all of these things have happened and now I walk on stage in Edmonton to perform a set in a venue that feels much like an airplane hangar. Y’all, some of these country stars were playing bizarre venues back then. Plenty of county fairs and expo centers.

Anyway…

Just a few songs in and we start getting booed.

Now I understand that, back in the day, sometimes people would boo the anonymous opening act that they had not come to see. It was sort of a way of showing love for the main act. I witnessed it happen to Lone Justice when they opened for U2.

It was a mob mentality.

I thought I was handling it. I thought I was powering through. But it may have been visible to certain eyes that this was, in fact, frightening and unpleasant for me.

As I finished my set, and before I could get off the stage, I went from being the performer on stage to just a young girl. And much to my embarrassment, tears flowed from my eyes.

But ladies and gentleman, here is where the story gets good.

I was in my dressing room, recovering, getting my stuff together so we could get on the road. A little shaky.

And the security guard brings two girls back to see me.

They had flowers for me.

They said they had not heard of me before but saw what was happening and left to go get me these flowers. Something to show me that not everyone felt the way the crowd was acting. They said they wanted me to feel love and not think of Edmonton this way. You guys, they had left the venue mid show, found a corner store and bought these flowers, came back and found their way backstage.

The thing is I'm sure we were awful. I'm sure, in many ways, the crowd was right, even if it was cruel.

But these two girls, who were not even fans, restored my faith in humanity.

And turned an awful night into one of the sweetest memories I have.

I think this artist, the Big Country Star, eventually learned that when the opener has a chance to be good, the audience has a better time, and it only reflects well on the main act.

I actually really like this artist personally and find them to be kind and generous. Who knows where the tour management style came from?

But, I learned a lot from the experience.

Always treat the opener with respect. When you help others to shine, everything is brighter. And I always look for the “two” people in the crowd who bring the love so I can be sure to reflect it back.

XOXOXO, Kelly