winterland, December 1975
In December of 1975, i was asked to produce a reggae showcase at Winterland in San Francisco. The headliners were Toots & The Maytals and Dennis Brown. About an hour before showtime, the Maytals manager asked me if there was any chance of getting some weed for the group before the show. I took off outside to the line of people waiting to get in, found a good friend and was able to get a ounce of pretty good weed, pretty quickly.
Coming into the dressing room, Toots and the Maytals were hanging out, I came up and gave Toots the bag. He was a short man, but when he took the weed, he got the biggest grin on his face, put his arms around me and lifted me straight off the ground. He then proceeded to roll the biggest spiffs I had ever seen, gave us each one and we got loaded. It was difficult for me to understand him because of his thick accent and the Jamaican slang he used, but as he got us high and told us stories, and kept saying “Larry, brother”, it was just a incredible moment of love and solidarity across cultures.
I was privileged to be onstage not 6 feet away from Toots as they proceeded to play. Hands down the best live reggae show I have ever seen. It was like being on stage with Otis Redding or James Brown, particularly when they did the Otis cover “ I Got Dreams To Remember”
Not only a great artist but the living breathing personification of reggae, and a truly beautiful human being, much love to you Toots, Rest In Power.