MATT BARRETT’S TALES FROM THE ROCK N ROLL CRYPT: Episode 4.
AN EVENING WITH JAN MICHAEL VINCENT
I spent a summer in Montreal with my young archaeologist buddy Steve. I started playing at a bar called Hell's Kitchen. One night between songs a girl came up to me and asked if her friend could play during my break. Her friend was Jan Michael Vincent. I didn't know who that was.
Jan Michael Vincent, famous for starring in movies like White Line Fever, was roaring drunk. He introduced himself with liquor breath and told me in a heavy redneck voice about Bakersfield, California and about being from 'the other side of the tracks'. He then got up and sang the most racist bunch of songs that anyone had ever heard or was crazy enough to perform. I don't know if he wrote them or that's what they sing in Bakersfield but the Canadian audience seemed to dig it more than they did my soulful tunes that question life, love and the existence of a higher meaning. He thanked me for letting him play and left with his entourage. I started playing again and after awhile 2 black guys come in and I see them arguing with the bartender for about 10 minutes before leaving. When I finished my set I asked the bartender what that was all about. "Well those two guys heard there was an American guy with a guitar singing racist songs and they came here to kill him and I was convincing them that it wasn't you."