CHAPTER 12
THE COMEBACK

The next reunion took place on August 6,1991.  Wilbur Leblanc and Black Alleman hired us to play at a remote club in the small town of Cade, Louisiana.  It was a nice reunion and the crowd was good. The band sounded great and everyone involved had a great time.  I had a date with a gorgeous brunette named Belinda, who I had the hots for.  I had worked with her a couple of years and I was hoping that when she saw me on stage, it would break the ice.  I was wrong.  After the reunion was over, I shook hands with all of the guys, telling them thanks and I'll see you next year.
    I was awakened the next morning by the telephone.  It was R.T.'s night club in Baton Rouge.  Sonny Amato was a friend of the Boogie Kings, and he wanted three dates on us.  I was overjoyed.  This was followed by other phone calls from six or seven more club owners that wanted dates.  I was ecstatic!   By the end of that day I had secured $25,000 in contracts.   I could not believe what was happening.   The time was right at long last!  Now that I had guaranteed money to back me up,  Duane Yates and Jerry Lacroix, two of the all-time great Boogie Kings vocalists, signed on and we were back in business.  I didn't know how long I would last this time around, but I was joyously happy because we had not left the starting gate so successfully in twenty-two years. I didn't want to look back.  I repeat, twenty-two years! I realized that if I blew it this time, I would be the laughing stock of all time.  Undaunted by negative thoughts, I became very positive and deliberate in my ways.  I closed my music store, sold everything I had and reinvested all of it in promotion and payroll. If we didn't make our scale, I would take it out of my pocket.  I went through twenty grand in no time flat. But the great Boogie Kings band was working again.
     Three people played a big role in our successful comeback. First was Katrinna Cheri Huggs, who I like to call "Blue Eyes."  She went out on a limb for us by giving us a four-page spread, and also the cover, in Acadiana's most popular newspaper, "The Times of Acadiana."  Thanks for believing in us, Katrinna. I love you baby.
The late Huey Darby at KROF radio in Abbeville had consistently played our records and has always had kind things to say about our band.  Huey is an excellent vocalist, having his roots in the "Randy and the Rockets" band, pioneers of "Swamp Pop" music.  Huey gave us a huge boost on the radio.
        Lou Coco, another Boogie Kings believer, has pushed our music for many years.  Like Huey, he never fails to give us live interviews on radio KLIL in Moreauville.  Lou gave us a lot of radio help that resulted in more bookings.  I owe these three fine people a debt that I can never repay.         
        Back to the band, I had "Bubba" Robin, Glen Guilbeau and Ronnie Crowley in the band.  Ted Broussard was the guitarist.  David Hyde was on bass, and Duane and Jerry and GG  were making most of the gigs. The band sounded great and bookings continued to roll in.  We were beginning to play some festivals and our Louisiana-Texas circuit was falling in place again, just like the old days.  Our crowds were mostly our fans from the sixties.  We noticed that they would bring their sons and daughters occasionally  to see the band of their youth.  One could feel the respect of the crowd towards the band.  The applause would begin as we would approach the stage and continue until the downbeat. This had never happened before. We were beginning to feel like the legend our audiences wanted us to be.
        Jerry was performing well and I was believing that our twenty-five year feud was finally over.  Duane Yates, the most consistent performer I've ever worked with, hung in there.  It is very expensive to run a big band these days. That's why I'm one of the only fools doing it.  G.G. helped us launch the comeback, but he left because he wanted to work with his own group, which was still quite popular. G.G. still makes occasional appearances with the BK show.  Jon Smith and I had a serious conflict early on, but being the close friends that we were, we only stayed mad  at each other for a year.                      
        In February of 1992 we were booked at the Liberty Theater in Eunice, Louisiana, the city that gave birth to the Boogie Kings.  The Liberty Theater presented only traditional French and Cajun music, so it was nice to be the first rock group to ever play there. This event was magnificently video taped by a professional crew, and is available on a ninety-minute video and DVD.
        We continued to do well and I could see no problems developing within the band.  Although, it did seem like the more I paid the guys, the more they'd gripe. I paid no attention to it because musicians always gripe about everything.
        One weekend, my son Thad, who was working a slide show with us, notified me that a mutiny was in progress, and a band walkout would happen alter the Sunday night gig. Shit!  Sure enough, six of my players all quit at the same time. It seemed like old times!  I paid them all and went home. I didn't call anyone for an explanation because I was accustomed to being let down.  The next day I was told by Duane that the guys wanted to have a meeting to discuss their demands. Since I owned the band lock, stock and barrel, I advised Duane that a meeting that was not called by me was of no significance to me.  I knew that I could not meet their demands.  Duane tried to get me to go to the lynch mob meeting, but I steadfastly refused.
     At the meeting, the general attitude was that Ned could not operate the band without them, so they decided to give me an ultimatum.  They wanted more money or else.  Some very distasteful things were said about me at that meeting, none of which were true, but it goes with the territory. I was accustomed to all sorts of bullshit, and it did not bother me much.
Duane came back to my place and delivered the ultimatum to me.  I said that I would consider it, only to string them out for one more gig.  It was a benefit for Hurricane Andrew victims and I wanted to help.  I called no one.  Jon and I wanted to see who would show up. Well, they all did, and the next day I called them one by one and accepted all their resignations.  I had all of them replaced with better players.  It was a drag to lose most of the band in one blink, but my hide was so tough from previous mutinies,  that I didn't lose much sleep over it.  I really hated to see the guys go crazy like that because I was really overpaying them and the budget was eating up my salary.  It was simply a bad miscalculation on their part.  Since the mutiny, we have all managed to bury the hatchet.
     I knew that no matter who I go on stage with, they would inevitably sound like the Boogie Kings.  I have been on stage with twenty or thirty Boogie Kings bands, all with different players, but they all sounded like the Boogie Kings.  You see, I hold the keys that give ignition to the Boogie Kings engine. And this is a talent I will never  lose.
     In December of 1992, I made my friend Jon Smith a full partner.  I was burned out and needed some help.  I felt like the bookings had stabilized and it was time for me to give up something in order to keep everything.  I put Jon in charge of personnel and budget and I took over bookings and promotion.  This situation worked very well for both of us.  Had I continued to carry the whole load, I would have lost everything.  I was older now, and I could not handle the stress like I used to.  The year 1993 was coming up and it would prove to be a year of incredible peaks and valleys.
     It started on New Year's Eve of 1992. 1 had expected to make about $2,500 and get caught up on my bills and expenses.  We didn't get the crowd we thought we would, and I barely made enough to meet the payroll with nothing left over for myself.
     In January, I was forced to move to Lake Charles, putting a further drain on my money.  Two weeks later, I had to move again.  The second move left me flat broke.  But Jon was doing a good job running the band and we had a cash flow now.
     In February, a series of bizarre coincidences caused Jerry Lacroix to flip out and pull out of the band.  He had held on to a $1000 check so long that I couldn't cover it.  That pissed him off.  But for some reason, the bank cashed it and put me in a deep hole.  Then, on a performance at the Superdome in New Orleans, our show was cut off in the first five minutes of Jerry's show, which was very important to him.  Of course, he blamed me for this.  Actually, I had no control of this.  They had told us to do ninety minutes, but they cut us off at forty-five minutes.  The very next night, also at the Superdome, the same thing happened. So Jerry didn't get to sing.  He was now convinced that I had arranged for this to happen. Not knowing that he had cashed the $1000 check and putting the bank account in the red caused all of the other players checks to bounce. At the same time a four thousand dollar check that we had gotten a week earlier turned out to be worthless.  So we lost Jerry and went five thousand dollars in the hole in one miserable afternoon.  But, the Boogie Kings were scoring big points. We were  being written about in major magazines and newspapers, interviewed by large radio and television stations, and had two new CD projects on the table.   We were making excellent money at this time and were able to pay off all of the bad checks.  
     Everywhere that we performed, we were greeted with enthusiastic applause such as  we had never heard before.  We were a resounding success at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.  The players in the band now were some of the greatest we've ever had. The additions of Harry Ravain on drums, Robert Wilson on bass and "Flash" Gordon Wiltz on Hammond B-3 organ stabilized our rhythm section along with Ted Broussard on guitar and vocals.  The addition of Donnie Martin and Jimmy George on horns put the tower of power back into the horn section.  Duane Yates was the lead vocalist. My good buddy,  Dale Gothia, did some Texas gigs with us. All in all , we had a roster of about thirty-five Boogie Kings to draw on.  I'd say that the great Boogie Kings band was in good shape.  We had survived turmoil and strife with hope that was beyond hope.
I knew that things were good now, but I also knew that it would not be long before things got bad again, but I decided that I would enjoy it for as long as it lasted.


CHAPTER 13