From Interaction With Other Bands

A. Janis asks for a towel at the Avalon. 7/23/67

We were in the “green room” to the side of the stage at the Avalon while Big Brother was finishing their set and Canned Heat was about to follow them. Big Brother finished and they came storming into the tiny room with all the momentum of their over-the-top stage presence. Janis was sweating profusely and yelled out to the room at large, “Anybody got a towel?” Everybody looked around but nobody seemed to have one. Almost without thinking I tore off the red and white striped T-shirt that I would be wearing on stage a few minutes later and threw it to Janis. She immediately proceeded to wipe the sweat off her face and body. When done she threw the shirt back to me and bellowed “Thank you honey!”. As I put it back on I remember thinking, “I don’t think I’ll ever wash this shirt again”.

B. Peter Albin after “A Night at the Fillmore” 7/16/67
After the set quite a crowd gathered in the dressing room. I remember my old friend Peter Albin from college days, who was now the bass player in Janis Joplin’s band, coming up to me and saying, “Wow, how were you able to keep it together like that? I can’t play at all when I’m tripping like that”. It struck me a little odd that he thought I had kept it together.

C. Peter and Rodney at Burbank party 1963
For years I had a snapshot I took in Freshman year, of the guitar and banjo duo that played at one of our dorm parties, Peter and Rodney Albin. Two years later Peter became a founding member of Big Brother and the Holding Company.

D. Janis in the neighborhood. Janis was a part of our neighborhood life when Mount Rushmore lived and practiced in the big Blue House on Oak Street. We would often see her walking her dog George in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park, across the street from us. And periodically she would come over to try on new clothes made by Sharon, who lived in the top floor room of our house.