I’m
gonna tell you as much as I remember about my trip to Atlanta. First of all, I got up early Thursday morning and did my
hotel in-room exercises. Got all energetic thinkin’ about it. Got Gerald up, he
drove me to the airport in Denver. Got on the plane — it was a real good
flight, real comfortable — to Atlanta. Got to the Atlanta airport, everything
was busy. Busy, busy. People everywhere, baggage everywhere.
I’m walkin’ into the terminal and there’s some people from the Atlanta
Association standin’ there with a big sign sayin’ “W.C. Clark” and identifyin’
themselves — hats and shirts alike. They walked me to the baggage area and I
got my bags. One went and got the van while the other one stood there and kept
me company. Then they drove me to the welcoming center; that’s where all the
performers and the athletes all came. We found out later, after I had stayed
there for about three hours waiting, that a bus was supposed to pick me up and
take me directly to the hotel.
Finally, a van comes and the driver goes, “Yeah, I’m supposed to pick you up
and carry you to the hotel, but I want you to know that this is my first time
here in Atlanta and I don’t know anything about the city.” I didn’t either, and
the lady that worked at the welcoming center was tryin’ to explain it to us and
we got some kind of little map goin’ on here now, then all of a sudden she
goes, “Well, wait a minute! We got this other guy here and we want you to drop
him off at the university.” So we take the map and we took off. We finally
found the university and the place where he needed to go. We finally found the
place and let him out, then we found the hotel and checked in.
Decided to walk across the street to the fast food store, and I saw Kaz
[Kazanoff]. I thought it was Kaz, which it was, but I wasn’t sure. Then I saw
Floyd Domino, and Sarah Brown, and later on Kaz walked out of a room three
doors down from mine. It was real nice to see them, because the hotel was one
of the main hotels where all the participants were living. I saw actors and
actresses and dancers and musicians — everybody.
Anyway, I went on to bed that night and woke up the next morning. We were
having a little in-the-room rehearsal when Robert Ward and his wife came by.
They were going to be on the show. In fact, they had performed the night before
I got there. Upstairs was Clarence Holliman and Carol, his wife, and they were
going to perform on the show as well.
On Friday afternoon, around 7pm, we took off. While we’re leaving the hotel,
there’s a bunch of little shuttle buses around there, but over on the side
there’s a big, beautiful Greyhound bus already runnin’ with an air conditioner
— really cool, really comfortable. We took it downtown. As we pull into town,
I see tents everywhere — huge, big tents. Huge, big towels of this and towels
of that, cartoon-type balloons, people everywhere, two or three bandstands,
sounds of all kinds. Music — different kinds of synthesizer sounds and so on.
The bus pulls up and stops. We can just go so far because there are security
people everywhere. We’ve got to wear our badge at all times so people know who
we are.
We got off the bus and two golf carts came and picked us up. We’re goin’ down
through the crowd hollerin’ “Move, move, comin’ through!” People everywhere,
excitement everywhere — the energy level is so high you can’t keep your head
still from lookin’ from one side to another. You make your way to this huge
bandstand backstage. Kat Stratten [from Black Top, Clark’s label], was makin’
sure everything was in order and making sure we’re on time. She checks with the
people and it seems like it’s gonna be a little while until we get the
air-conditioned room — our sitting room — and before it’s time to perform. So
they sent us somewhere else.
We go back through the crowd on these little golf carts and by the time we got
over there somebody, one of the people that’s got the communication system,
goes “Aw, well, you can go back now. They’re ready for y’all.”
So we go back and check in. They’ve got all kinds of nice drinks, water, and
then somebody brings us some sandwiches and stuff. Meanwhile, there’s a jazz
band on stage. I walk around, lookin’ at different things. I bought my daughter
a T-shirt, “1996 Olympics, Atlanta, Georgia” and a few little odds and ends. I
went to the CNN building and walked around. They had all kinds of huge videos
going on, and small ones too. There were different food stands inside the
building. I bought some Chinese stew and I ate that.
Finally, it was time for Clarence Holliman to start the show. Clarence is
playing guitar, Roddy [Colonna] is on the drums, Sarah Brown on the bass, Kaz
is on saxophone, and Floyd Domino’s on the keyboard, organ, and piano.
Holliman’s on the stage callin’ off different ideas and tunes and as they end
one song, he’d call another one. Crews runnin’ around everywhere, people
everywhere. We’re sittin’ back there listenin’ to the music. Everything’s
soundin’ good. It’s just like one huge, big concert all over the whole city.
Later Carol [Fran], Clarence’s wife, comes on, and after that Robert Ward
performs, and the people are everywhere now. The crowd’s real big in front of
the stage. I come on. Hammond Scott announced me as some handsome, young,
single gentleman that was lookin’ for somebody to marry, and some lady said,
“Oooohhh, you’re lookin’ for somebody to marry, I’ll marry you!”
I had a real good time. The people were really responding. It was obvious a
lot of them had been listening to my CD, the first one or the second one or
both, because some of the songs I was singing, I could see some of the people
singing with me. That was a real good gig.
Everything’s over now and the crowd’s kind of thinnin’ out, but behind our
stage there’s a huge setting of videos and all kind of stuff goin’ on, and now
they’re showing everything that had happened at the Olympics, starting with the
running of the torch, Muhammad Ali lightin’ the fire. We sat there and watched
that for a long time.
We’ve finally seen enough, and we get back to the bus, and the bus takes us
back to the hotel. There are still actors and actresses and dancers and
everybody, all the entertainment people, runnin’ around. There’s a big
buffet-type thing set up there for all the people at the hotel. I had a
sandwich, a bag of Chee-tohs, and a bag of grapes, and some lady looked at me
and said, “Hey, throw that away. This is better food over here.”
I got some of that food, went to my room, ate it, and went to sleep, but first
Kat Stratten came to my room and said “Well, it looks like Robert Ward’s name
is on your check, so before you leave in the morning, go in to see them in room
302.” I’d went to see them and sure enough, it was that way. They said, “Well,
somebody’ll have to write you another check.” So I got in touch with Kat and
let her know that they should mail the check to her or to Vicki my manager.
They appointed a shuttle to take me to the airport. I got to the airport, it
was real busy just like it was when I came in. Everything was in order, we
finally got on the plane and had a nice little flight back. Got back to Denver.
Next thing I know we were in Steamboat, Colorado. Another gig.
That’s about the size of it. n
This article appears in August 16 • 1996 and August 16 • 1996 (Cover).