Chet was playing at Jones Hall
here in
Houston, and I neglected to get tickets until it was, of course, sold
out. On a crazy impulse I called Chet, whom I had never met, at his
hotel. He answered the phone!
I said that I used to do the covers (a few anyway) for his fan club
magazine, back in
the late fifties. Back then it was done in one of those old duplicators
that you had to cut by hand. I sent a few drawings, Chet and his guitar,
and they used em on the cover. Chet said: "Oh yeah, I remember you Harold!" Of course you could have knocked me over with a flat thumbpick!
He had my wife and me
down to the concert that night, we came in at the stage door, and since the show
was sold out, they brought out two huge wing chairs and put them in the
front, in the aisle, just before the curtain went up. I can still imagine the crowd wondering who the
heck we were anyway. After the show Chet had us back to his dressing room, he wanted
to see some of my more current work. I'll always remember how cordial he
was...and how he reached up and
sharpened a fingernail on the wall, sort of absent-minded like. What a
guy.
- Harold Johnson
The FULL LIST of "When I Met Chet" stories
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