Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / Roadie Tales: A Brush with Death on Tour with Alice Cooper [Highlight From Episode 342]

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Roadie Tales: A Brush with Death on Tour with Alice Cooper [Highlight From Episode 342] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here's a highlight from a recent episode of Booked on Rock.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Our guest is Mike Allen, author of Living and Touring
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: with Alice Cooper and other stories. There was an accident,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: car accident, catastrophic that could have the end of the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: band in nineteen sixty So let's get to that. And
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: by the way, we also we're going to get to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the Frank Zapple part of the story that's coming up too,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: so we'll get to that. But yeah, what happened with
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: this accident in nineteen sixty eight, Well, like I.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Said, it was in April sixth we went back to
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: attend the opening of Alice Cooper the club, which only
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: lasted three months, but they stuck around, recorded, got Neil
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: up to speed on some on the music, and we
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: were supposed to return on the eleventh, but by the
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: time everybody got together it was after midnight on the twelfth.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Excuse me, I was driving the van and everybody in
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  Speaker 2: all the equipment poured in and off we went and
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: leaving it after midnight on the twelfth and we got
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: to the San Bernardino Freeway and rush hour traffic wasn't
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: as busy as it is now, but it was still
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: getting to be rush hour at six six point thirty
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: whenever the time was, and I was driving along and
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: suddenly there was a freeway opened up all the way
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: for it looked like miles and there was nobody behind me.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: I was just in my lane doing absolutely nothing, going man,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: this is great. I can take this all the way
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: to the Penguin, you know, no stress. And Dennis was
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: just about ready to walk up and ask me if
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I needed a break, and which I would have said, no,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: We're only thirty minutes away from where we were. Then alongside,
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  Speaker 2: and I don't know how or why or why this happened,
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  Speaker 2: a forward maijor yellow station wagon with fake wood trim
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: pulled up alongside of me, about the middle of their
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: car with the front of my car and came right
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: over into my lane, causing me to jerk the wheel
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  Speaker 2: hard to the left or the right. I can't be
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  Speaker 2: o the left and all the equipment and all the
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: people in there, and the band started rotating, and then
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I tried to straighten it up and I hit an
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: embankment and it just went stopped and just went rolling
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: down the freeway, and the number of rolls I don't
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  Speaker 2: know I've heard three to five by the band members.
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  Speaker 2: But I went out through the front windshield and I
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: was still strapped to my seat.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Oh wow.
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  Speaker 2: Because thankfully my parents before we went over there, gave
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: me a set of seat belts to install in that
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: vand I did a crummy job installing on my installed
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: them to the seat, but it saved my life because
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: when the seat went out, the seat belts went with
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  Speaker 2: me and held me on the seat when I went
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: out through the windshield. And when the police saw me,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: I was, I don't know, twenty feet down the road unconscious,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: but I didn't have a mark on me and I
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: was still strapped to the seat.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody else was, you know, had got hit by amplifiers
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  Speaker 2: and drums and Dick Christian took as symbol to the
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: back of the head, which caused a big gash in
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: his head and needed stitches. Neil told me the last
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: time we had dinner that he was forced onto the
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: ground with his head turned to the road because they
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: were literally the road. The roof was on top of
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: the road and it was reaching down the highway and
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: he said he was death in one year because of that.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Noise just penetrated his head and he couldn't get out
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: from an under the equipment or the bodies on top
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: of him. Wow.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I mean lucky to be alive.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. I mean, Alice to this day says it's a miracle.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: And I've got I've got no proof otherwise, you know.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: And the other other thing, as my mom before we
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: took off, gave me a Saint Christopher's metal and I
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: put it in the visor and unfortunately the visor broke
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: off during the fall and never could find the metal again.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: But you know, but yeah, it was. It was. If
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: you've seen the pictures from the book, you know, Tudy
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: came over and took those pictures for the insurance company.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: It was some of those pictures looked like there was
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: a nightmare in there that terribly wrong.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: So you shot through the windshield.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, Well, luckily the first I'm assuming I don't know
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: when it happened, but the windshield blew out.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, and I was thankfully because otherwise your head would
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: have gone through the glass.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Right the windshield blew out. It took half the rear
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: view mirror with it, so that may have helped me too.
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  Speaker 2: And I just went did a flip. I guess I
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  Speaker 2: just did a flip and landed on the back of
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  Speaker 2: the seat and just scooted it along. You know, it
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: was amazing because they unbuckled me and told me to
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  Speaker 2: go stand over there, and the police did, and so
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  Speaker 2: I went and stood. You know, I was completely out
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  Speaker 2: of it. I didn't know what was going on because
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: you know, I'd just been in a car accident.
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  Speaker 1: No broken bones, no, no nothing.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't I you know, I was stiff and sore
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: and achy for weeks. But I don't think I had
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: to cut on because I was wearing a sweater and
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Levi's and shoes.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: None of the guys had broken bones and no, just
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Bruises and contusions.