South Africa

It was in May of 1980 and we had been "camped out" at the Rebel Room in Lexington, KY for several months when an offer to go to South Africa came our way. We had been playing to about 50 people on most nights while working on trying to develope a sound that we thought would appeal to the powers-that-be in Nashville. A two week hiatus from the Rebel Room to travel abroad sounded pretty sweet at the time, so we happily accepted the offer.

As boys will do, we made a party out of the 10,000-mile flight to Johannesburg and we all looked somewhat worse for the wear when we arrived. We knew that we had had some chart activity in South Africa over the last few years, but we were totally unaware of what would occur when we stepped off the plane that day. There were around 5,000 people there to greet us inside. There were people screaming and holding Exile banners. We felt like the Beatles! There were even some young girls dressed in Southern Belle dresses in recognition of our Southern heritage. Our minds were totally blown! It was a little bit of embarrassment though, considering the way we looked after flying and partying all day and night. If we had known the reception we were to recieve, I'm sure we would have made some sort of effort to look more presentable.

We played for 2 weeks at a beautiful theatre in downtown Johannesburg to a packed house every night. It was one of the most memorable trips any of us had experienced - before or since.

The only trouble was, we had to go straight back to the Rebel Room when we got home and play to 50 people a night. Not exactly the Beatles! As it turned out, the Rebel Room was a positive thing for us because it allowed us a place to hide away for a while and hone our songs into what we felt might make a better future for us. It was the right thing to do at the time, but after South Africa, it was sort of a bitter pill to swallow!