... & OTHER ODDBALL STORIES

Helix has played for the Hells Angels on two separate occasions in two different countries. The first time was outside of Quebec City in Canada and the second time was in Redding, England at the tail end of the Ian Gillian tour.

When we did the first gig, we had to come all the way from Oklahoma City. The weather was beautiful there, in the mid-nineties. As soon as we crossed the border it started raining and turned cold. Welcome to Canada, eh! At about 9 o'clock in the morning we were awakened by banging on the motor home door. I got out of my bunk in my underwear to answer it. I opened the door and there was about a million cops, it was raining and there were police dogs sniffing at bikers laying face down on the ground.
When we got to the gig it was like a mud bath. There was a big tent with the stage and sound system inside, but even there the ground was mushy and wet. There was really nowhere for us to go, so we ended up sitting around in the motor home all day picking our butts. People didn't look too friendly. Overhead there was a police helicopter which was drawing the verbal insults from the crowd. There were several bands playing that day, as well as a wet-t-shirt contest. We got to go on after the wet t-shirt contest at about 3 o'clock in the morning. When we were paid, a big surly biker came into our motorhome, pulled out a huge wad of bills, peeled off $5,000 and gave it to us without even denting the pile!

From there we drove to Windowrock, Arizona. Of course the air conditioning unit in the motor home chose that moment in time to break down, so it was a rather tense 2 1/2 day journey. Eight smelly, tired people in one motorhome in the middle of the Arizona desert.

Windowrock is the capital of the Navaho Indians, and that's who we were playing for that night. When we got to the arena, (we were playing with Leatherwolfe, incidentally) I was met by a native woman for an interview. After the interview she asks me, "Would you like to see why they call this place Windowrock?" so along with her daughter she took me to this canyon in the hills. As we walked along she would occasionally stoop down and pick up a plant and comment, "This is an Indian tea", or "This was used as an Indian deordorant". Then she rubbed the plant on my arm, and sure enough, it had a very pleasant smell. Finally we reached a path which led up the wall of the canyon. After we got really high I was scared that I might slip and fall, but she and her daughter acted like they'd been up there a million times before. When we got to the top, it was breathtaking. You could see the country for hundreds of miles in any direction. She said, "This is why they call this place "Windowrock", pointing to a rock in front of us. It was about 15 feet high (I could be wrong about this, my memories not too clear) and in the center was a hole about the size of a man. The Navaho would stand in the hole, and from that vantage point could see their enemies coming.

(For those of you who don't know, the Navahos were instrumental in winning WWII for the allies. The Navaho language was the only code that the Nazis couldn't break.)

After the show that night, I was out by the motorhome when I noticed that behind the auditorium, there was something going on in the ball park, so I wandered over to take a look. Under the flood lights were "teams" of Navaho elders performing traditional Navaho dances. I remember thinking to myself that I was probably one of the last people in the world to see these dances. These dances survived in Navaho culture by being handed down from generation to generation, and the young generation was inside the auditorium watching Leatherwolfe.
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