As I recall, this was originally supposed to be a Hot Tuna gig and their double live album had recently been released.

I remember thinking at the time that Hot Tuna was about to break big into arenas as a great live album usually preceded the bump to bigger venues back in the day. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, it was reported that the band had broken up and Jorma was to play the Paladium as a solo act.

When Jorma Kaukonen hit the stage that night, his signature long hair had been replaced with short slicked back orange hair; this was certainly a new look that the Hot Tuna fans could not have anticipated. Jorma had apparently changed the course of his career and we were happy to be along for the ride.

Kaukonen did a solo acoustic set that night and years later I read that Jorma said that he had taken a swig from a champagne bottle back stage that was apparently laced with an unknown hallucinogen which resulted in him playing the same note for a half hour.

However , if it did happen that way, we never noticed

America’s Choice

Rock on

GQ