The first time I met Leon, he was to play at a club I was managing in downtown Corpus. The day of the show, the city had to tear up part of the street right next to the club where we normally reserved for the tour buses. Mike, Leon's long time road manager/bus driver came by to check out the venue and set up and told me Leon doesn't get around too well and needed to be able to park the bus as close as possible. I had already arranged for some of my guys to cordon off a spot less than a block away and shouldn't have a problem getting the bus in. Me and Mike hit it off pretty well and I helped him out with a couple other things that afternoon.
That night, Mike tells me that Leon can't walk that far and needs a ride, preferably a truck. I wasn't about to pass up the chance to give Leon Russell a ride in my truck, so I told him I would do it. I park right behind the bus and meet Mike at the bus doors waiting for Leon to come out. The bus doors open up and it was quite a sight, Leon was wearing a full white suit, white cowboy hat, the long white flowing hair and beard, walking cane, it was like what a redneck might expect God to look like, I swear there was like a glow around him and there might have been angels singing. One of the very few times in my life that I was awestruck meeting someone. Mike introduces me to Leon and Leon was a little prickly as we walked to my truck. Leon tells me that he didn't think he could get in and out of the truck and told me to pull down the tailgate and he would just ride on the tailgate. The problem was it was a one way street and I would have to circle a couple blocks to get to the club, not ideal with all the traffic and him sitting on the tailgate. Mike said just put it in reverse, I thought he was joking, but nope. I ran back to the club and grabbed a couple guys to stop traffic. As the guys were stopping all the traffic, Mike tells me to drive real slow. I jokingly said, I don't want Leon to fall off and run him over. Mike grabs me by both shoulders, shakes me a little and looks me square in the eyes and very seriously says "Whatever you do, DO. NOT. RUN OVER. LEON!" I got even more nervous , I didn't want to be the guy that ran over Leon Russell. I put the truck in reverse and very slowly drove Leon to the club, longest 3/4 of a block drive in my life. It musta been quite a sight, all the traffic stopped, cars honking, not knowing what's going on, seeing this guy in all white sitting on a truck tailgate driving in reverse the wrong way down a one way street. Hell of a way to make an entrance.
We get to the club without incident, everybody safe and sound, traffic is moving again and everybody pointing and gawking as they drive by. Mike and I escort Leon to the side door and Leon puts his hand on my shoulder and said "You done good." That made me feel pretty good. Leon put on a helluva show that night. That was also the first time, I got invited to party on the bus after the show with them, pretty cool night all around.
