'The Roar of L'Amour'

AEROSMITH, WHITE LION ROAD TRIP - Why a cop was looking for me in Virginia

Told on a Facebook post

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On March 21st, 1988, White Lion was opening for Aerosmith in Roanoke, Virginia.

I think it was the first show they were playing on the tour as well.

'Wait' was just beginning to climb up the chart and get good MTV play.

James Lomenzo (bassist) suggested I do a road trip to see them, and I thought "great idea".

The show was on a Monday night so I didn't have to miss work at L'Amour and obviously I knew I could get comped, so ... WHY THE F NOT?

I asked Big Sal if he wanted to go and he said sure, but he wasn't excited about the 6.5 hour drive

That gave me an idea ... get more people and get a van and driver and this way, nobody has to drive.

So after a few days planning, it was myself, Big Sal and several friends of mine that were L'Amour regulars and fans of both bands.

So, I put it all together since I was the Heavy Metal version of Julie (Cruise Director) from The Love Boat and told George Parente (L'Amour owner and White Lion manager) I needed tix/passes.

He says tix are no problem, but passes might be because Aerosmith was "dry" at this time and since they haven't done a show yet, he didn't know the environment.

I said "guarantee to get me and Sal back" and he agreed but said "I want to go too".

Now nothing against George, but this was an excuse to be degenerates and party all day/night and the concert was kind of an excuse.

I said ok and told the crew to a mixed reaction.

The day before comes and the plan was to drink and SKITTLE* at The Alibi Inn (where Sal and I hung out) until they closed and then figure out what to do until 6am bus pickup at my corner.

We party like crazy and close Alibi and go to one of the guys (Donnie Tranchina) basement to continue partying.

It's 6am and van is almost there and ... oh yeah, I told the crew we could not party in the van because that was my agreement with George ... that did not go over well.

So we are all coming down bad and in a passenger van full of windows with the sun shining through ... WE ARE IN A 6 HOUR HELL.

George wants to stop for food, but none of us are hungry.

One of us (no names) is in the seat next to the driver and fidgeting with the radio because he is SKITTLED and George has enough and yells ... "WHAT IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE?"

I am brutally honest, so I explain we are respecting his wish and being good and Sal had enough and goes "I am partying" and George didn't say a word.

Now I know if Sal was, I can and while George wasn't happy, there was no chance they would fire me, so ...

We get to Roanoke and go into our rooms and have about 4-5 hours to kill.

I think everyone doubled up but George, Sal and myself and (of course) my room was the party room.

A few beers and some SKITTLES maintenance go down and we walk to the venue.

The place is packed and we are in the midst of a bunch of Virginians that thought we were from out of space.

White Lion kills it and after they went off, I go backstage and nothing is going on.

Not a beer in site due to Aerosmith being "sober" - a vast difference from the old Steven Tyler days.

Everyone but Donnie decides to walk back to hotel to drink and SKITTLE more and we leave Donnie to watch Aerosmith alone.

We are in my room and hear a commotion outside and it's Donnie with about 20 Virginians he met and told to party with us and White Lion.

Now my room is packed with yocals and they are drinking our beer ... not good.

I go to throw them out but Mike Tramp  comes walking in my room to say hi to me and I saw their faces drop, they were starstruck.

I station one of my crew by the beer so nobody drinks but us (I figured eventually that would thin the crowd out).

Mike was a lot of fun and kept putting me over to a girl that seemed to like I was "in charge" and left (he was very aware if how important this tour was, so wanted a good nights rest) and then I hear someone call out for Biff ... that was enough for me ... I refused to party with a Biff from Roanoke and ridiculed him and threw everyone out except the girl.

We are alone and there is someone yelling her name in the parking lot.

She says it's my friend and goes out and hears that her bf is headed over ... no big deal, right?

Except ...

HE IS A LOCAL COP

So I threw her out, grabbed my overnight bag and went to Big Sals room, just in case.

I guess the girl either calmed the cop down or they couldn't find me ... IDK?

The next day we meet at 11am checkout and van it back to SI.

On the way we stopped about 3x to eat, and George asked "why are you all hungry now, but not on the way" ... I explained we haven't eaten in 30 hours ... George didn't understand partying and we all laughed.

The 8hr trip back was nothing but laughs (including George).

We included him in all our stories about the trip and other times we partied (including L'Amour tales).

George was one of the crew on the way back and even Big Sal couldn't stop laughing with everyone.

It was such a great time.

To recap ...

A lot of beer

A lot of SKITTLES

No sleep

No food

A boring backstage

White Lion was great.

I didn't see Aerosmith

I hooked up with a yocal

And ...

I found out later that Biff was who told her cop boyfriend

Ah Yes Indeed

*SKITTLES is a goofy code for... umm ... (it was the 80s)

Chuck Kaye

Ah Yes Indeed

BACK

The thing about playing L’amour in the 80’s. Was that you always ended up going on stage real late, and that resulted in being stuck in the dressing room for hours and hours because we didn’t want to show ourselves to the audience before going on stage. So, we just sat there listening to Chuck the DJ cranking out one rock’n’roll song after another and once in a while Chuck would announce upcoming shows and other interesting things over the big PA system. 

But it wasn’t your average airport announcement, but more like a rocket taking off or a hungry lion roaring. And it was there one night, I just belted out to the rest of the band, well there he goes again "The Roar of L’amour” and from that day on, Chuck was known for that, it was a great time. 

- Mike Tramp (White Lion)