Rick's Performance Rider: A Story and a Snippet

CRick was really a bad ass, as you can see--very demanding--when it came to his stage and backstage requirements at gigs. Obviously, I'm being facetious. While I've only worked with one or two prima donnas over the years, thankfully, I have seen some awful riders--not the mega-star riders from hell, but the ego trips of up-and-coming artists--that have included silly requests such as "Evian bottled water only will be accepted; any other brand will be returned for cash equivalent to Artist." Sadly, I am not kidding. It's funny that the riders of big-name acts were mostly boilerplate, though every artist has his or her "special" requirements. The artists who were truly stars didn't have to prove it, though, and Rick was the most humble and unassuming of them all.

All Rick really cared about while on stage--aside from that the audience was happy--was that 1) the sound was impeccable and that his monitors were not feeding back (this should have been a no-brainer in clubs, but you'd be surprised at how often this was screwed up) and 2) he had a bottle or glass of water, a towel, and an oscillating fan somewhere to keep him cool. He really didn't ask for much, but if you wanted to get Rick Danko pissed off, mess around with his sound.

But back to riders. Half the time at his solo shows, Rick didn't even go backstage, except for a few minutes before he went on. Lots of times, he went right to the hotel afterward, came straight from the hotel beforehand, or hung out in the tour bus if he was with a group. Anyway, some of the coolest clubs had the dingiest, dreariest "back-stage accommodations" you could imagine. The legendary Bottom Line, for instance, had a backstage area and dressing rooms that made a New York City subway station look not so shabby.

When I first started advancing Rick's shows, I was shocked and dismayed that an artist of his caliber had a one-page, Xeroxed "rider" attached to his performance contracts. Rick likely never paid any attention to it--many artists, especially of the "old-school" variety--don't. He also had a Xeroxed (or was it mimeographed?) one-page "bio" rife with cliches, catchphrases, and typos. Again, lots of artists don't think about this kind of stuff. I figured we would tackle one thing at a time.

Around 1990 or 91, when I still had a day job, I asked my boss, a music lawyer, if he could help draft a rider for Rick. We managed lots of artists and some who were not even fit to carry Rick's guitar case had better riders. My boss agreed; he really liked Rick and he also knew it was either that or I, a non-lawyer, would end up drafting a rider myself. I guess he was afraid I would add things like "Artist must have a supply of freshly heated Egyptian-cotton towels" and "Artist must have a full catalog of Alfred Hitchcock movies for his personal viewing." So he helped.

I added some incidentals, as did Rick's agent, Bruce. Rick used that rider for the rest of his career. Here is one small part--his contribution: