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Besides being one of my favorite drummers and a great singer, Stan was one funny motherfucker.

Stan Lynch the drummer latched on to our silliness right off the bat. What a great fucking band! With Lee and Nick’s great sense of humor and my silly stunts we managed to actually get these guys laughing together again. You couldn’t ask for better group of easygoing musicians. But don’t get me wrong I loved each and every one of those guys. They had reached the pinnacle of the Rock-n-Roll heap and had grown to despise each other to some degree. Consequently the Soul Lips became the glue, or the grease, that kept things light and comical between these guys who had been playing together for years. The Heartbreakers had not toured together for a while and some of the members were not exactly best of mates. Hell, it wouldn’t be bad right now come to think of it. It was a bit less than what I had been making with Rod but not bad for 1985. We went on to talk about our favorite hotels in different cities around the world and after all was said and done I had managed to get the Soul Lip Horns, which was comprised of Lee, Nick Lane on trombone and myself, around three grand a week each, our own rooms and we traveled with the band. Not good for long hauls as they are not fast but very comfortable and safe on short trips. They are outfitted with four Rolls-Royce turbo props and the cabin was set up in the executive style complete with a lovely stewardess to cater to your every whim, it made for very comfortable traveling. Fortunately, we had been traveling extensively in one of these great old birds. He said they were thinking of using a G4. At some point I asked Tony what type of aircraft they would be traveling in. We would all manage to have a cocktail and cigarette in hand for takeoff, vodka and grapefruit juice, I believe, was the drink of choice at the time. Rod and his entourage would be in one jet and the rest of us in the other which was dubbed the, “Flying Ashtray”, for obvious reasons. I shared a few tales of the tour when the group was traveling in two Lear Jets. Rod was huge at the time and as a matter of fact isn’t doing too badly as we speak. When I got Tony on the phone I immediately got into a friendly, gossipy chitchat with him about life on the road with Rod Stewart.

Lee asked if I would have a word with him. Ahhh…the perks of being a glorified sideman. They wanted us to double up in hotel rooms and travel with the crew. Lee conveyed to me he had spoken with Tony Demetreades, Tom’s manager. We had just returned from a two-year world tour with Rod Stewart and had only been in Los Angeles for a month. They had used Lee’s old horn section, the Heart Attack Horns, on the, “Southern Accents”, album. My good buddy, trumpet player, and arranger extraordinaire Lee Thornburg, called one day to say Tom wanted to take a horn section out on the tour. In April 1985 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers reunited for a major world tour after taking a break from each other for personal differences.

With Tom Petty & Lee Thornburg en route to “Live Aid” July 1985