Well, good morning and welcome to the daily grateful. My name is Michael crosst and today. We're going to talk about dog night dog night dog night That by the way is the term that a local disc jockey in the Tampa Bay area named Jack Harris used to refer to three dog night on his radio show in the 80s and 90s and even up when he was doing talk radio This three dog night consisted of three guys from California It was started by a guy by the name of Chuck Negron. He passed away today at Danny Hutton and Cory Wells and Jimmy Greenspoon, Joe Shimini, Michael Elsop and Floyd Snead.
I saw three dog night for the first time in 1968 in January of 1968 at one of their very first concerts out of LA. They formed in 1967 played around town played around California got a record deal and They said you got to go on tour and then one of the first places that they played was the Miami pop festival and How cool was that I was there? I was 17 years old It was the first time I'd ever left home You know by myself went on a trip without my family with other kids. We loaded I wrote in this guy lived out on Clearwater Beach.
I forget his name He was going to Dunedin high school even though he lived on Clearwater Beach He had an old beat up Corvette and I rode with him and we were meeting a bunch of people that we knew from the Bonton Club in Clearwater It was kind of cool We were all going to stay at this family's house This family had moved from Clearwater down to Miami and we were going to stay in their house while we were at the festival The festival started every morning at 9 and ended every night at 11 30 They this is not like a woodstock festival. This was but with him before Woodstock They had strict rules and you had to abide by those rules. I saw everybody there I saw Chuck Berry there. I saw Lester Flatten Earl Scruggs I saw the turtles as a matter of fact They had two stages at this pop festival and it was held at Gulfstream Park in Hallendale Which was a I was a dog racing or was it a horse racing?
I think it was a horse racing park But one of the stages was called the flower stage which was at the track And who else did I see? I saw everybody there country Joe and a fish unbelievable anyway And then they had the flying stage which was on the other side of the bar and they had built this stage I saw Sweetwater there Nancy Nevens with Sweetwater who later went on to anyway ah And by the way built a friendship with Nancy Nevens the lead singer of Sweetwater that goes on to this day You know Totally bizarre by the way if you're interested in something and you want to go down a deep hole look up Sweetwater the music group read about them And there's a VH1 movie about them They were supposed to be very famous and because of a terrible car accident They weren't but check it out very very interesting stuff. Anyway, I'm I think the first day there They I was watching and they were bringing in all these groups and I was sitting In the flower stage on the ground not far from the stage without all my friends there We were all hanging out together and they brought out this group that nobody had heard of they were called three dog night I said, what's this? Well said what's this and they put on a show there were three guys that were out front Danny Hutton Chuck and Corey they were out front and then the other guys were in the back playing instruments and they just they just Kicked but they were doing covers but they were also doing original songs and the one that got me the most was one is the loneliest number I am telling you when they performed that song Everybody went bonsos I went bonsos.
I said this is a very very talented group and yes sure enough They went on they went on from there and became very very famous later on in life Chuck Negron Loved the group because he thought he was the star had a little bit of an ego problem And I got to where I just did not like him. I did not I saw him on an interview I think on dick Cabot where he was saying he made three dog night And he was by the way when he was doing the interview He was stoned out of his mind and you could tell that he was stoned out of his mind And and not just from smoking to you know the marijuana You could tell that this guy was screwed up and he was as a matter of fact He had a terrible problem with drugs, but to his credit to his absolute credit He took care of that he went to rehab several times and then finally finally got it under control Swore off of it and took some time off and then started performing as a solo artist. I have a friend Who went and saw him and said he just put on one heck of a show. He was very appreciative I by the way, I friends who saw him play when he was in his stoned out stage.
He was rude to the audience He thought his you know, he thought his poop didn't stink He thought he was you know, he would get on the stage and look down at the audience And everybody I know that was saw him during that time period, which is very unimpressed But after he finally got himself together got past the drug addiction I have another friend who went and saw him and he said he was so appreciative to the audience And so thankful to the audience that they had stuck with him throughout his darkest darkest hours So I have to say good for you Chuck Negron and thank you for making the Miami pop festival You know one of the very big bright spots of my life By the way out of the group I think the only one that is left is Corey Wells and he's still tours now My cousin up in Michigan just saw them and Corey Wells is the only original member of the group and said they still put on a really good show I'm not interested in seeing Groups like that anymore. I don't you know, yes, they were famous You know a million years ago. I just I like I want the memories that I had of seeing these groups way back then And I have the memories of everybody. I saw the Miami pop festival.
I remember oh gosh I remember walking out to the car in the parking lot You want to talk about them a wild experience I will never forget this experience that I had in my entire life And it could it's something that could never be duplicated And by the way, I had somewhat of a personal connection with both of the groups I'm about to tell you about I walked out to the parking lot and the parking lot was between the two stages But it was a big enough distance between the two and I was going to the car To grab to grab something. Oh to grab a jacket. I recall that was in the car I could hear out of one ear. I could hear iron butterfly Performing and out of the other ear.
I could hear The turtles singing Eleanor She I guess you're swell the turtles were on the flying stage and iron butterfly were on the flower stage And I sat there and I said this is the coolest thing I've ever experienced And I said I had to make a decision. Who is I going to go see? You know, you know, I was at the car Which stage am I now going to walk to and I walked back to the flowers stage in time to see iron butterfly Try a new song called in a god in a vita. How cool was that?
How cool was that? Later went on in life years later when I was dating the very first mrs. Gross We went and saw them in Tampa and got backstage. She was a reporter for the clearwater sun I was a reporter for the aquarium went backstage met them They invited us to go to Miami again with them to the Miami highlight front on so we went down to the Miami highlight front on I've published pictures on my Facebook page about that Adventure and it was incredible and then going back to the turtles the turtles I saw several times, but my son Tyler and I Tyler at that time was In his 20s.
He's now 45 We went to a concert in clearwater at an outdoor park and because I worked in radio I got to have a vip sort of Place where you could go on the side of the stage and Tyler and I went to the side of the stage And understand Tyler if you don't know Tyler is a down syndrome Person and he knows more about rock music than just about anyone. I know Everybody fights to have Tyler go with them to rock music trivia nights at local bars because Tyler knows every damn thing Anyway, we walked back. We're backstage and The turtles are backstage at flow and eddy Who are the main guys of the turtles and they come and Tyler introduces himself to them And they both liked him very much both of them were very kind they were very kind to me It was just one of those really up close and personal things and I remember going back to that Miami pop festival Another thing that happened at that Miami pop festival that came to you know, really weird things to thinking about in your life was The envoy dukes performed there from michigan the lead guitarist and lead singer the envoy dukes was a guy But god, this is funny. He was Ted nugin and he was so amazed to be coming from michigan And this was in january where it was snowing and he was down in Miami and he lifted his hands up And he said this is paradise this place will always be special to me now.
Let's fast forward I'm not gonna talk about his politics. Let's fast forward to the 80s and I am sitting in my house in tarpon springs And I'm watching Miami vice And on an episode of Miami vice one of the bad drug dealers on Miami vice was Ted nugin And I it in filmed in Miami and I looked and I said to myself. Yep. I remember he said this place will always be special to me Ah Oh well, what are you gonna do?
We all have memories I have interesting memories because of my involvement in media Involvement and in knowing a lot of bands. I just knew a lot of bands I know a lot of people in the music industry that I've met throughout the years and They were just really really cool Ever heard of the Bellamy brothers? I knew they're relatives. I never knew them, but I knew their uncles major Bellamy hurt in Bellamy Up in Citrus County where I'm leaving I'm gonna be driving through there today to go to Ocala And so it's just a very very very small world.
I hope you're having a terrific day And uh, I hope that you remember some three dog night music