After our High Noon show at the Keystone Berkeley in late July, 1981, Mickey Hart told the rest of the band “Anyone who wants to go, we’re heading over to the Hell’s Angels’ clubhouse in Oakland”. I followed the others in a caravan to somewhere in Oakland. We all pulled into a corner parking lot. By the time I’d gotten parked and out of my car, the others had all been let in. When I got to the doorway, a guy stepped in front of the door with his arms crossed. “I’m with them, with Mickey” I said nervously. Without saying anything he nodded, stepped aside and let me in.
I’d met and become friends with a guy named Fu over the past couple of months. He was always backstage in an easy chair or on a couch when I 
arrived. We’d had many long conversations on a wide array of subjects. He was always perfectly groomed, his graying hair pulled back into a perfect ponytail. He was always well-dressed, very neat in appearance. He was well-spoken and a real gentleman. We shared a lot of laughs.
I was surprised to learn, that night, that Fu was the vice-president of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels.
Inside the clubhouse there were maybe a dozen members and almost as many women, playing pool, sitting around, sharing stories. Fu walked me around the place, letting everyone know that I was his friend, making me comfortable. We chilled there for about an hour, then split.
I saw him at more shows later that year, we always picked up right where we’d left off.
I was deeply saddened when I asked about him a few years ago and found out that he’d passed. I’ll always remember him as a classy, witty gentleman. He was a nice guy with a kind heart.
Watching the clip of Fu and Deacon below, I had to laugh when Lacy J Dalton appeared. I met Lacy when Norton Buffalo and I were recording the second movie soundtrack that we co-wrote Eddie Macon’s Run [MCA/Universal 1983], starring Kirk Douglas and John Schneider, who sang two of our songs. Lacy was a friend of Norton’s. He brought her in to sing a song that we wrote for the movie called Havin’ You Back. She did a fantastic job on her vocal, but the song was conceived/needed as background music being played from a jukebox in a bar scene.
When we went to the world premier of the movie in Reno, we stopped by Harrah’s Club that night and saw Lacy perform, then went out on tour. Memory tells me that her real name was actually Jill Byrem, a name that didn’t look nearly as attractive to the country music-buying public. I can hear the record executives talking: “She sings like an angel, but she needs a name…Lacy J Dalton – now THAT’s a name that’ll sell some country albums…”
I guess this is part of another story.
R.I.P. Fu Griffin
