It was yours truly, Ianne Elo and Michael Elo. We had to play mostly pop-songs, but with our own spin on everything.  We had two rooms on top of the bar.  The owner, a young enthutheastic Italian named Tony, met me each morning on the stairs and said, “How’ya DO-en, Bent, How’ya DOen?”

Playing 3 times for 45 minutes, and 2 for 30 minutes each night was a big change from doing short mostly-original concerts in Denmark.  Michael met a flute player in a nearby park one day who gave him 2 blots of Acid.  That was the first time I tried anything like that.  It rearranged a few molecules in my brain for the better.

Peggy Dufresne had won a stunt-pilot state-championship in Maine, owned a horse and worked at the Berkshire Country Inn, where I was the entertainment for the winter. In the spring she took me flying  (loop-de-loops, stalls and spins included). We flew up to visit John Cassel in Vermont, but got lost between the mountains. The plane had no radar or GPS (of course) and you can’t just pull over on the side of the road to look at a map when you’re flying. Luckily we found the airstrip right before the clouds rolled in.

Later Peggy came to stay with me in Sweden and Denmark (seen here  working on our street’s semiannual community-cleanup).

She was Canadian-Indian and free to the bone.

When I first came to Los Angeles, a friend introduced me to a family in Echo Park.  They had a room where I was invited to stay while getting my bearings.  They were brilliant, funny and heartfelt people – mom & dad, 3 sons and 2 daughters.  Alan (pic above) played bass & guitar with me in serval outfits and his sister, Lori and I ended up together for 5 years.  I will always be grateful for the whole family’s wisdom and friendship during my first years in LA.

I was working free-lance as video cameraman for a casting agency, IPS in Hollywood.  One day I heard music coming from a meeting room and I asked what they were listening to.  It was Hal Needham of Stunts Unlimited, and he said he had just finished producing a movie about stuntmen, but they did not have the themesong yet.  Hal had been successful with “Smokey and the Bear”, but the fellow who had written “Eastbound and Down” for that film had not come up with one for “Hollywood Stuntman” the film Hal had just directed, starring Burt Reynolds..

“Would it be OK if I wrote a song for you?” I asked.  “Sure” Hal said.  This was on a Friday.  The next day I wrote the song and produced a demo on Sunday, then gave it to Hal who gave it thumbs-up.  A week later I was on my way to Nashville to meet the arranger, Bill Justice, and to oversee the recording of the song.  What a thrill.  Amazing musicians in Nashville…

At first they tried a few Nashville country singers for the song, but ended up liking my voice better which we recorded at Warner Bros Burbank studio.  At the last minute they found out another movie was also about to be released with the same title, “Hollywood Stuntman”, so they insisted I throw in the new name for this film, “Hooper” into the lyrics – so I wouldn’t accidentially promote the other film.

Taking the EST training, plus seminars, 6-day training, New Warrior, Men Sex & Power and such I met some remarkable people.  One was Magi Bloom, singer & designer.  She was opera trained and had talent.  Michael Craig had a great voice and lovely spirit also and we formed a vocal trio, Take 3.  Click below to see 3 original songs from a performance in Santa Monica.

In LA we had many gay friends, so when AIDS hit it was a difficult time for all.  Michael Katz, playwright who also got the terminal diagnosis, staged a play “AIDS/US” with mostly actors who had  AIDS telling their story.  I wrote and performed the music with Magi and Michael – that was a deeply moving experience.  I also produced a video about Michael Katz, for Andrea Cagan, “Always, Michael” (click on picture above to see the video) and another video for our friend and dancer, James Maxwell and the “Family”, called “Goodbye my Friend” – see it on my documentary video page here.