Originally Posted by
Gary
I'll try not to make this too long of a message but my favorite Del Shannon story is when I saw him at a show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, in about 1984. This was right after his latest hit of the Phil Phillips song SEA OF LOVE.....well, when I go to these shows, I like to get right up front and take pictures so after Del's set that night, I saw his "set sheet" lying on the stage near me, so I grabbed it for a souvenier. I knew I'd be seeing Del again a couple nights later in my hometown, so I thought I would have him sign the sheet, along with some records I had.
Soooo, Del comes to town a couple nights later and I got in the club early to catch him before he went on and I asked him if he would sign a few things and the first thing I handed him was the set sheet. "YOU have it!" he exclaimed. So I told him I grabbed it off the stage in Clear Lake and he said "Hey man, I really need that. I'll sign everything you've got if I can get that back from you." Well.....hell yeah! I had a stack of 45s and LPs and he signed 'em all! I thought, gees....it's just a piece of paper with the list of songs they're doing, you'd think he could just write up another one......but he wanted that one!
Now the cool part....during the show, I was standing to the side of the stage (taking more pictures) when I noticed this drunk woman who kept trying to grab Del and you could tell he was getting annoyed, so after one of the songs, Del motioned me over and asked me to stand in front of him (like a bodyguard), in front of the stage and to keep that woman away from him....so I did! Oooooh......that woman did NOT like that at all! She tried reaching around me to grab at Del and when I swatted her arm away, she SPIT at me and cursed me out! I turned around and Del and his band were laughing so hard they had to stop the song!! Finally the woman either left, or got thrown out, and the show went on, with me standing guard in front of Del, like a big-shot.
After the show, Del apologized to me but still kept laughing about what happened, but I didn't care. I felt like I really made a friend in Del. When he killed himself a few years later, I was sick to my stomach. I knew that Del couldn't have done that if he was in his right mind. I knew it was something else, and it was......it was Prozac that did it to him. I'm convinced of that. Del is very much missed by me and MANY MANY fans around the world. He was a great entertainer and a great man.