Heidi starts her journey with her first concert experience in 1976 with the Eagles. This began her role as the "Concert Mom". Heidi describes fascinating tales of music and the special bond that comes from attending live music including what happens when a food fight breaks out at a concert involving her and the group of kids with her.
Heidi takes us back to her first concert experience in 1976 with the Eagles, just months before the release of their iconic album "Hotel California." Little did she know this concert would mark the beginning of her unique role as what we call the "Concert Mom." Heidi opens up about her journey as a concert mom, sharing stories of the one-of-a-kind live music experiences she had with her sons including what happens when a food fight broke out at a Loop FM concert event. From attending various concerts together to creating lasting memories, Heidi describes fascinating tales of music and the special bond that live performances can create between loved ones.
[00:00:00] Charles: Welcome to another episode of Seeing Them Live, a podcast featuring memorable concert stories from live music fans. Everyone has a concert story, and hopefully, one day, we'll hear yours.
[00:00:25] And now, we're going to hear Heidi's.
[00:00:28] Heidi: Okay, some kids that were up on the upper deck were dropping stuff down and splashing. So, you know, I had a team of boys and another mom. I said, you know what? I'm not going to sit here and take this.
[00:00:43] Charles: Usually at this point in my introduction, I say what the guest does for a living and et cetera, et cetera. And but I have a special guest today. Heidi is actually, my mom. And I consider her one of the, the most special guests, not only because she's my mom, of course, but she took me to my first concert and kind of an unexpected I wasn't originally supposed to go.
[00:01:14] My dad was supposed to go, but came down with a cold and couldn't make it. So, we went to see the Eagles. In 1976 at the Chicago Stadium and mom, I always find this interesting when I talk to guests, people that I've known for years and years, and I don't know the first concert that they ever went to. So, when I asked you this question, this was actually your first concert as well.
[00:01:45] Heidi: Right. Hi, sweetheart. You're going to make me cry.
[00:01:50] Charles: Wait, wait, wait till the show's over.
[00:01:53] Heidi: Okay.
[00:01:57] Charles: Yeah. So, why don't you just, yeah. Tell a little bit about that concert, I guess. And we were supposed to go with my aunt and my uncle. Well, they, they bought the tickets, right? Is that how that happened?
[00:02:10] Heidi: Right, we, we had decided to go see the Eagles, we all loved them, and so your uncle and aunt bought the tickets, and unfortunately your dad got sick right before the concert and that, and so I thought, well, you know, I've got to use this ticket up, and so I... You were only too happy to go. So, it was a really nice evening and got to use the ticket up. So, that was important.
[00:02:40] Charles: Yeah, I was 11 years old at the time. So, I'd never really been to anything like that. And you know, that was right before they were releasing Hotel California. It was going to come out like. I don't know, the next month or in a few weeks.
[00:02:55] So, they were, they were like hugely popular. And yeah, it was, I was just completely blown away by that. The crowd, the, just the band, the whole, the whole, the whole thing was, was incredible.
[00:03:11] Heidi: Well, since this was my first concert, it was incredible to me too, you know, cause I, you know, you, I was listening to the Eagles and like you said, Hotel California and I, you know, knew all their songs and everything, but seeing them live was so exhilarating. The, the lights, the, the crowd, everybody in the crowd interested in the same things. You know, and it, it was really exciting for me as well.
[00:03:43] Charles: Yeah. So, that, that kind of ignited you know, my passion, I guess, for live music. So, the following summer, I guess.
[00:03:53] Heidi: Yeah.
[00:03:54] Charles: I'm just trying to get, yeah, I'm trying to get the timeline. It'd be the summer of 1977. You took me to see a Pink Floyd at Chicago Soldier Field for their Animals tour, which I had been listening; you and dad had a copy of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and, on 8-track actually. I listened to it on 8-track. And so, I was like, you know, and at that time, I didn't really understand the concept of tours and albums like, oh, you know, I, I like Dark Side of the Moon. So, let's go see pink Floyd.
[00:04:30] So, you actually went with me to the mall in the Sears parking lot, I believe. They used to sell it out of their automotive center there. There was a Ticket Tron and we bought tickets. You bought; you bought two tickets.
[00:04:47] Heidi: Right. That was June 19th in 1977. And it was part of that Super Bowl of Rock.
[00:04:55] Charles: Right, yeah, there was a series of those usually with more than one band, but in this particular case, it was just Pink Floyd.
[00:05:04] Heidi: And you know, it's funny, when you go, when you have a live experience, it's not just a concert. There's always some other issues or things that come up that you have to deal with. And this was probably true with this concert, wasn't it?
[00:05:20] Charles: Yeah. I mean, I've read accounts from interviews and such with Roger Waters. He always believed that the promoter oversold the concert by 30,000 tickets. So, the capacity of all the other concerts and that Superbowl of Rock was 65,000. And he claims that they sold 95,000 tickets and he even took an aerial photograph the band had an aerial photographer photograph the crowd, which that picture is on Reddit.
[00:05:57] I saw it on Reddit and I'll, I'll try to get a link to it on, in the show notes. But when you look at that picture, it, it's sort of disturbing to be honest because, you can tell there are way, way too many people in that stadium. What do you, it didn't, you were there, so.
[00:06:17] Heidi: It was really disturbing is the great word for it.
[00:06:20] When we got there, I thought, wow, this is lucky. I found a place to park because I had that smaller car and I couldn't wait to get into the concert and all this. And I knew when we approached the crowd and we're going to enter, that the crowd was actually like a moving live thing. And, and I said, now Charles, hold on to my hand and don't let go.
[00:06:52] I was trying not to look panicked because you know, your kids are always watching you. So, I'm trying to look, you know, okay with that. But you could tell that this was an enormous crowd. It had its own life. But, you know, as we did find a good spot more or less, and the concert was going to start and that, and I, I can't, I couldn't believe when the music started and everything and those Animals that were floating over the concert, like, you know, like the Macy's parade.
[00:07:29] Charles: Yeah, they had a big farmer over the stadium and pigs.
[00:07:37] Heidi: The pigs. Oh my God. It was. It was amazing. It was so wonderful. And is that where, could you see from there?
[00:07:47] Charles: Well, I had a hard time. Well, that was the thing with Pink Floyd. You know, the stage was dark. It wasn't really about seeing the band play.
[00:07:56] It was more of the experience. And they had that like big circular movie projector screen with, with all sorts of imagery, the pretty much the entire time and fog and everything. And then these inflatable animals and such over the stadium. It was, it was like outrageous at the time. I thought, heck all, wow, all concerts must be like this, you know?
[00:08:21] And that, that was definitely not the case because I have never since then, experienced a concert like that. It was like a blessing and then sort of a curse, because then going forward it just like, wow, you know, you realize that was like way over the top, you know. I tell people, it's like, It's like comparing a neighborhood carnival with going to Disneyland, you know, they're just not the same thing, you know, so, but...
[00:08:56] Heidi: Oh, well, imagine. I mean, it really, truly was worth the ticket and going. I mean, it was like you said, something like we've never seen then afterward, but when we go out of the, the concert was over and you go out to get to your car and you and another 50 people have just realized that your car has been towed away, not legal parking, but it didn't have a sign. You know, other people were parking there, and I think it was the famous towing, Lincoln towing, Lincoln Park Towing.
[00:09:32] Charles: Yeah, they're infamous, yeah, in Chicago.
[00:09:35] Heidi: Oh, God, I was not, you know, I was trying to, my heart was just racing, and I was trying not to panic, and I said, oh, don't worry. So, we all started talking, and I didn't know how we were going to get to the towing, you know, Lincoln Park Towing, because, I didn't have any there weren't any cabs, I didn't have an iPhone, that's for sure.
[00:09:58] And so, someone offered to take us. A young man said, well, I know where it's at, and I can take you guys. And I'm thinking, Oh my God. Here I am taking a ride with a stranger. The one thing I was trying to teach my kids, never take a ride with a stranger. But I didn't, I had no idea where it was. I couldn't catch a cab. Oh, you know. And no extra money.
[00:10:26] Charles: Yeah. And now that I'm thinking about it, I believe actually it was, it was the Chicago police pound, I think they, they towed the car because it was that, that spot they had it in was, I think it was on lower Wacker, wasn't it? The pound and for those, those listening who aren't familiar with lower Wacker, it's a series of Streets that run underneath the city of Chicago and, you know, during the day, it's for deliveries and such to the businesses. But at night, it's, it's kind of sort of creepy. You know, there's not a lot of people down there and. And you know, we're, we're like trying to figure out where the car is or my mom is. I'm kind of just going along for the ride.
[00:11:08] But you know, when you, when you think about it the parking situation, you know, if they did sell 30,000 extra tickets, you figure maybe if half of those people took public transportation and the other half doubled up into cars.
[00:11:25] So, seven and a half thousand additional cars just like show up to the stadium. So, that, so we got, well, I remember we got your car back and but it was really, it had some damage to it, which was a real bummer.
[00:11:40] Heidi: Yeah, the side view mirror was hanging down, remember, and stuff, but you know what? I was so happy to get the car, I didn't even care about the damage. I knew that, you know, I could find someone that could fix it when we finally got home. But, it was, it was a harrowing experience.
[00:11:58] Charles: Yeah. I could imagine. I mean again, I was oblivious, you know, I'm like, I, I'd never been to Soldier Field, and then the crowd. I remember a guy put me on his shoulders to help me see, which I thought was really cool. You know, this one fan because I was, I was still pretty little at 12.
[00:12:17] And then amazingly, and this piece will kind of come back to another concert, but the last Superbowl of Rock featured Leonard Skynard. And when we got in line to get tickets, so I've always, in hindsight, I'm always amazed that after that experience, you're like, yeah, let's go back to Soldier Field and see Leonard Skynard.
[00:12:39] But we were in line and the line was quite long. And I remember you saying well, we'll, we'll get tickets, you know, the next time they, they come to town and play.
[00:12:52] Heidi: Trust me, that was a teaching moment, believe me, a teaching moment. And I, I felt so bad.
[00:13:00] Charles: Yeah. Cause of course there was no. Next time, you know, their, their plane went down tragically and yeah, that was a really sad situation. So, but then the, the following summer you took me and a bunch of my friends to see this thing in Chicago at Comiskey Park where the Chicago Sox, the old Comiskey Park. This was 1978.
[00:13:24] Heidi: Right.
[00:13:25] Charles: In August. Yes. Summer Jam 1. And it featured some warm up acts, Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, Walter Egan, AC/DC as a special guest Foreigner and Aerosmith. And yeah, just if you want to talk about that, we were I don't know how many people were with us, maybe a half dozen of my friends or something, I don't know.
[00:13:48] Heidi: I think my neighbor lady friend came because, like I said, we had no iPhone and I needed someone to help me navigate my way to the concert and we drove a truck and we had six or seven boys in the backseat of the truck. The pickup truck. When I think of this, I'm, I'm like and...
[00:14:08] Charles: That was a different, different time, right?
[00:14:12] Heidi: Let's use that. It was a different time. And so her and I, she was my map quest, in other words. And she said, well, take a left here and there should be parking here and blah, blah, blah. But you know, that was a great venue also. You know, AC/DC and all these wonderful bands together and I don't know how many people were at that. Do you have any idea?
[00:14:37] Charles: I don't know, but I remember, it was interesting coming off of the Pink Floyd experience. Aerosmith that day, they were absolutely horrendous. I don't know any other way to describe it. The sound, the sound was awful. I couldn't understand any of the songs they were playing.
[00:14:57] And, it's funny, Pink Floyd was my favorite all time concert, 1977, and that Aerosmith performance in 1978 probably takes the cake as the all-time worst concert experience. I mean, Foreigner was great. AC/DC was out of control. I wasn't really familiar with their music, but seeing Angus Young. You know, the guy's just completely out of control on stage. But yeah, that was also, I think, the first time I saw somebody who was super intoxicated.
[00:15:27] Heidi: Which of course, I used as a little teaching moment. You know your Concert Mom has the ideal ages between 12 and 16 to teach your kids what to do at concerts, how to behave, not get in trouble.
[00:15:42] So, this guy falls down right in front of where we're sitting and he had on a pair of green pants. So, your brother calls him green pants to this day, and I can't imagine what happened to his teeth. He just fell forward and his pants were hanging, you know, and...
[00:15:59] Charles: Yeah, he was completely, I don't, I don't know.
[00:16:02] Heidi: Intoxicated.
[00:16:04] Charles: Yeah. I don't know if he was drunk or what, but yeah.
[00:16:07] Heidi: And security came around and tried to help him up. And I was saying, see, this is what happens, you know, when you drink too much and it's not a good look. And when you're in public, I used it as my teaching moment. But yeah. Green pants to this day. Referred to him as green pants.
[00:16:24] Charles: Yeah, now you, you mentioned this term that we talked about before, concert mom, and I would say that you're definitely a concert mom. Like there's soccer moms, and there's concert moms. And the difference or what defines, in my opinion, a concert mom is you take your kids to concerts they want to go to, you're not dragging us with you to go see Pink Floyd. You know, we're like, Mom, we don't want to. It's like we're initiating it and, and you're helping to facilitate it by driving us, getting us tickets, that kind of thing.
[00:17:00] Heidi: Yeah. I mean, I, I enjoyed every moment of it and I knew in my heart of hearts that you had a great group of friends and I knew that these guys, when they turned 16, I wouldn't really need to drive you guys anywhere back to concerts. So, I had a wonderful experience from the time you were 11 to 16 and 17.
[00:17:21] And then, you know, your friends started getting cars. And I never really expected to be invited or go. But they were always hanging out at the house. And they were a great group of kids. So, I felt very, happy when they would go to the concerts with you and different things.
[00:17:39] Charles: Well, and you know, like you said, you know, there, there's like this four-year window and during that four years, let's say between when I was 12 and 16 we saw Boston in March in 1979. That was the first time, not that like I had been to a ton of concerts and bought tickets, or actually I should say you probably bought the tickets we, had obstructed view, that said on the ticket obstructed view and they warned us and because it was kind of on the side of the stage, but it ended up, there was nothing there and there were great seats.
[00:18:15] Heidi: I always wondered why they said obstructed view, but you know, we bought them because A, they were reasonable, and B, I don't think there was a whole lot of seats that we could have gotten closer, you know what I'm saying? And but the view was just fine. I thought maybe having been to a few concerts, there might be an empty seat, we could move right or left or something or, you know, stand up. But there was no obstruction. That turned out to be a wonderful thing.
[00:18:46] Charles: Yeah, and Boston, I mean, you could not listen to the radio for five minutes without hearing one of their songs. So, that show was... I had no doubt it was sold out, you know.
[00:18:59] Heidi: Yeah.
[00:19:00] Charles: We'll hear more from our guests after a short break.
[00:19:07] Would you like to be a guest on Seeing Them Live? If you have a concert story you'd like to share on this podcast, please visit our website at seeingthemlive.com. Once you're there, click on Become a Guest in the main menu. Then fill out the form and click the Submit button. If you seem like a good fit for the show, we'll contact you via email.
[00:19:33] Everyone has a concert story. Let's hear yours. And now back to the show.
[00:19:41] So, then in, in 1979, that Summer, August 5th, you took me and my friends, quite a few friends, the Loop's Day in the Park. And the Loop was a radio station in Chicago and we all, I think when he bought tickets, you got a free Loop shirt or something.
[00:19:59] Heidi: Yeah.
[00:20:00] Charles: We all had on our black Loop shirts and we made this banner which featured all the bands: Molly Hatchet, Thin Lizzy, Eddie Money, Santana, and Journey. And I think it was, was it between Thin Lizzy and maybe Eddie Money, a huge food fight broke out between like the lower deck and the upper, upper deck?
[00:20:26] Heidi: Okay. Some kids that were up on the upper deck were dropping stuff down and splashing. So, you know, I had a team of boys and another mom. I said, you know what? I'm not going to sit here and take this. I said, okay boys, pick up this stuff and throw it, heave it back up to the level, you know. And, you know, to your credit, you guys are around 14 and 15, you really could heave that stuff, that food back up at them. They were shocked that we did that. So, that kind of ended the food fight thing.
[00:20:59] Charles: Yeah I remember somebody hit our banner with a twinkie, and it like exploded all over it. Which this banner is like pretty, pretty intense. I mean, it, it took a lot of work and it's on a, like a 10 by 12 bedsheet.
[00:21:15] Heidi: Yes.
[00:21:15] Charles: So, we put the banner away. But then in 19, What was it?
[00:21:22] Heidi: Eighty.
[00:21:23] Charles: Eighty.
[00:21:24] Heidi: Yeah.
[00:21:24] Charles: We went to this Yes concert because, I mean, a couple of my friends were, were really into Yes. And that's when they kind of, they had the new lineup and such, but we were still into them and they were having a banner contest. So, we made a Yes banner and you drove us to the show.
[00:21:45] Heidi: Right. We drove to the show and we were so, that was a super perfect banner. And I was really excited about winning. You know, I just wanted to win with that. And our seats were pretty, pretty good for viewing. But I don't know if you remember, the reason I bought tickets to a second Yes concert was, they didn't even view our side of the concert.
[00:22:12] You know what I'm saying? We had our banner hanging over, and I didn't see anybody look that way. Did you?
[00:22:19] Charles: Yeah, well, well, yeah, no. Then, I know you were disappointed, so... She said, well, we're good. Cause they're playing two shows. I think, I don't know if that was at the Chicago Stadium or the International Amphitheater in Chicago.
[00:22:33] And of course we're like, oh yeah, we'll, we'll go to another show. Sure. You know? So, so we went to that second show and we did display the banner and our banner was really cool. It would like featured the same kind of imagery as all of their album covers, I think that were designed by I think the artist is Roger Dean.
[00:22:53] And let's just say their voting mechanism was less than scientific or anything, it was like clapping. But anyway, at any rate, we, we got to see Yes two nights in a row and that was, that was pretty cool. And I, I was reading on a fan site that during that second show there was like a 40-minute power outage? The power went out?
[00:23:14] Heidi: Right.
[00:23:15] Charles: I don't remember that.
[00:23:17] Heidi: You know what? I, now that you said that, I do. And you, the thing is we, we, I think, the lights might have gone out or something, but it didn't seem like it was 40 minutes. Did it seem like that to you?
[00:23:32] Charles: I honestly couldn't remember that and, you know, I'll take the Yes super fan's word for it That it was 40 minutes. But yeah, I didn't remember that part of it.
[00:23:43] But I just wanted to get back to mom...
[00:23:46] Heidi: Do you still have that?
[00:23:48] Charles: No, I do not have that banner. I still have the Journey banner.
[00:23:52] Heidi: Oh, okay.
[00:23:54] Charles: But the Rolling Stones concert in 1981. My friend had won tickets off of a Chicago radio station, WLS, and unfortunately, I was sick with pneumonia.
[00:24:09] The doctor said I wasn't to go anywhere except bed and but my friend had these tickets to see the Rolling Stones and I'd never seen them before. And you decided to let me go because you didn't think they'd be around for much longer. And I think that might've had something to do maybe with the Leonard Skynard tickets or what, but yeah, I ended up going to that concert, which was totally outrageous. You know, it was, it was a great show.
[00:24:38] Heidi: You know, the 1977 Leonard Skynard thing taught me a lesson about putting it off. So, you had been on antibiotics for three days and I thought, you're young and you're healthy. Basically, never to miss the Rolling Stones. That was amazing that he got those. He won those tickets because I don't know how much they might have been, you know.
[00:25:04] Charles: Yeah, I don't know why, but with the Rolling Stones, I always felt they were out of reach for me to ever see or get tickets because it was always insane to get tickets.
[00:25:14] Heidi: Yeah.
[00:25:15] Charles: So, yeah, you let me go and I wore a little dust mask on my face 'cause of the cigarette smoke and other types of smoke. So, that was like well before COVID ever was a thing I had on my mask.
[00:25:28] Heidi: Yeah, we were ahead of our time, right?
[00:25:30] Charles: Yeah, we were. I'm sure people were looking at me like, Who's this dude up here with this mask on? What kind of awful disease does he have? But anyway, yeah, that, that was, that was a lot of fun.
[00:25:43] Yeah, just to wrap up here, mom, we've got a few minutes left. Yeah, I mean, this whole concert mom idea, like you said, you have like a four-year window. You know, not that I would have minded if you came along with some of my friends to some concerts, but it wasn't, it wasn't really about that.
[00:26:04] You know, you kind of let me go when, when we had our driver's license and stuff. And not that you wouldn't have enjoyed it.
[00:26:12] Heidi: Well, you know what, honey, that four years brought me an enormous amount of enjoyment. I got to know you and your friends thoroughly, and it gave me peace of mind to know the kind of people that you hung out with, you know.
[00:26:28] And I, I learned it was, it was a learning experience for me, and I enjoyed everything so thoroughly and, you know, just driving to the city and seeing the lights and stuff. It was so exciting. It was so different to see them live. And I enjoyed every minute of it. Even the bad minutes. It's great stories.
[00:26:55] Charles: Yeah, no, and I have grown to really appreciate that. And thank you for that. And when we have guests on the podcast here and we have them fill out the Become a Guest form, which by the way, you could go to our website, seeingthemlive.com and fill out our guest form.
[00:27:18] I give examples of some of the concerts I went to when they reply back or and sometimes, I've been to the same shows they were at and I Say, yeah, my mom took me to this concert that concert and I'll get like, you’ve got a cool mom. You know, there's comments like that and I think you know, she's pretty cool. And you know there weren't a lot of moms doing that. Unless you recruited them from the neighborhood to come with.
[00:27:49] Heidi: Yeah, they were going to be my MapQuest, that's for sure. But I enjoyed it immensely. It was totally my pleasure. And we learned a lot about the city, getting around, and you know, driving in and out of the city. It was a wonderful experience for me, and I'm so happy that you enjoyed it. I think brother enjoyed it, too. You know, when he was included and all your friends, but it was, it was a wonderful thing. I'm, I'm happy to be a concert mom.
[00:28:23] Charles: Yeah. And you know, now that my wife and I, we have a daughter and we want to take her to concert. She's 12 and it would be great, someday if you could join us, it'd be several generations of concert goers, you know.
[00:28:40] Heidi: I would love that. That would be the ultimate. Would love to do that.
[00:28:46] Charles: So, all right, mom. Well, thanks again for coming on, Seeing Them Live. Is there anything else you would like to say in closing before we leave?
[00:28:55] Heidi: No, I just I want to thank you for doing this because there's so many people out there. It's amazing. I tell them that you know, it's the Seeing Them Live podcasts. Everyone I talked to, even the doctors I work with and stuff, they all have a story. They all, oh, oh yeah, I remember this concert and that concert. It's, music is a wonderful thing. It's when you hear the song, it brings you back to that moment.
[00:29:23] And it brings back emotionally, you know for many things. So, you know, they even play music for babies, lullabies and things. But seeing them live is a whole another experience. And the minute I mentioned this podcast, I hear their personal stories, which I find extremely interesting because it's all over, not just where we lived, but everywhere I go, I talk about it, and they're happy to share their stories, and they're good people. You have a common interest with people immediately.
[00:30:01] Charles: Yeah.
[00:30:01] Heidi: And it forms a warm feeling.
[00:30:04] Charles: Yeah, they do. It does usually spark some memories that people want to share. And even when people think they don't have a good story, it turns out that, it actually is pretty interesting.
[00:30:16] Heidi: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:30:17] Charles: They don't know what they experienced or what happened at the show or after the show, or, or, yeah, whatever, who they were with. Why they went to the concert, things like that.
[00:30:29] Heidi: I told you this, one of the doctors that we were seeing had a Walkman tattoo on his arm.
[00:30:36] Charles: Yeah.
[00:30:36] Heidi: That you could see and I'm like, is that a Walkman? That's it, I heard about five stories after that.
[00:30:45] Charles: Yeah, that's old school, man, Walkman.
[00:30:48] Heidi: Yeah, Walkman.
[00:30:49] Charles: Yeah, so, well, yeah. Thanks again, mom. And, we'll have to go see a show together one of these days.
[00:30:55] Heidi: Let's do it. We'll do this again.
[00:30:58] Charles: Alright.
[00:30:59] Heidi: Thanks, sweetheart.
[00:31:00] Charles: Thank you. Bye.
[00:31:05] That's a wrap for our show. I want to thank today's guests for sharing their concert stories with us. Make sure to check out our show notes at seeingthemlive.com for links to websites, photos. And other artifacts mentioned in the show. I also want to thank my producer, Doug Florzak. The theme music for the show was composed by Doug and is featured on his album, Flagstone.
[00:31:32] If you have a concert story you'd like to share on our podcast, please visit our website and click on become a guest in the main menu. Then fill out the form and click the submit button. If you seem like a good fit for the show, we'll contact you via email. I guess it's time to head for the exits. We'll see you next time on Seeing Them Live.