One day I had to come out on tour when his tour manager in charge quit in the middle of the night. Screaming Jay had pulled out a gun and held it against his head from behind on the tour bus; giving the guy the scare of his life. (The gun was not loaded. This was Screaming Jay style joke – he used to light magician style, flash pyrotechnic fires in restaurants for example, only to scare waiters and have a ball.)
I quit working with Screaming Jay because it got too unpredictable. You never knew if he was going to go on stage or potentially cause a riot by not going on. He LOVED to see me and the local promoter sweat blood every night.
I used to come and complain about him with Luther and Rocky. “This guy is insane, he is out of control”. They would only laugh at me and tell me: compared to the logic of this business, Screaming Jay is SANE. This is a running joke between Rocky and I today still: whenever I visit her I keep telling her: you were right. I learned. Compared to what we do here every day, Screaming Jay seems pretty sane to me!
Well, that seems a pretty good place to end part one of the interview, don't you think? And you thought running a record label would be all numbers and business didn't you? Tune in tomorrow for the rest of my conversation with Thomas Ruf.
Article comments
1 - Luther Allison, Jr.
That's a nice article. Thanks. There are a few corrections that need to be made and REPRINTED: 1st; Rocky is not my mother. My father is/still/was married to my mother, Fannie M Allison. She still lives/resides in Peoria, Ill. I wish that that these corrections are made and stop slandering our name and acknowledge and respect my Mom. Or acknowledge the fact that Rocky and my dad were, "kickin' it", maybe? Bernard and I are tired of being asked how is your mom (Rocky)? Our response is not nice.
2 - Richard Marcus
Luther Jr.
Yikes that's not cool is it. The best I can do for you, as this was an interview with Thomas Ruf, and he was the one who made those refrences, is to forward what you told me to him in Germany, and to my contact with Ruf Records in North America.
I have to say I agree with both you and your brother's opinion, I wouldn't have wanted anyone thinking any of my Dad's girlfriends or even my stepmom were my mom. I would have been pissed too.
I'll make sure the people at Ruf records are corrected so at least they won't make the same comments in the future. Also your comment is printed underneath this interview and I will see about getting it posted in the other places the interview has been published. Cool?
Once again I agree with what you're saying, and I'd be upset too. So I hope I can make sure that some people will stop saying it.
cheers
Richard Marcus
p.s If you want to contact me directly, email the site's publisher - you can find the contact information on the front page - and he can email your address and I'll get back to you.