Backstage with the Doobie Brothers

We don't post often about music here, but here we'll make an exception.

It all started at the Jackson Hole Airport. We were flying home from Wyoming and our sister-in-law Sallie DuMond, who is a supervisor of security at the airport introduced us to one Michael Hossack, who happens to be a drummer with The Doobie Brothers band. That was cool enough -- to meet a rock star from way back when. He was heading to the Pacific Northwest to play some concerts in places like Coeur D'Alene, Idaho and Portland, Oregon.

Then Michael asked us if we'd like to see the show in Portland two days hence. Who were we to say no? So we flew down to Portland on Friday, May 15th, went to the will-call window at the Rose Garden and there were comp tickets to the show and backstage passes. We ended up with great seats, along with some other folks who also had received free passes. Seated just to our right were a pair of 22-year-old groupies (complete with circa-1973 albums they were hoping to get autographed). To our left were a couple of attorneys, one of whom was Kent Spence, son of the celebrated Western-garbed lawyer Gerry Spence. We wandered around backstage with our newfound friends.


But we found out that backstage passes aren't the same thing as "dressing room access." No big deal though, it was still pretty cool to be able to be part of the whole backstage thing.

The Doobies opened the show with a set that was very well-done and included pretty much every song you might remember from their heyday. They were followed by The Allman Brothers Band, which is also still very good after all these years. It's great to see a group with guys in their 60s playing along someone in his 20s (Derek Truck).

Michael Hossack called us a couple days later to see how we liked the show. Well ... we liked it! A huge thank you to Michael for his thoughtfulness. We'll never forget it!