I'm going to KANSAS!

[LesStrat]

What's a "basement"?

I finally discovered why Rich didn't return for the encore. This is from a CCR interview:

It was between the end of the set and the encore. I turned around and walked to the area to where I had come up onto the stage, previously. Of course, we were led up and it was lit at that time. My tech was tuning my guitar and there was not much room so I was like, “I don’t want to go there.” It ruins the reveal of the encore if you’re just standing on the side of the stage picking your nose. I thought, “I’ll just stand on the other side of this curtain here where I came up.” Staring into the lights on stage and then being in this dark area everything is really black. I misjudged it, and when I went behind the curtain all I hit was air for four feet and then I slammed into—there is a ramp. My right thigh hit the ramp and my left foot hit something and my arm slammed into the ramp. I’ve got creases in my arm from the ramp. I cut the hell out of my left hand and I broke my left ankle.

I’m lying there in this dark hole and all of this screaming is going on for the encore. They find me and everyone wants to grab me and drag me around like a rag doll. I’m screaming in pain. I could have sworn my thigh bone was broken. I was bent over double. I couldn’t even feel the foot yet. Everyone is tugging on me and I was like, “Leave me alone. Get back.” I didn’t know if my back was broken or what. My hands were bloody but I didn’t know why. I had hit my head. I didn’t know if my head was bleeding.

Phil [Ehart] sticks his head around and I see the panic on his face. I was trying to get up and I couldn’t get up, so I just gave him a circular clock motion to keep going. The rest of the band didn’t know. Phil went out and started playing “Fight Fire with Fire” and he tells David Ragsdale, “You’re playing guitar.” So, Rags is nervous. Billy Greer was like, “Where is Rich?” Phil told him, “He fell off the stage.” They stuck me in an ambulance and took me to the hospital. We were on some reservation in Louisiana. We were staying in Lafayette, and this place was 44 miles to the East. A little town called Franklin was six miles away and they had a hospital. They x-rayed me and said I had a broken ankle. They put a temporary cast on it and I came home the day before yesterday.