As a teenager I went to a Leon Redbone concert in Dallas at the Paladium in the 1970's. This was before Leon's appearance on Saturday Night Live and he was still relatively unknown. Only about 20 people came to the show.
Steve Goodman was opening the show for Leon.
I knew how to sneak backstage at the Paladium and I was back there before the show started. Steve Goodman walked past me talking to another guy. He passionately/angrily said, "For this crowd I'm only playing 2 songs! That's it! Just 2 songs!"
However, when Steve came out on stage he was great - and he played to us 20 folks for over an hour. I'll never forget it.
Also, after the show was over I was talking with Jonathan Dorn, who was Leon's tuba player, and he offered to introduce me to Leon if I liked. So we went backstage to Leon's dressing room, and there sat Leon, Steve Goodman, and an old gentleman. Jonathan introduced me and I shook everybody's hand while introducing myself. The old guy said, "Howdy David, I'm Jethro." Then it clicked. "Are you Jethro Burns?" I asked. He answered, "Well, everybody is somebody, and that's who I am."
I got to hang out there - just the 5 of us - for about 20 minutes talking to those guys. Pretty cool experience for a teenager.
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