Seeing Rail open for Van Halen in 1980 (Portland, OR Memorial
Coliseum) was such a thrill for me at age 15.

By the age of 19, I was already in an up an coming band of my own.
We were very popular in the Vancouver/Portland area and played many
shows locally with Jeff LeBansky, Outtrage, Laden Saint and a very
early Black n' Blue. Our biggest break came when our manager
arranged for us to open for Rail and Ronnie Montrose at the Starry
Night Club in Portland, Oregon. You can bet I was thrilled to pieces!

My band mates had no clue who they were about to open for, and quite
frankly, were pretty boring about it. I on the other hand, was so
excited to meet my Rock n' Roll hero's Rail.

On the day of our show, my band mates thought it best to goof around
in the city instead of hanging at the club to watch Rail set up and
perform sound checks. Of course I stayed behind and sat watching the
band. Then, I met them.....

The guys in Rail were so cool to me. They gave me drum sticks and
guitar picks (maybe even a t-shirt), while my band mates got nothing.

Show time:

As our band played our set, I was petrified because the crowd was
huge. As I looked stage right, there was Terry smiling and giving me
the big thumbs up. Suddenly, my Steinberger bass broke a string,
causing me to play much higher notes to finish the song. Terry
motioned for me to hang on, disappered and reappered holding one of
his basses and motioned for me to come over. Terry said "Use one of
mine". We quickly changed basses and there I was, holding and
playing one of Terry's basses to finish the set. I remember
thinking..."How cool!".

After we finished, I took Terry's bass back to their dressing room
and thanked him.

If MTV had the Basement Tapes contest all over again, I would still
vote for Rail as I did back in 83'.

Now, I'm a local Police Officer who has never forgotten his roots in
Rock n' Roll. :)

You guys Blaze!
Brian