November 5,1974. The first Tuesday after the first Monday. The day for off-year elections all over the country. Tennessee, like many other states, was electing a new governor. Ray Blanton, the nominee of the Democratic Party, would be the winner, defeating his Republican rival, Lamar Alexander.

I was living in Atlanta and playing in a band called Cisco with Mitch Faulk, Cynthia MacDaniel, Barry Borden, and Grover Jackson. The band had a two-man road crew, which I recruited from here in Warner Robins. They were Steve Dempsey and Randy Stone, Eddie Stone's younger but larger brother. The band was booked out of Atlanta by the legendary Steve Cole. Steve had countless venues from Cincinnati and St. Louis to Miami, and everywhere in between. He kept the band very busy.

The band and crew had finished a run of a few weeks across North Carolina, and entered Tennessee for the next venue on the itinerary. This was a Wednesday through Sunday booking at a club in Knoxville. We arrived on Tuesday, one week before election day.

The band checked into the Andrew Johnson Hotel in downtown Knoxville. This hotel is famous for being the last place Hank Williams Sr. was seen alive. Knoxville is the county seat of it's county. The old, but large, county courthouse, Sheriff's department, and other county offices were located just across the four-lane road from the hotel. This road was the main drag in Knoxville at the time.

The week at the club went well. We met some great people and had lots of fun. So much fun, in fact, we decided to stay in Knoxville an extra night. The next venue on the itinerary was not far from Knoxville, so we all thought it would be a good idea to stay Monday night and check out Tuesday, election day, for the short ride to the next town.

We woke up Tuesday and got ready to go. We had learned from experience that it was a good idea to clean the rooms before checking out. This prevented extra charges when checking out. We made it to the lobby with ten minutes to spare before the noon check-out time. Cynthia, who handled these things, proceeded to the front desk to check out. Mitch, her boyfriend, went with her. The rest of us waited in the lobby. Steve was sent to the parking lot behind the hotel to get the large van we rode in and wait for us beside the hotel. This was when things began to happen very fast.

As the rest of us had our backs to the front desk facing the exit doors at the other end of the lobby, we couldn't help but notice something. What seemed like hundreds of men in white shirts and ties, with their suit coats over their shoulders, were coming out of a large double door on the left of the lobby and entering the restaurant door on the right of the lobby. The large double door on the left was the entrance to the hotel's ballroom. We learned later it was the state headquarters for Ray Blanton's gubernatorial campaign, and was where his victory celebration would be held that night. All these good Tennessee Democrats were crossing the lobby to go to lunch. The restaurant wall facing the street was all glass, so you could see the courthouse across the street, the four-lane main drag, and the wide sidewalk in front of the hotel. It was lunchtime on election day in Knoxville.

As we were watching all these men going to lunch, amazed at how many of them there were, we noticed things getting louder at the front desk. The hotel manager wanted to charge us an extra one hundred dollars for damage to the rooms. Cynthia knew that not only did we do no damage to the rooms, we cleaned them before checking out; so an argument ensued. Their voices got louder and louder. Finally, Cynthia compromised with the hotel manager and gave him an extra fifty dollars. She just wanted to leave. With that done, we headed to the doors to leave. We would walk out of the doors to the hotel, turn right and walk down the sidewalk in front of the glass wall of the restaurant, and wait for the van to pull up on the side street of the hotel. Lunchtime on election day. The state headquarters of the eventual winner in the governor's race. Heavy traffic on the main drag in downtown Knoxville. The large county courthouse and office complex across the street. Here's where the fun begins.

When we got to the door to leave, Mitch, who could have a temper at times, turned around and yelled something at the hotel manager. We walked out the door and turned right, walking on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, to wait for the van at the side of the hotel. I should add here that Mitch, who turned around and yelled at the door as we left, had a plate in the back of his head.

The hotel manager lept over the front desk, running out the lobby door after Mitch. Randy and Grover were walking beside Mitch a few steps behind. They saw the hotel manager run up behind Mitch about to hit him in the back of the head, which could have possibly been fatal. So at the same time, they hit the man on the ears on both sides of his head. Randy was wearing a ring, which almost took off the man's ear on that side. The hotel manager's knees buckled and he slumped to the ground.

All the men eating lunch in the restaurant saw this and began pouring out of the building onto the street. We were outnumbered thirty to one. Elbows flying everywhere. Just then Steve pulled the large van up to the side of the hotel. He saw what looked like a riot, with us on the bad end of a beating. In his excitement, he drove the van into the street and slammed it into park. He left the van crossways in the street, blocking traffic both ways. Soon hundreds of cars were honking their horns. Traffic in downtown Knoxville was at a dead stop at lunchtime on election day. Everyone had a group of men on them. Steve saw Barry, a little guy but a wildcat, so he went to his aid. He held Barry behind him while fending off the white shirts. It looked like they were lining up to take on Steve, and he would pick them off one at a time. Steve was wearing denim overalls with nothing underneath, and as he picked off the white shirts while holding Barry behind him, they began to fall.

The honking horns of the cars became deafening. People began getting out of their cars. A few of these helped us, but most joined the white shirts. Traffic was backed up for miles by now. Then it got even better.

No one knew what the fight was about any more. People were just hitting anyone. This is when I was able to make it up to the corner and observe the scene. It looked like something from a movie. Hundreds of elbows, fists, feet kicking. Then it turned up a notch.

I looked across the street and everyone had cleared the courthouse and offices to join in. It looked like every deputy sheriff in the county was running towards the conflagration with billy clubs drawn. The deputies began to clear the crowd. After a few minutes I felt myself lifted up by the back of the pants by a couple of deputies. That's how I was carried across the street all the way to the jail cell. The first time I had ever been behind bars. One by one they brought in the other six.

They got the van out of the road and searched it, finding nothing. We were charged with 'public fighting'. After we arranged to give a bondsman Cynthia's diamond ring and one of my basses, we were off to the next town.

We returned a few weeks later for the court date. After the initial proceedings, the judge immediately said, "Public fighting? No such charge! Case dismissed! " The hotel manager, who had a bandage on his ear the size of a cauliflower, was furious. He stood up and screamed, "I demand to see the Attorney General! " He was ignored. Cynthia and I had our items returned from the bondsman, and the episode was over. We got in the van and drove to the next gig.

Note: Ray Blanton, who was elected governor that day, would later go to prison for twenty-two months and pay an $11,000 fine for conspiracy, extortion, and mail fraud while governor.