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Is It Weird to Go on the Road with Wu-Tang Clan? This Book Will Tell Us.

Chris McKee is a booking agent. His job is to get his artists gigs and to send them on the road. One of those clients is Wu-Tang Clan, a group that posed some, er, challenges that required Chris tour with them. If that sounds like a premise for a book, you’d be right. He’s almost finished writing a memoir of what it was like to be the booking agent and tour manager for all things Wu.

Being in close proximity to RZA, GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, UGod, Masta Killa and Cappadonna is…interesting. Chris worked with various members for over a decade and has a unique insight about what actually happens before and after the shows.

Sex? Check. Drugs? Check. Murder? Some of that, too.

Here’s an excerpt featuring the story of how of how a concert promoter name Matt ‘Dutch’ Garner worked to produce a concert for Ghostface Killah in Montreal. Dutch ended up being killed .

The thing about Montreal is that the line is blurred between certain parts of the entertainment industry and criminals and gangsters; more so than any other city in Canada.  In Montreal, you have to tread very carefully when you go about your business if you want to stay out of trouble.

I guess Dutch missed that memo.

Dutch was murdered two weeks before the Ghostface show in Montreal.

According to various news reports, assailants broke into his apartment on St. Henri and taped Dutch and an associate to their chairs and set to the two of them on fire. Dutch was found dead in his apartment on the chair but the second victim had tried to escape and made his way down a flight of stairs onto the street while still ablaze where he eventually succumb to his injuries and died on a neighboring lawn.

Then there’s this tale of a breakfast meeting the day after another show in Montreal.

Before our breakfast meeting ended, Ghost had one other interesting request to ask of me.

He said, “Don’t be putting me in any more hotels with French TV channels.”

He continued, “I was trying to watch some TV last night and relax and whatever and every channel was in French.”

Ghostface added, “I can’t have that in any of these other cities, so no more hotels with these French TVs.”

I stared back blank not knowing how to answer.

The thought occurred to me that this was a man who has traveled the world over at least a dozen times. He has performed concerts as Ghostface and as a member of the Wu-Tang Clan on probably every continent on the planet.  Yet he hasn’t figured out that when you’re in a city or country that speaks a different language that it is highly likely that the TV channels will probably be in that very same language.

There’s no titled for the book yet, but it’ll be here in early 2018.

 

 

 

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39363 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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