SHENANDOAH
Official Page
RANDY EDWARDS AND THE EQUIPMENT TRUCK
By the next road trip our management company had set up not only a lease for our own little 35 foot MCI bus to ride, but had also hired a production company run by our old friend Randy Frierson who made us look and sound great.
Randy Frierson & Mike
He had a U-Haul type truck full of sound and lights along with our t-shirts, CD’s and all of our instruments and amps and stuff. We were a real tour doing our own shows now.
Randy Edwards (on the left) & Stewart the T-shirt guy
We were doing a fair that summer in Sallisaw, OK and after the show there was this fellow that Marty brought on the bus named Randy Edwards. Randy was just a face in the crowd to us at that time but he explained that he wanted to go to work for us. We chuckled and tried to tell him that we didn’t have room for him OR the money to pay him. That little bus we were on only slept 8 people and it didn’t even have a back lounge like most buses do. He said, “I’ll sleep in the back of y’alls equipment truck out there and I’ll work for free.” Well we weren’t going to let him do that. We didn’t even know this guy. So we told him we appreciated it but that we had to leave and he politely got off the bus without incident.
The next day we were in the next town about to unload for soundcheck. When they opened the doors of the sound truck out popped Randy. He had stowed away in the back of that truck all night and slept with the equipment without anyone knowing he was back there. Randy is a very dynamic type personality and he’s really strong and when he got out of that truck, he starting carrying all the heavy gear and made friends with all the sound guys quick by taking a lot of the heavy lifting off of them. Besides he was such a likable guy.
Randy & Me at one of our Fan Club breakfasts. I was auctioning off my underwear. haha
For the next few shows he rode in the back of that equipment truck just because we didn’t know where else to put him but we did at least decide to start giving him per-diem so he could eat. Needless to say he ended up working with us full time and stayed with us for most of our career. How do you not hire somebody that wants to work for you THAT much? Randy also plays a mean harmonica and got up every night and played it on ‘Sunday In the South’. You can see him playing it on our ‘Austin City Limits’ performance on YouTube.
Randy Edwards playing with us on ‘Sunday In the South’.
One of the things we like to laugh about every time we get together now is that we fired him 3 times during the years he was with us. He always said it was like getting fired from a ‘dishwashing job’. haha He was one of the best employees anyone could ever ask for and one of the best friends I ever had. Randy Edwards….king-kat-daddy!