Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1536125
June/July 2025 | maconmagazine.com 89 up hiring me as director. I didn't do that for very long, but I did raise some money and plan a huge, huge party. We had 450 to 500 people, and I had the biggest tent you could get. I was still publishing the magazine, which was labor intensive, and I mean, I would stuff envelopes and do all that. When we moved into Shirley Hills, I thought I should get a job. I found out that the Cox Capitol Theatre – that's what it was called then – was looking for a director of development. At the time, I know that Julie Wilkerson ran it for a while and then when she left, Tony Long was there and he was running it. They hired me to raise money for the nonprofi t, but I realized that the theater wasn't viable. There were no regular concerts there. I just said, "Look, I can't raise money for an organization that isn't doing anything." I started booking acts. I had a wish list with all these rock acts and country acts, and I literally put that place on the map. We'd have a big show and because it was a nonprofi t, I would sell tables down front to these shows, $1,000 a table. I very rarely even took a salary. Probably the fi rst really big show I did was Travis Tritt. I had Chuck Leavell do a show there. I had Lucinda Williams, Marty Stuart. I knew what I was doing because I would go out on the road with Kirk sometimes. He was a tour manager; you would make sure everything was set up right for the band. Basically [at The Capitol], I was a promoter. Promoters sometimes don't treat the acts very well. I made sure that there were good meals for the bands, and everything was set up with everything they needed. I can take a lot of pride in that I really turned that place into a business, but I was cleaning toilets and a lot of times there wasn't any money. Kirk and I had planned a trip to Europe, and he said, "You're quitting." I started taking antidepressants. It just drove me crazy, and I thought, "Well, I'm not depressed. D L i t l r a t B H . D w t f a st r t G l D a a d f e w st e w h u r a 1 d s. A D H k a h a h c b o t t D f . G A, K , a I s i o t f st e o t B H . " I m e t K i r k [ W e s t ] i n 1 9 9 1 , a n d h e w a s w o r k i n g f o r t h e A l l m a n B r o t h e r s B a n d . I h o n e s t l y c o u l d n ' t n a m e a n A l l m a n B r o t h e r o t h e r t h a n G r e g g A l l m a n , b u t I k n e w a l o t a b o u t m u s i c . M u s i c w a s m y p a s s i o n , y o u k n o w, f o r m y e n t i r e l i f e ."