spent a few years playing with Bob Dylan, accompanying Dylan on his first world tour the previous year. We set up an audition for this guy we had heard so much about and played songs with him for several hours that day. Mickey was amazing. He was a flamboyant, energetic, stick-twirling, hard-playing rock drummer who kept incredible time. We knew we wanted Mickey with us after the first song he played. He was just what we needed.
Over the next several years, we all came to appreciate Mickey not only for his musical talent but also for his willingness to jump in and lend a hand, no matter what we needed. He was the ultimate team player, and when you’re in a start-up group, that’s crucial.
Mickey was there from the beginning to the end of the First Edition, and we never got a review that didn’t praise him. He has since become a very accomplished actor and has been in many commercials; movies, such as Sling Blade and Tin Cup ; and TV shows, such as Home Improvement and Entourage.
Once we added Mickey, we felt more comfortable playing clubs around L.A. One of our frequent stops was a Westside club called Ledbetter’s, a good place to be seen in L.A. by people who could make things happen in the music business. We played it often and almost always drew really good crowds. This was about the time comedians like Steve Martin and Pat Paulsen and groups like the Carpenters were coming up and were working at Ledbetter’s as well.
In the audience at Ledbetter’s one night was a guy named Ken Kragen, a Harvard-educated businessman who had become the manager for several well-known acts, including the Smothers Brothers, John Hartford, and Pat Paulsen. By this time our old friends from the Veterans Day parade in Canada, the Smothers Brothers, had begun the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS television and were stirring up quite a following. Ken really liked what we were doing and insisted the Brothers come see us. That chance encounter would become the catalyst that exploded the First Edition onto the national stage.
Almost immediately they invited us to appear on their show.
Ken Kragen not only signed on to manage the First Edition, he also became my personal manager for the next thirty-three years. He was the driving force in developing my career and giving me the stature I would later acquire.
Ken was a very dynamic person, and the fact that he was managing the Smothers Brothers certainly gave him credentials. We liked that someone was interested enough in us to say, “Hey, let me work with you. Let me help you if I can.”
Ken was a manager with vision—not just locally, but globally. He was a big-picture guy. He never thought small. He began by getting us every television show he could. People knew they could trust Ken, so he had access to everybody. This was the era when there were variety shows on TV almost every night, a great platform for a new band. During the first year alone, 1968, we were on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Perry Como Show, The Pat Boone Show , and Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.
Shortly after Ken became our manager, he worked out a deal with Reprise Records, our record label, to give us a promotional budget of twenty thousand dollars to promote our name. We did the only sensible thing we could with our newfound wealth—we threw a party.
And what a party it was! We invited more than three hundred writers, deejays, record-store owners, booking agents, distributors, and all the Warner Bros. staff. We tried to include anybody who had any tie to the music business who might be instrumental in helping us on down the line. Tommy Smothers secured us the free use of a CBS soundstage and hosted the party. We had all the hors d’oeuvres and cocktails anyone could want. At one point we stopped the food and did a thirty-minute concert for our guests, complete with a backdrop of huge blown-up individual photographs of the band. It was great. People in the industry were talking about that party for
Over the next several years, we all came to appreciate Mickey not only for his musical talent but also for his willingness to jump in and lend a hand, no matter what we needed. He was the ultimate team player, and when you’re in a start-up group, that’s crucial.
Mickey was there from the beginning to the end of the First Edition, and we never got a review that didn’t praise him. He has since become a very accomplished actor and has been in many commercials; movies, such as Sling Blade and Tin Cup ; and TV shows, such as Home Improvement and Entourage.
Once we added Mickey, we felt more comfortable playing clubs around L.A. One of our frequent stops was a Westside club called Ledbetter’s, a good place to be seen in L.A. by people who could make things happen in the music business. We played it often and almost always drew really good crowds. This was about the time comedians like Steve Martin and Pat Paulsen and groups like the Carpenters were coming up and were working at Ledbetter’s as well.
In the audience at Ledbetter’s one night was a guy named Ken Kragen, a Harvard-educated businessman who had become the manager for several well-known acts, including the Smothers Brothers, John Hartford, and Pat Paulsen. By this time our old friends from the Veterans Day parade in Canada, the Smothers Brothers, had begun the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS television and were stirring up quite a following. Ken really liked what we were doing and insisted the Brothers come see us. That chance encounter would become the catalyst that exploded the First Edition onto the national stage.
Almost immediately they invited us to appear on their show.
Ken Kragen not only signed on to manage the First Edition, he also became my personal manager for the next thirty-three years. He was the driving force in developing my career and giving me the stature I would later acquire.
Ken was a very dynamic person, and the fact that he was managing the Smothers Brothers certainly gave him credentials. We liked that someone was interested enough in us to say, “Hey, let me work with you. Let me help you if I can.”
Ken was a manager with vision—not just locally, but globally. He was a big-picture guy. He never thought small. He began by getting us every television show he could. People knew they could trust Ken, so he had access to everybody. This was the era when there were variety shows on TV almost every night, a great platform for a new band. During the first year alone, 1968, we were on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Perry Como Show, The Pat Boone Show , and Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.
Shortly after Ken became our manager, he worked out a deal with Reprise Records, our record label, to give us a promotional budget of twenty thousand dollars to promote our name. We did the only sensible thing we could with our newfound wealth—we threw a party.
And what a party it was! We invited more than three hundred writers, deejays, record-store owners, booking agents, distributors, and all the Warner Bros. staff. We tried to include anybody who had any tie to the music business who might be instrumental in helping us on down the line. Tommy Smothers secured us the free use of a CBS soundstage and hosted the party. We had all the hors d’oeuvres and cocktails anyone could want. At one point we stopped the food and did a thirty-minute concert for our guests, complete with a backdrop of huge blown-up individual photographs of the band. It was great. People in the industry were talking about that party for
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