I'm standing on the Pacific Coast Highway in the early afternoon hitching south. Hitching the PCH is usually pretty good, the rides don't take you as far as freeway ones do but they do come faster. Today it's been the usual mix of LA people, religious nuts, young dudes and regular guys going to work so here I am in Huntington Beach when I see this hippie couple walking towards me. The guy looks like your regular generic hippie with long hair, a colorful shirt and blue jeans. The girl is deck out just like a gypsy and is covered with jewelry.
They come right up to me and the dude says, "Hi. I'm Sunny Sunshine and this is my Goddess, White Rainbow. I see ya got a guitar. Can ya play?"
I tell him I can.
Then he's sees my shield that I have on the outside of my case and says,, "Is that your mandela?"
I say, "Yup."
He bends down and examines it then starts interpreting it and he's right on. He straightens up saying, "Play me a tune, will ya?"
So I whip out the Gibson and run through a couple numbers.
Sunny strokes his beard, turns to White Rainbow and says, "What do ya think?"
She just smiles and nods.
Sunny turns back to me saying, "We're forming a band and are out looking for musicians. How would you like to play rhythm?"
Having nothing better to do today and this does look like an interesting situation, I say, "You're on. Now what?"
Sunny tells me, "We search out the rest of the band." He walks over to the road and sticks out his thumb.
White Rainbow and I join him.
I try to talk to White Rainbow but she just smiles at me. Like I said, this should prove to be quite an adventure.
Within a few minutes a car stops and we get in. The driver wants to know where we're going and Sunny says, "Are you a musician, man?"
The guy says that he's not, so Sunny says, "Then where ever you are. Ya see we're forming a band and are looking for other musicians to join us. I play lead, White Rainbow plays drums and Tai plays rhythm, so we need a base player and maybe a keyboard."
I thought the guy might just kick us out but he just laughs and wishes us good luck. Sunny keeps talking to him about the band until he tells us this is as far as he goes. We thank him and start hitching again and soon another car stops and we get in.
Sunny gives this guy the same rap with the same results. We spend the next couple of hours just hitching around west LA with Sunny rapping about the band and looking for a base player. A couple of the driver's give Sunny a name of a friend of theirs who might be interested but Sunny tells them that he has to meet them like he found me or the band would lose it's magic. Sunny does all the talking. White Rainbow and me are just along for the ride.
By now it's starting to get late so I tell Sunny that I do not want to get stuck in LA after dark. He tells me, "No sweat man. You're with us now so don't worry about it, you can crash at our house."
Okay with me. Plus I am interested to see White Rainbow play the drums.
After three hours of hitching we've made a big circle and are now standing on the PCH in Laguna Beach. While we're standing there White Rainbow does a little hoochie-coo dance in front of me and I think, 'man, I sure wish I could get me some of that pussy.’
The second I think it, White Rainbow stops, frowns at me then walks over to Sunny and stares into his eyes for minute.
Sunny walks over to me, looks me in the eyes then says, "See ya later man. Just wait here a minute, you'll get what ya want. Bye."
Then he walks over to White Rainbow, takes her hand and they walk across the street. Sonny sticks his thumb out and a car stops, they get in and are gone.
I stand there stunned watching them go and thinking, 'oh well, fucked up again. Now I'll never know what could have been.'
While I'm standing there a big new looking car stops and a real straight looking woman in her early 30's, dressed in a suit, rolls down the passengers window, looks at me, smiles and says to me, "I see you have a guitar. Are you a musician?"
I smile back at her saying, "Yes I am." at the same time I'm thinking, 'Man, this is really weird, but what the hell'.
She says, "Well, I’d really like to hear you play. Are you any good?"
I tell her, "Oh, I'm sure that I can please you. I do have quite a repertoire and can play for hours."
She eyes me then says, "Well, then, will you play for me?" I say to her,
"I'd love to play for you but not out here on the street, it's just too noisy and busy."
She thinks for a moment, smiles real big at me then says, "Well, we could go over to my place. We'd have lots of privacy there."
I leaned down into the window, smiled right into her face saying, "That sounds real good to me. Shall we go?"
She opened the door for me then slid back over to the driver seat. I put my stuff in the back seat, got in then sat right next to her, put my arm around her whispering in her ear, "I think you'll like my music. I can play in any style."
She looked at me, licked her lips, puts her hand on my thigh squeezing then says, "I am sure I will."
As we drive away with her hand on my leg I’m thinking, 'man, this is one crazy life'.