Where in the world is Billy West?
Is it me, or do people often seem to forget about those who have helped them in the past?
I’m sure he doesn’t mean it… I’m sure he’s too busy to call me.
Or I’m sure he just never got the 15 or so messages I left on the same phone number of his that I’ve had for 20 years or so, and that it was just a coincidence that the voice of the attendees sounded the same. as usual, and she promised to pass the messages on to “Billy”.
The reason I was calling was because I was going on vacation to San Diego for a month or so, and I was going to go to Los Angeles and the Hollywood area where he lives now, and I would have liked to see him again for old times sake. .
But I guess I got the wrong number.
I thought I was calling the number of an old friend I had helped in the past…
In the early days (early 1980s), I was in the security business, and one of my clients was “The Cambridge Music Complex” located in Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Ma. It was a rehearsal studio with a few 20 or 30 rooms, and it was a “rehearsal center” for many of the well-known bands at that time.
There was “The Cars”, “Boston”, “Aerosmith”, “J Giels”, just to name a few. They had a sound stage used for rehearsals and larger exhibitions, and venues for visiting talent. One night I ran into Joe Cocker stumbling through the confusing hallways in search of the men’s room. I took him there, but I didn’t stay long, if you know what I’m saying.
Clive Davis once showed up to review a band called “The Streets”. One of my roommates, Greg Tawa, was the lead guitarist, along with Johnny A, who has had a respectable career. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t get the record deal.
I spent many a night and brain cells hanging out there with the so-called “IN” crowd of the time. I wired the place for security and made friends with a lot of the musicians. I also installed home security systems for various members of The Cars including Eliot Easton, Greg Hawkes and Ben Orr… Ben was my favorite and we became good friends. Unfortunately, he passed away from pancreatic cancer, I believe. It’s the same illness that my sister Dianne took last May. Journal…
For those of you who may not know, Billy West has become a very well established and nationally recognized voice over talent. He was the voice of Ren and Stimpy, and many, many other well-known cartoon characters and commercial voiceovers.
He could do incredible impressions of just about anyone you could imagine. Unfortunately, he had a substantial drinking problem and, to his credit, stayed on the sidelines and was very successful in the entertainment industry. You can check out his site at BillyWest.com.
One day I came up with the idea of selling a Billy service by making custom prints of any character you wanted, and selling them to put on your answering machine. I called it “Starvoice”. Actually, my good friend Bob Selame was a corporate name and logo designer at his family’s store, Selame Design, a national award-winning design house in Newton, Ma., and he designed the name and logo. He also designed corporate logos for national and global chains like Stop & Shop, Medi-mart, etc., etc. He has done design work for me that his shop would charge me tens of thousands of dollars for. He has not charged me anything more than his friendship.
It never really took off, but what it did do was create a springboard for Billy’s future career. While promoting my fire and burglar alarm company in the Boston area, I offered to donate several smoke detectors to give away as prizes on DJ Charles Laquadara’s WBCN Boston show called “The Big Mattress.” His alter ego was a character he played as “Duane Glasscock,” and it was hilarious.
So Billy did this demo tape which was a lot of fun, sampling celebrity voices. I took this tape to Charles, and before you knew it, Billy was a regular on the show. As he became more established, he went on to appear on Jay Leno’s show, soon became a regular on The Howard Stern Show and apparently never looked back. At least not in my direction…
One year, me, Billy West, another business associate of mine, Skip Sweeney (sound engineer for “The Cars”), Jack Griffin (owner of the Cambridge Music Complex), Billy Cole, musician in a band called “The Taxi Boys” in a moment, and Ray Tabano, from the Band “J.Giels”, all went on a trip to Lima Peru…
Now, considering the participants in this trip, you can imagine the chaos and debauchery that followed. Billy made occasional calls to the radio show to get live updates. It is truly a miracle that we all came back alive.
There was rioting in the streets, water cannons riddled the protesters, a small earthquake, the front window of the hotel being shattered from a previous demonstration, burning cars and tires everywhere, all sorts of cool stuff like that. Military and machine guns on every corner.
One night, while there were thousands of demonstrators running through the streets below our balcony at the “Hotel Crillon” in downtown Lima, Billy, in his usual drunken state for those days, began shouting, waving and inciting them, without having to a clue as to the reason for all this fuss.
When one of the hotel doormen came into the room for something, he explained to Billy that they were protesting the Americans for one reason or another and that he might want to reconsider his actions. In hindsight… wow.
One morning my partner Skip and I were sitting in the hotel lobby having breakfast. He was carrying his cameras and had UPI press passes hanging from his straps, and I think that was the reason we became friends with a gentleman named Ignacio Prada, I think. It was a long time ago, and the names may be inaccurate, but I think that was it, because the whole episode has come to mind many times over the years.
He invited us to his house near the center of Lima. It was incredible! The doors to enter the patio were huge. Once inside, it was like walking into a museum. The servants provided poured water from this pitcher which hissed when the water was spilled.
There were huge oil paintings on the wall, of his father and grandfather, and maybe one or two great-grandfathers, who he claimed were former presidents of Peru. It was like walking through a museum of fine arts!
After lunch, he invited us to join him the next morning to tour his health club, and naturally we said yes. The next day, we met in the hotel lobby, hopped in his car, and headed to the local farmers market. We had no idea what the heck was going on, but we were enjoying the show. Wherever we went, he was treated with immediate respect and given top priority as he walked through this huge outdoor food market.
He chose this kid (kid) who was already clean and ready, and we went to the gym. As we entered the gym, he handed the goat over to an attendant and we proceeded to make the rounds of the club. First it was the steam baths, then the hot pools, then the massages (sorry to say, no happy endings), and then it was time for the feast.
As we were led into this palatial dining room, he began to introduce us to his friends. The first was the minister of defense, then came the minister of agriculture, the minister of transport, the minister of this, the secretary of that… he started to get a little scary. He was wondering about the possible real danger of getting caught in the crossfire of a politically volatile hit squad or something. It was great! What a rush.
After this great lunch, he invited us to his home in nearby Mira Flores. In Lima, there is usually either great wealth or depressing poverty. This was the best side of town, to say the least.
There were bodyguards posted around the perimeter, and I’m pretty sure their machine guns were very real, locked and loaded. He introduced us to his family and his beautiful daughter. It was a little awkward not being familiar with his mannerisms, as he leaned forward for what I guess in hindsight was a kiss on both cheeks. I just didn’t know what to do so I just stood there embarrassed and hoped I didn’t offend anyone. Well, we made it out alive, so I guess it wasn’t too bad.
Before leaving us at the hotel, we went out into the desert and met his friend “El Comunista”. He seemed very cordial and we sat down and had a few drinks before we left. When we got back, Ignacio invited us out again the next morning to meet his Maoist friends at “Shining Path.” We had no idea what the hell it was or why he was so interested in us. I guess it was the press credentials. Well, anyway, Skip and I got too drunk that night and were so hungover the next morning that we never made it to the meeting and had to leave the next day. Upon our return to Boston, we discovered that these “Shining Path” boys were not someone one wanted to associate with.
When we were going through customs at Logan Airport, poor Ray Tabano was so drunk and exhausted that we had to take him through customs and we couldn’t find his passport.
I forgot exactly what happened, but we got over it, though not before we were all thoroughly searched, as some idiot back home had the idea to rat us out to the DEA and claim we were bringing drugs. We weren’t, of course, so there were no problems, but it shows you that you can’t really trust anyone, so behave yourself. Of course, I can’t wish for what happened while we were there. After all, it was the 80’s…
Well, I guess that’s about all there is for now for that little true adventure story. I have dozens of really great stories to share, and now that I’m just discovering this article online as I search for network marketing information to promote my animal rights blog, I hope to hear from anyone who might be interested in reading more. . my exploits. I have survived Peru, a small plane crash in Bimini, a pirate attack in Nassau and many other exciting and true adventures. I never really thought of it that way, until I started writing about them, and one thing leads to another, and all these memories flood me. Wow, I forgot how much fun I had in the past. Time flies and life is too short, so go ahead, do your best and love with all your heart.
