It is the kind of offer that can make someone quit.
Tana Douglas had just lit her second cigarette, about 30 minutes into a conversation with George Harrison, when the ex-Beatle said, “I would marry you tomorrow if you stopped smoking.”
It was 1979 and the two were hiding in the kitchen at a party hosted by Harrison’s neighbor, Jon Lord, keyboardist for the heavy metal band Whitesnake. In the living room, a stripper – a birthday present for Harrison who embarrassed him – danced to the Beatles’ “She Loves You”.
Douglas was the only woman there who was not a stripper. The first female roadie in rock ‘n’ roll, she carried equipment and directed the lighting for some of the biggest bands in the world – and often saw them at their worst. In addition to Whitesnake, she toured with Elton John (“During his brat years, he used drugs and had tantrums”), Ozzy Osbourne, INXS, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Police and Go-Go’s.
“They would bring a guy to the dressing room [after a show] and taking your clothes off – degrading, but the guys loved it ”, remembered Douglas about the girl group.
As reported in his new memoirs, “Loud” (HarperCollins Australia), Douglas, now 60, entered the business early. She ran away from her parents’ home in Queensland, Australia, in 1973, at the age of 15 and joined a group of hippies. When everyone ended up at a music festival, she helped a local pop band move the equipment: “Everyone started laughing when the guitarist said I would help with the loading – and then they kept giving me more and more to take care of. ”At 17, Douglas was recruited by AC / DC and lived with the band.
She was welcomed by the crew as a family and remained alone.
“I fit in like a guy. I drank, stayed up late, cursed and loaded trucks like everyone else, ”she told the Post.
Then there was the time when she helped save the life of AC / DC frontman Bon Scott – during an overdose.
“We all woke up to a girl screaming about Bon not breathing,” recalled Douglas. “I did CPR and kept it alive until the paramedics arrived. He survived and we never talked about it. When you are young, you think you are bulletproof. “
In 1979, Douglas became pregnant by a co-worker on a German musical TV show. She returned to Australia for childbirth, left her child with her mother and went back on the road, seeing her child for a few months during the first years of her life.
She moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and her son later came to live with her there. Looking back, Douglas, who is divorced, said: “I regret it. But would I do it differently? Probably not.”
Although she happily retired from the road 20 years ago and has since found new careers – doing logistics for bands, film rentals and composition – there is one thing that Douglas misses: a lost leather jacket for Iggy Pop.
During a concert in the late 1970s in London, Douglas – with whom the rock icon became friends on his TV Eye tour – was called into the star’s dressing room. “Iggy held up a mirror with three lines [of cocaine] and he said he wants me to meet someone, ”she recalled. “A guy was standing in the corner and I assumed he was the coca dealer. I told Iggy that he has to go up on stage. He made a line and handed me the mirror. I thought, ‘Damn that guy [in the corner], ‘and made the two lines. Then Iggy said, ‘I want you to meet David Bowie’. “
Iggy ran to introduce himself, and Douglas hid his beloved leather jacket under a monitor on the stage. “The show started, Iggy took my leather jacket – which he had been borrowing unsuccessfully – and put it on like a song. Then he pulled it out, threw it aside and a fan grabbed it. That’s how Iggy Pop made me lose my trademark leather jacket. Maybe it was revenge because I did the Bowie line. “