Steppenwolf had a huge top 40 hit "Born To Be Wild" and their second hit "Magic Carpet Ride" was just breaking. The Vulcan Gas Company in Austin was too small so I booked the Hemisfair Theatre which was brand new with perfect acoustics and held just around 2800 people. New Atlantis opened the show unbilled and turned in an always solid set. The great Jim Mings on guitar, kick-ass bass player Danny Galindo and rock steady drummer Jay Meade. The light show was on a hot new rear projection screen and was on fire. Johnny Winter did his set, the first time he had ever played a large perfect theater and never dropped a note and melted the hall. Steppenwolf stumbled through their set and seem embarrassed to follow Johnny Winter....they were a joke. We sold about 60% of the room out and made about $200. Don Taylor did flawless sound. Johnny Winter and Tommy and Red rode down with me and my girlfriend Mikki Long. We stopped at a Dennys to eat and were surrounded by San Antonio police. We all were vibrating and looked like we had just landed in a spacecraft. The police were VERY upset but when I showed them the poster they backed off and let us go eat and didn't even search us. I did this show with Ralph McElroy who was a businessman not many cared for. I got along fine with him. I gave him a jolt and he went down to the drag and gave away all the cash he had and came back and said he wanted to do shows with me. He also split the cost on the Big Brother and the Holding Company fiasco. No one else helped but the bands, lightshow and Don Taylor and Gilbert Shelton. Gilbert had been doing posters for about a year and was getting stale and wanted to go to San Francisco. This was about the last poster he did for the Vulcan, not his best work and a fast job but still very eye-catching and effective.... ––Don Hyde
