I was working on a festival in Perth, Western Australia. The 2002 Line-up was Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Wilson Picket, Annie DiFranco, Beth Orton, John Mayall & The Blues Breakers and a few others. The town's major radio station had done a contest to pick a female back-up singer who would jump on stage and do Mustang Sally with Wilson and the band. There was also a TV interview booked in for 6pm the night before the show. He basically got off the plane in a fowl mood and decided to blow out all the promotional commitments, cancell the competition and fire his tour manager because at the last show he thought someone had gone into his dressing room while he was on stage... I had to go to his hotel room at The Grand Hyatt and basically beg to get him to reconsider. What turned it around was when I told him how excited the girl who had won the competition was and how she had, on minimum wage, borrowed money from her friends to buy a very expensive dress to wear on stage. At that point he softened right up and not only did he do the interview, but he also dragged the girl up front at the show and dueted with her. Mind you, he wanted rebutturance that she was pretty before agreeing to have her on stage!
