Memories of the Frank Erwin Center Part 1

The Frank Erwin Center on the University of Texas campus. Such an iconic building hosting concerts, sporting events and so much more from 1977-2022. We all of memories of the building which was called the "Super Drum". Three Directors of the Erwin Center, John Graham, Jimmy Earl and Liz Land join Bob to reminisce about the building and the concerts. Here's part 1.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I it's Bob Pikett. Three specialpeople join us today. Listen. If
you live in Austin, I knowyou've got great memories of the Frank Arwin
Center also known as a super Drum. Well, if you've been driving past
it, you can see that it'sslowly being dismantled. It's coming down.
And had the idea of the otherday that you know, let's just all
share our memories of the Irwin Center. And I thought, who can I
get in touch with? Well,let me tell I got in touch with

(00:21):
the three people who were the heartbloodof the Frank Erwin Center. We've got
Jimmy Earle, We've got Liz Land, We've got John Graham via telephone all
the way from Illinois. They weredirectors, ass'll see, directors of the
Frankerwin Center, and we are goingto share a lot of memories, a
lot of twells. First of all, welcome into the podcast. Thank you.
I cannot wait to hear behind thescenes story of the Frank Urwin Center.

(00:46):
John, Let's let's start with you. When did you come to Austin
and start doing the Irwin Center.I came there in nineteen eighty nine.
My first event was Bobby Brown,probably May nineteen eighty nine. I was
about the time I started May first, nineteen eighty nine, and so I
was there from then until twenty seventeen. And Jimmy Earl was he was up

(01:08):
in Fort Worth at the time,and Liz was already there, and Jimmy
eventually joined our group, rejoined thereincenter, and we did that for a
long long time, Jimmy, hesaid, rejoined. When did you first
come there? When center and thenyou left one? Yeah, I was,
I was. I was there inthe beginning. I started in seventy

(01:30):
seven when it first opened August nineteenseventy seven. Wow. And from seventy
seven to eighty seven I managed theConvention Center in Fort Worth four years and
realized that I'd made a mistake,and then I headed back to Austin in
nineteen ninety. And Liz, youwere there when John got there. So
when did you start there? Istarted in nineteen eighty one as a college

(01:53):
student at the same time I camehere and started ut too, so I
didn't realize that. Yeah, Ileft just for a little while, but
in total I was there for likethirty four years. So you were there
for ads and drops, the buildings. That was my first experience the Erwind
Center was ads and drops. Youwalk in this huge place and go,
okay, first of all, wherethe restrooms? Second world, I need

(02:15):
to go? That was something else. Oh boy, So you guys were
really there until the end. Firstof all, let's talk about the emotions.
John. I know you've seen photographs, I know you've seen videos,
but it's pretty heartbreaking when you seeit in person, right, Jimmy,
I mean yes it is, youknow. Yeah, when I saw the

(02:37):
off sorry go ahead. We've knownthat this time was coming for a while,
but I still didn't seem real fora while until we actually until I
actually see some signs of it,and I, uh yeah, there's a

(03:00):
wave of emotions that that wash overyou when you see that. You know,
all of us spent a lot oftime there, and when you think
about what the venue meant to awesomecommunity and the professional entertainment community in general,
it really is quite heartbreaking to seeit go like that. How about

(03:24):
you, Les, Oh man,it definitely is heartbreaking. And when I
drove by and saw it, well, when I was on the frontage road
and you could see from one endof the venue to the opposite side.

(03:46):
I was like, just you cansee through it, which through it,
and I mean I just gasped,Oh gosh, it's it's hurtful. It
definitely hurts. I'm gonna admit it. We're recording this March the sixteenth,
twenty twenty fourth, so it's partsthat are still standing. The basic the
shell is still standing. Johnny,your reaction when you saw the videos and

(04:10):
photographs is it hard to look at? Well? The first, first of
all, I see it. It'sthere for a while. They've closed the
building down. I think Liz wasdirector at the time, but it's still
kind of up there, and I'mgetting photographs and seeing things on Facebook.
And then my granddaughter, granddaughter thatI have such a thing is, she

(04:31):
sends me a photograph from the Ithirty five side, which is it looked
to me at about two thirds ofthe exterior cladding was gone by then,
and then I mean it had thisskeleton look to it. You could the
steel beams were there, you couldsee the HPAC work was still in place,
and there was some hanging bits ofinsulation and it looked like something that

(04:55):
was in that had been bombed,you know, by in Ukraine or something.
So it had this devastation look toit, and that that was really
kind of shocking thing. And Ikept it for a while, kept looking
at it, and then it likelike losing. Jimmy said, it brings
back so many memories about all thefolks that work there, all the events
that we did for so many years. Literally the population of the state of

(05:20):
Texas had gone through that venue overthose years, millions of people and thousands
of basketball games and hundreds and hundredsof concerts and shows. So all of
those things are within each of us, the memories of all that. And
you look at that and you wow, that's that's kind of tough to see.

(05:43):
At the same time, you know, things move on. At the
skyline of Austin doesn't look anything likewhat it was in eighty nine, and
let alone the Irwin Center. I'mnot sure you could even see the Irwin
Center anymore from downtown. That isthe focus of this podcast, I said,
not about the destruction, but aboutall the great memories that we all
had with the Irwin Center. Andwell, I got a list of questions

(06:08):
to ask all three of you.I hope you're ready for this, Okay,
So favorite memory of the Irwin Center. Let's start with you, Liz.
Oh my gosh, you could justbest memory that you think of.
Oh my gosh, there's just waytoo many. I will speak of a
concert. My favorite concert was ourback to back Paul McCartney dates. Yes,

(06:30):
and I admittedly I wasn't as excitedabout it, But then once I
actually watched Paul McCartney perform, Iwas amazed and couldn't wait to see him
the second night. It's a greatshow. I was there. That was
my birthday present. Tickets were high, and my wife said, it's your
birthday present for yourself, go andenjoy it. So anyway, I was

(06:54):
there for that. How about you, Jimmy girl. Well, like Liz
said, there's there's so many.It's like asking what's your favorite child.
You know. One of the thingsI thought about this, I thought you
might ask this question, so Igave it a little thought. At the

(07:17):
time when I started there, Iwas not that far removed from college,
so I got a chance to seeand work with all of my favorite bands
of the day, like Earth Windand Fire and the Commodores and you know

(07:38):
bands like that. But my absolutefavorite experience was James Barrown and the famous
flames. Oh boy. And Itell you why because I actually got a
chance to meet James. When Iwas a kid growing up out in West
Texas and Amarillo, we used tobe able to go see James Brown for

(08:00):
ninety nine cents ninety nine cent shows. But but the highlight for me was
actually meeting him and what he saidto me, our conversation was was really
interesting. And you know, JamesBrown is of course an icon. Good

(08:24):
James bad, James still icon.But he said to me when he met
me, he said, Wow,it's really nice to meet you. He
said, I'm really happy to seea young black man doing what you're doing.
He said, growing up and comingthrough this business, working in the

(08:45):
Chitlin circuit. He said, thismeans a lot for me to meet you
and see you, and it reallyjust floored me. Yeah, and I
cherished that memory. And I havea big picture of James my man cave
at home. But that's probably themost touching memory that I have of all

(09:07):
the years. I mean, there'sobviously many more, and I don't know.
John may tell you about our hemay tell you our conversation we had
about deciding about Paul McCartney. Butwell, I got Paul McCarty here,
and let me tell you, Okay, what do you mean by that?
Because I had a friend of minewho really set up this podcast, worst
Robert Mitchell, and he sent mea list of notes and he said,

(09:28):
Paul McCartney, what is there somethingthere about Paul McCartney. But I'll let
John John address that. Well,it's funny that you mentioned that, because
I'm in the process of writing abook and I'm not trying to promote that
people. No, I want thepromoter because I'm going to read it.
I'll tell you that. Well,I'm and I'm calling them an episode instead

(09:50):
of chapters. And I just finishedmy Paul McCartney episode and presented it to
a writer's workshop yesterday. And sothe Paul McCartney business is pretty I kept
notes, I took a journal.I kept a journal for forty years in
this business. And so the PaulMcCartney process getting that show was almost a

(10:11):
separate show in and of itself.But when the Paul McCartney producers came to
town was during the Boys Uil Tournamentwhen they still had that in Austin,
and they came to town on aSaturday. They wanted to see the Irwin
Center, see what it was like. Can you handle something like this?
It was going to be a highprice ticket and they wanted to make sure
that the venue could handle it andmake things look right for Paul. So

(10:35):
they came in on a Saturday,boys uil we got fifteen thousand times three
because they did three sessions on aday like that, which actually was perfect
for a group like Barry Marshall's organizationto come in and see what we can
do when we're under full speed,high stress to make this thing happen.
Because we didn't just have Paul McCartneythat week back to back. If Jimmy

(10:56):
and I Liz will certainly remember thenight before the first Paul McCartney show,
we had Taylor Swift. So wehad Taylor Swift and then then two back
to back Paul McCartney's and Swift Travelsin twenty three Semis and Paul had like
fifteen and so we get the groupin there they're reviewing the Irwin Center.
There were three people with the productionmanager of the accountant and Barry Marshall and

(11:22):
the and we're up there in ourlittle conference room not far from my office
at the time, and we're sittingaround the table and Okay, what do
you think? What do you think? And they say, well, do
you think you can do two shows? And I'm thinking two shows? Boy?
And the minimum guarantee on that wasabout three and a half million dollars.

(11:43):
We had to gross four million topay all the bills. It's an
expensive event, so I'm kind ofgulfing a little bit. Four million dollars
is a lot to do in twoshows. We've never done anything close to
that before. So we're to me, you know, and part of my
job is to take here in thefinances of the venue. I think,
oh, if this thing goes southand doesn't happen, we sell one show

(12:05):
and not the second one, andwe're going to be in trouble. And
Jimmy leans over to me and hesays, John, it's a blanking beetle.
And you can you can guess whatword. The other word was filling
the blank if you will, Yeah, he says, it's a it's a
blanking beetle. And that was thatconvinced me. That was the extra little

(12:26):
push that gave me the confidence tosay, yeah, we can do two
shows, and indeed we ended upselling both shows out. The first show
was announced and I god to lookedback quickly. It was in April,
I think we went on sale oftwenty thirteen and it sold out in about
fifteen or twenty minutes, and thesecond show was gone within forty five minutes.

(12:48):
So, and I was actually atmy parents' house up here in Champagne.
There was a death in the familyand my dad was had I had
this phone, the speakerphone, sittingon the kitchen table, and my dad
goes four million dollars in an hour. He says it takes it takes ten
men a lifetime to do four milliondollars, and so that put that piece

(13:11):
in perspective. But I agree withLiz one hundred percent when that Paul McCartney
was one of the tip tops ofall time for all of us. I
believe it was very impressive, agreat event all the way around. But
I also think about the George Straitshows that we did over the years.
I was there for fourteen of them, I think eighteen or twenty playing altogether.

(13:33):
So when you have those kinds ofmemories, it's fantastic, And you
know, thousands of people enjoyed allthose things. I'm looking at a plank
ride now that you guys gave tous when we worked at Well it still
working in case in Cavett a plaqueFM, The Irwinsider, George Strait isation
the Whole Band Record Country Show attendancetwenty six two hundred and eighty two people

(13:54):
on September tenth and eleventh, nineteeneighty seven. Was this the first?
No, this wasn't the first doubleshow that first. It was the first
double show that George Strait did.The first double show that you guys did.
I remember I was in college andI went and saw Prince Princess one
of the first ones, right,and Janet Jackson. Okay, Now it's
something important to note about that isthat George and I have the same birthday.

(14:18):
Ah did that really? Did thatcome into the negotiations? Was it
unusual to have somebody? Was thisStraight's first appearance at the Irwin Center,
because before I think he played PalmerEvents Center, but I don't really well,
I remember him opening for Conway twentythere wins one time. We'll we'll
have to look at the We'll haveto look at the calendar because they all

(14:43):
seen to run together after a while. But John, that was a great
show man. But we have acumulative turnstile report, yeah, starting from
seventy seven up until twenty two orso, of every event we ever had.
Yeah, so you know, andwhen John was talking about how many
people have gone through had gone throughthe building, when you realize that there's

(15:05):
a twenty nine point five million peoplein state of Texas and at almost that
number of people and probably more havebeen to the Irwin Center. So when
you look at it in those terms. But then the other thing that I
think is important to note is thefinancial impact on the community. You know,

(15:28):
there's no telling how many cars havebeen bought, how many college tuitions
have been paid. You know,how many weddings resulted from the Irwin Center
and marriages and all those things thathappened as a result of people coming together.
And you know, Irwin Center wascertainly a catalyst for a lot of

(15:48):
that. Did you have something onyou on add about the about the Straight
Show? I was going to asksomething about the Straight Show. We did
another double I think later with Georgestraight after that first the first one eighty
seven I wasn't there, but afterthat I think we did another double at
one point in time. But anotherthing that sometimes people don't realize is that

(16:11):
when you have a George Strait,George Strait has an opening act. He
has maybe two in some cases overthe years. Those opening acts go on
to be somebody. And one ofthese opening acts early on was Taylor Swift,
and a quick short story about thatI was later. Taylor Swift's promoter
was Louis Messina still is and Louisand I are friends. And I went

(16:33):
to play golf with Louis prior toone of the George Strait shows that we
had, and he said, well, the opening act is going to be
Taylor Swift. And I didn't knowwho Taylor Swift was. And Taylor can
be a male or female name,and I said, well, I haven't
heard his music and he said,no, it's not a he, it's
a she. And I said wow, And he told me that I think
we were on the third or fourthhole. He said, she's going to

(16:55):
be one of the biggest stars inthe world someday, and I had my
goodness, is that certainly proved tobe the case? Proven to be the
case. We did two Taylor Swift'sI know after that where she was the
star. One of her opening actswas at Sharon, So then ed Sharon
becomes a major artist too. Soall these things linked together from a memory

(17:18):
standpoint for me, when people comeand see a two hour show, that's
the tip of the iceberg. There'shundreds and hundreds of hours that go into
making that thing happen, by themarketing, the ticketing, the production people,
stage hands and so on to makethat happen. And the audience sees
the two hours and they have agreat experience. And as you know that

(17:42):
that experience that you have is amemory, you walk out, that's really
all you have. Maybe you buya T shirt to help you remember that
moment, but really you walk outyou've had this experience. And I think
that's what most people will remember,that George Straight moment. And then they
look back and go, oh,guys, Taylor Swift open for Strange.
She was a kid, and nowyou know, things go on. So

(18:03):
there's there's memories within memories. It'slike those those Russian doll things. You
open them up and there's another thingand another thing. That's what a lot
of it's about. Bark peeling,back and did George Straight play the year
Wincenter more than anybody or any otherartist? He did, didn't he as
a single artist, yes, hewould be number one, certainly the Circus

(18:26):
had more shows or the WWE wedid about fifty of those over the years.
But a single individual artist, yiss, no question. Let's talk about
the Garth Brooks and we're going todive into those Garth Brooks concerts, the
visa bands, camping out, everything, more memories the Frank Irwin Center.
Part two continues next week. Ourconversation with John Graham, Jimmy Earl,

(18:48):
and Liz Land here on our freeiHeartRadio app up. You'll tune in for
Part two in Part three and Partfour