Series 1, Episode 37: Brent Nicholson Earle - Looking Back In Time

Recently, in August of 2024, we released a Watchfire Music Theater Of The Imagination video entitled Brent Nicholson Earl, A Most Extraordinary Man. It is an amazing story of determination and triumph, and it memorializes the 1986 fundraising Close Upon The Hour Concert in New York City that helped finance Brent Nicholson Earle, and The American Run For The End Of Aids, his historic run around the circumference of the United States, bringing National attention to the plight and potential solutions of the AIDS epidemic. 

 In the video, I tell the story of this lifelong friend who spent his life championing Gay rights. The story, which was the main feature in a decade ending People Magazine Special, is a doozy. In remembering back, there are so many angles to the telling of the story, that I found it impossible in the video to tell the complete story. 

 Consequently, in October of 2024 I interviewed Brent Nicholson Earl and asked him to look back once again at this time in his life nd recall some of the amazing insights and special moments of his historic run.a This podcast, an addendum to the video, does just that.

 Watch the video!

Brought to you by Watchfire Music watchfiremusic.com 

Transcript

Peter Link 0:08

Welcome to Scatter Shot Symphony, the music of Peter Link. It's me. Hey y'all, this week being the 37th episode of this podcast, I prefer to let the music do the talking. However, if you need to know more about me, please visit Wikipedia.com, Peter Link. This episode is entitled Brent Nicholson Earl, Looking Back in Time. Time. How do we spend our time? Looking ahead and trying to discern the future? Or looking back and remembering the events of our lifetimes? Time. The great unreality of our lives. Recently, in August of 2024, we released a Watchfire Music Theater of the Imagination video entitled Brent Nicholson Earl, A Most Extraordinary Man. It is an amazing story of determination and triumph, and it memorializes the 1986 fundraising close upon the hour concert in New York City that helped finance Brent Nicholson Earl and the American run for the end of AIDS. His historic run around the circumference of the United States, bringing national attention to the plight and potential solutions of the AIDS epidemic. In the video, I tell the story of this lifelong friend who spent his life championing gay rights. The story, which was the main feature in a decade-ending People Magazine special, is a doozy. In remembering back, there are so many angles to the telling of the story that I found it impossible in the video to tell the complete story. Consequently, in October of 2024, I interviewed Brent Nicholson Earl and asked him to look back once again at this time in his life and recall some of the amazing insights and special moments of his historic run. This podcast, an addendum to the video, does just that. At the end of his nearly two-year journey of almost 10,000 miles, averaging 22 miles a day, Brent was welcomed home to New York City by literally thousands of gay rights supporters. I provided the music at his welcome home celebration with a choir and a homecoming song entitled One Step Over the Finish Line. You're invited to join us on the journey.

Speaker 3 3:10

Hey mom, is it time for a break? I don't think I can do 20 today.

Speaker 6 3:16

Okay, okay, just fifteen more minutes. It's a whole other world. Somewhere in the middle of the out. You can lose track of time, time by sunrise of sunset, and the movie faces of the moon.

Speaker 5 4:39

We are all on a race against time.

Speaker 1 4:42

We're here today with Brent Nicholson Earl, looking back several decades as if it were yesterday. Brent, that was quite a time. And you know, I've always wondered. Knowing what it took out of you to do it, would you do it again?

Speaker 3 5:03

Well, of course. Given the state of the struggle to end AIDS, I I really should do the run again. But God knows it would be impossible in my current state, in my mid-70s, and you know, I live with the run every day in a way because it took its toll.

Speaker 1 5:31

So what was the hardest daily struggle that you faced when you were on it?

Speaker 3 5:37

Daily struggle, meaning struggle every day.

Speaker 1 5:40

Well, yeah, I mean, some days are different from other days. Uh and oh, sure.

Speaker 3 5:45

I mean, you have to realize that in a journey of 20 months around the perimeter of the United States, in a general way, I I knew I had to start when I started on March 1 of 1986, in order to get over the Rockies before the snow. And of course, I paid for the Rockies in the swamps of Florida, you know, because I was running Florida in July and August. So it was brutal. And we had to make adjustments for those different times. I mean, all through the southeast, I would start running at 5 a.m. in order to get the first two hours out of the way in the dark.

Speaker 1 6:34

Yeah. So, Brent, uh, you you would say that uh your daily struggle uh was often weather. Sure. Uh-huh.

Speaker 3 6:46

Often weather. Yeah. I was running through Southern California, and suddenly we had the most torrential rain. I was literally running through about a foot of water and on hills and mountains and these rushing streams going down on the road. It was ridiculous. I ran northward to Albuquerque, and suddenly, because it was February, I was battling a blizzard. You know, and it was like eight inches of snow, and the state trooper kind of pulled us over and said, What are you doing out here? And my mother says, Well, you see, officer, it's like this. He's running around America, and I'm following him.

Speaker 1 7:47

So, what did you get out of this? What did this do for you personally? What was the most important thing that you got out of this experience?

Speaker 3 7:57

Uh that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to with the help of God. You know, I I always felt, although I I always said I got got the message to run around America from my dad, who had died from cancer four years previous, and I'd had a very dark night of the soul, and was reaching out to him for guidance, and he he sent me this message, which was very succinct and specific, and it was follow in Terry Fox's footsteps. And if you don't know who he was, he was a young Canadian lad who had lost his leg to cancer and began something called the Marathon of Hope, in which he attempted to run across Canada on one leg to raise funds to fight cancer. And I knew very well who he was, and I didn't like the sound of the message one bit. But but but that whole notion of with God, all things are possible. Uh because even though I believe I got the message from my dad, I knew it was God that had set me on this path, and that it all tied into my spiritual growth. So the run around America was as much a spiritual journey as it was a physical one.

Speaker 1 9:29

What was it that you loved the most about the experience?

Speaker 3 9:34

I I guess it was being a champion for people who were without one. Being a champion for people who needed one. Uh in 1986 and 87, people with AIDS were being shunned. They were being thrown out of their homes by their families, they were looked on as pariahs. Their food, when they were hospitalized, their food would be left outside their rooms on trays that nobody brought in because they were so afraid. So whenever I could lift people's spirits, whether or not they were infected or affected with AIDS, it was that was the best part of it. Lifting people up.

Speaker 7 10:28

Yeah.

Speaker 3 10:28

Giving them hope.

Speaker 5 10:36

We are all on a race against time. All on a race to the finish line.

Speaker 4 10:42

Do you feel it going faster?

Speaker 6 10:44

Do you feel it going faster? Everybody going faster. Everybody.

Speaker 5 11:13

What you run it from?

Speaker 4 11:18

There's a man out there, he's out there, chasing the dream.

unknown 11:22

Chasing the dream.

Speaker 6 11:23

A man on a mission. One and money to save the world.

Speaker 1 11:35

To save the world. And was there any particular moment that comes to mind which was the toughest, the worst part of the experience?

Speaker 3 11:48

Oh boy. Well, I have only one phobia, and that's snakes. I am terrified of snakes.

Speaker 1 12:02

That makes two of us.

Speaker 3 12:04

Oh my god. I I in another incarnation, I must have met a very terrible, untimely end in a snake pit or something, because I have always been terrified of snakes. When I was running the Tammyami Trail from Naples to Miami, we were right on the edge of the Everglades, and the palmettos came right up to the road. And I encountered about 20 snakes a day for four days. At times I would literally stop running and jump onto the hood of the car. And I was running over these darn things, and they were poisonous to boot, you know. And I can even remember we were in a very kind of less than attractive trailer park in Miami. I'd already, so I'd done my first day of running across the Everglades, and that night I prayed that God would take me in my sleep so I wouldn't have to do another day of running through the snakes. So I guess that had to be the worst.

Speaker 1 13:23

And how did your mom how did your mom who was driving the car how does she feel about the snakes?

Speaker 3 13:31

She's not crazy about them, but she didn't wasn't anywhere as scared as I was. And she would cackle. She would just laugh her head off. When I would hop onto the roof of the car or do a dance, I used to like dance around these snakes and whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're anything. I mean, it was just ridiculous how many of them I encountered. There are plenty in the desert, but nothing like the Everplades.

Speaker 1 14:12

So your mom uh she drove the car all the time. She was there always for you?

Speaker 3 14:18

She was the only road crew member to go the entire distance. Uh but but she never had to drive the car every day. Oh. We had a road manager with us always. Uh, and sometimes two road staff. And they would they would spell mom off, you know, driving. So on a day she didn't have to drive, she'd probably cook dinner.

Speaker 1 14:46

Those were people who came from uh New York, people you knew?

Speaker 3 14:52

Yes, they all came from New York.

Speaker 1 14:54

Uh-huh. Friends? Uh friends who weren't.

Speaker 3 14:57

Yes, and we had okay. Let me tell you about Tara Keener. We went through a lot of road managers at the beginning, but we found this gal who was a friend of a board member, an area board member, and she joined us. Never met her before. And she joined us in the second month of the run. I remember we were stalled because I'd gotten a bad cold and uh couldn't run. And we were on a bend in a road in Vermont. And our our vice president of our board, Charles Leighton, drove her up to Vermont, and she was our road manager from the second to the sixth month. And Tara Keener then joined us for the final month.

Speaker 1 15:51

What was what would you say is the most unexpected thing that happened to you on this run? I mean, every day you got up and you ran, you knew you were going to the next town. You and you knew basically what would happen because you did this what for almost two years, right?

Speaker 3 16:08

Yep, almost two years, 20 months.

Speaker 1 16:11

Yeah. So then there were days that you look back on and you go, Well, I didn't expect that coming.

Speaker 3 16:19

Yes. Uh well, very early on, some rednecks in a in a pickup truck pulled up ahead of us, and we're standing there with what appeared to be a very belligerent stance, and and they look very threatening. When I got up to them, they they they kind of approached me and they they made it clear they wanted me to stop. So I did stop, and they came up to me and they said, We saw you on the news the other night. There was like two big burly guys and a young kid, and he said, I just wanted my son to see what a real hero looked like, so that's why we came out to look for you. They had been looking for us on the road, and here I thought they were gonna slug me. And I mean, it was ironically, that same scene was repeated almost a year later on the West Coast when uh a guy in a pickup truck had passed us, gotten out of his truck, and was pointing a shotgun at me. And uh, we were out in the middle of nowhere in Northern California, and I thought to myself, oh my god, he's probably gonna kill me and mom, and no one will ever know who did this to us, and something I thought to myself, never look a wild animal in the eye, right? So I didn't. I simply kept my eyes on the road and kept running, and we passed him, and not long after that we crossed a little bridge over a stream, and then there was like a a little store and a uh a gas station, and it was like the feeling of relief, you know, that there was some kind of civilization that it just I I kind of like broke broke down in it for a minute just to to be relieved and know that this guy wasn't following us. And ironically, four years later, when I was doing the rainbow run from San Francisco to Vancouver, we went by that little garage and store. I went over the bridge and suddenly realized, oh my god. And I waved my hand at mom and I said, Do you know where we are? And she said, Oh my god, is this where the guy pointed the shotgun at us? I said, It sure is.

Speaker 1 19:21

So was it fun? Would you call it fun ever? Did you have fun times?

Speaker 3 19:27

Oh, sure. Especially in special places like San Francisco, when I had a whole group of frontrunners accompanying me into the city. We gathered on the on the Sasolito side of San Francisco, and instead of a police escort that day, we had both the gay biker group and the lesbian biker group as our escort across the Golden Gate Bridge and into San Francisco. And it was that day, it was Thanksgiving Day and also the eighth anniversary of the assassination of Harvey Melk and George Muscone. So we had different stops, right? So one of the stops was at this Catholic church that always on Thanksgiving fed homeless people with AIDS. And so that was one of our stops. And we were supposed to be met there by a councilman, uh Molinari, who was going to present us with a proclamation, but he didn't show, and we needed to go on to the next stop. So we're running to the next stop, and suddenly the guy who'd been organizing things for us sees the councilman's limousine coming to the church, and he says, Oh, we got to go back. He's coming, he's coming. So all the runners got on the back of the motorcycles, and we went back to the church. And my mother at one point had said, I want to ride a motorcycle. And so there was this zofted, tall blonde lesbian by the name of Mistress Kathy, and she says, Oh, come on, Marion, you can ride on my bike. She goes, but you're going to have to put on more makeup. So our host had given her a leather vest because the next stop was a leather bar in the Halston area. And so they usher us back into the church, and suddenly to get this proclamation, and there's mom with this leather vest and all this makeup on. And there's a there's a picture of me at that time where I'm doing like one of this double take, like, oh my God, like looking like this is my mother. So we have a lot of good times, a lot of fun stuff happened along the way.

Speaker 1 21:58

And what did it all All cost you. Not financially, but physically, mentally.

Speaker 3 22:07

Well mentally it didn't cost me because I think it made me mentally strong. But physically it cost me plenty. I mean I I destroyed my feet. Uh I destroyed my spine. I don't really I mean I haven't done an MRI of my spine in quite a while, but the last one didn't look too good. But there's literally I pulverized all the discs in my spine. And in some places there are just there's nothing even resembling a disc. You know.

Speaker 1 22:50

Okay. Enough. So the ultimate objective is one step over the line.

Speaker 5 22:56

Just one step over the line. Just one step over the finish line.

Speaker 4 23:03

Cause at one last step over the line. The last step you take it. One step over the line.

Speaker 6 23:10

And one step beyond the four.

Speaker 4 23:41

And when in this lifetime, we each approach the final finish line.

Speaker 6 23:48

The same reads to true.

Speaker 1 23:57

Was this the highlight of your life?

Speaker 3 24:00

Oh. It was the highlight of my life, but the subsequent ultra marathons would also be there with them, you know? The rainbow run and the rainbow roll. Uh-huh. I mean they all had their their downside. And and I I paid some terrible prices, like you said, uh with with with each one, each one of the ultra marathons I paid a price for, but yes, the the three together were the highlight of my life.

Speaker 1 24:40

Can you talk about uh the morning after you you you finished in New York and uh you went to bed that night having come across the finish line, and you woke up the next morning and what was your thinking?

Speaker 3 24:59

Well, as it turned out, I woke up the next morning and ran the New York Marathon. When I heard that it was being held on November 1st, the day after the run, I mean I was able to say at the rally, you know, down in Union Square, where you you and all your colleagues sang so beautifully that I was gonna run the marathon the next day as a way of saying, although the run around America was over, the fight against AIDS was not.

Speaker 1 25:48

Often when you stopped at night, you would visit various gay institutions, gay bars, uh, gay meetings, gay people. Uh, how how were you received?

Speaker 3 26:01

Oh, let's face it, uh in 86 and 87, uh, we're still fighting tremendous stigma around AIDS. And so there was a lot of you know unwillingness for people to be involved, but we found you know, the pockets of support predominantly amongst the gay community, although I I have to admit there were times when they really let me down.

Speaker 1 26:32

Like uh so it was a mixed bag, basically.

Speaker 3 26:37

Yeah, I mean the nader of the run was Louisiana. Uh all all three of the cities we visited, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, we met with tremendous denial amongst the gay community. I can remember tabling in a gay bar in New Orleans, and uh people taking our flyers and just throwing them on the floor with somebody saying, you know, don't bring your AIDS around here. We ain't got no AIDS here. You know, that sort of thing. And to be coming from members of the gay community, that was very hurtful. Our our road manager at the time, who was also our executive director, Bill Concoy, he had been reaching out to the main AIDS organization in Los Angeles, AIDS Project Los Angeles, for support and getting such a runaround. You know, it came down two weeks before we were arriving in LA, they'd said that they would they would give us an office space in order to hold our press conference and they would contact the gay media, but they weren't going to reach out to the general media. And and Bill said, you know what? Thanks, but no thanks. And we ended up throwing ourselves on the mercy of the uh LGBT community center in LA, and they ended up with only two weeks lead time, pulling off probably one of the best press conferences we ever had. A wonderful, wonderful event that day.

Speaker 1 28:26

That's great.

Speaker 3 28:28

Yeah. We knew we couldn't pull this off in about two and a half months' time on all volunteers. We had to hire a professional to lead us, but then finding that professional was another story entirely.

Speaker 6 28:45

Sure.

Speaker 3 28:45

We had interviewed all sorts of people and they just couldn't possibly. Well, they just it was so clear that they were not up to the task. And a friend of mine had told me about a friend of his who had just retired from managing the Big Apple Circus for nine years. I said, Well, if he can run a circus, he can run this thing. And we met him and he came in an interview with the whole board, and it was like, I was like, don't let him leave. We offered the job to him right then and there, and he said, Well, I'm gonna need 24 hours to think about it. Now, this man, Bill Concoy, he made an arch of administration, you know, he was so gifted in that in that regard. It was the longest 24 hours of my life waiting for him to decide. And thank God he did. And you know, he he pulled it all together on a wing and a prayer. And when we lost Tara, our road manager in Montana, six months out, he couldn't find anybody that was up to the task. So he literally packed up his files and his electric typewriter. You have to remember this is before laptop computers, and joined me and mom in Montana to take on road management duties while he continued to administrate the entire event. We thought it would be something temporary, and he ended up finishing the final 14 months with me and mom.

Speaker 1 30:21

Great. Last question. We understand the difficulties of the physical, but what about the difficulties of the mental? How did you handle that?

Speaker 3 30:33

Well, I've I've often said that it was more than a physical journey, it was a spiritual journey. I mean, I have often said that God put me on this path. And so I would often kind of throw down the gauntlet to God and say, You put me on this path. Now I need you to help me follow it. Often, when I was faced with the hardest challenges, I think I don't know where in the Bible it says, around, beneath, and above are the everlasting arms. That's that's how I managed it. Music, music also played a huge role. I had a walkman and I I even made tapes. I made mixtapes that were before I even left on the run, those songs. I would pop in the tape and I'd run for 45 minutes and turn the tape over, run for another 45 minutes. I had it on my waist. I mean, I would never wear the walkman when I was running through a community. Right. It was when I was out on the lonely roads and byways. I wanted to be available to people.

Speaker 6 31:59

That time is absolute as it is.

Speaker 3 32:05

And I will go on on the oh, I want to tell you a very funny story. Um uh there was I was running through Gary, Indiana, and it was a really hot day. It was it was June of 86, and a large, rotund African-American woman is walking down the street, and she calls out to me, she says, How far are y'all going? I said, All the way around America. She said, Well, you all go on then. Oh, we laughed about that forever.

Speaker 2 32:53

You all go on then.

Speaker 6 32:57

And then the time don't matter no more. Because when you make the one step, then the time is the two, and three, and four.

Speaker 33:05

And time don't matter no more.

Speaker 6 33:12

Just one step. Just one. Run and running.

unknown 34:15

Run and run around.

Speaker 6 34:17

Run and run around. Run around and run. Run and run around. Run and run a run.

Speaker 1 34:36

Well, there you have it. Episode thirty-seven. Brent Nicholson Earl. Looking back in time. Many thanks go to wife and president of Watchfire Music, Julia Wade, for her many hours of technical work on this podcast. We couldn't have done it without you. Also, much gratitude to the hundred and perhaps thousands of people who worked and gave their time and support to Brent over the years. Giving to the giver. Also to Jenny Burton and Julia Wade for their exemplary vocal work on the song One Step Over the Finish Line, which you can hear in its entirety on the video Brent Nicholson Earl A Most Extraordinary Man, Parts One and Two. We, of course, recommend very highly that you watch and enjoy the two part video Brent Nicholson Earl A Most Extraordinary Man, Parts One and Two. It is the foundational story of Brent's and My Road to the beginning of the American Run for the End of AIDS, and a musical memorial of the close upon the hour concert with a cast of Broadway stars that helped launch the run. Here's how you can watch it. Go to WatchFiremusic.com forward slash a most extraordinary man. Also, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. And to keep abreast of the latest episode, you can subscribe to Scattershot Symphony from your podcast app of choice. And thanks to Watchfire Music, Nathan Bergdorf, and the entire staff for all your work in producing and promoting this podcast. A very special thanks also to Stuart Barefoot, our associate producer, for all your invaluable knowledge and great vibes. And lastly, a posthumous thanks to Ludwig van Beethoven for your opening four bars.

Speaker 37:05

This podcast is presented with loving care by the staff at Watchfire Music. If you liked what you heard, we got lots more where that came from. In the meantime, you can find the songs you just heard on WatchfireMusic.com forward slash podcast. There, you can purchase the singles or albums and have access to all the lyrics. Also, there you will find all previous podcasts and future scheduling. And stay tuned.