From the Front Row to Backstage: Frosty Merriott

Step behind the curtain and into a world most fans only dream about. In this engaging conversation, Frosty Merriott—known as the “King of the Backstage Pass”—shares unforgettable stories from hundreds of concerts, offering a rare glimpse into the moments that happen before the lights come up and after the final encore fades. From chance encounters with music legends to the personal connections that shaped his incredible journey, Frosty brings humor, insight, and a deep love of music to every story. It’s a relaxed, authentic conversation that captures the spirit of live music, the magic of the backstage experience, and the memories that last a lifetime.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, this is Mark for the Mike Stone Show. Music, stories, and conversations. Coming up next, Mike has a conversation with a man who's earned a legendary title, the King of the Backstage Past, Frosty Merriott. Frosty has attended hundreds of concerts over the years, collecting unforgettable memories and incredible memorabilia along the way. Today, that one-of-a-kind collection is proudly on display at the Lincoln Parish Museum in Western Louisiana. Mike and Frosty will be talking about the stories behind those backstage passes, the artist he's encountered, and the moments that turned a passion into a living piece of music history. So sit back, turn it up, and enjoy this conversation with Frosty Marriott, which starts right now.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Welcome to the Mike Stone Show. Today I'm joined by a true legend behind the scenes. One Frosty Marriott, the king, I call him the king at the backstage pass. With hundreds of concerts under his belt, Frosty's got stories most fans only dream about. From the green room to the center stage, we're pulling back the curtain on a lifetime of unforgettable music moments. So sit back with us on the Mike Stone Show. This one you do not want to miss. Frosty, welcome to the Mike Stone Show.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Thank you, Mikey. It's really great to be with you, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Yes, sir. And of course, uh, we go back uh you a little got a little age on me right here in Lincoln Parish in Ruston, Louisiana. So we'll start off with your time here growing up in Ruston, Louisiana, the music you were attracted to, and sort of uh what was going on in those days right here in this North Louisiana little humble place.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

The story I kind of like to tell about in uh my my my starting music was I I had I went to the supper table one night and uh I told I told my family then that I was gonna try out for the choir tomorrow. And my dad almost spit up whatever he had in his mouth. And my my mom just looked at me when her mouth fell open, and my sister was giggling at me, and it cut I come to find out that they were listening to me sing in the shower, and obviously I couldn't sing a hit a lick, and so I never did try out for the choir, but from from there I went on to really uh love music and enjoy it a lot. And then one of your interviewees, Daniel Gilbert and I are are still really good friends and became good friends over the, you know, better and better friends over the years. And in fact, I I talked to Daniel yesterday just to check in with him. And so, you know, I really I I followed those the bands. I guess it was the Rec Center then. I Daniel's the band was playing then, and and uh so I I really enjoyed that music. They did a lot of uh music by the Love and Spoonful, that do you believe in magic song? And and I just loved the Love and Spoonful back then. And and when I got to tech, a really good friend of mine, Tully Hall, he was from uh Memphis, and he took me home with him one weekend, and we went to see, and this was my first live concert, went to see uh John Sebastian and the Love and Spoonful, and that was where I really got my start at going to concerts. And then Tully and I also he took me one one weekend. We went to see James Brown in Gramlin, and we were the only four white people there. And so, you know, so that's where where I started with concerts, and the thing I started doing way back with the Love and Spoonfuls is saving my ticket stubs, which you know they don't have ticket stubs anymore. They're uh it's all electronic tickets and stuff. But I had the ticket stubs from a lot of concerts and and that I had saved over the years. And when I got older, I started getting signed albums that had the ticket stubs to go with it. Is you're aware, I I donated my rock and roll memorabilia to the Lincoln Parish Museum. So that's kind of kind of how I got started in the music scene at RHS and at Louisiana Tech.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

You mentioned Daniel Gilbert, and Daniel Gilbert was a member of the Spectres, and I do remember going there, Frosty, I believe at the old rec hall here in Ruston. Right. And I guess they were the only one. I believe the Uniques may have come, the Uniques from Spring Hill, Louisiana. They may have come one time there, but I remember Gary Heard also playing. Do you remember Gary Heard singing there at the uh with the Spectres?

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yeah, I do, and and those are I had for totally forgotten about the Uniques, and uh, we used to call them the Uniqus sometimes. But yes, I remember uh Gary there and Daniel, of course, and and at and at the rec center after football games there at the rec center with dances and parties and good music and and stuff, and that's another thing I I couldn't do either. I found out later that if you looked up white men can't dance in the dictionary, there would I think the first picture would be me. That and so I I never could dance, I never could sing, but I loved music.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Right, and that was from the uh very get-go there, I guess, growing up right here. And you listen to obviously the music of the time. The only way we had to listen to music was the radio, really. And uh you listened to a lot of radio, I suppose, and the 60s and 70s music. Uh some of the best uh Frosty. How did that uh era sort of shape your life and your outlook and your love of music? Then the 67s music. Uh, you mentioned the Lovin' Spoonful, and what was the location of that concert?

SPEAKER_01 5:16

It was in Memphis, and and we had a blast and you know, had a really good time there. And and so that was you know the first live concert where I actually saved the ticket stubs for it. And I think that was in, I don't know, 60, I'm I can't remember, maybe 65, 66, right in that era. And so we also and that's when I started with the concerts, and then right after, shortly after what I was gonna say about the the in the movie The Big Chill, which is one of my favorite movies of all time, there's a line in there that the one of the leading actors quotes and says, There is no music after this music. And that was the 60s and 70s he was talking about, and and that's still kind of the way I feel about it.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

That sort of hits uh encapsulates the whole deal there. It's there was no music. Of course, we know, and they and they had you know, I I love lover of all kinds of music, and I realize every generation has got there, but I think it's hard pressed for anybody to say that the 60s and 70s weren't a prime time. And of course, they were coming in with new technology and and so forth. How about the Beatles? Did you love the Beatles when they first came on Ed Sullivan?

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Oh, yeah, I I did, absolutely did, and I tell a really quick little funny story about the Beatles is that Daniel and I had a one of my first accounting class, and we had uh uh Reggie Reeves was our accounting professor, and he in the first day of school, first day of first class or accounting class, he talked about the Beatles and the British invasion and how the made young men grow out their hair over their ears, and he let us know that in no uncertain terms, that if we if our hair was over our ears, we were not gonna be allowed in the class. And so uh we became good friends over the years, but that first accounting course, and it ended up Daniel dropped the course because he wasn't gonna get his hair cut. So I but my dad was was adamant that I was cutting my hair because he never let me get it over my ears anyhow. But that was the kind of a funny story I remember about Louisiana Tech and the Beatles. And and you know, later I I was able to that's one of the main groups I would have liked to have seen and didn't, but I did get the opportunity to see Paul McCartney twice in Dallas. He played and they had just gotten the uh the permission to uh sing the old Beatles songs at his concerts. And up until then he had sung his own that he had written after the Beatles. But when as far as I could tell, it was the Beatles, and they were right there together because the music was, you know, with the technology and everything, it was really it you couldn't have talked had probably almost better musicians and certainly technology then to do that. So we got to, you know, got to see them, uh him, and then I took Daniel to see McCartney over in Bosier. And and so that was a real go-through time and then circle back. And and Daniel and I went, that's probably I don't know, 10, 12 years ago now, but I did get to see McCartney twice. So I'll say that I at least got to see part of the Beatles.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Absolutely. And this uh the concert going and so forth just became a passion for you, I believe, in the collection, the memorabilia, which you just talked about being at the Lincoln Parish Museum right here in Ruston, Louisiana. People get down to the this part of the world, we got people listening all over. But if you ever get down here to our part of the world, you want to go by the Lincoln Parish Museum and look at all the the memorabilia, the tickets, the albums. So how did that passion start for you collecting those things, uh Frosty?

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Well, you know, I I I I'm kind of a pack rat. And I so I saved all those ticket stubs over the years, and it it occurred once I started got established in my accounting business and world, I had a little extra money, and I thought, well, I'm you know, I'm just gonna get and I and I'd gotten some sports memorabilia. I'd gotten a uh signed picture of Mickey Mantle uh swing, and so I had gotten some sports memorabilia. I went and I got the 86 Celtics game on the ball signed by Larry Bird and and uh the mad redhead and all that. So I had these, had that collection going, and I thought, you know, I'm just gonna, and a friend of mine that owned a place called Stars in Aspen, and so I I went in the store one time and they he had this great picture signed by McCartney of the Beatles crossing the road. And so that was my first piece I got, and and of course I had the ticket stub, and so that was my first signed piece, my memory, I I got, and and I enjoyed it so much on the wall of my office that I just started doing it every every April 15th, every tax season, I would reward myself for getting through a tax season and pick out one of the ticket stubs I had, whoever the favorite artist might be, and go to get that piece. And the gentleman who had the stars member B and Aspen would always give it to me at like $100 over his cost. So I got a great deal on them and just got all these, you know, all these albums, as you've seen. And and I I would encourage people to, you know, this collection, as I called it, was the guy from Stars, when he appraised it, said that it would be almost impossible to duplicate this collection. And two reasons. One reason was because the picture of Mick Jagger that signed, the picture of Linda Ronstadt that signed, I actually took the photos at the concert, Stones concert in um Houston was $5.50 to see the Stones in '72. So that's but that's how I got started every tax season. I'd give myself a present. Probably in hindsight, I probably should have given Carly a present too, since she was my office manager most of that time and and got through the tax seasons with me.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

You said five dollars and seventy cents to see a Rolling Stones concert.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, it was five dollars and fifty cents. Yeah, and it and what it happened when I I had a good friend that uh designer at the time, uh, I guess he'd be called a website designer kind of thing now, but he he actually kind of forged, I hate to say this, but well, not really, but he forged the Houston Chronicle press pass. So I had that around my neck, and I got right up in front of the stage with my camera. This was when they still actually take cameras to concerts, and I got this great picture of Jagger bathed in red light with Keith Richards behind him, and it's just a really one of my favorite photos I've taken. But yeah, so I got to see that Stones concert. It was phenomenal, of course. And then we we actually went back and saw them, Carly and I, and our daughter and and her husband. We went to uh pick them up, pick the stones up again in Denver about, I'm gonna say probably five or six years ago now. So I got to see them, you know, got to see them way back when. The tickets were much more expensive in Denver than they were in Houston at five dollars and fifty cents.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

I think you uh sent me a spreadsheet of all of the paraffin, all the things that you have. That's an accountants uh way to show you what he's got there. But uh I've got your spreadsheet with and I don't know whether I got that from the museum or from you, I don't know which, but man, the all the items, all the memorabilia, and you say you've never had that appraised, or anybody ever told you, because I've got the spreadsheet right here looking at it. So many, so many, and the sports memorabilia as well. So it has to be worth uh quite a haul there, Frosty, I would think.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

When I did have it appraised for the to do the gift to the museum, it came in a you know close to 100K.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Yeah, I'm not surprised at all about that. You gave um and donated most of your memorabilia to the museum, Lincoln Parish Museum. You still have some, I think, probably uh that you just can't hardly bear to to part with, I would imagine.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Well, no, you know, it really missed my memorabilia, and I'll I'll think about something and I'll look up on the wall of my office and and it won't be there. And so I I have pictures of of everything, of course, but all my rock and roll memorabilia is as at the museum. The only thing I've got left now is my sports memorabilia, which have some pretty neat pieces there, and then uh and my photography, I have that all hanging in my office now. Uh, but all the rock and roll memorabilia is at the Lincoln Parish Museum.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Yeah, and again, if you're anywhere close to Lincoln Parish, Ruston, Louisiana, you want to go by the Lincoln Parish Museum and ask the uh curator there, Mr. One Rick Godley, and say, I want to see Mr. Frosty Marriott's memorabilia. It's right there, right by the uh office. It's a great, great room, big room with all of that there, and he's he's not gonna take it down. He loves it. I love it. And a lot of people who've seen it really do love that, man.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Well, it's it's really special in that the ticket subs are there because you don't you get electronic tickets now or on your phone and you don't have anything that you know shows the price of the the concert, the date, and that kind of thing that you can just put in there and frame it as part of the signed album or the poster or what or whatever it happens to be.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Frostly, out of the I guess hundreds of concerts that you attended, uh you've talked about a few of them. Which is the one that stands out maybe above all the rest?

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Well, you know, see it's interesting. I I know, you know, I've never stopped to really think count the concerts. I'm sure it's over a hundred. Our favorite concert was, and you look when I look back at it, I've I've done that and started thinking about it, but it was a concert in Aspen, and I had a client that sponsored the concert, or was one of the sponsors of the concert, and the Eagles played at a place called the Wheeler Opry House in uh in Aspen. So it was an old-time opera house that's been refurbished and kept up and everything. Seats about 500 people. And so I had Carly and I had got had tickets for that from my friend and client. And when we were in the lounge coming into the Opry House, we were waiting to get a beer at the bar there. And Carly elbowed me and she said, Frosty, there's Jack Nicholson. He's walking right at us. What do I say? And I said, I said, Carly, just say hello, Jack. Jack Nicholson had those big sunglasses, that big grin and everything. And he came up, was looking at Carly, and Carly said, said, Hi, Jack. And Jack Nicholson said, How you doing tonight, darling? And Carly said, her both her knees went weak and she almost fell down on the floor. So that was really cool. And then we got into the con into the concert on our uh fourth row orchestra seats, which was right there in front. And when I turned around, Jack Nicholson was literally sitting right behind us. You could see the spit bubbles come out of Joe Wash's mouth when he was singing that hotel room, and then they had a little reception afterwards down in the wheeler, so we got to meet everybody. But that was just a you know, to see the Eagles in a 500-seat venue from that close up was phenomenal. Just phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

That had to be a big memory for you and your wife there meeting the uh famous Jack Nicholson and that that guy one flew over the cuckoo's nest, five easy pieces. Is that right? And hey, hundreds of hundreds of more. I mean, Chinatown, I believe, is my favorite Jack Nicholson movie. Chinatown.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah, he really did some good work over the years and was such a character. Oh shoot, um, I can't remember the one he was in with Peter Fonda when he was really young that was. Easy rider, easy rider was was one of my faves.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Well, firstly, I I don't I'm sort of hesitant to ask you this question, but was it ever a concert that did not come over like you expected? Or a group I I don't even like to go there because I love them all, but maybe sometimes they don't have a good night. Was there ever any concert that just didn't click?

SPEAKER_01 17:08

You know, the only concert that I my expectations were better than I got, which was is interesting because we saw Jackson Brown at Red Rocks in Denver. That's a big natural outdoor amphitheater, which is just one of the nicest. That and the sphere are the best two outdoor venues, I think, for music now. But I think it was more the sound. They didn't have the sound good because you couldn't hear Jackson very good in the concert. And usually at Red Rocks you can hear everything because of the amphitheater, feel all the rocks, natural red rocks around the concert venue. And we had seen him, I'd seen him in Houston before, and then saw him again in Aspen later, and a big difference between the the sound. And so, other than that, I've I've enjoyed every concert I've been to. Maybe I enjoyed I I might enjoy some of them too much.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

It's the whole vibe, the whole being with other people and being around. You know, a lot of that is just the just the atmosphere that you feel in a in a live concert. It's almost like watching a live sporting event, which to me is one of the greatest things to do. I I love to watch anything live in sporting events and and music.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Yeah, me too. I I'm right with you, Mike. The vibe of of the ambience of the outdoor concerts, going in with all the excitement, and you can feel all that. I mean, it gives me goosebumps kind of to think about some of those concerts. And I'll tell you one of the other ones because I don't want to not mention, but Carly and I kind of became parrotheads over the years. And so we saw I saw Buffett probably eight or nine, ten times, but he played Red Rocks one night. It was April 14th. I remember that because the tax deadline was the next day, but I couldn't miss Buffett at Red Rocks. And we were in the vibe with all the everybody tailgating and everything. And then when he came out, the we were sitting down kind of close and the full moon rose over the back of the stage right when he came out. Or I noticed it right when he came out, and it was it was just absolutely beautiful. It was inspiring from then on, from the from God's work there with full moon to to Buffett and the Parrot Heads. It was it was phenomenal as well.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Well they say, and I never saw him, they say a Jimmy Buffett concert is a party. I mean, it's just uh unbelievable the vibe and everything that goes on and all the music he has, you know, except for a couple, he sort of slowed it down a little bit. But yeah, that Margaretaville and all the uh things he has there, that just a wonderful, wonderful uh entertainer live is what I've always heard.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Yeah, he it's just a party from when they start the tailgate and which I don't know that I ever well like it may have been a couple we tailgated it a little bit, but but the but the you know the people dressing up and then they had that where they always had a a beach ball that came out of the crowd up onto the stage, people hitting the beach ball and everything. Buffett as well, they used to they played in Aspen. He had a place in Aspen, he spent time up there. In fact, he lived next door to Glenn Fry in old snow mask. But when he would do concerts and under the the name Freddie and the fish stick. So if you if you were hip, you knew that Freddie and the fish sticks was really Jimmy Buffett and the and his band, and they played a place called the Belly Up in Aspen, which was a small venue too, probably not 400, 450 to 500 people. A friend of mine, client, again, had some tickets, and so he asked me if I wanted them. I said, heck yeah, I'd love to go. And so got to see him at a big, you know, big party with not as many people. And and you know, in hindsight, I don't think that necessarily in that small venue was any been any better than you know the Red Rocks concerts for any, for instance, or at all, even because the crowd kind of makes it sometimes and sets the tone for the the concert.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

No doubt. There's one picture that stands out to me in your collection, Frosty, and that's a picture of Miss Linda Ronstadt. And it looks like you are almost there trying to get up on the stage with her. But it looks like she is looking right at you and saying, Hey, sweetie, uh can you tell me about that photo?

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Yeah, it was kind of the still back when they used to let you take your camera. I had a friend in Houston that worked at a uh a clothing store, one of the people that put on the concerts in Houston would come to the clothing store and he'd give him a discount on his on his suits. And so he'd give Steve a couple of tickets for the concert. So we were on, I think, the fourth or sixth row of the concert for Linda Ronstadt, and I caught her and absolutely think she's looking right at me, and just I think she's just gorgeous and one of my favorite women entertainers and singers. And yeah, so I I actually got to take that photo. It's not signed by her. I framed her signature on her book she wrote under that with the ticket sub with that. And but yeah, and I actually got on to Linda Ronstadt's website at one time because they I'd sent the picture in and they actually put it up for a little while because it's a really neat photo. It shows it shows how pretty she is and closest we're we could really, you know, get to see all her talent and all the the music she did.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

I don't think Linda Ronstadt ever took a bad picture, but that picture you took, uh I mean that that really struck me. So that my gosh, I think Frosty was saying hello to Miss uh Linda right there.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

You know? Well, I tell you what, I I yeah, I think I was with a male friend, so I probably was was somewhat uninhibited at the time.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Well that that takes me. Do you have a uh a favorite piece in your all your collection? One favorite piece that you might say this this is just uh one of my uh I just this love this piece.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Well, you know, that's really tough to pick that out because I just love all of them. Had them all around me for years. But uh the I think the one that that I think is one of the better pieces, the most valuable pieces, is the one of Jimi Hendrix. I had had his signature on uh they because he didn't sign much much uh memorabilia, and it's got a uh a gentleman that was talking to him, I don't know, it was in the I can't remember the name of the weekly magazine now, but I actually saw Hendrix in 1968 in Shreeport when he was really just getting started. And I got to see him at the Streeport Municipal Auditorium, I think, and it was uh he had literally 21 amplifiers, fender amps hooked up to his his just his guitar. They were seven, seven long and three high. And he just lit up that municipal auditorium, you know, and then it was a phenomenal concert and all. And then uh when I circled back later and was able to, and I'd been wanting to get one of his autographs for a while, my friend and Aspen was able to, because he knew I was looking for one, was able to get it and you know, move it to kind of the same day. But that's one of my, I think one of my neatest pieces. And it's got the album that's framed in that ticket stub and autograph note he wrote. Uh, I think he wrote on it stay free, the guy that was doing the story on him. It was, oh, the album was my actually my album from college. I had from when I had it in my collection. And so that's actually my album in the framing, but with uh an autograph note and the and the ticket stub. So I'd go with that one.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Yeah. Did he uh destroy his guitar after the after the end of the concert? Uh I mean he that guy could go wild on you, I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

I don't recall that happening. I don't he must not have done it at every one of them because I don't remember that that happening, but he sure, you know, he was a he was a left-handed guitar player. Somebody told me one time, it might have been my friend Daniel, but that I think he had a played a right-handed guitar upside down or something to play it with his left hand. If that makes any sense, that that's what he did, which was really interesting. And that's you know, of course, he'd play the Star Smango banner with his teeth and stuff. He was, you know, he was a phenomenal guitar player, just to hear not long enough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Well, you were there in Aspen. That's a big John Denver venue. Uh I mean, a place he always visited. I don't know exactly where he lived, somewhere there in Colorado. Did you ever see John Denver in concert or we were?

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Yeah, we actually did see John Denver, and this was a really another uh really cool uh concert. It was really in my top five, actually. We saw him in uh Lake Tahoe at one of the uh clubs there. The name slipped in my mind right now, but it was a smaller venue as well, in the venue, and he was really good in an intimate venue because he would talk and you could, you know, there wasn't a lot of noise. You could hear the music and everything. At this uh casino where he was playing, they had a just uh had like a like a 20, 20 or 25 piece orchestra with him and to back up his music, and that was just a whole nother uh sensation having his music. And there was a a really uh pleasure, there was a song called Eagle, I think of the Eagle and the Hawk or Right, correct.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

Yeah, Eagle and the Hawk.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Yeah, and and he when he sang that song, he had this like huge screen behind him, uh, and it showed this eagle flying, you know, soaring through the uh and and the orchestra, it all came to a crescendo and ended the eagle, it zoomed in on that eagle, and he was looking straight at you, and he had like uh blood around his beak where he, you know, had just had had dinner. And it was just one of the neatest uh photographic experiences uh that I remember having. And so we did get to see him. And and another thing we got to do that is that same client of mine that was into the music so much, we actually sponsored the foundation, sponsored the John Denver reunion, band reunion, every year for five years at the wheeler in Aspen. And so the people like John Summers, who wrote uh Thank God I'm a Country Boy, and all these musicians would show up in Aspen in October to honor John and to do his music, and they were really good musicians and vocalists and everything. And so we were able to go to that. Vince Gill and Amy Grant hosted it two years, and had they had a big uh shindig uh uh at in in Aspen that was really, really fun because like Jimmy Ibbotson was there. Other musicians were that were there that were in the area, you know, came to the the concert and stuff. So so we got to see those several years, and those those songs would always give me goosebumps as well. That Rocky Mountain High just kind of became an anthem for me when I first heard it when I was living in Houston, and I said, you know, I've got to go to Colorado. I just then I knew I I had to go see it for myself and and was been blessed to live there for almost 30 years. So it was really um really phenomenal uh to see all this. It's just all these concerts and their stories, you know, from all of them. But uh the John Denver was always one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

I'll tell you, he was a soundtrack of my life growing up there, you know, uh in the 70s. I had every album. Uh Back Home Again is probably one of my favorite albums.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

Back home again. I used to I used to listen to that song driving home from Houston to my parents' house, and I would and go in to see, you know, I'd go home about at least once a month, or sometimes every other week, because I was still homesick living in Houston, and uh, and I'd always listen to that song before I'd you know get home and I'd just get goosebumps and be so grateful that I had my parents that everything was the way it was.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

Yes. One quick little side note. I thought I was pretty hot stuff there, 21, 22 years old. I was I was a singing deputy. And there was an old crusty uh steel guitar player from Jonesboro who was playing. He'd been in Nashville. He was he'd say he had been rode hard pretty pretty hard. And uh I got through one night, I had a great time, you know. Well, it was audience. I said, Man, uh uh sort of tell me how would you get started there in Nashville? How would you he said, What do you do for a living, young man? I said, Well, I'm a deputy. He said, I wouldn't quit your day job. So that was the end of my aspirations to go any further. Uh the old guy there told me right quick, yeah, you better stick with your what he you know, what he was really telling me was that life is so hard, man. You you really these artists, they they do have a rough time, and so many of them go there pumping gas and working in restaurants, and uh they never quite make it. That's the story of a many, many, many great artists, really.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

A lot of them work really hard. I remember like that story about Willie Nelson. He he had Josh female country artists recorded one of his songs and and he was just barely making. I think he might have been the one selling magazines, or maybe that was Christofferson. But they but you know, the lot of folks that made it, you know, j really didn't, you know, didn't do much for a long time. They just hand to mouth and and uh and then got a good break and off they went, you know, into the atmosphere.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

So yeah, well, Patrick Line and Crazy. That's what got really built.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Exactly. Yeah, and I was to throw in too, because I almost missed it. When I was living in Houston, the other thing that that happened in this era when I was starting to get these collections was that that outdoor music genre uh took off with Whalen and Willie and all those folks. And so we got to see Whalen and Willie at New Year's Eve two years running at uh what is now the megachurch for Joel Osteen, was once a uh basketball venue and concert venue, and so got to see Willie and Whalen in Joel's church a couple of a couple of times. So that was that was a lot of fun too, as well. And then I would be remiss if I didn't you know mention that I we saw Bob Dylan and the band, and we saw Fleetwood Mac, the Who, uh, Art Garfunkel and the Wheeler. Just go see the collection and it'll bring back memories for you if you're this age group, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

That was really my next question was name me some more concerts that stuck out in your mind, but you've named some right then. I mean, my God, Bob Dylan and the band. Man, I love the waltz there, the uh documentary.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Last Waltz. Yeah, and he, you know, I love the the band, and I had that CD of The Last Waltz, and that was really, you know, phenomenal in and of itself because of all the artists that gathered to help them, you know, do their grand finale and and all. But those those were really uh, and I've been thinking that over the last couple of weeks I need to get that DVD out and look and watch it because it's really is a film concert, you know, Last Waltz that they did. I can't remember the venue in San Francisco, I think, that they did it in, but they uh they did just a phenomenal concert with some little interviews, you know. And oh, and just to make sure I'm getting my backstage thing in in place, when when we went to see the the Who in Houston, I had a friend that was he knew the person that was helping to put on the concert. And so we got the backstage passes to the it was a just a party in the hotel and the gallery in the reception room. I walked in and and Roger Daltrey and Peter Townsend were sitting on a like a sofa in front of a food tray or whatever you'd call it, lobster, and there was i ice carvings, and and it was it, it was just a probably one of the nicer party after after parties I've ever been to. But uh, you know, got to say hi to them and shake hands and say, I love you music, man. Great concert. Yeah, so it was a that was a big backstage for me.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

Did they play the song Tommy?

SPEAKER_01 33:00

I'm sure they did at the yeah, because they played at that time, that was probably back in the you know, that had to be in the eighties, I would think. They produced to play that at most of their concerts, I think.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

That'd be Pinball Wizard as well.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Right. You know all this music almost as well as me, or maybe better.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Music has been sort of a real release and a calming effect and just uh something you can go to when you're maybe not feeling that great.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Absolutely, Mike. I you know, and I would venture to say that I have this love for music that's just for however it got started. It it happened in Ruston, Louisiana when I was early college, late high school, and and it's continued to this day. I will go on and put music on that I've, you know, I've got favorite lists on my uh Sonos app that I can listen to. And you know, when you're feeling a little bit down. I told Carly the other day I was coming home from the gym and Buffett started singing Brown Eyed Girl. Of course, Carly's got brown eyes, and our daughter Shiloh has brown eyes. And I cranked that music up in my car. It was blaring. And I it took me from just worn out from a workout to just feeling great, ready to face the day. So it does. It can help you get out of a mood or all right, and can put you in a mood as well. So it's phenomenal the effect it has.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

No doubt. Any more concerts you have in mind, you've already, man, you've listed almost at least half of them that you've been to, but any more that stand out to you, I'm gonna still call you the king of the backstage pass. You met Peter Townsend and the Who and all those. So you got that uh name now. So hey, just go with it. Ride with it.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Well, yeah, and and Willie and and Whalen, I for I had a friend that dated the stage manager for uh, I don't know how I ran into all these people in Houston and all, but it was fun. I don't know. But we had lots of backstage from them. And uh Whalen used to have this bumper sticker that that said, uh, this is no dress rehearsal. We are professionals, and this is the big time. It's actually one of them is on my picture of William Whalen that's in the collection at the museum. Uh I always kind of liked it. I gave it to a few few of my friends that were attorneys that I had it calligraphy for them and gave them that. This is no dress rehearsal. We are professionals, or this is the big time. Because it was, you know, it is. If we if you're doing it right, it is your big time.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

So that could apply to whatever you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Exactly. I've got a standing order for four more concerts I went to that Rick has not been able to find yet, otherwise they're really expensive. But we saw Emmy Lou Harris, saw the Temptations at the Strand in Shreeport, saw Carol King and in Houston and Smokey Robinson, I think, in Shreeport. So that's for you know bands I I know of that I'm still wanting to get autographed albums, and and I've got the ticket subs, so I could I'll add those to my my donation if and when I find them.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

So talking about your display, wonderful, I mean amazing. I don't think you can find any more memorabilia anywhere you go, any museum, unless it's the Music Hall of Fame in Cleveland or Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Nashville uh country music hall of fame. But what do you hope people feel, Rossi, when they walk through that exhibit and look at all those uh things? Uh what are you trying to tell the people? Why don't you donate all the memorabilia there? What do you want them to feel about it?

SPEAKER_01 36:16

We drove all this stuff up in the in the car, packed it in. There wasn't another thing we could have gotten in the SUV with all that. We started unpacking it with Rick and several uh ladies in the room helping us, and they would just say, Oh, I remember I was at that concert. Oh, I was I love that concert. And I'm thinking, Yeah, me too. So I hope you can go in there and find at least one, if not more, artists that you've seen in person or or was one of your favorite songs or whatever, and it'll put you right there. I hope it'll just put you right there.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Oh, that's wonderful. And uh that's what it did for me. Actually, going through that and looking at all those pictures that sticks in my mind, and you know, say, oh man, I love that album, or I remember that artist for sure. And reaches the whole scope. You didn't leave out many people there from from that time, you know.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

No, and you know, I I made a list in just case you you ask that I was gonna say, and I've already I kind of had the list, I just wrote it down, but the the people that I missed somehow I missed them, and uh and uh and I was the Grateful Dead. I didn't for some reason that what they weren't as big in North Louisiana as they were everywhere else, it uh it seems. I did see the new riders of the Purple Sage and outdoor concert in Carbondale, but the Grateful Dead Beatles, as we've talked about, I would have loved to have seen live in the highwayman with Christopherson and Johnny Cash and William Whalen. I didn't ever I don't know why I never saw those, but that that's who in George Strait I would have liked to have seen. But other than that, I think I saw almost everybody I wanted to see over you know over these decades. And and you know, the thing about it donating it, I I wanted it, I I really had this thing about I want to make a difference, I want to make a difference. And so no nobody was really seeing these this collection here in my office in Bella Vista, Arkansas. But I started started thinking, you know, I if I give them and give one to somebody and one to another person, I'll that's really not what I want to do. I want to put it in a in a venue somewhere where uh you know people can see it, remember it, go see it, you know, 50, 100 years from now and say, man, this is really this is really cool. Back when they had ticket stuffs and and real bands, you know, or whatever, however, it's it's morphed into. I think we'll always have music though. I can't imagine a place without music.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Can you oh my gosh, I don't want to live in a place that hadn't have music. I don't want to be there. I know they gotta be music in heaven. I think Jesus dances, you know. I'm I'm convinced of that. You're placed there, you know, when people come many, many years later, that that's never gonna go out of style, Frosty. The the the what you have there, the memory and the memories. Grandparents, and then uh their next generations and the next generations. That will always be something I think maybe even um more important to the generations to come. So thank you for sharing what I know was hard to give up. I'm pretty sure it was hard for you to finally let go of that.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

Yeah, it really was. I I really miss looking up on my wall and and not being able to see where that those artists and the you know and the memories and all, but I've got pictures of all of them, and so I can, you know, do that, and I do miss them, but I'm I I take that but so many other people will get to enjoy them, and that's what music is meant to be. It's meant to, you know, be shared. So that's what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

All right, great. I think you're writing maybe uh maybe a book or or uh something of of your memoirs there, Frosty. Am I correct on that? Are you writing about uh I guess more than the music, I guess includes uh your life.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

It's the memoirs, it's the power of faith, family, and friends is the name of it. I'm getting there. Uh got COVID, kind of blew a hole in my there for a couple of years with my group I was working with. And then I had those, you know, those two heart surgeries that kind of writer's block. But I'm still working on it. I'm going, I've got a seminar coming up here next month. And then my hope is that I can, you know, get inspired and finish that thing up because it started out, it was just going to be for family members so they'd know, you know, what happened, the history of the family, and so forth and so on. But it turned out to be so many funny, funny stories uh that you know run the gamut from oh gosh, you know, from growing up in Rustin to uh through the phases and stages. And my hope is that to finish that thing up and you know it would be an inspiration to people to know that faith, family, and friends can carry you through the hard times, make good times.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

I look forward to uh letting me know when you get that out. We'll publicize that on the Mike Stone show, Music Stories and Conversations. We'll make sure everybody knows about it and how to get a hold of it. That would be an interesting read, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

It it will be that.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Well, we're about to finish up. I want to ask you uh what song, Frosty, maybe best represents your journey through music in your life? Is it that would be a hard question for me to answer. I don't know that I could do that. And it'd probably take you a couple of days to But anything comes to your mind about what song maybe best represents your life journey and your love of music?

SPEAKER_01 41:23

You know, I'm gonna have to say for my journey, it would have to be Rocky Mountain High, because that was the song that inspired me to, you know, pick up everything with Carly and I and and move our, you know, move ourselves with uh just basically clothes on our backs. I talk about it. We drove up to Colorado in a a modern-day conestoga. It was a U-Haul truck. I I drove it, towed one car, and went up there and just got to live live the dream, you know. So I'm gonna say I'm gonna say Rocky Mountain High was a an anthem. Amazing Grace is the other one.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

Both of those would be right up there in my uh Mount Rushmore. I think both of those songs right there. Who couldn't have said it any better, Frosty. Man, I have so enjoyed talking with you on our podcast, and I so look forward to getting this thing out, and I'll sure let you know when we get it all completed so you can tell your friends. And I know you've listened to my show some. I enjoy this little deal. It's sure not economical. I mean, uh, it's not that, it's the pure joy and pleasure of doing what I'm trying to do here, just live streaming radio. I mean, it's it's been a a very good outlet for me, and I really enjoy it. And so pass the word on to tell people about the show if you can, and we'll.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

I will, I will, and I really enjoyed, as you know, your the the Southern California scene that you did probably a couple of months ago now, but I really enjoyed that. Because it's as you know from doing that, it's it's interesting to me and to you how you can go back and look at Southern California at all the incredible artists that came out of that area, era and that you know, in that time frame and what bands they used to play with and you know, and went on to play with and all. And it's really uh interesting to me to know all that that information. That was a great show, man. You did I loved it.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Yeah, amazing time and place there in Laurel Canyon and all those folks that they just they just wanted to get together and make music. That's what they wanted to do. And it wasn't about the economics at that time.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

No, nope, it wasn't. It was it was great music, great music. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

Okay. Anything else that I failed to ask that you would like to make sure you get in here before we uh caught at the end.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

I'm so glad to get to do this, so grateful and uh grateful for the memories and and grateful to be able to make a difference. And that's that's that.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

What a ride it's been visiting with Frosty Marriott. Truly the king of the backstage past. From hundreds of concerts to a lifetime of unforgettable moments, Frosty stories remind us that music isn't just. Something we hear. It's something we live. If you're ever close to Rustin, Louisiana, be sure to stop by the Lincoln Parish Museum and experience his incredible collection for yourself. It's a journey through music history you won't forget. Frosty, thanks so much for sharing your stories and your passion with us today. And to all of you listening, keep the music playing, keep the memories alive. And I'll see you next time right here on the Mike Stone Show.