Remembering Gil Scott-Heron

I received an email from a friend informing me about the death of Gil Scott-Heron. I met Gil Scott-Heron when he performed a concert at Michigan State University back in the day. I was the Director of Hospitality for The Black Entertainment Group which was part of ASMSU's Pop Entertainment, the entity that brought concerts to the MSU campus. My crew was responsible for making sure that the musicians that came to campus were well fed before their performances.

We had been told that Gil Scott was a vegetarian. As a carnivore, I knew little or nothing about vegetarians or what they liked to eat. There was no one on the Pop Entertainment staff that was familiar with veganism. And there was no such thing as Google. We got the bright idea to go to the market the day of the concert and buy every type of fruit that we could find. My staff set up a table so beautiful that it could have graced the cover of a magazine. We were very proud of ourselves. We knew that Scott-Heron's band would be impressed by the presentation and happy with the variety of fresh fruits and juices that we had assemble for them. We set up the banquet and waited in great anticipation for their bus to arrive. And we waited and waited some more. About 4 hours later they arrived. Gil Scott walked back stage took one look at the spread, remarked "Where's the hot food?" and walked right past the table into the dressing areas!

We just looked at each other in wonderment. Hot food? Vegetarians eat hot food? You expect hot food after you're 4 hours late? Needless to say we kept a very low profile for the rest of the night. We had dealt with enough musicians to know that it was best to stay out of their way even at their happiest. We had messed up and there was no way to recover. Back in the day there was no vegan spot to order some quick take out. No one except vegans knew what they liked to eat. We had NO clue.

After the band picked over the fruit that had sat out in the open air for 4 hours they put on one of the best concerts I attended while at MSU. Later that night we hung out with the band and their entourage. I remember at one point feeling the gaze of someone's eyes. It was Gil Scott eyeballing me! He was looking at me as if to say "You the fool that abused my palate!" His gaze made me uncomfortable. I was high, embarassed and mortified. I had the opportunity to impress one of the greatest living poets of the time and failed miserably.

I still don't know much about vegetarians. I dated one once. I remember that she tasted much better than meat eaters!