Would you like to play in the Olympics?
"The summer I got home off my mission in 1982, I was back up to Utah State in January of 83. And in January of 1984 the professor in charge of the bands there at Utah State got a notice saying that, for the Olympic games which were going to be held in Los Angeles – in 1984, they were going to put together a marching band for the opening ceremonies and would our band director please nominate several students to be in that band. He nominated me! I went, “OK Great!” He knew that I would represent the school well I wasn’t the world’s best snare drum player, I was a horrible snare drum player, but I was a good musician and could play cymbals and I could deliver several things there in the percussion ensemble. There was also a trombone player and a trumpet player that were nominated - there might have been somebody else. So anyways, low and behold, a month or two later that I got the news that I had been accepted and there were seven of us in the state of Utah.
"Four from the University of Utah, and three from Utah State that were going to be in the marching band for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games that were being held in Los Angeles. Amazing experience. The Olympics were the first two weeks of August and I needed to be down there by the middle of July, because that was when we started rehearsals and we started two weeks before, and so I was touring and traveling around the mid west with Sounds of Zion for the first two weeks of July or the end of June and into July and then I went to Salt Lake with my sister Suzanne to help babysit my two nephews – cousins, while my Aunt and Uncle went on a cruise and then I went to Los Angeles to perform with the Olympic band. Another amazing experience. I played cymbals, I had to send in a recording because they would want to know how I could play so they could decide which instrument I could play. I let them know, “OK here’s my recording of this piece that you sent me, I’m horrible on the snare drum, but I’m a good musician and I can play cymbals or bass drum or whatever you need. So they put me on cymbals. Cymbals - we did a good job. I was on the medium size cymbals, I lost several layers of skin on my first fingers because that’s where the straps go. Boy, we were sore there for the first little while, we were rehearsing sixteen to eighteen hours a day, because we had a lot of music to get ready and we were stationed at Pepperdine University.
"So we flew into Los Angeles into LAX, and then took a shuttle on these school busses all these band members were riding from all over the country. There were about 750 members of the band. 500 of them were from Southern California, mostly from USC University of Southern California and UCLA, the other 250 members were from all over the United States, every State in the union had marching band members. So it was a great experience to meet all these people from all over the United States! And so they housed us there at Pepperdine University which is at Malibu. It had this most amazing view of the ocean.
"So here we were living there at Pepperdine and rehearsing in the sun for 15 hours a day, 18 hours a day and we could see the ocean and it was just like beckoning to us, and teasing us, cause it looked so nice and cool. I had some pretty major impressive sunburns too, we all did. I got going on the sunscreen a little too late, but that was fine. We sounded awesome! I’d never been in a band that was that big before, and as you can imagine it was challenging.
"We started off with the opening song, which was, “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Aaron Copland and it was awesome! I will never forget the thrill of standing on the field in the coliseum there in Los Angeles and performing for 2.5 million people in the Opening Ceremonies. We did a bunch of Americana type stuff, - very fun!
"Another thing that was really memorable for me was the fact that this was the Olympics,- the first Olympics where John Williams the composer wrote a fanfare for the Olympics. It was my first experience with John Williams music, it started a lifetime (since then love) of John Williams music. He was actually there, right before we were going to play it, a couple of days before the Opening Ceremonies he came in and he was there. He came down and so I didn’t ever actually shake his hand, but I was standing 20 feet from him, and I saw him, I still remember his white hair and his greeting a little bit, what a kind and gracious gentlemen was to talk to all these musicians who were thrilled to met him. Every time I hear that music reminds me of the Opening Ceremonies. It was a great experience.
"After we played for the Opening Ceremonies, then the 250 members of the band who were from out of state, then made a smaller band, because they couldn’t have 750 of us running around Los Angeles. So the ones who were instate, they made them into smaller bands, like Jazz bands, or PEP bands and they were assigned to different venues. Like there were band group that went down to swimming and there were band group that went down to baseball, and a band group that went over to Track and Field. They were like PEP bands for the different things that were going on there. I heard those students had a great time.
"The 250 of us who were from out of state, we got to go to – they had a separate Opening Ceremonies for baseball at the Rose Bowl, so it was over in Pasadena, So we got to go play for that, and then they also had us go perform at Magic Mountain and we did a little 35 - 45 minute concert and then we were able to enjoy the park for the rest of the day. We got to go see a field hockey game between Pakistan and the Netherlands and that was fun. We got to go play at Disneyland for a little concert and then we got to enjoy the park for the rest of the day. They kept us buys running around Southern California, we went to Knottsberry Farm, we performed, then went got to go running around the rest of the day. So it was very, very fun.
"One little side note, here I was a return missionary – even before that I was extremely modest – we would get finished performing and then we would just go back and people would just change on the bus, I was absolutely shocked and appalled. They were just peeling off clothes like it was no big deal and get changed so they could go into the park, and I was shocked beyond all reason, “Are you kidding me?!” I learned on our uniforms they had these capes – so I would unhook the cape and put it across my lap and I was able – I figured out how to change modestly. Because that was very important to me.
"When we were traveling back and forth to these different venues, they would have us travel according to our grouping, our instrumental grouping, woodwinds over here, brass over there, percussion, over here. I promise you the percussionist have the foulest mouths, I was hearing all kinds of language. Here I was a year and a half off my mission I was just appalled at the words I was hearing, that they would just____ it was just pretty foul mouth. Oh my goodness, I realized how thankful I was to be living in Utah where the language, it was a little more circumspect. Not quite so bodily and revolting, and disgusting.
"There were also some really nice people in the band, I haven’t ever kept in contact with any of them, but it was an amazing experience. So then we played for the closing ceremony, it was just the 250 kids from out of town that played for the closing ceremony, actually we didn’t go out on the fields for the performance, we just marched down, we were standing in the isles up in the stands at one end and we played a bajillion marches while all of the athletes were marching into the stadium. We had music for that, but we were just doing whatever with the cymbals and it was great. As soon as we were done they marched us back up they didn’t have room for us in the stadium and got back out and climbed on our busses and that’s when they started the fireworks show, they had a concert with Lionell Riche and we could hear it, we didn’t see him, we could hear it. Then they started the fireworks show, and some of the kids were climbing out on top of the busses so that they could see better. It was the most impressive fireworks show that I have ever in my life seen.
"And so the next day they took us back to…oh, the first two weeks we were at Pepperdine University, the second two weeks we were at Loyola Marymount University which is just south of the airport, so we finished out our two weeks there and so this is now the middle of August and we climbed on board the bus and went back to our places and the next day we got on the bus and went to the airport and I flew back home."
"Four from the University of Utah, and three from Utah State that were going to be in the marching band for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games that were being held in Los Angeles. Amazing experience. The Olympics were the first two weeks of August and I needed to be down there by the middle of July, because that was when we started rehearsals and we started two weeks before, and so I was touring and traveling around the mid west with Sounds of Zion for the first two weeks of July or the end of June and into July and then I went to Salt Lake with my sister Suzanne to help babysit my two nephews – cousins, while my Aunt and Uncle went on a cruise and then I went to Los Angeles to perform with the Olympic band. Another amazing experience. I played cymbals, I had to send in a recording because they would want to know how I could play so they could decide which instrument I could play. I let them know, “OK here’s my recording of this piece that you sent me, I’m horrible on the snare drum, but I’m a good musician and I can play cymbals or bass drum or whatever you need. So they put me on cymbals. Cymbals - we did a good job. I was on the medium size cymbals, I lost several layers of skin on my first fingers because that’s where the straps go. Boy, we were sore there for the first little while, we were rehearsing sixteen to eighteen hours a day, because we had a lot of music to get ready and we were stationed at Pepperdine University.
"So we flew into Los Angeles into LAX, and then took a shuttle on these school busses all these band members were riding from all over the country. There were about 750 members of the band. 500 of them were from Southern California, mostly from USC University of Southern California and UCLA, the other 250 members were from all over the United States, every State in the union had marching band members. So it was a great experience to meet all these people from all over the United States! And so they housed us there at Pepperdine University which is at Malibu. It had this most amazing view of the ocean.
"So here we were living there at Pepperdine and rehearsing in the sun for 15 hours a day, 18 hours a day and we could see the ocean and it was just like beckoning to us, and teasing us, cause it looked so nice and cool. I had some pretty major impressive sunburns too, we all did. I got going on the sunscreen a little too late, but that was fine. We sounded awesome! I’d never been in a band that was that big before, and as you can imagine it was challenging.
"We started off with the opening song, which was, “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Aaron Copland and it was awesome! I will never forget the thrill of standing on the field in the coliseum there in Los Angeles and performing for 2.5 million people in the Opening Ceremonies. We did a bunch of Americana type stuff, - very fun!
"Another thing that was really memorable for me was the fact that this was the Olympics,- the first Olympics where John Williams the composer wrote a fanfare for the Olympics. It was my first experience with John Williams music, it started a lifetime (since then love) of John Williams music. He was actually there, right before we were going to play it, a couple of days before the Opening Ceremonies he came in and he was there. He came down and so I didn’t ever actually shake his hand, but I was standing 20 feet from him, and I saw him, I still remember his white hair and his greeting a little bit, what a kind and gracious gentlemen was to talk to all these musicians who were thrilled to met him. Every time I hear that music reminds me of the Opening Ceremonies. It was a great experience.
"After we played for the Opening Ceremonies, then the 250 members of the band who were from out of state, then made a smaller band, because they couldn’t have 750 of us running around Los Angeles. So the ones who were instate, they made them into smaller bands, like Jazz bands, or PEP bands and they were assigned to different venues. Like there were band group that went down to swimming and there were band group that went down to baseball, and a band group that went over to Track and Field. They were like PEP bands for the different things that were going on there. I heard those students had a great time.
"The 250 of us who were from out of state, we got to go to – they had a separate Opening Ceremonies for baseball at the Rose Bowl, so it was over in Pasadena, So we got to go play for that, and then they also had us go perform at Magic Mountain and we did a little 35 - 45 minute concert and then we were able to enjoy the park for the rest of the day. We got to go see a field hockey game between Pakistan and the Netherlands and that was fun. We got to go play at Disneyland for a little concert and then we got to enjoy the park for the rest of the day. They kept us buys running around Southern California, we went to Knottsberry Farm, we performed, then went got to go running around the rest of the day. So it was very, very fun.
"One little side note, here I was a return missionary – even before that I was extremely modest – we would get finished performing and then we would just go back and people would just change on the bus, I was absolutely shocked and appalled. They were just peeling off clothes like it was no big deal and get changed so they could go into the park, and I was shocked beyond all reason, “Are you kidding me?!” I learned on our uniforms they had these capes – so I would unhook the cape and put it across my lap and I was able – I figured out how to change modestly. Because that was very important to me.
"When we were traveling back and forth to these different venues, they would have us travel according to our grouping, our instrumental grouping, woodwinds over here, brass over there, percussion, over here. I promise you the percussionist have the foulest mouths, I was hearing all kinds of language. Here I was a year and a half off my mission I was just appalled at the words I was hearing, that they would just____ it was just pretty foul mouth. Oh my goodness, I realized how thankful I was to be living in Utah where the language, it was a little more circumspect. Not quite so bodily and revolting, and disgusting.
"There were also some really nice people in the band, I haven’t ever kept in contact with any of them, but it was an amazing experience. So then we played for the closing ceremony, it was just the 250 kids from out of town that played for the closing ceremony, actually we didn’t go out on the fields for the performance, we just marched down, we were standing in the isles up in the stands at one end and we played a bajillion marches while all of the athletes were marching into the stadium. We had music for that, but we were just doing whatever with the cymbals and it was great. As soon as we were done they marched us back up they didn’t have room for us in the stadium and got back out and climbed on our busses and that’s when they started the fireworks show, they had a concert with Lionell Riche and we could hear it, we didn’t see him, we could hear it. Then they started the fireworks show, and some of the kids were climbing out on top of the busses so that they could see better. It was the most impressive fireworks show that I have ever in my life seen.
"And so the next day they took us back to…oh, the first two weeks we were at Pepperdine University, the second two weeks we were at Loyola Marymount University which is just south of the airport, so we finished out our two weeks there and so this is now the middle of August and we climbed on board the bus and went back to our places and the next day we got on the bus and went to the airport and I flew back home."
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