Two nights later, T. Rex appeared at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, New Jersey, and my father waited outside in the car while I attended the show. He did this quite often for me even when concerts were in dangerous neighborhoods, chauffeuring my friends as well. My father’s hobby was restoring old Cadillac and Lincoln convertibles, so he appreciated having the time alone to work on the cars, and this was how he earned the nickname of "Saint Daddy" by T. Rex fans everywhere! I had glitter all over my face, and I’ll never forget leaving the show that night. I was waiting to cross the street, and a long-haired guy leaned out of a station wagon waiting at the light and shouted to me "Hey, that’s the worst case of acne I’ve ever seen!" At first, it didn’t sink in, and I said "Aw, come on, I’ve been hearing that line from the security guards all night!" But, then, I took another look and realized it was The Doobie Brothers talking to me! I stammered to Pat Simmons, "H-hey, are you, uh, one of, y’know, THEM?" He laughed heartily and said "Well, yeah, I guess I am!" as the light changed and the wagon drove away, leaving me in complete shock. I went back to meet my father, and therefore missed the crush that ensued at the backstage door later that night when T. Rex emerged. Feeling somewhat uncertain about his success in America, Marc was delighted at the response after the Capitol show, and made it a point to comment to the press about his enthusiastic fans in New Jersey.

The Capitol Theater was famous in its day as a concert hall, and the people who hung around there regularly became a whole new group of friends. For one thing, the aforementioned security people were there overnight even when there wasn’t a concert going on. I don’t recall exactly how it began, but somehow we got in the habit of talking on the phone at all hours of the night. The promoter of the Capitol shows, John Scher, quickly rose in prominence in the music industry, and in turn, so did the security staff. One of them, "Big John" Harte, eventually went on to work for Kiss, and I believe some others may have gone onto the Grateful Dead’s team. These men were good friends to have in those days, because if T. Rex had come back to play the Capitol again, meeting Marc would have been no problem at all. More on this alliance later!

Also regularly on hand at the Capitol were some very resourceful young ladies who followed the various bands. I’ve never cared much for the word "groupies," but it conjures up a certain image, so I will use it from time to time in this story. I met a girl named Tamara Bernstein at the Capitol who had helped me immensely throughout these years. Tammy had a lightning-fast intuition about what hotel a band might be staying at in New York City, and it came in really handy. By the time we became acquainted, she had already met T. Rex on several occasions, to the point where she positively claimed to be the subject of Marc’s lyrics in "Baby Boomerang." Tammy said she had been banging on his hotel room door, prompting Marc to write the lines "New York witch in the dungeon of the day/I’m trying to write my novel but all you do is play/Baby Boomerang, Baby Boomerang/Well, you never spike a person/But you always bang the whole gang." Tammy also told me of a very sad conversation she’d had with June Child, Marc’s widow, at a hotel then known as the City Squire. According to this story, Marc and June were desperately trying to have a child, and June was heartbroken because their efforts had been unsuccessful.

So, by early 1973, I had a happy, active social life with a large group of people who shared my common interest. Although all my new friends were much older than I was at 13, somehow no one seemed to mind much. If anything, they were respectful, and often amused, by my sheer obsessive determination to meet and befriend Marc Bolan. My mailbox was filled each day with things from my new penpals in England, and basically, I was just waiting for the next American tour, when I was convinced that I’d laid enough groundwork to finally realize my dream of seeing Marc in person.