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By Root 758 0

They’ve rebuilt and everything since then.” But Lightnin’ wouldn’t listen. He was adamant about not going, and he and Harold had such a big falling out about him refusing to honor what was already an existing contract that Dr. Harold turned over all of Lightnin’s records to Benson. “He said, ‘You’re the manager now. You go do it. I’m tired of messing with him.’ And I had to deal with it,” Benson remembers. “So around February, Miss Nette and Lightnin’ came over to my house, and I received a call from [the promoter] J. J. Jackson in California who said Lightnin’ had to go. He’d already signed the contract, and if he didn’t go, he was going to be sued for breach of contract. So I told Lightnin’ that and he said he didn’t really care, because he wasn’t going…. But then this Russian promoter and this woman showed up in the middle of the night in the rain over to Lightnin’s place on Gray, and brought a substantial down payment for the trip, and Lightnin’ just sat there when he saw the money. He didn’t say anything, so I just proceeded to negotiate it as if he was going. This is probably a Tuesday or Wednesday night, and they said they wanted us to be in L.A. on Friday. So I took the guy and the woman to a nearby motel that night, met him the next day and went to the Japanese consulate, and he arranged for us to get a work permit and all the paperwork that needed to be done. I just proceeded to talk to Lightnin’ as if we were going, and he gave in. He said he would go if I took three cases of Pearl beer and some sardines and some saltine crackers, so he could be assured that he would have at least something to eat while he was there.”27 Lightnin’ was always careful about what he ate and how his food was served. Benson says that Lightnin’ believed that his father had been poisoned, and throughout his life he worried that the same might happen to him.

The overall contract for the Japanese tour was for fifty thousand dollars, which was by far the most Lightnin’ had ever been paid, and the organizers also provided first-class air travel and a fifty-dollar per diem. En route, Lightnin’ asked Benson a very curious question about whether or not the world would end. Benson says, “I thought he was kind of waxing apocalyptic and answered, ‘You know, Lightnin’, the Bible says, the world will end and Jesus will come back,’ and he said, ‘No, if we keep flyin’ in this motherfucka, will we go off the end of the earth.’ And I said, ‘No, the earth is not flat. Wherever we take off from, if we keep going, we come back to where we started.’ That was a real sweet moment [though it was also kind of sad that Lightnin’ seemed to lack such basic knowledge].”28

Lightnin’ and Benson left Houston on February 10, 1978, and arrived the next day in Tokyo, where they had a rehearsal at TOA Attractions studio. On February 13, Lightnin’ performed in Tokyo, followed by Yokohama on February 15, Osaka on February 17, Nagoya on February 18, Sapporo on February 21, and Sendai on February 22. Also on the bill were Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, both of whom Lightnin’ had known for nearly two decades.

Overall, the tour to Japan went well, but Benson says he always had to be on guard. “The language and the customs made it difficult to sort everything out. They’d want us to come to the studio. And they’d kind of play like they were just kind of rehearsing for the gig. And then, next thing you know, they got a couple of tracks out that he’s recorded. So we decided that we didn’t give them anything that they could use unless they really wanted to sit down and talk.”29

In Sapporo, Lightnin’ ran out of sardines, crackers, and beer, and he had to go to the hotel restaurant. He was reluctant, but he had no choice, and when he got to the restaurant, he heard Sonny Terry complaining, “Can you see that waiter anywhere? I ordered some pancakes.” And Lightnin’ was amused and chimed in, “Get your order, man!” Finally, the waiter came and brought Sonny his pancakes, and Benson says, “They were these little silver dollar pancakes and when Sonny felt them on his plate, he yelled