Actor Thomas Haden Church was on Jimmy Kimmel Live sharing his story about the time in college seeing Van Halen in 1978 and getting kicked out of the show.
The Sideways star told the late night host about going with some friends to see Van Halen and Black Sabbath play the legendary ‘Texxas Jamm’ festival show.
During Van Halen’s set, Thomas and his friends were near the stage and wanted to get the band’s attention, so they held up a huge rolled up “cigarette.”
“(At the gig) I was like, ‘Hey, over here, over here…’ David Lee Roth comes running over and grabs it right out of my hand, and I’m like, ‘Dude, we’re supposed to smoke that together!’ and he runs to the other end of the stage and the next thing I know is, security is grabbing us and they drag us out: ‘Get outta here kid and take your filthy Satan spinach with you!'”
From outside they could hear Van Halen finishing their set. Pissed that they traveled 400 miles for the concert only to be thrown out, they sneaked around back and tried to climb the chain link fence, but to no avail. From behind the fence, they could see Van Halen exit the stage and when Roth looked their way, Thomas called out to him saying he was the one who gave him the “cigarette”. Dave not only graciously smuggled them back in, but he let them go backstage…but with strict instructions that they were to keep a low profile and not to talk to anyone nor bring any attention to themselves.
But as soon as the actor and his pals made it backstage, things headed south again.
Hayden Church adds, “We’re over by the food table and we’re like, ‘Don’t stare at anybody, act like you’re supposed to be here, don’t speak to anybody…’ and suddenly everybody’s parting and my buddy goes, ‘Holy shit, there’s Ozzy!’ and then we were thrown out again.”
Not many people can say that they were escorted out of a concert by security twice in one night!