A few months later (early June), I received a call from McCoy from Los Angeles. He told me, "Gregg, it's started" and someone from Gold Mountain would be contacting me. I told him, "Great!" Later that day I received a call from Anita Camarata who was part of the managing staff of Gold Mountain at that time. She asked me how fast I could make arrangements to fly to LA. I said tomorrow. The next day (June 5th) I flew out of New York's JFK (John F. Kennedy International Airport) to Los Angeles. Departing the gate at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport), I went and picked up my bags. As I walked outside, there was a car service waiting for me. We drove from LAX directly to Leeds Rehearsal Studio in the San Fernando Valley.

The next part of this story is really outrageous...
I walked through the front door of Leeds and what do I see but at least thirty drummers with sticks in hand, beating on anything they could possibly find to bang on. It was quite funny, after flying 6 hours, standing there watching these guys . Within two minutes of my walking in the front door of Leeds, I was sitting behind a drum kit with Steve Jones standing in front of me with guitar in hand, guitarist Gary Myrick to his right and Mark McCoy on bass to his left.

We just started to play. I don't really remember what we played exactly;
I just remember it felt great and sounded even better. We finished that tune and Steve put his guitar down. Without saying a word, he just walked outside of the studio and yelled out with this thick cockney accent, "Everyone go home" then he walked back into the studio and slammed the door shut. I could just imagine those poor guys standing out there, with their jaws dropping wide open, waiting all that time to get a chance to play and there I was being escorted in as soon as I walked in the door of Leeds, dragging a suitcase behind me. I really felt bad for those guys out there.

The next day we started rehearsals at Leeds for the upcoming tour to support the record titled "Mercy", which was on Gold Mountain's record label. We spent nine days rehearsing long hours putting the show together for that tour. It sounded great! We then got started with TV to create the buzz. We played The Joan Rivers Show, Arseneo Hall and Top of the Pops and then finally Dick Clark's American Bandstand. After all the TV, we started on our first leg of touring. The band started playing clubs around the US. During the middle of the club tour, Gary Myrick decided to call it quits for personal reasons. Mark called two friends of ours in San Diego. Guitarist Tommy Andrews and keyboardist, John Nau, who is currently the keyboard player for Hootie & The Blowfish and has recorded on all of their records to date. This next lineup (which was Steve Jones, of course, Mark McCoy, Tommy Andrews, John Nau, and myself, Gregg Gerson) went on to open for The Kinks and Aerosmith. We finally ended up opening for U2. They (U2) are without a doubt one of the greatest bands ever. The most amazing show I did with Steve was opening for U2 at the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of ninety thousand people. Playing in front of ninety thousand people is quite surreal to say the least. Also on that same bill was The Pretenders with Chrissie Hynde.

We toured a total of two months, had lots of fun, and then called it quits. It was a fun tour and the best thing was, Jonesy and I became good friends.

I might add that this exact line up, (Mark, Tommy, John and I) went on to play with Belinda Carlisle... but that's a whole other story.

I was on holiday in San Diego back around January of '87. While there, I met up with a friend of mine, Mark McCoy (singer, songwriter and bassist) who was a good friend of Steve Jones. I had met Steve back in New York a few years earlier while playing drums with Billy Idol at this club called AM/PM in Tribeca. Tribeca is in the lower part of Manhattan. Mark mentioned to me that Steve had already recorded an album. In addition, he told me that his management/record company Gold Mountain was about to launch a major campaign to promote the record and that Steve didn't really have a band to tour. I told Mark "Stay in touch with me and let me know what comes of it". Mark said he would.