The story of Leepin Larry begins in the deep South. An 18 year old in the mid '60s who had incurred some debt and was trying to get away from his domineering girlfriend and her family who owned a large cotton farm. They were looking to put Larry out in the fields picking cotton.

With his secret lover, Norma, he hatched a plan to have him jump off the large bridge just east of town. It would look like a suicide and no body would be found, just a note left behind and one of his shirts floating in the river.

After the pretend suicide on a sunny warm day, word got around town that Billy Joe McAllister had died. This was Larry's real name and through Norma's artistic talents a forged driver's license was created with the name Lawrence Livermore, named after Lawrence Livermore and the word "live" was in the last name which they thought was very cool.

By darkness of night, Larry traveled to Georgia where he found work as a roadie for the Allman Brothers. When Norma turned 18 in a few months times, she joined him. Her family thought Norma was all alone in Atlanta and the story of Billie Joe was almost forgotten, until a songwriter named Bobbie Gentry turned his story into an international hit song.

Fortunately for Larry, no one connected him with the song, even though he was working for musicians, etc. No photos were ever circulated because everyone thought he was dead. It was during his stint with the Allman Brothers that he gained the nickname "Leepin Larry." When the stages were set up and taken apart it was always Larry who was the fastest and everyone was amazed how he could jump quite high into the air to take down the stage lighting without a ladder.

Almost ten years of roadie work was enough for Larry and he soon moved to Manhattan where he enrolled in an accounting course at The Learning Annex. I happen to know him through my brother, who is in the music business. In 1977, they were both at the Bottom Line and Larry mistook my brother for Duane Allman. They struck up a conversation and my brother invited him to a party we were having on our farm with my brother's band playing.

I wrote about this in an OS post back in July, 2008 and long before Larry followed me here to Open Salon. (See below for a photo of this event.)

Larry and Norma are still together and happily living in the East Village and he is still employed as an accountant at one of the large corporate firms in the city. I haven't been able to get together with him for a number of years but perhaps he'll join us at the 3rd Annual OS Anniversary gala in the city next April.

Norma shot this photo of a very wet Larry just after he jumped off the Tallahatchie River bridge. Soaked, but not injured, this photo records a moment in music history.

The 1978 farm concert we held in upstate New York. My brother is playing the keyboards. Larry and Norma were guests and are sitting in the audience.