Crazy Horse Raises Funds, Little Music

Until Garth Brooks stood up and ordered a guitar following Monday’s live telecast of “Nashville Now” from the Crazy Horse Steak House, the prestigious country nightclub had logged what must have been a record-breaking stretch of music-free show time.

The event was a fund-raiser for the Children’s AIDS Center at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles, designed to feature both country stars and Hollywood celebrities. While the announcement last week of Brooks’ participation assured a sellout in the 300-capacity room, the fans were coming to hear a session of the homey chit-chat between Brooks and “Nashville Now” host Ralph Emery, not a concert.

Standing in a hectic atmosphere that was half honky-tonk and half Hollywood, Crazy Horse owner Fred Reiser said before the show that the idea originated last year when Childrens Hospital contacted the Nashville Network about a benefit. The network consulted the Crazy Horse and the evening’s co-sponsor, Orange-based radio station KIK-FM (94.3).

“I was in charge of getting the country artists, so I asked a friend of mine named Garth Brooks, and he said, ‘Yes I’d love to do it,’ ” said Reiser as he watched his club being converted into a television studio for the first time. Outside, mounted Santa Ana police kept an eye on a small cluster of fans at the backstage barrier.

“This is a first ever,” Reiser said, laughing. “This is like reinventing the wheel. . . . I’m walking around going, ‘Where am I?’ ”

Reiser said the show earned $12,000 in ticket sales, with additional funds expected from viewer donations and advertising revenue.

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As things unfolded Monday, it turned out to be even less than the expected hourlong telecast of “Nashville Now”--one of the staples of the Nashville Network for a decade.

Emery, wearing a red AIDS-awareness ribbon on the lapel of his electric-green jacket, took the stage and explained that the show was emanating from Nashville, with Pat Boone as guest host, and that the Crazy Horse would drop in for three six-minute segments over the course of an hour.

That meant that much of the hour was spent waiting to go on the air. But that kind of pace suits Emery just fine.

He’s been called both the Dick Clark of country music and the Johnny Carson of cable, but in manner he’s more a Mister Rogers for grown-up country fans--an earnest, easygoing throwback to a less slick, more innocent television age. Emery is apt to become quietly fixated on Lyle Lovett’s haircut, or be genuinely interested in George Jones’ new line of dog-food products.

Sitting in a plush easy chair on the flower-bedecked stage, Emery took care of the Hollywood half of the show, interviewing Valerie Harper and Connie Stevens, as well as a gentleman offering country calendars to benefit the hospital, and young-hunk soap opera actor Antonio Sabato Jr.

That left one segment for country, and mega-star Brooks was greeted by wild screams as he strolled to the stage. Emery also summoned country singer John Anderson to join Brooks on the guests’ couch, but after a few minutes of talk--mostly about Brooks’ 10-month-old baby--time was up.

After Emery signed off, the crowd wasn’t about to leave quietly. “Get him a guitar!” came the shouts from the audience, and Brooks seemed to like the idea as he stood and motioned toward the dressing room.

After a crew member brought him a guitar, Brooks demonstrated his unfailing gift for matching music to a special moment, prefacing his one-song performance with a reminiscence about a night in the early ‘80s when he was a bouncer at an Oklahoma club and was assigned to look after the evening’s headliner--John Anderson.

Then Brooks and Anderson--two of modern country’s finest voices--traded lines on “1959,” a soulful pledge of devotion from 1980 that was Anderson’s first Top 10 country record.

Too bad it went out to only 300 people instead of a million. That’s show biz.