the ’Zine

In Memory of Scot Halpin...(Who?!)

February 22, 2008 by Brett Milano

If there was one person who embodied what Rock Band is all about — a good three decades before the game was invented — it has to be a gentleman named Scot Halpin; the fan who got to spend 20 minutes as a member of the Who. Imagine seeing your favorite band in concert when the drummer passes out; you somehow work your way to the stage and wind up taking his place. That's what Halpin did at a Who concert in San Francisco, on November 20, 1973. And if you think it's tense to play "Won't Get Fooled Again" on expert level with all your friends watching, just imagine how this guy felt filling in for one of the world's greatest drummers. With a band he'd never met. In front of 15,000 people.

If you think it's intense to play "Won't Get Fooled Again" on expert level with your friends watching, imagine how this guy felt filling in for Keith Moon onstage.

This particular Who concert was one for the history books: It was the opening night of the "Quadrophenia" tour, and drummer Keith Moon severely overdid it backstage—He later admitted that he had taken a dose of horse tranquilizer and washed it down with brandy. Moon made it through about three-quarters of the show, though he collapsed twice, took a cold shower backstage and finally conked out for good during "Magic Bus." The Who first played an acoustic version of "See Me, Feel Me" as a three-piece; and then Pete Townshend addressed the crowd: "Can anybody out there play the drums? I mean somebody good."

History doesn't record how many kids tried to rush the stage at that moment, but Halpin — a 19-year-old Indiana transplant who'd bought a scalped ticket earlier that evening — was the one who succeeded. He jumped past security guards flanked by a friend who assured the guards that he could play. Promoter Bill Graham literally carried Halpin to the stage, Townshend took his hand, someone handed him a shot of brandy,and they were off. "I didn't have time to think about it and get nervous," he told Rolling Stone at the time. The Who threw him in the deep end and made him play a song that wasn't even released yet ("Naked Eye"), plus a blues jam on "Spoonful" and a finale of "My Generation."

The whole thing was videotaped and it turns out that Halpin wasn't bad—definitely not Keith Moon, but he made it through 20 minutes of a Who concert without choking. Afterward he got to go backstage and Roger Daltrey gave him souvenir drumsticks and a tour jacket—but alas, somebody made off with it when Halpin spent too much time at the buffet table. Daltrey also promised a thousand dollars' payment which never materialized, though he did get a handwritten thank-you from Townshend a couple weeks later. In later days he auditioned for Journey, then gave up rock and roll to open a painting business.

Scot Halpin was reported to have passed away this month, at age 54. I like to think that somewhere he and Keith Moon are having a good laugh about the whole business.

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