With Floods Raging and Roads and Bridges Closed, I Didn’t Know it, But I Was Driving Into The Twilight Zone, By Michael D. Hinton

“Dead Run” first aired on 2/21/86. When I went down to San Francisco to do the session, it was during the “flood of the decade.” I left my house in Sonoma in a torrential downpour. I drove out to Hwy 37 and soon realized there were no other cars on the road. I got onto Hwy 101S – it was very strange – not one car on either side of the freeway! After a few miles I was talking to myself, “I’M IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE!”

All the way to the Golden Gate Bridge [45 miles], and I hadn’t seen one other car anywhere! The 101 is a major highway with six lanes that are usually full of vehicles. When I was halfway across the Golden Gate Bridge, I finally saw another car. It was one coming in the opposite direction.

When I walked into the studio Merl was very surprised to see me. “How did you get here?! Every highway and the Golden Gate Bridge have been closed all day!” [cue Twilight Zone theme music!].

The soundtrack was slated to feature Huey Lewis [who was huge in ’86] on harmonica and myself on guitar, trading blues riffs over a band of Bob Weir, Brent Mydland, Ray Chew, Merl and Tony Saunders. Huey’s basement studio was flooded, he was trying to salvage his gear and had to cancel. Merl called Norton Buffalo to play harmonica in place of him. The film crew from Entertainment Tonight showed up to film Huey. They did a segment with Norton Buffalo adding his harmonica to what we’d recorded earlier, with Merl and Tony at the mixing board.

In addition to featuring members of the Grateful Dead on the soundtrack, the episode also has GD lyricist John Perry Barlow in an acting role as “trucker #2.” I was asked to “channel” an array of blues guitarists on this one – BB King, Albert Collins and Ry Cooder among them. Very interesting subject matter for this episode: What “qualifies” someone for an eternity in hell?

– Michael D. Hinton

The Twilight Zone “Dead Run” – First Aired on 2/21/86 [CBS]

Parts 1 and 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EWe8TgCk4s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq34rgfIpAQ

And here’s the footage from the recording session for “Dead Run” [The Twlight Zone CBS] 2/18/86 – filmed for Entertainment Tonight. R.I.P. Merl Saunders and Norton Buffalo: