It wasn’t till I had successfully created the Flame-O-Phone (thanks to the brilliant expertise of Ben Bartelle) that I started digging into the real history of pyro-instruments. It was in this mysterious and sordid history, buried deep in the annals of the internet, that I discovered Boots Hughston.
A legendary character of the west-coast rock scene, he began his career playing in The Hoodoo Devils. Lo and behold, I found him on Facebook, and sent him a message. I heard back :
“I used to shoot out 2 or 3 feet of flame, set off sprinklers a couple of time, singed the hair on my arms a couple of times. I hope I do not need to tell you this is dangerous – one of my friends stepped on my tube connecting to the propane tanks when I lifted my horn the connector separated while I was pushing the switch – Propane accumulated around my feet, when it ignited I went up in flames. luckily I had enough sense to stop pushing the switch and stepped out off the fire ball. No one got hurt, the hair on my arms was singed and the hair on my head was a little shorter – It made for great PR – Sax player explodes on stage, you should have seen the press.
Good Luck and Be Safe,
Much Respect
Boots”
Boots : We youngsters revere you as a true trail-blazer, and only wish that one day, 30 years from now, someone will ask me, “Hey, I heard you made a flame-o-phone years ago”, and I can refer them back to the legend of Boots.