Patrick Gallagher
Tape No. 4298
GALLAGHER: Working with the people at Jazz Fest, the people that I work with. They're a wonderfully wretched family.
GALLAGHER: Usually, I might see a few of them throughout the year, but when I get together, at the festival, they're just a wonderful group of people. A buddy of mine who works there, Mark Courbet. You know, he calls me up at the beginning of the year and he asks, "Are you doing community service this year?" "Yep." And basically what he's referring to is we don't get paid that much to work Jazz Fest. I lose money, everyone loses money to work Jazz Fest.
BAUER: So why do you do it?
GALLAGHER: Because of people like Mark, and J.T., Popcorn. They're all my wretched family. In 2003, I almost died. I got real sick. I came down with Guillain-Barre syndrome. The bar I hang out at, they put on a benefit, and the people from Jazz Fest found out about it. All those people got together and they raised well over six thousand dollars. And that money enabled me to not have to go back to work immediately, and pay my bills, so on and so forth. So, they took care of me, I've got to take care of them.
