Rory's fans are unanimous in their praise for his honesty, genuinity and simple down-to-earth courtesy to those who put him where he is today. He never lost that everyman touch, and you could, by all (and there are many) accounts expect to run into him in the bar of the club he had just played, having a pint and relaxing, and he would never be above talking to you or shaking your hand, or even, in one case related below, getting you a hotel room! The following accounts are all taken from Barry Barnes' excellent Rory Gallagher site, Sinnerboy, and used with his permission. Barry plays in a Rory tribute band, and you can see excerpts of some of his performances on his site, well worth a look. I haven't noted names, as I have not obtained permission from each individual person to use their accounts.
Note: some of these "just start" as many of them are a little long and set the scene in ways. In these instances I've truncated and abridged the accounts to only reflect the story as it pertains to Rory. Everything is transcribed directly, including any spelling grammatical or punctutation errors.
We went for a drink in a nearby bar, I was driving so it was a quick one...probably 4 or 5, I was young and daft then!!?? So off home we set. We walked past the studio, what timing - who was exiting? Yes, yours truly. I went up very shyly as I respected this man more than any person I'd met, actually no-one to this day has ever come close musically, nor as a person for that matter. I could see he had to be somewhere else, I went for my pocket .. I had paper but no sodding pen, He went back in and got one!!!!! so I have his autograph
I was standing on the sidewalk outside a club in New York (I'm afraid to say I can't remember the name of it) I was about three hours too early for the Rory concert that night but I was determined to take in all the atmosphere I possibly could, I was busy taking fotos of the posters outside the venue when a black sedan started to pull out into the street, the car suddenly veered onto the sidewalk and out of the front passenger seat came Rory Gallagher! There was some vibes coming from inside the car like "Hurry up Rory, we've got to be somewhere" but the man walked straight up to me and said "I hope you enjoy the concert, I can't stop, I've got a radio interview" He shook my hand and jumped right back into the auto which moved on down the street
Anyway I went to the bar to order the drinks, the barman held my gaze and was just about to serve me, when up stands Rory (He was sat in the corner with the band and a few roadies, his brother could have been there as well) anyway the barman went to serve Rory first, but Rory insisted that he serve me first, I insisted that he served Rory, and so it went on, so the barman took it on himself to serve Rory first, a little while later two pints of lager came over and a thumbs up from Rory!!!!! well this made my day as you can imagine, but what impressed me more than anything and I have never forgotten to this day when I got up to leave the pub, to get ready to walk over the road to see him perform, I went over to him to shake his hand, I felt compelled to do this (I don't normally intrude on anyone's space) when I thrust out my hand rather awkwardly to shake his hand he stopped his conversation and rose to his feet to accept my hand, he asked me if I was going to see the show and told me to have a good night, he was really genuine, modest and down to earth, just having a drink like everybody else in the pub, what a star.
The only building next to it was the pub. I was in the pub for about 10 minutes when the man himself, Rory walked in with all of the band members. After a few more minutes they were joined by all of the musicians from the smaller bands too. Rory introduced me to all the other band members and we all drank and had a craic together ‘til closing time.
I then decided to go and try and find a place to stay, as I had no place booked. So I walked up the avenue from the pub to see if I could find a local B&B which would consist of a loft full of hay! As I was walking up the avenue I could hear a car coming up behind me. It was an automatic Mitsubishi, Donal Gallagher was driving the car and Rory was in the passenger seat. When Rory saw me he opened the window of the car & he said to me “Mick, where are you off to?” I said I was looking for somewhere to put my head down and he said, “Why don’t you come back to our hotel?” which was in Cookstown. It was a new hotel built after the old one had been blown up by the IRA. It was a beautiful hotel; I still have the menu and guest book at home!
I drank in the lobby of the hotel with Rory, Donal, and all the other band members from the smaller bands that had played that day. We drank Guinness until 3 in the morning until just Rory, Donal and myself were left. Rory then said to me about 3.30 “We have about 10 or 12 rooms booked for the various bands” so Rory brought me up to a room and said “This is your room, you can stay here tonight at our expense” The room had a big double bed, and a big bathroom with a Jacuzzi! Rory smiled at me and said “Have a nice sleep, see you in the morning” and walked away.
When I got up in the morning there was nobody left……. they were all gone….. and I never got the chance to thank him……
As I was standing alone, a guy came towards me in a plaid shirt, long hair and shall we say possibly a bit tipsy. I had a little panic, so decided to cut him off at the pass by asking him the time. He asked me if I would be OK standing on my own, a very little girl with very big eyes. I thought to myself "Oh no, not another poet!!!" He explained that I was standing outside his Mum's house. I told him that I had a lift in a few minutes and then the car pulled up and he left - The guys were all yelling at me "What did you say to Rory?" I said "Rory Who?"