Lisa Crowder Interview

Interview with Lisa Crowder

April 1, 2023

Memorial Stadium

Champaign, IL 

RP = Rosette Pavkov

LC = Lisa Crowder

D= Daniel

J= Joseph

RP: Can I have you just talk a little bit so we can get your voice levels on the recorder.

LC: Sure, what would you like me to talk about?

RP: Uh

LC: Farm Aid? (laughs)

RP: That's a good start. Well, my name is Rosette, and I'll be doing your interview today. 

LC: Okay

RP: Today we are at the history harvest at Club 77, right? Yeah. 

J: At memorial stadium. 

RP: Yeah. On April 1st, 2023. And then would you mind just saying your name and then spelling it out for me, first and last? 

LC: OK, my name is Lisa Crowder. Crowder is C-r-o-w-d-e-r. Um, anything else?

RP: No, that's, that's all we're good. Perfect. So can I just get a little bit of a overview of who you, like- what brought you to Farm Aid in 1985? 

LC: Um. Well (laughs), we hadn't really had anything like that happen before. So I think maybe Live Aid took place right before this, and that was a big deal, and that was mainly on the coast and in Europe. You know, London. And so this was something a little closer to home. 

RP: Were you an attendee, staff? 

LC: I attended. I was 17. I just graduated from high school. 

RP: Okay.

LC: So I came with my best friend and my sister and her boyfriend and one of her friends. 

RP: I think that officially makes you our youngest interviewee. 

LC: I probably was one of the youngest ones there. 

RP: Yeah, but that's a very interesting perspective. So what did it mean for you to be there? Did you have connections to the farm industry or were you there just to? 

LC: Um, no, not really my- see I think part of what happened with the farms was the embargo with the Soviet Union, which also affected my dad's job in Springfield, where the Fiat Allis plant was. It ended up closing down about that time which was devastating to our family because we weren't allowed, they weren't allowed to do business with the Soviet Union so it wasn't just the farm community that was affected. It was a lot of industrial jobs and things too. 

RP: Do you have a favorite memory from Farm Aid by chance?

LC: My favorite memory, um (laughs) 

RP: Or performance that stuck out to you. 

LC: Well I came. Don Henley's Boys of Summer was the big hit going on at the time. I wanted to see that. That ended up being one of the last songs played so we had to sit through the entire concert in the rain before that. I think Bon Jovi was one of the first concert, one of the first performers, and they were pretty not well known at that time. Their big album didn't come out till the next summer. Slippery When Wet came out the next summer, so they really didn't even know who they were. So that was kind of fun to look back on that. The Beach Boys were a blast. Willie Nelson came out and sang with, like, everybody. So those are the ones that really- Charlie Daniels Band playing Devil Went Down to Georgia was a big deal. You know, Foreigner, big band at the time. So yeah, I was more into pop and rock than I was- there was a lot of country. It was a lot of country for a 17 year old to sit through. (laughs)

RP: Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is actually a very random question about Foreigner. Do you by chance remember the band that- the choir that sang with them? Because they were a local choir from a local church. No, no recollection? 

LC: I don't remember. I, you know, a lot of these people I don't even remember watching. So you kinda vaguely remember, “Oh yeah,” but, um.  

RP: Were you able to meet any of the artists? No? Okay.

LC: We were sitting at that very last doorway right there. We walked through there and sat down. So we had pretty good seats. 

RP: Yeah?

LC: (laughs)

D: Oh, so you were in the stands? How- ? 

LC: Yeah, I was in the stands. Oh, no, I wasn't gonna be down there with all the crazy people, no. (laughs)

D: And how did it look to you looking down and seeing the, the, the, the-

RP: The crazy people.

D: (laughs)

LC: It was very crowded and it was raining. And, you know, after a while they're all slipping and sliding on the- I think they had maybe put a tarp down over the field, but it looked pretty muddy. So they were having a good time down there. 

RP: Were you able to come and go, grab concessions? 

LC: Well, see, I think they might have ran out of food so I don't know that there was concessions to grab. At least that was the rumor we got. So what happened was kind of funny, kind of funny story. So the five of us came and as we're walking in my sister's friend who drove said, “oh, I forgot my ticket.” And we're like, “well, we'll just pick up another ticket while we're here.” We drove over from Springfield. And she's like, “no, no, I'm going to go home and get it.” We got there really early. So the three of them went back- this is before cellphones. We had no way of connecting with each other afterward. They went all the way back to Springfield to get her ticket and came back. So me and my friend got in line and there's maybe a few hundred people in front of us. It was early. So we just sat there and we watched thousands and thousands and thousands of people line up on the quad behind us. Just kept coming, just kept coming. They hadn't let anybody in yet. So then the line started moving and we're like, “what are we gonna do? They're not here yet.” So we went in. No hope of finding them in this big crowd, right? So we just walked the closest to the stage we could and sat down so we could make sure we could find our seats again. And then, and then we sat there the whole day, you know, getting rained on- no money, no food. But we had a good time. But after Don Henley played, we’re like “All right, we've had enough.” So we walked out and most of the people were still inside because Willie Nelson had come out with some more people again. And we walked down probably over here to the sidewalk and who's walking towards us? My sister and her boyfriend and her friend. So we didn't have any problem at all finding them. So that was, that was interesting. They had enough, too, I guess. 

RP: Just because I- I think you've been our only female interviewee? Actually all day too in our group. How did it feel seeing so many, like, male to female, like, performers? Because I know that there was, there was a lot of guys, not so many females. Did that feel off or was that pretty typical? 

LC: I think that was pretty typical. Especially, especially as far as rock bands go, there weren't a lot of female performers at that time. You know, Pat Benatar. A few, you know, a few people here and there, maybe Heart. But not, not a lot of female rock performers- pop, they didn't have a lot of pop performers, and they did have some country ones which I didn't really listen to country music, _______ _____ (??), June Carter, Cash and some other people. I forgot that Johnny Cash played. That's pretty cool. Saw that on the list. 

RP: Um, I'm just trying to refresh myself with the list a little bit. Were you in one of, like, the boxes by chance? In the queue? I heard that basically before they were letting people into the venue they had, like, boxes that everyone was kind of cramped, cramped into, and then everyone was facing forward. And then suddenly the doors actually opened from the side magically? No? 

LC: Oh, really? No. 

RP: Not your experience? 

LC: No, we weren't that far up, I guess. Sounds like that would have been the front. 

RP: How early do you think you got there? 

LC: What time did it start? ‘Cause I don't even remember. Let's say it's a 14 hour concert, which sounds like it started really early. We were there a few hours ahead of time. 

RP: Okay, I think we heard people started showing up about 4:00 or 3:00 AM, so. 

LC: Alright, I’m pretty sure it was daylight, though. OK, I-I don't remember what time it started. 

RP: Okay. Is there anything else you'd like to share with us? 

LC: Um, no, I can't really think- we did the wave all day long. I don’t know if they told you that. (laughs)

RP: Really? Was your core sore? 

LC: Just constantly. Beach balls. Seeing Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen appear in public for the first time was a big thrill. 

D: So you, you are from Illinois yourself. Is that right? Did quite a lot of people from your local community go to the concert? Or was it, like, maybe your friendship group, or?

LC: I didn't know anybody else that did. I imagine most of the people were probably college students. So yeah, I probably was one of the youngest just coming out of high school.

D: Right, I see. 

LC: Yeah, _______(??)  so that’s with my older sister

RP: Did you end up going to U of I, or?

LC: Well, many, many years later I went to UIS. Springfield. Yeah, not here. 

RP: Do you-

LC: _______ (??) Illini fans. (laughs) 

RP: Naturally

LC: I used to follow the ‘05 team around. 

RP: Do you feel like Farm Aid for you just brought more sense of awareness to the farm crisis? I know that you, as you mentioned, it did affect other communities, but just that specifically were there messages that were said over and over again- 

LC: Yeah, I think it did. It, it was pretty alarming when you grow up in a agricultural state, you know, surrounded by farms. There's nothing between here and Springfield but farms. So to hear that they're in trouble is pretty devastating for sure. Have you asked the question- What have you learned that you thought was interesting about this whole thing? 

RP: About it?

LC: Yeah.

D: To be fair, I didn't know it existed before learning about it, so I like, I-I'm not from this area, so I yeah

LC: Right, where are you- ? 

D: I'm from the UK so-

LC: So are you more familiar with like the Live Aid that's going on-?

D: Yes, yes, so I’m like very aware of like Live Aid, but I'd never actually heard of Farm Aid. So and it like we've we've kind of learned like it's very much like- it was very much like a community type of thing like so, especially with a lot of people that come in to live in the local area, they're very fond and very proud of the event. So that's, that's kind of one of the reasons that we've put this thing on to be honest. But so yeah, that's definitely something that we've learned. 

LC: Yeah, yeah. I don't know. You know, they put it together so fast. I don't know that people really had a- 

RP: I heard they had about a 20 day notice, yeah. 

LC: Oh yeah? Yeah it was amazing what they were made- what they managed to do in a short period of time but you know, they had some big names to help them organize it so yeah. So this is actually a class on Farm Aid that you're taking?

RP: So technically this is a class on harvesting history. 

LC: On harvesting history.

RP: Yeah, and so to- yeah, we've, we specialized this class on the 1985 concert and then have been tracking basically how it came about, why it came about. And then we learned the interview process and what went into creating a museum exhibit and then eventually this will all be homed in Spurlock Museum and then shifted over to the campaign county- Champaign County History Museum, sorry. 

LC: Okay, alright. Anything else?

RP: Nope, thank you very much for your time. 

D: Perfect. Thank you so much. 

LC: You're welcome. 

J: I'm gonna end it. 

RP: Yep, go for it.