Yvonne and Loren Mears Interview
Interview with Yvonne Mears and Loren Mears
April 1, 2023 Memorial Stadium Champaign, IL
Interviewer: Summer Matthes SM = Summer Matthes YM = Yvonne Mears LM = Loren Mears
SM: Alright, so I’m just going to start it out. This is April first, 5:07 [p.m.]. We’re recording:
YM: Yvonne Mears and Loren Mears. SM: Perfect. And yeah it’s 5:07 [p.m.] and we’re going to start—um yeah, recording right now. So we can start with her [Yvonne]. Why don’t you tell us about your experience here and how did you end up at Farm Aid?
YM: Actually, I think there was an article in the newspaper. They were going to have a press conference at the stadium to announce that Willie Nelson, the Governor, and John Cougar Mellencamp. So I thought, I’m going to the press conference, you know, just to see the stadium. (laughs). You know, to get in, even though, you know, we’d been here many times. So I took my two-year-old and we went to the press conference and he was fussy because it was a blistering, hot day. So we just sort of backed off and I’m trying to take pictures and get up there and do things like that. You know, the pictures with the old Kodak camera. So we finally—he was fussy. My son Mike was a little fussy. We just backed off and the guy came up to me and says “This guy need to cool off?” And I said, “Yeah, it’s pretty hot. You know, we should probably go.” And he goes, “Well, just come into Willie’s bus here and cool off. The air conditioner is on.” I said, “Excuse me?” And he says, “No, just come in and cool off. Willie would want you to do that.” So he took us in. He gave my son a can of Coke, a two-year-old, but I let him have it. Now, I think, My god, what was I doing? Letting a two-year-old drink a can of Coke. But, uh, I remember sitting in the bus with just this guy and my son and just start trying to look around and I wanted to take pictures in there desperately, but I didn’t. So, uh, I remember like we’re sitting at the table. Mike was sort of up and down getting cooled off and I remember just like a wall of vitamins. Vitamin bottles. (laughs). And I’m trying to read it, read it all. I bet there had to be fifty to seventy-five bottles like on little shelves around the sink. And, so then, after a little bit, we left. I mean, we said, “You know, I think we’re good now. We can go back outside.” And we were just sort of standing there. And there was a policeman who’d been outside the bus and he said, “Did you feel safe going in there?”, and I went, “Well, yeah. I did. What’s going to happen here?” And I just remember that the person with Willie Nelson [Clarification: Referring to the guy who let her in the van] was kind—was concerned about Mike’s welfare being so hot. And then we just went out and we watched the rest of the press conference and I remember you [Loren Mears] were working that day down the street and so, we hopped in the car and we’d go down and I said, “Guess where we’ve been? We just saw Willie Nelson and John Cougar Mellencamp.” And he’s like “What?” And I don’t know if we—I don’t think I was even telling you that I was doing that or maybe I just read it in the paper that morning, but that was our little adventure. And then we decided that we’d go to the concert and we did.
SM: Do you remember anything from the concert? YM: You know, I remember the rain.
I: Yeah.
YM: And I remember trying to take things to protect us from the rain and take food and I don’t know. Did we take any alcohol? (laughs). I don’t remember. I know there was a lot in there (laughs) and we might have. But there was—I was with a group that I worked with. So at that point, I was an operating room nurse, so I was with other people that I worked with—a nurse anesthetist—and we’re all talking about “God, we gotta go to work tomorrow.” (laughs). And I remember saying, “I got a 7:30 [a.m.] case.” But we stayed to the very end. And I do remember like they’d announce some of the, you know, they announced the performers and it’s like, Whoa, we get to see these guys perform. But it wasn’t like all these years later looking out here at the performance list, it’s like, I don’t remember them. (laughs). So, what are some of your memories of it? [Speaking to Loren].
LM: I don’t remember any of it really other than it was a good show and I enjoyed it. But, you know, as far as—I just remember the terrible weather. (laughs).
YM: The terrible weather, yeah. We’ll tell a story about one of my coworkers. So we were sitting in the southeast part of the horseshoe and we turn around and we look up and I’m with my friends from work and there’s another one of my friends and he’s in the upper balcony, but he’s got one leg over the edge like he’s gonna climb the the fence and we’re like, What is he doing? But I mean, he was fine. I think he was—maybe more than inebriated, I’m not quite sure (laughs) what his choice was, but he was late for work the next morning. (laughs).
I: Do you guys have, like, a favorite artist there that drew you out or was it just like a concert that you guys wanted to see?
YM: You know, it seems to me that they’d announce somebody and I’d think, Wow, I don’t believe I’m really getting to hear this person even if it’s just for a song or two. Um, I—
LM: It went so fast, you can hardly remember different things.
YM: It did go fast.
LM: You know, when you look back on that [Clarification: Referring to Farm Aid’s advertised setlist], I saw Billy Joel’s name on there and I don’t remember even seeing Billy Joel there. You know so, it was the same way like Bon Jovi and, you know, other people that ended up being superstars that were just kind of on their way up, some were on their way down, but you know, it was fun. But you know, to really remember any of the acts or anything like that—that’s forty years ago or almost forty years ago.
YM: Yeah, I just remember thinking how lucky we were to see all of these people here in Champaign. You know, and I do remember a lot of the farm problems of that era too. Um, and I remember thinking, you know, if anybody deserves it, it’s the people who’s feeding our country, so. But I just—I guess I’m just glad that we were there and we could experience it even though we don’t remember a lot of it at this point. (laughs).
SM: Yeah, so you guys don’t really have any ties to farming? You just heard about it through the media?
YM: We just heard about it through the media, yeah. So I mean, we’re not farm people. I mean, anything like that. Though, my father, you know, his father was a farmer for a short while, but even at that, you know, my maternal grandfather farmed, but you’re talking about almost a hundred years ago. So, at least, my father would’ve been a hundred and three yesterday, so. And your family had a little bit of farming connection?
LM: A little, yeah.
YM: But—
LM: But then, when I was a little guy, they were all out of it [farming]. They still had not quite good farmland, but that was about it.
YM: And I was, um, I guess I didn’t realize it [Farm Aid] was still going on every year.
SM: Oh, the Farm Aid?
YM: The Farm Aid, yeah.
SM: Yeah, a lot of us [History Harvest class] when we researched it, we didn’t know a lot about it and now it’s present and now they hold one every year. So yeah, this was the thing [the 1985 Farm Aid] that started it all.
YM: And I do remember the Live Aid connection with that too.
SM: Yeah. Like, uh, Bob Dylan’s comment. You know, he was at Live Aid.
YM: Right, right.
SM: Yeah, we [History Harvest class] explored that and he was saying, “You know we should hold something for the farmers if we have all this money to give to Africa.”
YM: Yeah. And I didn’t, I was just reading in a book over there [History Harvest poster board area] about the connection with Willie Nelson and Governor Thompson. You know, Willie always played at the State Fair and they got to be friends and golfing buddies and I do remember thinking, Wow, it was pretty awesome just to see the governor. (laughs). Because if you think back in those days with the media, you got a picture or a little blip on the news, but you didn’t get the saturation that you have now.
SM: Yeah, I think in an earlier interview said he was on the stage, the governor, most of the time.
YM: Yes, uh-huh.
SM: Well, thank you guys so much for coming out here.
YM: Thank you for doing this. End of interview.
This set of recordings is of a range of participants in the Farm Aid concert of 1985, and is to be used only for historical research and educational purposes. Interviews were conducted with the express written consent of all participants. This collection was compiled by the Champaign County History Museum and the Spring 2023 History Harvest class at the University of Illinois. These recordings are presented with transcripts of their contents.