Veterans Memorial Coliseum holds its share of memories for Robin Wilson, from having an iconic children’s TV entertainer introduce his first performance at the Arizona State Fair to covering Tom Petty on that same stage with an even bigger Arizona icon, Stevie Nicks.
As Gin Blossoms prepare to headline yet another State Fair concert on Friday, Oct. 2, Wilson is, in theory, on the phone to talk about the night he shared a stage with a star who’s been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame not once but twice, a conversation that inevitably triggers other memories.
“Well, aside from the obvious sentiments of what an honor it was to share the stage with an Arizona legend like that at the State Fair, which was just beyond memorable, the coolest
thing about it was that she brought a bong to our studio,” Wilson recalls with a laugh.
“She showed up to rehearse with us at my studio, Ed, and she brought her own bong. So that was really special. I mean, that ranks as one of my great pot-smoking memories of all time, right up there when we got high with Phil Hartman after we did ‘Saturday Night Live.’ Phil Hartman came to our dressing room and fired up a joint. Stevie Nicks bringing a bong to my studio was equal to that moment for sure.”
How Gin Blossoms came to cover a Tom Petty song with Stevie Nicks
He can’t recall exactly how he came to find himself on stage with Nicks that night in 1995, when Gin Blossoms headlined what Wilson referred to onstage as "a cavalcade of stars" with fellow Tempe rockers The Refreshments and Dead Hot Workshop.
“My instinct is to take credit for it, that it was my idea, but there's a chance that I'm wrong about that,” Wilson says. “A lot of our memories get jumbled. Sometimes, one of us will tell a story and I'll hear it and think, ‘I thought that was me.’ But I feel like every time we played the State Fair, I wanted to do something memorable with some other Arizona icon. So I'm pretty sure it was my idea, but I wouldn't be shocked to find out that it wasn't.”
They ended up covering Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “I Need to Know” with Nicks.
“I think maybe I had heard her do that song before,” Wilson says. “And it was a song I knew our band could learn and perform with confidence and not a lot of effort.”
It was the only song Wilson suggested.
“And she just right away agreed to it,” he says. “I suppose in the back of her mind, she was probably thinking, ‘Why aren't we doing one of my songs?’ But she just agreed right away and came in and rocked our (expletives). She was a real sport. I mean, she showed up to rehearsal with her own bong. I'd say that's commitment.”
The crowd went wild, of course, despite what Wilson recalls as a fairly underwhelming job of introducing her.
“Having a big guest star join us on stage, that was kind of the first time it had ever happened,” Wilson says.
“So I didn't quite articulate exactly what was happening very well. I mean, I introduced her. I just did a crappy job. I think without any buildup at all, I just said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Stevie Nicks.' The audience was kind of stunned and didn't know what the (expletive) I was talking about. Then all of a sudden, she strolled out and we started playing. It was a lack of showmanship on my part. But once we got into it, I'm up there on stage singing along with Stevie Nicks.”
'Can we find Ladmo and have him bring us out and be a part of the show?'
He’s pretty sure it was the year before he shared a stage with Nicks that he lined up a special appearance by Ladmo.
“The first time we ever did the State Fair, I remember my manager asking us, ‘Well, is there anything special you want to do?’” Wilson says.
“And I said right off the bat, ‘I want to get the biggest Arizona state flag we can find and get it on the stage.’ So they found one that was the size of the stage and we rented it. I couldn't tell you how much it cost to rent. But my very next thought was, ‘I want Ladmo on the bill. Can we find Ladmo and have him bring us out and be a part of the show?’”
So his manager went out and tracked down Ladmo.
“It was so great to have Ladmo on the bill,” Wilson says. “He shows up and he comes into our dressing room wheeling a cart full of Ladmo bags for everybody in the band. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. It was so touching.”
He was holding that bag as he walked through the fair with some friends after the concert.
“People were coming up, congratulating me and wanting autographs,” Wilson recalls.
“And I started passing out stuff from my Ladmo bag to the people that were there at the fair that were asking for autographs. This predates the time when people would come up and ask for pictures. They wanted to shake your hand and get an autograph. To this day, I still love signing stuff. It really means a lot.”
By the time he made it to his car, he’d given away everything inside that Ladmo bag – the toys, the candy, playing cards.
“But the one thing that I kept that still to this day means so much to me is Ladmo had personally autographed a promotional photo of himself for each of us in the band,” he says.
“So I still have my autographed Ladmo print hanging in my living room on Long Island. And it's so sweet. It says, ‘To Robin, thanks for remembering your friend Ladmo.’ And then it says, ‘P.S. may all your CDs be gold.’ Just the most wonderful heartwarming… . Even now, I'm starting to tear up just thinking about how special that is to me.”
It’s a great photo, too, Wilson says.
“In the photograph, Ladmo's there in his regalia of a top hat, the tie T-shirt, and on his jacket lapel, he's wearing a big button that says, ‘I'm Smitty’s and I'm proud,’” Wilson says.
When Wilson offered to introduce Ladmo so people 'know who you are'
His manager had never heard of Ladmo.
“He said, ‘Who is this guy?,’” Wilson recalls.
“And I'm like, ‘Well, he's kind of the Arizona equivalent of Bozo the Clown. He hosted a show very similar to Bozo, where he would have a live audience that was giving out prizes and he was showing cartoons.’ So I explained to my manager as best I could who Ladmo was and what he represented to someone who grew up in Arizona.”
It wasn’t until he saw the check that Wilson realized his manager still had no idea who this legendary children’s entertainer was and what he meant to Arizona.
“When it came time to sign the check, because we paid Ladmo, like, 1,000 bucks to show up and introduce us, my manager in the memo wrote, ‘Opening clown,’” Wilson says, with a laugh.
Ladmo definitely knew who Ladmo was and what he meant to Arizona.
“It had been several years since Ladmo had been on television,” Wilson says.
“I think ‘The Wallace and Ladmo Show’ ended sometime in the late ‘80s. So it had been a few years. And I was talking with Ladmo in the dressing room. I said, ‘When you come out to introduce us, I feel like we should introduce you so everybody, you know, knows who you are.’ Ladmo looked at me with so much confidence and charisma. And he said, ‘Robin, when I hit the stage and they start playing that music, every kid over seven years old is gonna lose their mind.’”
Wilson laughs at the memory.
“I was just like, ‘All right, Ladmo! You're the man. You are the man.’”
And sure enough, Wilson says, “As soon as they started playing that theme music of his, the place kind of lost its mind.”
Gin Blossoms' parents 'started getting, like, crushed by this rush of fans'
He also remembers the Gin Blossoms’ parents experiencing their growing fame firsthand.
“We had all our friends and parents in a seating area that we had roped off at Veterans Memorial Coliseum,” Wilson says. “So our parents and friends are all sitting together in four or five rows. And when we hit the stage, apparently there was this surge in the audience and people started falling into our area, where our parents were all sitting, and our parents started getting, like, crushed by this rush of fans.
Wilson laughs, then says, “And one of them described it as ‘It was like the Beatles all of a sudden showed up at the Arizona State Fair.’ They were just blown away, trying to comprehend what was happening to their little babies as we took the stage.”
Another cherished memory of that first State Fair gig is hearing the radio ads.
“I got in my car and turned on the radio and my childhood fantasy came true,” Wilson says, adopted a booming voice that makes him sound like a wrestling announcer or a radio ad for a monster truck event, at one point echoing his own words.
“It's like , ‘Coming to Veterans Memorial Coliseum!! Gin Blossoms!!’ with all the ‘Coming now! (Coming now!) The Arizona State Fair! (The Arizona State Fair!), the way those ads were produced to make it sound so exciting with all the echo and delay. And it was so cool having grown up listening to, ‘Coming to Veterans Memorial Coliseum! It’s Triumph with Rush!’ or whatever. ‘ZZ Top live at Veterans Memorial Coliseum!’ Then all of a sudden, it's us on the radio being introduced the same way.”
There aren’t a lot of moments in his life, he says, “where I connect to my childhood in Arizona and have some moment of pride where I think ‘Wow, we kind of did it.”
This newsletter goes to 11. Sign up for weekly music news.
'A moment of extraordinary pride' at last year's Arizona State Fair
Even after all these years, he’s proud to play the fair again in 2026.
“It’s different now,” he says. “We're a veteran group. We've been at it for so long. But it's exciting. Anytime we get to go home and perform in Arizona, it's exciting.”
He was extremely excited to hear that The Format had covered a Gin Blossoms song with Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World at last year’s sold-out State Fair gig.
“Oh man, we were all so excited about that,” Wilso says. “I don't get too nerded out too often where I have that kind of moment where I sort of can feel our success, such that it is. But to have that legacy, to have The Format and Jim get up and sing our song at the State Fair, I called my son right away and I'm like, ‘Dude, you gotta see this!’” It was a moment of extraordinary pride.”
Ed has covered pop music for The Republic since 2007, reviewing festivals and concerts, interviewing legends, covering the local scene and more. He did the same in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. Follow him on X and Instagram @edmasley and on Facebook as Ed Masley. Email him at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: When Gin Blossoms rocked with Stevie Nicks at the Arizona State Fair
