B
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, March 12, 2015
the b-side
There’s no handle? There’s no handle. How the
hell do I get inside? I’m supposed to be interviewing
the talent buyer of The Blind Pig at 6 p.m. and it is 6:03
and there’s no handle on the door to get in. I feverishly
check my e-mail to avoid being later than the three minutes
I’ve already lost. “I’ll meet you in the 8 Ball.” I trudge down
the gravel hill to the graffitied door of the 8 Ball, The Blind
Pig’s basement bar, to meet Jason Berry.
I step into the 8 Ball Saloon, multi-colored Christmas lights
wrap around ceiling pipes, and the dimly lit room is filled with
dart boards and pool tables. Two men at the bar alternate be-
tween popcorn and beer, their eyes fixated on Alaskan Troopers
busting a coke house on a TV. My phone says it’s 6:20 when Berry
walks into the saloon. He is clearly busy, fumbling papers in his
hands as he goes to shake mine.
“Can you ride with me to the post office?” he
asks. “I’ve got a few errands to run.”
Berry has worked at The Blind Pig as talent buyer for
more than 17 years and is an essential part of the
smooth running machine that is Ann Arbor’s
premier music venue. The Pig puts on more
than 200 shows per year, a mixture of live
bands and DJs, with an average ticket price of
$15. Berry chalks up his 17-year tenure to the
support of his boss, Blind Pig owner
Betty Goffett.
“Buyers don’t last more than
two years on average.
They’re under tremen-
dous pressure, from
the community, from
the ownership,”
Berry said. “So, if
the owner doesn’t
have your back
or is some sort
of flake, then
you’re go-
ing to burn
through
buyers. The
owners
have got to
have your
back. I’ve
been mega
lucky that
I’ve had
Betty.”
Goffett and
her late
husband
came to
own the Pig
in 1981. Roy
Goffett grew
up in Liver-
pool, England,
witnessing The
Beatles gain trac-
tion in the Cavern
Club. Owning a
music club was
his dream. After he
made a small fortune
in the steel industry,
his wife, who also
came up from money,
bought him the Blind Pig
as a gift. Roy passed away
in 2001.
The Blind Pig’s history
can be seen in two dis-
tinct phases: pre-Goffett
and post-Goffett. Prior
to the Goffetts’ ownership,
the Pig was a much smaller,
strictly blues club.
“They were the ones who said, ‘Yeah,
we aren’t just going to do blues. We’re
going to do everything, so that’s when
The Blind Pig became what it is today,” Berry said. “No one
remembers the old Blind Pig except the old-school hippies.
That was all Betty.”
Design by Shreya Razak
See BLIND PIG, Page 2B