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Shortly before cutting the hard-rock classic Smokin', Humble Pie played the biggest US gig of them all Shea Stadium, opening for Grand Funk Railroad. It was a make-or-break moment for the U.K. band, and just as the set was heating up, it began to rain. Playing during a storm is a risky situation in the best of times, but in 1971 it meant taking your life in your hands. Frontman Steve Marriott took the mic and dramatically announced that the group didn't care 'It's comin' down rain, and we don't give a f*! We're gonna rock your asses all night long!''The audience went absolutely berserk,' drummer Jerry Shirley recalls. Even Grand Funk's fastidious manager Terry Knight was impressed enough to allow a couple of encores. The band managed to avoid getting killed. And America was now Humble Pie territory.Lucky for the group, the next studio album they released had just as much rock 'n roll bravado - seasoned with deep blues roots and a whole lot of soul. Smokin', Humble Pie's fifth studio set, made Steve Marriott a star for a second time, gave the band it's most enduring song - '30 Days in the Hole' - and made them U.S. headliners.It was also the sound of a band in transition, both in sound and personnel. When Humble Pie formed in 1969, everybody had something of a profile Marriott had been in the Small Faces; guitarist/singer Peter Frampton, fresh from the Herd, was known both for his chops and his good looks (the U.K. press called him the 'face of '68'). Bassist Greg Ridley and drummer Jerry Shirley, meanwhile, came from cult favorite hard-rock bands Spooky Tooth and Apostolic Intervention. So Humble Pie initially functioned as a democratic supergroup Everybody wrote songs, everybody sang lead, and the sound seesawed from heavy rock to the acoustic direction of their second LP, Town & Country.Eventually, they acquired a U.S. manager and booking agent - Dee Anthony and
