Marc spent most of the year 1974 in the United States. From a historical perspective, it should be noted that the government in the United Kingdom had begun imposing disproportionately high taxes on the incomes of its rock stars at this time, and nearly all of England’s top artists were forced to take up residency in other countries for this specific reason. Although Marc was said to be reluctant to leave London, he started shopping around for other places to live just like the other musicians in the same situation as himself. He later admitted that his first selection of Monte Carlo, where Ringo Starr had also gone, was a bad choice for him. It was distressing for Marc to be away from his fans in the UK, not to mention a serious threat to his continued popularity at home, and life in Monte Carlo bored him to tears. As a result, Marc copiously overindulged in food, drink and drugs, becoming quite obese and giving the press even more ammunition to cruelly hurl at him.

Marc’s relationship with T. Rex’s backup singer/keyboardist Gloria Jones had also evolved into a full-blown romance by this time, resulting in irreparable damage to his marriage to June Child. June told the British press that Marc had been unfaithful to her on previous occasions, and that this was the final straw for her. Sensational tabloid stories followed of Gloria’s rebuttal, stating that she was not responsible for breaking up the marriage. Since it was later revealed that Marc and June had never actually completed all of the paperwork necessary for them to be legally divorced by the time of his death, one might surmise that their feelings of ambivalence about the marriage had also taken a toll on Marc’s precarious emotional state as well.

With all this going on, it’s easy to understand that there were reports surfacing of Marc and Gloria going on a househunting expedition in California prior to the start of the 1974 US tour! For American T. Rex fans, the thought of Marc living on our side of the ocean was just too good to be true, and we tried not to get our hopes up too high. Gloria’s internationally-respected credentials as a recording artist and Motown songwriter offered Marc many new avenues to explore in the United States, as evidenced by the number of T. Rex tracks recorded in Los Angeles during this period. If Marc had moved to California as planned, it would have given him some much-needed tax relief as well; it was something I was looking forward to asking him about as the starting date of the US tour drew closer each day.

In the summer of 1974, a nightclub had just opened up way out in what Marc would later describe as "the New Jersey heights," and it became a stop of the concert itineraries of many prominent bands on tour that year. Previously a country club, this venue had not only the capacity for 2,500 fans but also acres of parking on the former golf course as well. Heavily promoted on the radio, the date was announced for T. Rex to appear at the "Joint in the Woods" in Parsippany, scheduled for October 2, 1974.

Just like on the previous tour, though, this date was nearly canceled. However, in this instance there was no other group like Three Dog Night to blame, because Marc was headlining; this was yet another blunder that came from within his own organization. Someone at T. Rex’s booking agency in New York decided that the stage was too small and wanted to call off the show. In turn, the club’s management had set about the business of trying to line up a replacement act for that Wednesday evening. Realizing that my golden opportunity to meet Marc so close to home was about to be snatched away from me one more time, I tracked Marc’s manager down to a hotel in Philadelphia and poured my heart out to him. Tony Howard, it turned out, knew absolutely nothing about the cancellation, and it was a complete surprise to him, because the group’s itinerary stated that they were supposed to be in Parsippany on the 2nd. This gave me a ray of hope!

At this point, my parents intervened; without their help, there might never have been a New Jersey date on Marc’s final tour of America. The very next day was Yom Kippur, and while Marc observed the Jewish holiday, I had the day off from school. My mother drove me out to Parsippany, so that we could inspect the size of the stage ourselves and report back our findings. The club’s management was delighted to see us, because they really didn’t want to cancel the concert at all. "You tell them," the club owner cried indignantly, "we just had Isis here last week and they’re an 8-piece band. This stage is not the size of a postage stamp, and I don’t know how that rumor got started!" Meanwhile, I was somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that the club served alcohol, because I was still only 14 years old at the time; I was afraid that they wouldn’t let me in to see the show. However, when I mentioned this to the owner, he was already so grateful that we were in a position to salvage the concert date that he wasn’t the least bit concerned about my being a minor. He was deep in conversation with my mother about his business problems (the Town of Parsippany was doing everything in its power to close the place, mostly because they didn’t like the word "Joint" in the name), and he just said to her, "It’s no problem as long as you accompany Natalie." Now, my mother had not originally planned to be my chaperone that night, but under the circumstances, it was the only thing to do, and so she agreed. She immediately went out to prepare for the big event, even going so far as to purchase matching outfits for us at an African boutique in downtown Hackensack!