MBJ Enterprises LLC

Max and Brad are yelling. Bumping bellies. About ready to throw down. And Deana walks into the middle of it. “They look at me and say, ‘Who are you?’  I said, ‘I’m Deana Baker. I’m Max’s sister. I’m here to help.’” They ask what she’s going to do. “Uh… whatever. I don’t know.” Then comes the assignment. A box. Full of pre-registration paperwork. Hundreds of packets that people are supposed to pick...

You want to be a tour manager? A promoter rep? Here’s the test. It’s almost 1:00 AM. Bus call is set. The band wants six pizzas. You’re in a town where everything shuts down by 11. You forgot to place the order. Money won’t fix it. They want pizza. What do you do? There’s always a solution. You go to 7-Eleven. You buy frozen cheese pizzas. You heat them up. You slide them into pizza boxes. That’s...

June 3, 1994. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ted Nugent, and Ian Moore at the Zoo Amphitheatre. Big summer show. Big production. Tight camps. And then the mistake. Before the show, stagehands went into Nugent’s dressing room and smoked weed. The tour manager walked in, caught the smell, and lost it. Ted is famously anti-weed. It wasn’t just a bad look. It was disrespectful. They almost got fired. Different dress...

July 2nd at the Bricktown Brewery brought The Romantics and The Dirt Poets together for a $3 ticket night. The show did around 300 people. At three bucks a head, that’s not bad for a club show in the mid-90s. Everyone knows The Romantics . Solid catalog. Radio songs. Name recognition. But the band worth spotlighting that night was The Dirt Poets . If you were around the Oklahoma scene in the 90s,...

Three days. Three cities. One crash course in show business.  February 28 at the Diamond Ballroom.  March 1 at Cain's Ballroom.  March 3 at The Cotillion. That run wasn’t just about ticket sales. It was about learning how Psychopathic Records operated. ICP’s show was precision chaos. Around 100 liters of Faygo per night. When the soda ran out, the show was done. That’s how rehearsed it was. 9...

While the world was watching Woodstock ’94 on a massive stage, Oklahoma did it our way. August 14, 1994. Eight local bands. Eight dollars at the door. Six bucks in advance. That  was the deal. This was for everyone who couldn’t afford to fly out to the real Woodstock chaos. No Netflix  documentary. No mud-covered headlines. Just a stacked local lineup and a crowd ready to  show up. Bands like Slic...

When Carcass and Life of Agony hit The Roxy, it changed the temperature in the room. Life of Agony already had a strong following here. That show packed the place out and brought real energy back into the building. For the first time, there were cars filling the parking lot, a circle pit on the floor, and stage diving off the front. It was chaos in the best way. Security had to work that night. Ke...

March 8 and 9, 2003. Two nights. Two cities. Both sold out. First at the Bricktown Event Center in Oklahoma City. Then at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa. In OKC, he was Jeff’s assistant. In Tulsa, he was the runner. One of those Tulsa runs meant driving the band to Jamil's Steakhouse for dinner. If you’re a runner, you know the rules. You don’t invite yourself in. You don’t insert yourself int...

June 12th marked our first and possibly only show at Cowboys before it transformed into The Roxy . The lineup featured Forte and Pitch Black , and it turned into a turning point for that building. Long before it was Cowboys, the place was called The Beaver Pond . In the 70s, it was a strip club where dancers floated on lily pads in a real swimming pool. That pool never left. The stage at Cowboys w...

“Rollin’ in my sweet baby’s arms.” When Leon stepped into his Hank Wilson persona, he wasn’t just covering country standards. He was honoring them. Recording under the name Hank Wilson, cutting classic covers, bringing that Oklahoma edge to traditional songs. And when you really dig into the catalog, it’s not even close. Leon was prolific. Across genres. Across decades. Studio work. Producing. Wri...

It wasn’t a no-security tour. This was the Bigger Bang era with The Rolling Stones — and the backstage setup was on another level. Snooker tables. Game areas. Full liquor bar. Food everywhere. The most elaborate backstage environment he’d ever seen. And then the seat assignment. At Keith Richards’ table. Keith comes out with his buddy, same scarf, same energy. Quiet moment. Timing something. Synch...

Some moments don’t feel big when they’re happening, but time turns them into milestones. July 14, 1994 was one of those nights when Collective Soul played Bricktown Brewery and quietly checked a major box in their career.  It was their first sell-out show , and tickets were just $8 . Same artwork. Same early-era vibe. No hype machine yet. Just a band catching fire at exactly the right moment.  #Co...

When the Bridges to Babylon tour rolled into Owen Field, it wasn’t just a concert. It was a  construction project. Promoter TNA International invited media to preview the massive stage at the south end of  the stadium. Production holds were released once sightlines were confirmed, turning  previously held seats into some of the best in the house. $65.25 tickets went on sale at the  Lloyd Noble Cen...

The feud was real. If you met Joe Cocker first and got his autograph, then walked over to Leon with the same  item, Leon wouldn’t sign it. “No way.” Not that day. Not under those circumstances. And this wasn’t normal behavior. Leon would usually sign anything for anyone. But that day,  he wasn’t doing it. Joe Cocker went on to become a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. Globally recognized. Massive  c...

At the Diamond Ballroom, Lisa built a reputation that was equal parts fear and respect. They even kept a running joke scorecard of how many people she made cry, and most of them were grown men.  If something went off the rails, one phone call and she’d show up in ten minutes ready to handle it. She didn’t tolerate excuses, and she didn’t back down.  Years later, when it truly mattered, she was sti...

There are rules when you’re a runner. You don’t turn the radio on.  You don’t start conversations.  You don’t insert yourself into the moment. You wait. You answer questions. You drive. Now imagine your all-time idol getting into the van. The job was simple: take the band from the top of the Bricktown Ballpark down to the stage. Engine running. Band waiting. Thirty minutes later, he appears. He ch...

It started at 15 years old at the Cotton Bowl. The Rolling Stones with Eagles and Trapeze opening the show. Then came 1978.  Then 1981 — six shows in one year. Houston. Dallas. Kansas City. New Orleans. That “first farewell tour.” Through the years it kept going. The Myriad in ’99. The Ford Center in 2002. Watching the stages get bigger. Watching the production get wilder. Different cities. Same b...

“Despite earlier reports that The Rolling Stones wouldn’t stay in Oklahoma City… they arrived late Sunday night.” They kept a low profile before taking the stage at Owen Field, with Sheryl Crow opening the show. There was even talk about skipping sound check. “They don’t do one every day.”  “If it doesn’t need fixing, why fix it?” They had tried to book Norman before during the 1994 Voodoo Lounge...

One Friday at 9:30 AM, a second Dallas date was announced for The Rolling Stones. Without warning, 8,000 tickets were sent into Oklahoma. 3,000 to Norman. 2,500 each to two Oklahoma City record stores. Within an hour, nearly all were gone. The sale was kept secret to prevent overnight campouts and chaos. No social media. No  presales. Just word spreading fast and fans racing to get there in time....

For Max and Jeff, it started with a record. The original Mad Dogs & Englishmen album. Tour poster inside. Tour book from the original run.  A piece of history hanging on the wall. So when the chance came in 2003, Max did it right. He had Leon sign it first. Leon was proud to autograph it. No hesitation. No attitude. Just signed it. Then they went to Joe Cocker. Joe signed it. Didn’t even look...

Only 225 people showed up that night. Meshuggah. Strapping Young Lad. And Highwayman live at the Diamond. A tour worth bragging about. But it wasn’t just heavy riffs shaking the walls. It was May 9. The infamous tornado night. Half a mile down the road was complete destruction. And the band is standing outside asking, “What do we do?” You could see it in their faces. This wasn’t normal tour stress...

When you grow up in Oklahoma, tornadoes are part of the soundtrack. Max talks about being a little kid, babysitting his brothers and sisters, watching a tornado dip down and take the house across the street. It followed the creek and kept moving. After seeing that up close, storms hit different. “If I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go. Ride it out.” That same Oklahoma grit carried into the concert nights....

Before the show even started, a Confederate flag was hanging up high in the venue. The band made it clear. If that flag stays, we’re not playing. That’s a show stopper. So up the ladder I went. Rolled it tight so it couldn’t be seen. Done. It probably hadn’t been touched in decades, and I caught plenty of grief for it afterward. But the choice was simple. Either fix it or shut the show down. And t...

When The Cramps released “Goo Goo Muck” over 40 years ago, nobody could’ve predicted it would resurface because of a viral dance. But that’s exactly what happened after Wednesday Addams made it a moment. What’s wild is watching little kids hear that intro and immediately stop what they’re doing. They go straight into that dance. No hesitation. No explanation needed. That’s culture in real time. If...

When Insane Clown Posse and 2 Live Crew hit The Diamond Ballroom , it was one of those bills that felt dangerous in the best way possible. It was the first time ICP had played here, and the Juggalos showed up ready. You already know what that means. That was the show where a semi truck full of Faygo pulled into the parking lot. One truck came in loaded, another left empty. Stagehands spent hours t...