June Jam Rocks August

The Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine June Jam Rocks August

By: Lin

oln In iel

ait, what? N ah, yo u read that rig ht, June

Jam Rocked August. It’s 2020 stop trying to make sense of it! But let’s rewind a little bit to get a bearing on where we are going here. We all thought that 2020 was gonna be a rough go late in 2019 when the Easyrider Bike Show was “taking a year off”, then we heard that the SmokeOut was DOA after a 20 year run. Little did we know that would only be the tip of the iceberg. These circumstances also opened the door for the resurgence and rebirth of other old skool bike rallies, the June Jam being the leader of that push. After a 14-year hiatus and with the blessings of its originators, Garret Berger and Blue Line Entertainment brought the June Jam back to life and set it up to go off mid-June at the Rowan County Fair Grounds in Salisbury, NC. Now, we don’t really need to recap all the BS that we have been living through since mid-March, so let’s just say due to the “pandemic” restrictions that our “governor” put in place were not so inviting for the large time we as bikers are used to having. Garret and the June Jam weren’t just going to roll over though and after being put off in June, the new dates were set for August 22-23 and brought with it a come hell or high water attitude.

Well, neither hell or high water came and on August 22 the parking lot for the fairgrounds was full and the party was on! I got there round noon and entertainment was in full effect.

The sound competition was bumping in a back and forth audio showdown that had a pileup of folks watching it all go down. I was on the Full Throttle Magazine 73 Servi-Car and made a few laps around the fairgrounds to pass out some magazines and see all my vending friends before I parked it in the Bike Show area. I was hanging out with William aka Mr. Kat Daddy Cigar Company when I saw my buddy Randall ride by on his primo garage-built Shovelhead and I knew right then I was getting second place in the Antique class! I even ran into some new friends Mike and Courtney Horkey who won free tickets to the June Jam from The McGrath Law Firm at the Full Throttle Magazine 22nd Anniversary Bike Night. It was

good to hang out with yall! I rode over to the bike show area and got registered, but was lured away to the live music tent by the rocking sounds of the Low Down Dirty Heathens. It’s not often that I stumble onto a band I haven’t heard (and like) at these local rallies, but like I said, It’s 2020 man! It doesn’t have to make sense! Anyway, the Heathens were really laying it down and were a perfect fit to the rally atmosphere.

There were a lot of familiar faces there and I had a hell of a time getting around and visiting with everyone. I briefly saw bike builder extraordinaire Luke Heafner of Iron Horse Motorcycles. Luke always has a great swap meet set up with

some quality parts for your old motorcycles and a few pieces for recent bikes as well. Inside the building, I ran into Wolf and his Sons Of Solders MRC. Shannon Rights and Tyler Styles of Tom McGrath’s Motorcycle Law Group had all the free swag you could carry and were signing folks up to win a FREE Moto Excursion. If you haven’t signed up for this free fall riding getaway to New England, then you are in danger of seriously missing out. I also spent some time hanging out with the crew from Jaybird’s Custom Cycles of Salisbury. They were set up right by the entrance and had parts, apparel and some sweet bikes including a killer replica of Mickey Rourke’s bike from Harley- Davidson and the Marlboro Man. Keep your eyes peeled, you may even get to see that bike in an upcoming issue. Always good to see Jay, his shop sponsored the bikini contest that was up next on the schedule. There were a couple other vendors set up inside with patches, pins, stickers, oil, beer, and other biker essentials.

Back outside under the live entertainment tent the Emcee was getting the crowd worked up for the bikini contest, which in all reality is a pretty easy job! Just tell us there’s gonna be some honeys strutting the stage in bikinis and then let us have a look see! Since the crowd was gathered it made for a good time to hand out the bike show awards.

Then they brought out the bikini contestants. Five ladies paraded out on the stage together to get the crowd started up and then returned one by one to get some personal time with their fans. The lovely ladies were shakin’, dancin,’ and taking it all the way down to the ground. After the initial eliminations the pretty prancers took their final turns on the runway as the crowd voted for their favorite to win in the gentleman’s way, with dollar bills. The lady that earned the most took home top honors and a handful of cash! It’s tough to beat that type of excitement, but the evening went on with more music and people games out in the field as the sun went down.

Sunday the Jam went on with Mother Trucker taking over the music stage to keep everyone’s face rocked. The big news of the day was that Lt. Gov. Dan Forest was having a rally that afternoon at the June Jam. Dan was taking over one of the buildings on the Fairgrounds and supporters packed that place out!

I tell you this much. The June Jam may have gotten delayed, but Garrett and his team really came through in August and gave us a good time rally to come hang out at. On top of the good time the June Jam chose to give back as well. This year they helped Trooper Chris Wooten and his family. One year ago, Chris was injured in an on-duty crash while pursuing a fleeing motorist. Chris was paralyzed from the neck down and has a struggle few of us could ever imagine.

The June Jam was able to make a $1000 donation to Chris and his family. Thanks for your support June Jam! The plan is to come back at it full steam and have the rally on time in 2021. So, Keep your eyes on the Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine for the announcement of next year’s date. I only expect this rally to grow into one of the area’s biggest biker attractions.