The then-fledgling music-video channel flew Jefferis and a pal from Phoenixville, Pa. I took a sip and asked for more. The two of us wound up together in the shower. Unbeknownst to MTV, Jefferis had suffered brain trauma a couple of years earlier, as a result of falling 13 feet in a stairwell, and was not equipped to handle Van Halen-level partying. So Alex Van Halen told him to shotgun a ounce beer. The contests sometimes ended in sex, chaos or with winners owing thousands of dollars.
Other times, things went worse. That [first] one stayed on our books for five years before we wrote it off. She, her then-husband and their three children happily moved into the Sayreville, NJ, digs.
But it came with drawbacks. But the big downside arrived a year later. Meanwhile, Patrick McLynn won tax woes and a Batmobile in the summer of So cool that the fabricators who had provided it to MTV angled to get it back. They offered to throw in a Corvette. Then the IRS took notice. Adding insult to injury, McLynn had signed an agreement that forbade him from displaying the car for money. After 13 years, he sold it for a low six figures. When a viewer snagged a trip to see prog-rockers Asia play Tokyo, she flew there with MTV talking head Mark Goodman, among others.
The concession stands [at the concert] were closed, and we were starving. The winner quickly shook hands with the Police before we went to our seats β way up in the stadium. The winner was screwed from beginning to end and he started arguing with his wife in front of everyone. So we had to circle over Philadelphia until it finished.
