The Psychodelic Light Show

One of Greg Henry's memorable experiences while he was an undergraduate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was the creation of a light show with Larry Stepp and two others.

For the memory book of Greg's Celebration of Life, Larry wrote the following details about that light show project.

The Psychodelic Light Show

By Larry Stepp, October 15, 2025

Greg and I were in junior high school together, where I remember he was always one of the brightest students in Mrs. Boring's science class. We then attended different high schools. We came together again when we were both physics majors at the University of Nebraska.

The psychedelic light show was mentioned several times in the Celebration of Life – here is that story. In about 1969, after seeing a light show perform with a band at UNL, four of us, including Greg, decided to create our own light show, and we started developing and buying special effects projectors, and other equipment. A few months later a university group called the Kosmet Klub was preparing to stage a performance of the rock opera Tommy. We auditioned some of our effects with them, and were hired to do special lighting for the show. That started a flurry of work building equipment, purchasing and creating psychedelic images, and arranging to rent the most powerful projectors we could get our hands on.

The performance was staged in the basketball arena, with the stage built out on the floor and a huge screen formed behind the stage by stretching a white-painted background canvas, probably 60 x 90 feet, in a curved arc like a sail. A local band performed the music, and the production featured dancers, etc. We projected multiple moving images and lighting effects onto the screen for the different scenes in the production. We built a powerful strobe light for one dance scene using large surplus capacitors, a high-power xenon flash tube, and an astable multivibrator circuit Greg designed to give us variable flash timing.

The show was a big hit, and was a money-maker for the Kosmet Klub, but it was also a huge amount of work developing all the equipment and doing the show, so afterwards two of the partners backed out leaving just Greg and me. We continued developing special effects equipment and worked to get additional gigs. We played local dances with various groups, and supplied special effects for several other stage productions. We became the house light show for a local rock music venue doing weekly shows on Saturday nights, but they closed after a few months. The most famous band we performed with was Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes.

The story about Ray Manzarek of the Doors was typical of Greg, who sometimes displayed fearless initiative. The Doors were in town to perform at the local civic auditorium. This was after Jim Morrison's death, when the band had released an album called Other Voices. Ray Manzarek was interviewed on a local FM radio station about the concert coming up that night. As soon as the interview ended, the secretary told him there was someone on the phone asking to speak with Ray. Puzzled, he took the phone and it was Greg on the line. He talked Manzarek into giving us an audition for the possibility of backing them in their show that evening. Ray said if we came to the auditorium after lunch with some of our equipment they would look at what we had. We skipped our afternoon classes, loaded up some equipment, and met Manzarek at the auditorium. He said the band had to go through their rehearsal and work with their sound engineers, so we set up in a side room.

They spent the afternoon getting ready for their concert, and it wasn't until about 4:30 that Ray came over and took a look at our stuff. He was impressed, and said they would be happy for us to perform with them that night. But at that point it was too late to get everything ready, rent more powerful projectors, etc., and we had to tell him that we couldn't actually be ready in time. He then asked if we would like to join their tour. Again, we had to say we were in the middle of the semester, and couldn't really drop out of school to go on the road. So nothing ever came of it, except for an interesting afternoon hanging around with the Doors.

This was the period when Greg let his hair grow long. The light show let his creativity blossom, and gave him an opportunity to apply his knowledge of science to something entertaining, that reinforced his love of music.

Greg was highly intelligent, intellectually tenacious, enthusiastic, hard working, kind-hearted and creative.

He was a great friend and he will be missed.