From Denton to the Road

Donnie was a self-taught sound engineer whose career began in the North Texas music scene.

In the early 1970s, he worked around Denton with the Lee Pickens Group and spent time at Ruby’s, a local gathering place where musicians and artists such as Freddie King, Lee Pickens and others connected. It was within this world that Donnie came to the attention of Showco, reportedly through company co-founder Jack Calmes.

By 1974, Donnie had joined Showco.

His move into large-scale concert touring happened quickly. Before long, he was on the road running monitors alongside Rusty Brutsche for Led Zeppelin—an extraordinary beginning to what became a deeply respected career in live sound.

Donnie learned by listening, observing and doing. He did not come from a formal engineering program. His skill was built on instinct, determination, an exceptional ear and the ability to remain focused in the middle of the controlled chaos of a live concert.

A Career Behind the Music

During his years with Showco, Donnie worked with many of the most influential artists and touring productions of the era.

His known credits include work with:

Led Zeppelin · The Who · The Rolling Stones · The Band · Three Dog Night · Lynyrd Skynyrd · Genesis · Phil Collins · Robert Plant · Prince · Mötley Crüe · The Psychedelic Furs · Laurie Anderson · Julian Lennon · The Guess Who · Climax Blues Band · Lee Pickens Group

This list remains incomplete.

Like many touring engineers of his generation, Donnie did not keep detailed personal records of every tour, concert or artist. His history continues to be reconstructed through photographs, itineraries, passes, crew memories, archival documents and the stories of the people who worked beside him.

Donnie became a trusted and highly requested engineer. Artists and production teams valued not only his technical ability, but also his confidence, personality and gift for connecting with the people around him.

He was recognized by Pro Sound News during the 1980s for his work as an engineer. The archive is still working to locate the original publication and confirm the exact award title and year.

David Bowie — Las Colinas, 1983

In 1983, Donnie was quoted extensively in Mix magazine’s feature “Bowie Tour: Pre-production at Las Colinas,” which documented David Bowie’s rehearsals for the Serious Moonlight Tour. His comments offer a rare firsthand look at the technical demands of the production and the work Showco handled behind the scenes.

Read the complete article on the David Bowie archive page.

Lynyrd Skynyrd — October 20, 1977

Donnie was a survivor of the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash near Gillsburg, Mississippi.

He had told my mother the day before the crash that he did not want to get back onto the plane.

When the aircraft went down, Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle helped pull my father from the wreckage. That act is something my family will never forget.

In this interview, Artimus Pyle recalls making an opening in the wreckage and returning to help his friend get out. He identifies that friend as Donnie Kretzschmar, my father, and tears up as he recalls the rescue.

Watch Artimus Pyle’s rescue recollection — start at 16:49.

According to Budrock’s recollection, he and Jim Norris had just arrived at the Baton Rouge Hilton after driving the Showco semi-truck from South Carolina. They met my mother, Rosemary, in the bar. Budrock answered a hospital call at the front desk and learned that the plane had crashed near McComb. The caller asked him to identify a casualty by a tattoo. Budrock returned to tell Rosemary and Jim. Jim suggested unhooking the trailer, and they put Rosemary in the truck sleeper and drove roughly 98 miles to McComb.

In Budrock’s recollection, many of the most seriously injured had been flown to Jackson by the time they reached the hospital. Staff needed help identifying people because many had no identification with them. Jim, who had served in Vietnam, volunteered to identify those who had died in the basement, while Budrock went from room to room. They found my dad upstairs, and Rosemary stayed with him.

Budrock continued through the hospital all night because families could not reach McComb until the following day. He remembers it as a traumatic night: these were his friends, people he had worked with since July 1976.

Rosemary Remembers: “he’s alive”

My mother remembers that she did not know whether my father was alive until Budrock and Jim found him upstairs at the hospital. The hospital was extremely crowded, full of people. Once she found Dad, the first thing she did was call his parents. When they answered, her first words were “he’s alive”. They had learned of the crash from the news.

I was five years old at the time of the crash, staying with my paternal grandparents—the same parents my mother called when she found Dad alive.

Donnie’s Memories and Recovery

In our family’s recollection, Dad suffered a punctured lung and was badly bruised across his body. His legs were especially black-and-blue after being pinned underneath his seat. He remembered the bottom of the plane hitting the treetops and the extremely loud noise. I believe he remained in the hospital for roughly two weeks before coming home; that length of stay is a family recollection, rather than a confirmed hospital record.

Donnie survived, but the physical and emotional effects of the crash remained part of his life.

Read Budrock’s complete firsthand account on the Lynyrd Skynyrd 1975–1977 page alongside Showco touring records and memorial photographs.

Dad’s name also appears on the memorial near the crash site. Visit the Lynyrd Skynyrd Monument website.

His Final Years on the Road

Even while facing cancer, Donnie continued working.

Some of his final touring work included Prince and Robert Plant. He remained part of the concert industry he loved during a period when he was already seriously ill.

His determination to continue was characteristic of the man his friends and colleagues knew: loyal, hardworking and devoted to the people around him.

Donnie passed away in March 1986.

After his death, he was remembered in Buddy Magazine, a publication that documented the Texas music community and the people who helped shape it.

Remembering DK

Donnie was respected for his work, but he was loved for who he was.

He could become the center of attention in nearly any room. He was a gifted storyteller, a natural charmer and someone people wanted to be around. My mother often joked that women would walk right up and flirt with him—even while she was standing beside him.

He was confident, funny, handsome and unforgettable.

To the artists, he was a trusted engineer. To the crew, he was family. To me, he was my dad.

Showco Archives exists because I wanted to understand more of his life, preserve the world he belonged to and make certain that the people behind the music are never forgotten.

Remembering Donnie: The Story of Cabinet #001

When my father, Donnie “DK” Kretzschmar, died in March 1986, his Showco family found a way to keep him with them on the road. A speaker cabinet was designated #001 in his memory. It carried a blue number plate and a silver plate reading “Dedicated in memory to Donny Kretzschmar.”

Showco alumnus David Friedman recently added another piece to this story. David remembers that one of his very first jobs at Showco was installing the blue #001 plate and the silver memorial plate when the cabinet came along in May 1986. He remembers the cabinets being called GSE then, before the Prism name became associated with the system.

Benji LeFevre, one of my father’s close friends and colleagues, helped keep that tribute alive. I have long understood that Benji consistently insisted “Donnie” be positioned front and center in the speaker array when the system went out. Greg Smith’s 2019 recollection documents one example: the Rolling Stones’ 1989 Steel Wheels tour, when Benji insisted that #001 be the front and center speaker in a five-cabinet center-fill array out of respect for my father.

In his October 1, 2026 comment, Showco alumnus Andy Moore recalled that he and Benji LeFevre had cabinet #001 with them while touring with Peter Gabriel. Each morning on that tour, they would push the cabinet into catering and the production office “to say Hi.”

Donnie Goes Back on the Road

Cabinet #001 continued touring for years. It is associated with tours by Genesis, Peter Gabriel, George Michael, the Rolling Stones, and others. I am still documenting its complete travel history, so I do not want to suggest an exact tour order.

Finding the Plates

For years, I did not know the memorial plates even existed. After Clair acquired Showco, someone alerted me that a plate bearing my father’s name had been attached to #001. Based on the correspondence I have kept, I believe Greg Smith at Clair was the person who first told me. Only then did I begin looking.

I spent several months making calls, asking questions, and following Showco connections to learn what had happened to the plates. My search led me to Richard Bratcher, a longtime friend and colleague of my father’s. Richard and Dad had worked together for years and appeared together in a Crown magazine advertisement.

I called Richard, and he pointed me toward fellow Showco alumnus Andy Moore, who also knew and worked with my father. Andy had the plates. Eventually, he gave them to me.

Today, both the blue #001 plate and the silver memorial plate are preserved in the Showco Archives.

Until that first message, I had no idea this tribute to my father had traveled with Showco for years. I found out, decades later, that his friends had made sure he was never really left behind.