 Aware of her previous nightmare with drug addiction in San Francisco, Rivers insisted that she inform her parents face-to-face of her plans, and he drove her from Austin to Port Arthur (he waited in his car while she talked with her startled parents) before they began their long drive to San Francisco.Joplin joined Big Brother on June 4, 1966.Her first public performance with them was at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco.