So I went to Atlanta last week to go see Crowded House with Jack Cornell and his daughter,Jennifer(sorry if I misspelled her name-I can never get it right)and we met up with none other than Mr. and Mrs. Rick Richards. My friends all know that I put RR right there with Mick Taylor as my all time favorite rock and roll lead guitar player. As this weird story unfolds, I've learned that he and his wife, Lori Lee, are really great people and very easy to hang with-just like all these other folks from the music world that I've come to know. I really think that it has alot to do with being raised 'right', being brought up in the South and all.
Anyway, the fellow who I formed my first original band with back in 1980 was a guy named Alan Venable. He was a huge Stones/Tom Petty fan and really taught me how to write songs as well as turned me into a Petty freak. He was a soft spoken,shy,polite and respectful southern gentleman-in his own way and had a gentle manner, but a great sense of humor. When I first met Alan, he had just come out of being in a band a few years before with Rick Richards. Now when I first laid eyes on Rick Richards in 1978,he was playing in a band called,"The Desperate Angels", which had an outstanding front man, whose name was Tommy Rivers. That band eventually morphed into "The Georgia Satellites"-at least that's how I see it.
I had always heard from Alan that Tommy was...now how should I put this delicately...uh...crazy. Not in a "he's a really funny/wild guy" crazy. No--I had heard that he really was....uh......crazy. And Alan had a number of issues too so when he said that Tommy was...uh..you know...crazy,I pretty much took him at his word.
So here I am, at The Tabernacle Theatre in Atlanta, hanging out with Rick,his wife and Jack and his daughter just thinking that life can't get much better when, the next thing I know, Rick's wife asks me if I would like to meet Tommy Rivers. Turns out that he was there to see the show and one flick of the cell phone later and...here he is-in living freaking color. and I'm shaking the dude's hand.
And you know what? Nope. He 'aint crazy. Not by a damn site. He's one of the nicest,most engaging, southern gentlemen you'd ever want to meet. In fact, his manner and appearance was not unlike my old friend, Alan Venable.
Pretty soon, Tommy and Rick were remembering old times and recording sessions and record producers they had encountered nearly 30 years ago together and I felt completely honored to be a fly on that wall as they fondly remembered those days that still bring a tear to my own eye.
After a bit, the sentimentality of the entire moment became so intense that I excused myself because I really thought that these 2 rock and roll warriors should be permitted some time alone to share their memories.
As I left them alone and headed back into the concert, I wished that Alan could have been there too. If he was, I know exactly what he would have said,after going to the bar for another Vodka with a splash of OJ(which it turns out is exactly what Rick Richards drinks too!!!):
"I told you that fucker was crazy!"
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2 comments:
Taylor or Zappa, Taylor and Zappa, whatever. Those are the best of the best. Mick Taylor and/or Frank Zappa.
Touche' on Zappa. But since he's dead, what say we split the difference by limiting the discussion to best roots rock guitatr players who play a wicked slide guitar and have offered to play on my record?
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