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Rich Moore remembers......
True story of how Bill
Ash lost his guitar .......
I can, at this point, make a correction to.....no, I will
tell the true story of how Bill Ash's guitar was ripped off.........ready?
The loss of Bill Ash's guitar is all my fault, and herein
lies the tale.....
We were booked at Love Street, in the old Fairmont Hotel,
it must have been late '68. My '53 Cadillac Hearse was in a garage
in Houston, having some engine work done, so we had to hustle
about, renting a car and a u-haul trailer to load the gear into
in order to make the gig. Leland Rodgers, the
band's producer at the time, finally managed to get the vehicles
to us around
mid-nite, and the gig was the next day. Bill made a special point
of
putting his Ephiphone in the trunk of the car, so that it would
be safer. By
the time we were loaded, me and the gear, it was around 4:00
am. Andy Szuch slipped me a few more little 'eye openers'....I
twisted up several 'roadies' and fled off into the rainy nite,
alone, to get to S.A. and begin setting up to do the gig that
nite.
It was a grey and dismal morning, as I remember, when I pulled
up at the
venue.....no one around, anywhere. I banged on the door....no
response....I
called Steve Perron at his home, of course it was "way too
early" for
Stevie...what to do? The rest of the band, Louis Cabaza, Cassell
Webb, Andy Szuch and Bill were not leaving Houston 'till around
noon, so I could get no help from them. I stomped about, trying
to think of who I could call, but then I had no more change for
the phone, so I tried to get comfortable in the rental and catch
some ZZZZZ's, but I was much too wired to get my eyes closed,
when there was a knock on the window of the car...........
A young black guy asked me if I could help him find the address
on the piece
of paper that he held in his hand....I knew the area and the
street on the
address, so I said sure.....I was happy just to have something
to do, and
someone to talk to or at......lol. We get to the address, which
I don't
remember, and up comes this older black man with, I swear to
God it was no hallucination, little corks stuck to wires, coming
out of his jaws.....I know, I know...but, I swear that is what
I saw......anyway, to make a long story a bit shorter, I was
the victim of a "three-card-montie" scam, that had
evidently been working the tourists that had come to Hemis-fair
'68...I was lured away from the rental and the trailer and that
must have been when Bill's guitar was stolen, because when I
heard the trunk slam shut, I ran back to the car and trailer
to find the guys standing around the car with tire-tools in their
hands, waving them about and telling me that," I had best
get my white-ass out of there", which I promply did.....[fade
to black].
Someone finally let me into the club, and I managed to get
the gear set-up
for the gig, and the band strolled in around 5:00 pm to do a
sound check. I
walked outside with Bill, opened the trunk, and my heart fell.......no
Epiphone. Bill went ballistic, I couldn't blame him...now, I
had to relate to him and the band, and Bill's dad, the colonel,
who, I swear to God, wanted
to put me on a stool with a spot light in my eyes for a bit of
the old military '3rd degree' , the story of the 'three-card-montie'
game, much to my chagrin and shame.
Immediately, we began casting about the city for some thing
to replace Bill's beloved Ephiphone. I don't recall the origin
of the replacement guitar, but I do recall that Bill was not
happy.......massive understatement.
The gig was one large bummer for me.....it was a total 'murphy'
nite... everything that could go wrong, did...it was just a bad
nite, plain and simple, and was not over yet....upon leaving
the gig with Cassell Webb and Andy Szuch, a little sports car
comes flying across the parking lot and skids to a stop just
in front of me and is occupied by a young lady, with whom I had
had a relationship before I had moved from S.A........upon bending
down to look inside the car, I realize that I am looking down
the barrel of a
small-caliber automatic pistol, held in the hand of a woman who
said, "you
had better be nice to me......". At this point I told Cassell
and Andy to go
on to breakfast with out me. I got into the sports car, and I
was VERY nice
to the young lady, for about three days..........LOL.......and
that my
friends concludes the real story of how Bill Ash's Ephiphone
Sunburst guitar
was stolen.........I do hope that he forgave me. |