I had met Richie Scarlet several times, In fact Richie
did a TV Commercial for my store in 1980 or so. I first became very
close with Richie at an Animals Reunion Tour Concert in 1983. We
discovered we had a common musical bond, Eric Burdon & The Animals. We
would discuss his music for hours & hours. We used to actually watch old
reruns of Shindig & Ed Sullivan. Not for the Beatles though. We watched
Eric Burdon The Dave Clark 5, The Searchers, The Zombies, The
Electric Prunes, The Standells, Paul Revere, The Kinks and last but
definitely not least the Yardbirds & Sean Bonniwell's Music Machine.
We would argue about what a song was about or what the correct words
were. We would pick them apart piece by piece until we knew every single
nuance of every single track.
Richie worked with me in my shop for 6 years, then he went on to play with Ace Frehley, Sebastian Bach & Leslie
West. He helped me develop my vocalizations & I learned a lot of
guitar licks from him, once we Jammed with Ace Frehley in his garage
Richie on drums, Ace on Guitar and I was playing Bass. He also produced
my first CD "World Class Rock N' Roll" between 1992 & 2002 it took us 10
years to finish it. We were not in any hurry & Richie was on the road a
lot.
One evening in the studio we were
recording "It's My Life" or "When I was Young," I can't remember which one,
and as usual we were talking about Eric Burdon. Richie was telling
me that he had been in some club in upstate New York, where he wangled
his way backstage somehow. He actually got to meet Eric. Luck was with
him because, I remember him telling me all about the conversation, that
he was alone with Eric in the dressing room for almost an hour.
He was giving me some of the
highlights of the conversation and I remember Richie looking up from the
board,
he had a very serious look on his face and saying something to the
effect that "Eric Burdon
Was Definitely The Coolest Fu*k#ng Person In The World".
Of course I immediately blindly agreed with him. That conversation
with Richie & the highlights of his conversation with Eric, stuck with
me for many many years.
In November of 2004 Eric & The Boys
were playing here in Vegas, I was backstage delivering a guitar to Dean Restum (Eric's Guitarist for 15 years or so). I had been backstage with
Eric at least 35 times but there were always lots of people around
taking pictures, geekin' and a gawkin'. This time I got lucky. We were
there just the two of us with my daughter Lindsey Star.
Eric got a little talkative, Both
Lindsey & myself are huge Morrison fans. Eric started telling us all
these amazing Morrison stories, and then he started in with the Hendrix
stories. I have been an Eric Burdon fan for 41 years. I am definitely in
awe of him. I commented to Eric about how once 40 years ago I remember
seeing Ed Sullivan playfully tousle Eric's hair on TV. Well that
really got him going, it seems that he had embarrassed Eric a little.
Eric was not very fond of Mr. Sullivan to say the least. He told us what
really transpired with Jim Morrison & Ed Sullivan & the real reasons
that Ed Sullivan tried to blackball Jim Morrison & The Doors. He told us
all about Morrison's father & his role in the Vietnam war & why Jim
disowned his family etc. (Not The Book or Movie Version) I am usually not star struck but with
Eric it's hard for me not to be. I finally had gotten to meet the real
legend. That night while I was driving home, I was thinking about Richie. His words that night 15 years earlier. Richie was 100%
right when he said that
"Eric Burdon Was Definitely The Coolest Fu*k#ng Person In The World".
Ed Roman Dec 2005 |
