Bob Sherwin Feb 17, 2023

Now I have to preface this with the fact Ted was an often time fixture at my old H.S. as "one of his roadies" was dating the fine and lovely Georgia ... and it was for that reason his Broncos ... the zebra striped, and camo painted were in the H.S. parking lot in the AM, and at 5th hour, so as to provide transportation to and from school for her. How wonderful to provide his "roadies" that personal service. It was kinda cool though Ted would be there by the band room door checking us all out during our 5th hr jazz band rehearsals. I played bass the first year of H.S. on a school owned West German mid 1960's Hofner fiddle bass, and a Vox Essex Bass amp. And I played guitar the rest of H.S.. It was really cool Ted was there watching us, really cool. "Hey Bob play some Cat Scratch for Mr. Nugent why don't ya" Mr. Dietz our band director would say. And...yes I'd throw down a few bars for laughs all around. It was a side of music Ted had missed out on I think and I'm sure he found it informative and entertaining. Our school was a B rated school but we competed at AAA class levels in state festivals. Band was huge at our school. I attended Blue Lake Fine Arts camp every summer on scholarship, and in my 3rd year at Blue Lake I got to play with Cat Anderson, and he threw me 4 solos, in front of 1,200+ I must have been 15-16 tops. Anyways, my band in H.S. had a gig at Tompkins town hall one Friday. On the second story, with a 15' ceiling. We heard Ted was there to check us out. I decided to open the second set with Just what the Dr. Ordered. I had a homemade spot that could put a 3' dia. spot on me at 60'. And I climbed up on the stair casing that opened onto the 2nd story. And saw the rope the scout troops would use to climb to the rafters during their meetings for strength testing. And I grabbed it and held it under my right arm. I opened the 2nd set with Just What the Dr. Ordered with the 3' spot on me (red spot) and after the intro, with the rope under my arm I swung down to the stage and landed on my knees, broke into a solo, and after began singing the first lyrics. I also had a speaker cabinet loaded with the cheesy 12" "50watt" Realistic (Radio Shack) speakers that really could only handle 20 watts, and wired it to a foot switch. When I hit the foot switch all 230 watts of my amp stack would go through it along with the 2-12's of my Vox Essex cabinet. So we ended the gig with Wild Thing ala Jimi, and I hit the foot switch dumping all 230 watts in the 2 cabinets, and after "screwing" my cabinets with my guitar neck I did a "drop the mic" by ramming my guitar neck through the Realistic speaker cabinet and just let the speakers wail and moan and feed back as I walked off stage, with them blowing out massive amounts of smoke at the same time. So three months later when I went to see the Wango Tango Dance Tour...and saw Ted swinging from the rafters via the rope ... and at the end he had his cabinets do a smoke out...not sure how he did it....he didn't impale his speakers with his axe. So I'm not sure how he did it...but the looks were the same...I had to go up to the stage and though I wanted to flip him off for stealing my act I just pointed at him and and made sure he saw me seeing him steal my act. But I was cheesed out and really just digging it that he did. Months later he had arranged with Mr Dietz for my band to rehearse on a Saturday at our H.S. band room so he could audition us for an opening act. We/ I wasn't told that's what it was...an audition. We really didn't know what to make of it. Stupid me. So when our bassist brought me some blotter acid to try out...and me being too stupid to figger out why we were supposed to set up in the H.S, band room for our usual rehearsal. It was only after I took it that we saw Ted's Bronco's out in the parking lot, and him sitting outside the band room watching us...argh! Boy did I F it all up for everybody in the band that day. So as it ended up Flyte and JD Boone got the call for the opening act for Ted and ACDC argh! Boy did I sure F it up. Ted hates drugs. Oh hell at least he gave me a shot and I was just too young and stupid to figger it all out. But hey at least you all know where the swinging from the amps came from, and I have my 5 seconds of added fame from it all. As it ended up I missed my musical career, instead I had a culinary career, but since my body was ravaged by long-term diabetes, and I can't chef anymore I'm back to jamming in a local band and this time on bass. But I do have a single out on Spotify, I tunes and all those outlets now. So check it out.