Bill Ash's Missing Guitar
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
Contributed by Rich Moore
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