I met Les on two occasions, one at Fat Tuesdays and the other at the old Iridium Room. Both times were a h00t, Les is quite a joy...
THE FIRST TIME:
The first time I saw him, he was holding the door open for people as the came into the club and taking their coats (this was a Fat Tuesdays)! It blew my mind to even say "hi" to him.
When he was done playing he was standing around bar so I went and talked to him. In the midst of greatness, I wonder what to say...
The first thing out of my mouth was "thank you". And I continued to thank him for pioneering the electric guitar (which he told me his story about using 6 stereo needle cartridges and systems for a pickup), for inventing multitrack recording, certain effects, etc...
I went on to tell him how his inventions could be responsible for keeping me out of trouble and jail when I was a teen
When he played he had asked for a request...I called out Bye Bye Blues, which he NAILED...he told me that was actually one of Mary Fords favorite tunes and it's always makes him think of her when he plays it. SWEET!
Out of the blue he say to me "what kind of Les Paul do you have", without him knowing I even had one! I said "the KM"...he said "the Kalamazoo Model?...I played every one of those prototypes as they came off the line...that was one of the last projects I did with Gibson before they sold"...SUPER SWEET, Les played my guitar!!!
THE SECOND TIME:
This was a little less intimate...but still a great story.
I had brought a buddy with me and when Les walked into the room I was like, let's go talk to him. So we went.
There was about 4 or 5 people around and he was telling a joke or something about being hungry or the cab ride over or something...he was all over the place. While standing there I noticed he had a HUGE pick. I said "Les, is that what you;re using as a pick?" he says "here have it" and he gives it to me...
I understood him as 'giving' it to me, so I'm like "thanks Les"...and he says "no, no, no, you can't HAVE I need it tonight, it's the only one I brought with me"...so I said..."well here, you can have one of mine"...and he took it but said he still needed his back since it's the only thing he can play with these days due to his arthridis
So, I didn't get the pick But, he took mine with him!
Both times I had him autograph something to my kids. I hope they cherish it as much as I do
Here we are...
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