<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u2018Derringer\u2019 was probably the perfect stage name when nine year old Rick began playing Country & Western tunes in the bars around Fort Recovery, Ohio with his uncle Jim.\u00a0 It was 1956 and he had only recently gotten a Harmony-type guitar model with one pickup and a copy of <\/span>Mickey Baker\u2019s Complete Course in Jazz Guitar<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Derringer told <\/span>Guitar Player Magazine’s <\/span><\/i>Joe Bosso, \u201cRight away, I started playing chord sequences like a pro.\u00a0 I was totally hooked, and it all came very easily to me, I know some people hate to hear that, but I was just blessed by the good Lord with the ability to play anything I heard.\u201d\u00a0 No, the name wasn\u2019t destined to make him a C&W star (his last name then was \u2018Zehringer\u2019), but the whole guitar gig was there for the taking.\u00a0 He told Bosso, \u201cIt seemed like the most normal thing.\u00a0 What wasn\u2019t normal, at least to me, was the money we made.\u00a0 The first time I played a gig, they passed the hat around and I made $43.\u00a0 This was in the 1950s, so that was a lot of money at the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C&W got Rick started but when he bought his first record (by Buddy Holly), he found himself at the cusp of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll:\u00a0 \u201cThere was electric guitar on all the Elvis records.\u00a0 Suddenly, the electric guitar came of age, and it was being used as a lead instrument.\u00a0 People became famous because they could play guitar.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I wanted.\u201d\u00a0 To do that, he would need a band.\u00a0 After the family moved to Union City, Indiana, he started one with his brother Randy on drums and a neighbor named Richard Kelly on bass.\u00a0 They actually started off as \u2018The McCoys\u2019 (a name they lifted from the B-side of the Ventures\u2019 hit <\/span>Walk, Don\u2019t Run<\/span><\/i>), changed names a couple of times and then cycled back to being The McCoys.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They hit the Midwest circuit and got some regional airplay for a single they recorded called <\/span>You Know That I Love You.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>By 1965, Randy Jo Hobbs had replaced Kelly on bass and organist Bobby Peterson had also signed on.\u00a0 The hit single <\/span>Hang On Sloopy <\/span><\/i>soon followed but most people do not know it was a cover of a previous hit by a R&B group called The Vibrations.\u00a0 Derringer points out an entry on Wikipedia claiming he only sang over a music track recorded by The Strangeloves is incorrect.\u00a0 He said, \u201cI played all the guitars on <\/span>Hang on Sloopy, <\/span><\/i>including the solo.\u00a0 I sang lead and I also sang with the group.\u00a0 The Strangeloves were music producers – shysters actually, from New York – and they were in the business of cheating people.\u00a0 They did that very well, but they didn\u2019t play guitar.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rick should know the provenance of his own hit song – after all, he points out, \u201cI was there for every second of it.\u00a0 Here I was, 17 years-old, and I was in a successful band with a hit record, and we were playing all over the world.\u00a0 I was so happy.\u201d Bosso asked if the McCoys experienced anything like The Beatles or Rolling Stones in terms of hysterical fan reaction.\u00a0 Rick told him, \u201cYeah, it was like that.\u00a0 We opened for the Rolling Stones on their very first American tour.\u00a0 And of course we received the same adulation that the Stones would get, so yes, we knew what it felt like to be a Beatle.\u00a0 We had the number one record in the world while <\/span>Yesterday<\/span><\/i> by The Beatles was number two.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like so many bands of that era playing Top Forty tunes, The McCoys got labeled as a \u2018bubblegum\u2019 pop group.\u00a0 This didn\u2019t hold them back:\u00a0 \u201cBefore <\/span>Sloopy, <\/span><\/i>we played R&B, soul, jazz – lots of different kinds of music.\u00a0 We looked at ourselves as a quality musical group, and suddenly we were pigeonholed in a genre we didn\u2019t feel good about.\u201d\u00a0 Their contract with FGG Productions ran out and their label president (Bert Berns from Big Bang Records) offered to have the band continue with him rather than FGG.\u00a0 Berns said, \u201cI\u2019ll show you how much money they\u2019re cheating you out of and make sure that you get a fair shake.\u201d\u00a0 Wanting to get away from what was happening with FGG and Big Bang, they turned him down and signed with Mercury Records instead.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By the end of the 1960s, The McCoys would no longer be a band and Rick Zehringer would now be Rick Derringer.\u00a0 Before they disbanded, I had the pleasure of seeing them perform at Northern Michigan University\u2019s Hedgecock Field House during the annual Greek Week celebration.\u00a0 When asked by <\/span>Guitar Player <\/span><\/i>if Mercury tried to steer them away from exploring psychedelia and push them to keep playing more pop music, Rick said, \u201cThe label didn\u2019t stop us and they allowed us to do anything we wanted.\u201d\u00a0 They were leaning very much in this new direction when I was them perform at NMU tossing in doses of electronic noise and songs by The Mothers of Invention.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At the time, I was a high school sophomore going into my third year learning to be a rock and roll drummer.\u00a0 I never missed an opportunity to see live music, especially when it was taking place at Hedgecock Fieldhouse (which was only a quarter of a mile away from our house).\u00a0 The \u2018go see a live band\u2019 dress code was simple then – jeans and an old army shirt (courtesy of my Uncle Leo\u2019s time as a supply sergeant).\u00a0 I liked to stand at the side of the stage so I could watch the drummer.\u00a0 This is where I was stationed before the opening band took the stage.\u00a0 I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see Gordon MacDonald.\u00a0 He was the leader of a Marquette band called The French Church (whom I had known from HS band the year before when he was a senior trombone player).\u00a0 Gordon said, \u201cHey, when we finish our set, we need to get our stuff off the stage in a hurry.\u00a0 Can you help?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The band included Gordon\u2019s brother Warren on drums (their father owned MacDonald\u2019s Music store), guitarist Larry Spratto, and vocalist Mike Cleary.\u00a0 They had a minor regional hit with their own single (<\/span>Slapneck<\/span><\/i>) about an old ghosttown and were a popular local dance band.\u00a0 When they finished with their signature song, they started dumping amps, drums, and guitars at the side of the stage and I hauled them to the side door so they could load up their van.\u00a0 After Gordon said, \u201cThanks, man,\u201d I settled back at the side of the stage to watch The McCoy\u2019s crew get their drums and backline of amps ready.\u00a0 All of a sudden, I felt another tap on my shoulder.\u00a0 I turned around expecting to see Gordon again (he was a head taller than I was back then) and I saw nothing\u2026.until I looked down.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Standing before me was Rick Zehringer himself.\u00a0 I was nearly six foot tall back then and he came up to about my chin.\u00a0 He asked, \u201cWhat are you doing back here?\u00a0 This area is for band members only.\u201d\u00a0 I told him I was just helping The French Church with their load out.\u00a0 \u201cOh, okay,\u201d he said, \u201cMake sure no one else comes back here.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want anything to get broken or to disappear.\u201d\u00a0 I nodded and replied, \u201cSure,\u201d but the truth be told, the 15 year-old me wasn\u2019t going to be mistaken by anybody as \u2018security\u2019.\u00a0 I went back to watching The McCoys do a quick sound check and then enjoyed watching their set from the same vantage point.\u00a0 They played some \u2018out there\u2019 music by Frank Zappa but naturally, they closed with <\/span>Hang On Sloopy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>They were a tight band from all the time they spent on the road.\u00a0 The one thing I could not help but\u00a0 notice was the keyboard player.\u00a0 He had a dazed smile on his face for the whole set and even when they were not playing, he couldn\u2019t stay still.\u00a0 Plus, you could smell him from ten feet away.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Others must have also noticed this because when Rick came off stage, he was talking to a small crowd around him.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s with the keyboard player?\u201d someone asked.\u00a0 I remember the diplomatic way Rick handled this:\u00a0 \u201cWell, let me just say that some of us have been overdoing it with substances and not taking care of themselves on this tour.\u00a0 We will have a new keyboard player when we get home next week.\u201d\u00a0 Zehringer couldn\u2019t have been more than 19 or 20 himself but I always remember how professionally he handled his band.\u00a0 He was in charge.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Signing with Mercury opened more doors for Derringer once The McCoys were history.\u00a0 Once they disbanded, Derringer and his core band (minus the keyboards) hooked up with a Mercury Records label mate, Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter.\u00a0 Teaming up with Winter was just the ticket for Rick to escape the whole \u2018pop\u2019 genre, but at the time, the move confused some fans.\u00a0 None-the-less, it also introduced Derringer to a whole different fan base.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Winter had recently signed what was the biggest record contract in the history of the music business.\u00a0 The label kind of forgot that Winter was a blues guitar player and blues records were not known to move a lot of units.\u00a0 Mercury encouraged him to bring more Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll into his act.\u00a0 This made Derringer and the rest of his former band the perfect fit.\u00a0 \u201cJohnny was well received, so suddenly I was playing with a legit guy.\u00a0 That opened the doors for me.\u00a0 He asked me to produce his records.\u201d\u00a0 They were not about to keep using The McCoy name, so the band became \u2018Johnny Winter And\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was not aware of any of this in the two years after I had seen The McCoys at NMU.\u00a0 Working in the kitchen at the Huron Mountain Club the summer before my freshman year in college, I got to know Chuck the pot washer.\u00a0 He could often be found in the employee\u2019s recreation room after work spinning his favorite records at top volume.\u00a0 Listening to a terrific live album one day, I picked up the cover to discover it was Johnny Winter And with Rick Derringer taking a prominent role in the band.\u00a0 Not only did he and Johnny duke it out, guitar wise, Rick was also responsible for writing Winter\u2019s first true cross over hit, <\/span>Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 \u201cThe rock was me and the \u2018hoochie koo\u2019 was Johnny,\u201d Derringer told Bosso.\u00a0 \u201cHe was the band leader, so we did it his way.\u00a0 The first opportunity I had to do it my way was on my first solo album, <\/span>All-American Boy.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>By the time Derringer\u2019s version of <\/span>Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Hoochie Koo<\/span><\/i> hit the charts, we started playing it in my third band, Sledgehammer.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Rick continues, \u201cWe had a great time playing, Johnny and me.\u00a0 It was a kind of competition.\u00a0 Eventually, he got tired of trying to compete, so he disbanded that group, and that\u2019s when I started playing with Edgar Winter\u2019s White Trash.\u201d\u00a0 The other factor that lead to the end of Johnny Winter And was his drug use.\u00a0 Johnny had become engrossed in the drug world and when he finally entered rehab, it meant no more touring which effectively ended the group.\u00a0 Edgar Winter is Johnny\u2019s brother who forged his own career when he and Johnny went their separate ways years earlier. \u00a0 Derringer says there were no hard feelings when he produced Edgar Winter\u2019s <\/span>They Only Come Out at Night <\/span><\/i>album:\u00a0 \u201cThat is when I started playing with Edgar Winter\u2019s White Trash.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Edgar\u2019s guitarist at the time was Ronnie Montrose who would later from his own band.\u00a0 The band, Montrose, had a young lead singer named Sammy Hagar who later went on to fame as a solo artist and as a member of Van Halen.\u00a0 Derringer describes the key element that probably led to Montrose exciting White Trash:\u00a0 \u201c[Ronnie] was a good guitar player.\u00a0 He was very inventive and had a good sense of humor.\u00a0 Ronnie was a brave guy, and Edgar was a very planned-out, nerdy kind of musician.\u00a0 He wanted things the same every time, and Ronnie was the total opposite.\u201d\u00a0 Rick\u2019s production on hits like Edgar\u2019s <\/span>Fankenstein<\/span><\/i> opened even more doors.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They say the key to success for any business is \u2018location, location, location\u2019.\u00a0 Rick found this to be true in the music world as well.\u00a0 Bosso asked him if artists sought him out to appear on their records because they were looking for something in particular or was it is reputation.\u00a0 Derringer explained, \u201cIt was pretty simple, really.\u00a0 They\u2019d be like, \u2018Can you come into the studio today and record something for me?\u2019\u00a0 I lived in Manhattan, so I would say, \u2018Yeah, sure.\u2019\u00a0 That\u2019s all there was to it.\u00a0 There were a lot of great guitar players all over the world, but they didn\u2019t live right down the street from the studio.\u201d\u00a0 Not one to drop names to impress, Derringer could certainly take that route because his successful work with others generated even more opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Here is a brief run down of artists Rick has worked with and no doubt, most people are not aware that he contributed to America\u2019s soundtrack.\u00a0 Todd Rundgren featured Rick the player on a few albums (which Derringer laughingly claims was because \u201cI think he just wanted another name on the record – you know, \u2018I got Rick Derringer on here!\u2019\u201d).\u00a0 He continues, \u201cI played on Donald Fagan\u2019s demo that was eventually used to create Steely Dan.\u00a0 They kind of knew me initially and I was on the road when they recorded the first album.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t do that record, but I played a little something on almost every album after that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Neil Giraldo joined Rick\u2019s band in 1978 as a guitar and piano player.\u00a0 They were working on an album called <\/span>Guitars and Woman<\/span><\/i> when producer Mike Chapman asked if he could borrow Neil to work on an album.\u00a0 As it turned out, the album was by Pat Benatar and when she and Giraldo met, the clicked and not only did they become a hit making machine, they married.\u00a0 How about Bonnie Tyler?\u00a0 \u201cYeah,\u201d Rick said, \u201cI played on Bonnie\u2019s <\/span>Total Eclipse of the Heart<\/span><\/i> and also on Air Supply\u2019s <\/span>Making Love Out of Nothing at All.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>That is one of my favoritre guitar solos.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Approached to do a single with Weird Al Yankovic, Rick thought, \u201cWhy not?\u00a0 I grew up in a family that liked novelty music like Spike Jones.\u00a0 When we were done, I asked Al if he had any more songs.\u00a0 He said, \u2018Yeah\u2019 so I said, \u2018We should do a whole album.\u2019\u00a0 I produced his first album out of my own pocket and we released it on Scotti Brothers, and it was an instant hit.\u00a0 It kind of ruined my production career because of his success.\u00a0 I kind of became known as a novelty producer.\u201d\u00a0 Listen to him emulate Eddie Van Halen\u2019s <\/span>Beat It<\/span><\/i> solo on Weird Al\u2019s <\/span>Eat It<\/span><\/i> and you will find that his guitar skills were never in question.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Touring with Ringo Starr\u2019s All-Starr band in 2010, Derringer said he would tell the story of <\/span>Sloopy <\/span><\/i>vs <\/span>Yesterday <\/span><\/i>every night before playing <\/span>Sloopy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>A roady asked him if he had asked Ringo for permission to tell this story.\u00a0 Not wanting to insult a Beatle,\u00a0 Rick knocked on Ringo\u2019s dressing room door and asked the Ringed One if he was okay with him telling the No.1 vs No 2 story.\u00a0 He was relieved that Ringo hadn\u2019t been offended.\u00a0 He replied, \u201cThat\u2019s okay.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t play on either one of them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0 pandemic shut down touring rather abruptly.\u00a0 Since then, Derringer has taken a step back:\u00a0 \u201cI toured from my teen years till the time COVID shut us all down, and now I understand the good parts of retirement.\u00a0 I doubt I\u2019ll ever tour like I used to again.\u201d\u00a0 That is okay, Rick, because you have left a body of work behind that won\u2019t make your career an afterthought.\u00a0 The music business has benefited a great deal from your work over the past six decades and will remain for future generations to enjoy.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Rick Derringer introduced by Edgar Winter – performs the song that put Edgar’s brother Johnny on the rock and roll map!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u2018Derringer\u2019 was probably the perfect stage name when nine year old Rick began playing Country & Western tunes in the bars around Fort Recovery, Ohio with his uncle Jim.\u00a0 It was 1956 and he had only recently gotten a Harmony-type guitar model with one pickup and a copy of Mickey Baker\u2019s Complete Course in 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