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Joe Macre is an excellent bass player and studio engineer from my home area of Steubenville, Ohio, and we played together
at the end of the 60's in a local band, The Universal Joint. He still plays with the band, Crack The Sky, which
in not only my opinion, is one of the best live bands out there. Joe came back from Dallas in the summer of 2000 to
do a concert with myself, KC and the Sunshine Band, The Four Tops, and Kool and the Gang. Backstage is where these photos
were taken. KC and I go back over 30 years and have done several concerts together.
In the center of the above photo is Ron Beitle, original drummer in Wild Cherry. In a dressing room of a disco in Pittsburgh
we were playing one night in the fall of 1975 during a break, we had a group meeting about our having a major problem trying
to keep on playing heavy dance rock when Disco was pretty much taking over and Ron finally spoke up and uttered, "Well,
it's like those black friends that keep coming to see us here have been saying, you gotta Play That Funky Music, White
Boy". A bell went off in my head, I walked out to the bar, picked up a pad that they use to write drink orders
on and wrote the first two verses of the song on the way back to the stage to play the next set. I finished the last
verse in the back seat of the car riding back home to Steubenville from the gig. Those original lyrics are on display
in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Lots of people have asked me what I think about being a "one hit wonder". I tell them that I think it's much better than being a "no hit wonder", but probably not as much fun as being a "two hit wonder". Nevertheless, being a "one and done" does have its perks, as I've realized over the years because I've personally been the answer to the $800 double Jeopardy question not once, but twice. If I'd known that back when Mom took the above picture of me at 6 years old, I'd have dressed much better for it.
Dino Crocetti was from my home town area of Steubenville, Ohio. I never knew him but got to know several people
that grew up with him and worked close to, and with him over the years. They say that a prophet is always least recognized
in his own home town, and that was the case with Dean until he died. Now, they worship him and his memory there like
they should have when he was alive. In a business where they may call us, "stars", Dean was the Sun.
Everyone I know that knew him loved him. Besides his obvious worldwide stature even long after he's gone, many people,
especially those in his home town, still don't realize that when the Beatles were controlling the whole top 10 on the
national charts back in the early 1960's, Dean was the only one that could break through and knock them out with, Everybody
Loves Somebody Sometime. As a result, his friends nicknamed him, "Beatle Buster". Even Elvis Presley
admitted at one point that although everyone called him "the king", he thought that Dean was better.
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