Interview the classic rock band's Gary Pihl.
Gary Pihl could be the poster child for why drugs aren’t necessarily considered de rigueur in the rock ‘n’ roll culture.
Pihl’s drug-free lifestyle — not to mention his solid guitar licks — set in motion a chain of events that led to the gig of a lifetime. For nearly 30 years, Pihl has been a guitarist with the long-running band Boston.
He earned the spot the old-fashioned way, by working his way up through the ranks as a member of Sammy Hagar’s first band, which opened for Boston during its 1978-79 tour.
Pihl had been playing in a band called Stark Raving Mad in the San Francisco Bay area, and they were looking for a new singer. Pihl knew that Hagar had recently left the band Montrose, so he reached out to Hagar to see if he’d be interested in joining Stark Raving Mad.
Thanks, but no thanks, Hagar told Pihl. Hagar was going to put together his own band and he asked Pihl if he was into drugs. Pihl told him he was clean, then wondered why he asked the question.
“Sammy said the last [guitarist] he had was [into drugs] and he was looking for someone who wasn’t,” Pihl (pronounced PEEL) recalls. He offered Pihl a spot in his new band, but Pihl wasn’t sure whether to take it.
Just then, Hagar’s manager called with some news that couldn’t have been timed any better. Boston was looking for an act to open for them during the last two weeks of their first-ever tour, and if Hagar could find a guitarist, the gig was his.
A few weeks later, Pihl was on stage with Hagar opening for Boston, which was watching the new band from the wings.
“That would have been enough of a thrill for me,” Pihl says. “It was like, ‘Wow, there they [Boston] are, I’m like this close.’ It was a great time to be in a rock band.”
Boston, which already had Top 10 hit singles with “More Than A Feeling” and “Don’t Look Back,” liked Hagar’s band as its opening act and signed them on for the next two years.
If hooking up with Hagar was one significant career turning point for Pihl, then befriending Boston founder and technical genius Tom Scholz was another.
It was during the second Boston tour that Scholz and Pihl discovered how much they had in common, since both had set up less-than-primitive home recording studios.
The biggest difference, though, was that prior to his music career, Scholz had earned a bachelors and masters degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Pihl had ... well, he’d heard of MIT.
Scholz then went on to earn 29 patents for products he invented while he was a senior product design engineer for Polaroid.
Scholz is a key reason why Boston has been able to consistently maintain its sound over the past 35 years, even with personnel changes. And not simply because most polls rank him in the Top 100 guitarists and keyboard players of all time, either.
“The last secret to [Boston’s] success is that we all use amplifiers that Tom built,” Pihl, 61, explains during a phone call ahead of Boston’s Saturday night, July 21, gig at the Trump Taj Mahal. “He had his own company called Scholz Research and Development, and he [invented] the Rockman guitar amplifier. To this day, we’re the only band in the world that plays its own amplifiers.”
One of Pihl’s greatest pleasures as a musician — and as a member of a popular band that’s well into its fourth decade — is seeing the audience reaction to some of Boston’s best-known works.
Pihl isn’t a rock musician who’s become jaded by the lifestyle, culture and rewards of the business. He can still appreciate a special moment, which usually comes when the band performs its hits songs, including 1986’s “Amanda,” which was Boston’s only No. 1 single and was the first hit Boston single that Pihl played on.
“So many people come to our shows and they’re singing along to the music, and if we get to talk to them afterwards they’ll tell us how they were on their first date and how much the songs mean to them,” he says. ”And it chokes me up, it really does. We’re up there playing those songs, we see people looking up at us and singing and us smiling. It’s a wonderful feeling.”
Casual conversations with the stars. Watch the Emmy-winning Curtain Call with David Spatz, Saturdays at 6pm on WMGM-TV NBC40.
Although Sammy Hagar wasn’t in attendance yesterday to launch his new enterprise at Bally’s, Sammy’s Beach Bar, the Red Rocker’s ambiance was all over the former Bally’s Bikini Beach Bar as it opened for the season.
Classic rock fans who loved them a decade ago were delighted earlier this year when the radio morning show team “Joe and Scott” reunited for weekday broadcasts on 100.7 WZXL. Joe Ciapanna, the team’s “straight man,” and Scott Friedman, the wisecracking partner, are back indeed, garnering great ratings and having a ball.
For years, musicians have been fusing different styles to create unusual blends. But when it comes to melding the foot-stompin' bluegrass sound with classic rock and roll, the innovative Yonder Mount...
Like a lot of teenagers growing up in the late '70s, New Brunswick native Barry Summers was a huge fan of what today is called "classic rock." In those pre-MTV years, shows like Don Kirshner's Rock C...
WHEN PEOPLE THINK OF CLASSIC ROCK they think of the usual suspects: Hendrix, the Stones, the Beatles. Perhaps bands like Fleetwood Mac, Crosby, Stills and Nash or Traffic come to mind. At one time or another Dave Mason, who'll be in town this Saturday night at Resorts, has played with members of all of the above. A co-founder of the UK band Traffic in the late '60s, whose original line-up also featured Steve Winwood, Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi, Mason, a native of Worcester, England, has had the opportunity to play with a multitude of legendary artists over the years. Mid-way through Traffic's prime, Mason exited the band and went on to a successful solo career, putting out now-classic albums such as Alone Together (how about that psychedelic cream-colored vinyl?), Split Coconut, Let It Flow and Mariposa De Oro. Aside from his solo efforts, Mason lent his guitar playing to a number of Rock 101 essential projects including George Harrison's All Things Must Past, Paul McCartney's Venus and Mars and Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland to name just a few. "There are great parts about all of the stuff -- the solo stuff, Traffic, working with Hendrix, getting to play with people even...
Article:
‘Lucy’ on Stage at Harrah’s
Article:
Sal Richards Returns
Article:
Il Divo’s ‘Popera’
Article:
Sarah Silverman: No Apologies
Article:
30 Years of Comedy
Article:
Stand By Ben E. King
Article:
Short’s Career Stacked
1. BOSTON Publicist said... on Jul 20, 2012 at 05:33AM
“Great story David!
Here's some info on the lineup for the 2012 show in Atlantic City:
Visit www.bandboston.com for show dates
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bostonofficial
More Than A Feeling - BOSTON Performing Live By Popular Demand!
Centered on guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, and producer Tom Scholz, the band BOSTON is a staple of classic rock radio playlists. BOSTON'S best-known works include the songs More Than a Feeling, Peace of Mind, We're Ready,Foreplay/Long Time, Rock and Roll Band, Smokin', Don't Look Back and Amanda. They have sold over 31 million albums in the United States. Distinguished for their ability to perform live with no pre-recorded materials, BOSTON concerts are celebrated for their crowd-pleasing showmanship and high energy. The line up for this summer's shows is: Gary Pihl, lead guitar; Tommy DeCarlo, vocals, percussion, keyboards; David Victor, vocals, guitar; Tracy Ferrie, bass guitar; Curly Smith, drums.
”