THAT WAS A FUN DAY: I spent the day with Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick in his hometown of Rockford, Illinois! Many of you know I recently completed the biography of Merle Travis. Rick Nielsen is an avid guitar collector (to say the least, he’s one of the ORIGINAL “guitar geeks!”) and he spent thirty-five years tracking down an original Guild Merle Travis model guitar, one of only four made. In a couple of guitar magazine articles, he stated that the Guild Merle Travis was his “holy grail” guitar. So, a few weeks ago, I thought to myself—I’m flying into Chicago and driving to Davenport, why not reach out to some people to see if I could meet up with Rick and tell him what I found out in my research about the rare Guild Merle Travis model, and hopefully get to see and play his. I was put in touch with the right folks, who put me in touch with Rick, and he invited me to stop by today.
First, a little back history: when I was a thirteen-year-old kid growing up on a farm outside Columbia, Missouri, I obsessed over guitar magazines. I memorized every word and knew all the players and the brands of guitars and amps. My mom took me to New York City for the first time on a work trip and asked me if there was anything I wanted to do in New York. Yes, I said, I wanted to go see LES PAUL! At the time, Les was playing every Monday night at a tiny jazz club called Fat Tuesdays, which held maybe thirty-five people in a basement space about the size of an average living room. Because It was so tiny, they would seat you next to strangers. When my mom and I were seated, I was seated next to…hey wait, isn’t that…no way….it’s that guy from all the guitar magazines…I’M SITTING NEXT TO RICK NIELSEN OF CHEAP TRICK! I was scared absolutely s**tless. That was a moment I’ll never forget, sitting next to Rick Nielsen while both of us watched Les Paul play about five feet away from where we sat.
Today, I drove to Rockford, Illinois, and soon found myself driving on “Rick Nielsen Parkway” before landing at his beautiful home. After all those years, I was once again in the same room with Rick. As a lifelong guitar geek, it felt like I had come full circle.
First we talked about the impossibly rare 1963 Guild Merle Travis model. He got his guitar out and talked about his journey to find one. He bought it in pieces from George Gruhn, then had it restored it to an incredible level of museum quality. The guitar is staggering in its beauty, and as Rick put it, “MAXIMUM ORNAMENTATION!” I shared with Rick a thumb drive of all the photos, research, and information I had on the Guild Merle Travis guitars—one of the most elaborate guitars ever made, and the rarest (I thought there were only three, but after today, I know there are four).
I kind of thought I’d get chased away pretty quickly, but no, it was guitar geekin’ time on the Nielsen Ponderosa. “You want to see some guitars?” Why, yes. Yes I did. So we traveled to a secret warehouse location, where my eyes blistered with what I saw: THREE original 1950s Gibson Explorers. TWO original 1950s Gibson Flying V’s. Les Pauls—gold tops and sunbursts. There was the famous “Burst” Rick was photographed with in countless Cheap Trick photo sessions, with one PAF humbucker’s white coils exposed. There was the 1951 Telecaster that Robin Zander played on “Live at Budokan!” It just kept going. An impossibly rare 1959 Mapleglo Rickenbacker 365. A green mid-60s Stratocaster that Rick used in his early band the Grim Reapers, that Jimi Hendrix played one night at a gig in Madison, Wisconsin. Gibson Everly Brothers models! A factory black dot-neck 1960 Gibson ES-335! We never even got around to the Hamers and newer stuff!
Rick’s “boom boom room” was pretty Tricked-out, too (forgive the pun), a most excellent bar and billiard room, all surrounded by vintage guitars, amps, and drum kits. MY HEAD HURT. IT WAS SENSORY OVERLOAD. And these were only the cases that we opened—there were…er….hundreds…more? He told me I could pull out anything I wanted to look at it, but that would have taken weeks. It was completely insane, and Rick couldn’t have been more gracious and free with his time and knowledge and experience. I came there hoping to see a rare Guild Merle Travis model guitar, but left there with my face completely melted. What an amazing experience!
Rick signed my 1979 copy of Guitar Player magazine before I left, and signed a T-shirt to Sally Jo, who was super bummed she couldn’t be on this trip. Rick is also very excited about his new business venture, ROCK’N Vodka–Rick gave me a bottle and I told him I was going to start drinking now that I had a good reason! Seriously, though, he said it’s getting rave reviews and selling really well, so check It out, you won’t be disappointed!
Thanks to Rick, of course, and thanks to their road manager Carla Dragotti, and Tom Beaujour, who put me in touch with Carla.
So yeah, that was a hell of a day.
