Jeff - Got any more stories for us??

[Mark Munchenberg (Munch)]

 Jeff,

I really enjoyed your tale regarding Jim Messina and his hot tub! I also think the story of the Mirror Ball Iceman in MW's book is great.

You must have a whole lot of similar experiences to tell. In particular I'd love to hear about the early artist endorsements and what you had to do to get some of these people on board.

Cheers,

Mark

[JohnS]

 Jeff:

I second Mark's request. Inquiring minds want to know!

The other night VH1 ran a Behind The Music program on Genesis. It was neat to see Mike Rutherford with an Artist EQ. I think it was from the '78-'79 era. Ever meet him?

[Jeff Hasselberger (Jhasse]

 I met Mike after I left Ibanez. I had become sort of a fixture around the Spectrum and could get myself into just about any show that I wanted (ah, the good old days). I'd never seen Genesis so I decided to go have a look. Mike is very tall -- about 6' 4" is my guess -- and a very nice bloke. Superstars can turn into real @!## on the road, but these guys had been at it for a very long time and had obviously gotten over the star bit. I remember that Mike liked the Artist because it wasn't a Les Paul and it sounded pretty good and was reliable -- all very solid reasons for a road musician to choose a particular axe. This was probably 16 or 17 years ago, so my memory is vague, but I do recall that he had a good sense of humor and was very unaffected -- like I said, a very nice bloke.