Rick Butts Hotline:
Yes, it's true, Rick Butts began his entertainment career in a rock and roll band.
"My Dad, Ron Butts, bought me a guitar for my 16th birthday, a white Stratocaster knockoff and it was the sweetest thing in the world. My Dad was a rep for several electronics companies like Sylvania, York Electronics, and Motorola back in the 1950's and early 1960's and was a bit of a wire head. He took a Bogen amp and a Seeburg Jukebox speaker and we made my first electric guitar amp out of it!"
Rick promptly put a glow in the dark Toucan sticker from Fruit Looks on the pickguard and hacking out tunes from Neil Young and Beatles song books.
"My brother Randy got a guitar later, and we were jamming. I broke the little E and B strings on my guitar, which left me with the 4 strings that a bass would have.
I started playing bass lines, cause it was hard to find strings without a car, and as fate would have it - when we got together with another guitar player, who could really play, and a girl drummer Carol Tietmeier, whom I would later actually marry, Randy became the rythem guitarist, Les Noland the lead player, and I got the gig as the bass player.
Les's brother Patrick had a Hofner copy Beatles style bass guitar - and the first time I played a real bass was in rehearsal for the school talent show.
The first song I ever played live was George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from the White Album. Cool, huh? I am sure I totally sucked but we were very cool though we lost the contest to our own drummer who did a drum solo and lit her sticks on fire.
That is when I learned about showmanship."
Rick Butts story at age 17, Lake Ozark, Missouri.
