BLUE OYSTER CULT: 5 - 2 + 2 = 5. Got it? Page 2
by Martin Popoff

"I can tell you like a dozen anecdotes. I don't know. I don't get to meet a lot of people in their 20s that much, except backstage at a gig, 'Hey man, give me a pick.' But this is a very brilliant young man and a driven musician. And we're both online gamers, so we compare a lot of notes. And we actually play the same games online on occasion. And so does his father (laughs). Which is really interesting; his dad is a great guy too. And we knew his father; it was just the total coincidence. We knew his father, because his father was the guitarist in the backing band for the Chambers Brothers, 30 years ago. I remember him from his six-inch platform shoes (laughs). But when I met him, he said, 'You know, I know you.' And we started talking and we realized we had been on tour together in '73 or something."

"So when Danny took a hike," continues Eric, "we said, 'Well, who can we get?' We had to get somebody right away. It was either that, or blow off some big gigs. So it just occurred to me, you know, maybe Richie can play bass. Because I had been to see him. He has his own band that plays Staten Island and around. And he did like all of Rubber Soul, you know, with seven guitar changes. He's just a shredding lead guitar player. And I figured, anybody who is that good, you know, probably also plays bass. So I called him, woke him up at 10:00 in the morning and I said, 'Do you play bass?' And he goes, yes. And I said, 'Well, we need somebody for this weekend. How would you like to play bass?' And he goes, 'Who is this?' (laughs). So he says, 'Wait a minute, now I'm up. What are you talking about?!' He had already mixed us for a whole tour of Europe, so he knew the show very, very well. He knew the songs, I mean, never studied the songs, but knew them from mixing them. And he was totally thrilled and got his chops together very quickly. And Donald lives in Florida now, so he couldn't come up in time to rehearse. So we had to have Richie join the band with no rehearsal. That's pretty bizarre. And the first gig, there were two gigs in a row. The first gig was a rain-out. So that gave us a little time. So what we did was we all went into somebody's hotel room. I mean, we were all their prepared to play, but it was outdoors and got rained out. So we went into one hotel room and we all got out guitars and stuff. Bobby was still in the band at the time so Bobby played on like a pad on the bed and we played through the whole show, and a few extra songs, and not only did Richie know them, he didn't make one mistake. And that's with no rehearsal, no nothing. That's just learning on his own, off the DVD and off the record."

BLUE OYSTER CULT: 5 - 2 + 2 = 5. Got it? Page 3