A weird -off topic- telecaster picker imposter story..

[tele_jas]

I've never shared this story with any other forum, but this seems like the place to share it:

It was 1995 and I was in a traveling top 40 country cover band (also some originals). We were in the middle of a 8 week stint at a local club in Twin Falls Idaho when this guy approaches my bass player on one of the breaks and says "Hi, I'm Brent Rowan, guitarist for Tracey Lawrence"! He tells my bass player how great we are and wanted to know if he could jam with us, but he didn't have his guitars with him and he plays out of on open "G" tuning and would need to tune one of our guitars to open "G" and use TONS of chours. My bass player was excited about this and immediately said "heck yeah"!! Well, this guy gets up and didn't want to do any of the Tracey Lawrence songs we did, but rather the old Rock standards like "Keep you hands to yourself", "Proud Mary", "Sweet Home Ala", "Take it easy", ect.... and I felt like I was blowing this guy away up there on stage (and I was 23 at the time and knew about a dozen good licks and faked the rest, kind of like I do today ).

Any ways, this guy ended up sticking around for about 3 days and got FREE drinks and 3 meals a day from the club if he would go on the radio and say he was sitting in with my band at this club, so he went on the radio the next day. He also got a FREE hotel room for the time he was there and also use of the owners truck.

After the first night, I KNEW he wasn't Brent Rowan because I was really in to the Nashville studio guys and knew his style and this wasn't him.... but nobody believed me!!! And this was before the internet and Google, so I went out and bought a Tracey Lawrence "Live CD" and had the insert blew up at a local copy store. Later that next night, when he got up on stage (staggering drunk) I showed him the picture and said he was "full of sh%t" and he just laughed and said I was just "jealous" of another guitar player.

Well, on the 3rd night I went to his room and confronted him and he still stood behind his story and said "I was sick the day that picture was taken and that was a fill in, called Brent Mason", I said "Oh" and walked back to my room and called the band guys together and put everything out on the table that proved he wasn't Brent Rowan.... We had to start playing shortly, so we just let him think we still believed him and started badgering him all night long and calling him up on all the Tracey Lawrence songs we knew and at the end of the night the bar owner called the police. When the police walked in the bar, he ran out the back door. We all hopped in our Van and followed him to a truck stop where he hopped in a semi truck and drove off. The truck wasn't registered to him, so we couldn't track him that way but we had his prints all over the open "G" tuned guitar and had to send it to Boise Idaho to have the prints taken off of it.

A couple of days later the phone rings in the bass players room and it's the real Brent Rowan and Brent's manager in person thanking us for busting this guy and he said that guy had been impersonating him all over the country.

Sorry it's so long, I swear it's all true too!!

[daddyopapa]

I know how that guy feels. I've been posing as a semi-competant guitar player since I was 18 :D

[0le FUZZY]

<li>Great story !!
<li>I haff won li kit onlee kinda opposite.
<li>Feller walked up tew the stage and says I'd like tew sing a song er tew and dent giff hiss name.
<li>A bizzilion folks had dunn the same thang and we seldom did except on jam nite. I saw in his face an honest look and it wassa liddo slow sew we said watt song and watt key.
<li>He said Marty Robbins Devil Woman and gave us the key. We started the music (not sure about it) and he started singin.
<li>Good Lord and a quarter! we thought he was him!!!
<li>We asked him fer a nutter song er tew and he did them and then we asked about tomorrow nite and he came.
<li>Next weekend the same and then -------------- GONE

He looked and sounded jes li kiss!





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[Buckocaster51]

That's a hoot. Never had anything like that happen musically, but at school we did once have a "coach" show up that wasn't exactly what she told us she was.

Fuzzy - thanks for the Marty Robbins video. That looks like Grady Martin on guitar.

Don't want to highjack the thread...those two gents singing with Marty might be Bobby Sykes and Don Winter. They recorded a MADE FOR TV ALBUM called the Marty Robbins Trio shortly after Marty died. Like a fool I didn't order a copy. I've been searching every since. I saw Marty live once...those clowns had the best time on stage.

[WickedGTR]

There's a guy in Reno that's using my name, I'm not sure he's saying he's me, but it's a little strange....

It aint me, babe.

[bebopalula]

it's more than a little ironic that
the other "James" lists Chris I. as an influence.

this blurb on his band "The Trainwrecks"
sounds alright,'cept for junior's drinking problem:

Music review:Gambling-town grit -The Trainwrecks

[Tim Armstrong]

That's a little weird for sure, James.

Imagine my surprise to open Guitar Player one day a few years ago and find a story about Tim Armstrong, lead singer for "Rancid"!

Cheers, Tim (who may name his next band "Fresh")

[Ron S]

Googled my name and came up with two, a rocket scientist and a used car salesman :D

Hopefully I'm somewhere in between in the evolutionary scale

No offence to used car salesman btw

Ron (not a rocket scientist ) Sayer