![]() The album is also designed to look like one from the late 1950s or early 1960s, Peterson added. He noted that the group’s new album has a vintage feel, and was recorded on analog recording equipment, while band members played old instruments on the album’s 10 songs. Peterson also said the concert will include three cuts from the group’s first album in 40 years: The Future IS What It Used to Be. “You’re going to see an excellent version of the songs and hear exactly how they should sound or be played,” he added. Peterson said audience members will hear all of The Guess Who’s greatest hits: “These Eyes”, “American Woman”, “Undun”, “No Time”, “Hand Me Down World”, “Share the Land”, “No Sugar Tonight” and “Clap for the Wolfman”. “He told me: ‘This is the soundtrack of my life’,” Peterson said, adding that Sarzo said he grew up listening to the group. “One requirement of anyone coming into the band is they really have to be fans of the band in the first place,” Peterson said.įor example, he noted that Sarzo, who has played bass with a number of groups, including Whitesnake and other heavy metal groups, was a big fan of The Guess Who as a kid. Today, with Cummings, Bachman, and other members long gone, the drummer plays with a new group of musicians, including lead singer/guitarist Derek “Dee” Sharp, lead guitarist Will Evankovich, bass legend Rudy Sarzo, and keyboard player and flutist Leonard Shaw. “We had watched Dick Clark on TV (in Winnipeg) and now he was presenting us with our first gold record,” Peterson said, with awe still in his voice after half a century. One thing he particularly remembers is having Dick Clark present the group its first gold record on “American Bandstand”. “First of all, it was a big thrill - this is where the British groups had to come to make it big, this was the heart, the birthplace of rock and roll,” he said. Peterson noted that the Canadian group’s first foray into the U.S. “One is no greater than the other, except in volume.” “As a musician, I feel, who travels and plays all over, you’re kind of a witness, and sometimes you’re a witness on an international-global scale, such as 9/11, and sometimes you’re in Youngstown or Van Wert and you’re witnessing a local, or one person’s epic event,” he said. He also added that The Guess Who has experienced some historic events over the years, including being in Alaska when the Exxon Valdez accident occurred, in California when a big earthquake occurred, and in Times Square when 9/11 occurred. “A lot of the inspiration for writing songs comes from bands being on the road, and the interaction in different places, meeting different people, and being entangled in different scenarios,” Peterson explained. Of course, there are things he doesn’t like about touring: flying and hotels, but he also noted that much of the music written over the years wouldn’t have been written without touring. “Entertaining people and making them feel happy or sad, or whatever human emotion … is quite a drug,” Peterson said. “We (recently) played Altoona, Pennsylvania, and the show started and all of a sudden we were playing the last song,” he noted, adding that he was enjoying it so much that the time just flew by. Moreover, Peterson said he’s enjoying performing now as much as he ever did. Peterson, Cummings, Bachman, and Jim Kale were the original Guess Who members, although Peterson is the only one still playing with the group. Later, Allan left to return to college and Burton Cummings, who had joined the group, which became The Guess Who? (the question mark was dropped later), took over as lead singer. The band was first called Allan and the Silvertones, for lead singer Chad Allan. “I said, ‘yeah, I love it’,” Peterson said. That all changed in high school when fellow student Randy Bachman introduced himself and asked if Peterson would like to play the new music: Rock and Roll. “I was actually playing his music, but I thought it was my music,” Peterson remembers. The music he was playing was jazz at that time, like his father. He had his first professional gig when he was 4 years old and had performed with Peggy Lee in Chicago by the time he was 6. Peterson’s father, who himself played drums in jazz and Big Bands, taught his son the basics when he was a toddler. “I’ve always played, ever since I had memory,” he noted. Peterson was a musical prodigy growing up in Winnipeg, Canada, and said he doesn’t really remember when he first picked up a pair of drumsticks. The Guess Who, with original member and drummer Garry Peterson on the left.
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