Inside Randy Alameda's Gibson Guitar Collection | Cars & Guitars Passion - Hard Parking

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
It's all right. You ready to go in?
It's whatever you whenever you want to go, I'm all right, I'm
here. This is hard parking brought to

(00:21):
you by Right Hunt and Right Toyota out of Scottsdale, AZ.
Coming up on today's show, I recently traveled to
Albuquerque, NM. Almost couldn't say that
Albuquerque, NM to visit my goodfriend Randy Alameda or really
Randy Arnold, but find out why they call him Alameda.
Check out his Gibson guitar collection in the vault he
built. Plus he has two NS XS, first
Gen. and 2nd Gen. All that more coming up after

(00:43):
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letting yesterday's tech eat tomorrow's.
Profits. So Randy Arnold, I know he's
Randy Arnold. Everyone around here knows you
as Randy Alameda. We are at an undisclosed
location somewhere in Albuquerque.
Welcome to the podcast. I've been trying to get you on
for a few years. Well, it's a Deep South Valley
thing here. You know where we're at.
You know, we had, we had a federal security driving up and

(02:12):
down the street every day 'causewhen I moved in here 40 years
ago, they were making the B1 bomber motors.
Four years ago or 40? 4040 years ago.
So tell us about that. It was great.
It was great. I there was a, a federal car
driving up and down the street here once an hour, 24, seven

(02:34):
days a week. It was great.
And then they had a problem withthrowing their solvents out the
back door, so they polluted the water.
So they had to shut everything down and, and then they went
away. They closed everything up, put
these wells in, supposedly got rid of the contaminants and then
sold the property off. As you could see, the fence just

(02:57):
fell down about a week ago. I actually noticed that when I
was pulling in and. And they're going to set up a, a
catering for the movies. It will be a catering for the
movies that'll be over there. But they'll be coming in from
the street South of us, not not here.
Also have that fence. They said they're going to put
up a brick wall. We'll see.

(03:17):
So if people may notice, just behind your shoulder are a few
Gibson guitars. That's just, it's not even,
it's, it's so small. It's not even the icing on the
cake of what we want to explore today because I've known you for
a while and I describe you as he's this old guy who all he
does is play golf and he's an old rocker and he's just a

(03:37):
fireball. And I make sure I always stop by
and say hi when I'm in town. You are 74 years old this year.
I am 75. I will be 76 in two months.
So you're 75. Where does the time go?
I have no clue. I was born 15 days into 1950.

(03:59):
Which actually rolls into one ofthe things behind them.
We're going to get into the guitar specifically after we do
the City Out interview. So people need to stick around
because we're going to go through including the special
vault. Yeah, that's a great thing that
my, my, my neighbor had had built.
My neighbor built that with the free pour in there.
And I brought security experts in.
They go, oh, no, man, nobody's coming in here.

(04:21):
The quickest way through here isthrough the wall and they'll
have to have a jackhammer. So tell us about you.
Tell us about. Yeah, there's.
There's so many places we can gobecause we're both car guys.
We're both NSX guys. I didn't, I didn't try to race
you one year, but I wanted to see where my car was, my old
car. And you graciously escorted me

(04:41):
out of town. And so that's when I really
realized that maybe one day I needed to upgrade.
But there's so much about you. There's the cars, there's the
music, there's the. And, and I financed it all with
the medical career. There was a medical sales
career. And there's a medical.
Sales No, I was I was a a certified orthopedic physician's
assistant. I assisted in the operating

(05:04):
room. I saw treated patients.
So what brought you here 40 years ago?
Well, I was it. The draft was closing in on me
in Missouri and I knew it was and I do.
I knew I wasn't going to go backto to college because all my
buddies had had too much fun drinking and having fun.

(05:26):
So I enlisted. I, I was a car guy.
I was the car wash boy at the Chevy garage in high school.
And we had a local drag strip. And that was the drag strip that
Dave de Spain always talks about.
And that's a little place in northeast Missouri.
And I thought everybody had Don Garlitz and Chris Karamissini's

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and that on, on Saturday night show up at their drag strip.
I didn't realize that they were that special.
But but yeah, I, I, I grew up inthere and, and I became a car
guy working at the Chevy deal 'cause I got to drive all the
cars after I washed them, which was a big deal.
Maybe I only got to drive it around the block.

(06:09):
But it was cool, especially whenthe Corvettes came in, you know,
but that was, that was a, that was my, my high school.
And, and then I went to college and I decided, well, that wasn't
going to work. But there was a guy that had a,
he was an Air Force recruiter. And of course he had a blue s s

(06:31):
396 and he was racing at the drag strip and he said, hey,
man, you know, I know I heard you guys talking about the draft
closing in. So hey, here's my card, you
know, and it was a real small town so I knew that things were
getting close and the draft board secretary, I called me and

(06:52):
said you have you got made any other plans?
Because if you haven't, maybe you should make some now.
So I called the Air Force recruiter and next thing you
know they gave me 6 months worthof medical training and sent me
to Clovis. Where is this?
New Mexico, 10 miles out of Texas and it was a brand new

(07:17):
hospital and it was, it was a great assignment and I worked
the emergency room for almost 4 years.
It was a great assignment and while I was there, I became a
patient. I crashed my motorcycle, broke
my left leg and my back and theysaid for sure I was not going to

(07:41):
ever walk again. But on the third day I passed a
little gas and all the nurses came in and cheered.
Can you take us back through that?
I actually have a a really good friend of mine right now who
just crashed his Ducati weeks ago.
Hips, his lumbar, his ankle, both arms.

(08:04):
I was texting him last night andhe says he can't move his toe
yet. They said he's going to walk but
keeping those spirits up and you've been there.
I've been there. Take us through that.
I I, I never thought you know those. 3.
Days 'cause I knew the surgeon and I saw him with the 18 gauge
needle when he rammed it into myfoot in the ER and I knew that I

(08:26):
didn't feel a thing and he was distraught and so was I and it
was, it was pretty crazy. Like I said, the nurse came in
on the third day and and I farted and everybody came in and
cheered. What's the?
Correlation between passing gas and walking.
Well, the vagus nerve controls the digestive system and

(08:49):
everything below it, you know, and I had bruised that so it was
not working, my digestive. There were no bowel sounds,
there was no feeling below the waist.
And once I farted, that meant, well, things were starting to
work at least in the digestive system and after.

(09:13):
So I spent the rest of my time, this was about four months
before I got out of the militaryin rehab, you know, in in
physical rehab. And I was walking with a cane
when when I went home on physical leave and and got
separated from one of my guitarson the on the plane and it got

(09:34):
smashed. Oh.
How about how old were you at this time?
I was 22 when I when I got out of the military and, and I, I
was going to go to College in Port Alice, but that didn't work
out. And I ended up coming to
Albuquerque and applied for unemployment.
And they said, go see this guy at the medical school.

(09:56):
And the next day I'm working forthe Department of Orthopedics,
which started up a whole career for me, which was amazing that,
that I, I was able to, to do that.
So you try to collect unemployment and they said no
way. Yeah, they said no, man, you're
going. You can have unemployment.
If this guy, Mr. Gibson over at the university doesn't hire you,

(10:19):
then we'll give you unemployment, you know, and I
literally had cash getting on myboots, my cowboy boots and holy
T-shirt on. I was, I'm just going to
unemployment, you know, but it was a, it was a great career.
The Department of Orthopaedics helped me throughout my my my

(10:41):
medical career. How long did you do that?
Well, I, I was, I'm, I try to remember it, I, I 'cause I had
another accident and I had an accident, like I said, I broke
my back and my left leg and, andthen I, I went, when I went to
work for New Mexico Orthopedics.It was a great job, but the big

(11:07):
corporate people bought the company and the doctors I worked
for said, you know, you might want to get another job.
And so I went into orthopedic sales and.
Did you ride again by the way? Did.
You never attempted. Never, never got on another.
I got on the back of my my one of my lifelong buddies, Harley's

(11:27):
a couple of times, but I never, I never got on a motor, a
motorcycle again other than justto ride to the grocery store and
back. And those were all in Farmington
'cause that's where my buddy lived.
But no, I never got on another motorcycle and I won't at.
That's low, especially at this. Yeah, gosh, I'm, you know, I

(11:49):
mean, I, I'm so fortunate that I'm sitting here and not sitting
in a wheelchair. But you had another accident.
Yeah, yeah, I've, I've, I've, yeah, I, I, I've wiped out a
Honda 1200, hit a 74 Chevy head on.
She turned in front of me, probably going 35 miles an hour

(12:12):
and I suffered a basil or skull fracture and Anne was
unconscious for 24 hours and then woke up and I've been fine.
But I, I have had some residual effects from the skull fracture

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and you know, 'cause that was, that's quite a, quite a wrap,
but I have no residual problems.I had a little problems with
balance, you know, which is probably why I never got on
another motorcycle. Right.
'Cause I don't have good balance.
And that's, that is one thing. And so after after that, I

(12:55):
couldn't go to work. So I had friends in the music
community and I went to my friend Louis Campos.
I said, Louis, I'm starving. I'm not going to make my
payment. And he says, well, hell, there
was a couple of women in here just just yesterday looking for
a guy here. Here's their number.
So I called them up and I went to work for them.

(13:18):
Clear they were looking for a music.
They were looking for a music. They were looking for a guitar
player, Yeah. I mean a couple of women show up
looking for a guy. And they they were looking for a
guitar player and they just fired their guitar player in
Santa Fe. So it was my first job as a lead
guitar player. And my friend Louis Campos, he
said, yeah, you'll, you'll do fine.

(13:39):
You just go up there and you just do what you do and you'll
do fine. And at that point, you were
still Randy Arnold. And I was still Randy Arnold and
well, no, they called me Randy Alameda in the 70s because I
lived in the last house on on Alameda to drive in the North
Valley, you know, right across from the smoke shop and where

(13:59):
the buses would turn around. So when my car didn't make it to
work, I could get on the bus andit'd take me right to the County
Hospital. How convenient.
It was a great, it was a great place and I lived there for a
couple years and then after thatbought a home in in Westgate.
How did that became your guitar name?

(14:20):
Because I lived in Alameda and everybody in the 70s was usually
David Red Truck. Or.
George, whatever, you know, but because I had and I, I thought
they were going to give me the I'cause I drove a 56 Chevy, but
it was purple. They were going to call me Randy

(14:41):
Purple truck. But because I lived in Alameda,
they called me Randy Alameda andthe name just stuck.
So I had a whole during my wholecareer in music from after the
the head injury, you know, I was, I was Randy Alameda and we
toured the entire western UnitedStates except for California and

(15:04):
Washington. We played every other state and
most of the states between Ohio and the Mississippi.
Why not California or Washington?
They they didn't pay, they wanted you to pay.
You want to go play at the at the the troubadour?
Well, you had to have your management pay to buy you a
slot. We weren't going to do that, you

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know. And it was, it was a, it was a
great experience, you know, but you just never, you never eat
the same thing. You never eat your own cooking.
You're always sleeping in somebody else's bed.
Was it always a bad thing? It was no.
It was always. It was, it was OK, it was good.

(15:47):
It was different. Would I recommend it?
No, the the hardest part for us being from New Mexico was we
couldn't find any decent hot food once we got out of the
Southwest, you know, So we wouldhave people send us hot food,
chilies and, and Peppers and sauces when we were going to be

(16:09):
at a place for two, for two weeks.
Then we we would have them send it up to us.
And it was a it was a great experience.
We played, like I say, non-stop.Many times we would play 8 or 9
shows in a week. You know, we played the
University of Idaho at Pocadella.

(16:33):
We, we, there was a country band, I can't remember their
name, but they were national recording artists and they
played first. Then we had a nude streaking
race, quarter mile race, and then we played after that and
and, and at the end of our last song, the skies opened up with
lightning and rain. It came down.

(16:55):
It was pretty dramatic. What was it like to worry back
then? Did you, I mean you guys assume
you had a manager? We did.
We worked for, we worked for theGood Music Agency, which was in
Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and he kept us working and it was
great. And and if we did well at a
place, he made sure when we wentback next time we got more

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money. Did you guys even like for here
in Albuquerque? Were there any residences?
There weren't. There wasn't anything like that.
There were bands who played hereregularly but they didn't have,
they didn't play every night andwe played six nights a week.

(17:39):
But always around different places.
Always, yeah, always in different places.
And we were booked, we were booked by the guy out in out of
Minneapolis, Saint Paul. And he he flew into town and
made some, some suggestions and before he booked us and then,
and then he then he attended a couple of shows and said, OK,
you guys are what I'm looking. For quality control.

(18:01):
Yeah, you know, and we were on. Wait, we were on.
We were on on tour with Eddie Van Halen's cousin had a band
called Lion, you know, they wereon there and there was a band
called The News. I wonder who what they became.
But we actually our lead guitar player had his girlfriend had

(18:26):
been abducted from one of our shows, brutally raped and beaten
and it affected him. You.
Know of course that did she was and he was a local mass murderer
here in, in Albuquerque. Name is William Wayne Gilbert.

(18:47):
He killed a couple and, and two,two other women.
Oh, he killed her. He killed her, abducted her from
our show at the bar and took herout by the dump and brutally
raped and beaten and and you know, it's just terrible thing,
you know, but it was that was that was tough and then the guy

(19:08):
went nuts. You know, of course, the the guy
and he lost his voice and all ofa sudden we're on the road and
I'm the only singer. Lord help you.
Oh, my voice was so shot. I it was great when he when he
got his voice back, but he'd lost his voice when he came back
to the murder trial. Yeah, you know, And it was, it

(19:30):
was pretty traumatic, but it wasa it was a great career.
I loved it. And then after, after Ashley
Pond, that was the local radioactive cesspool in Los
Alamos, and that's where the Bandit initially formed was
there. So that was the name of that
band was Ashley Pond. How long did you guys play?
How long did you tour? We toured.

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And then what? What When When was this?
This would have been 1980 because we're getting the the
head injury occurred in 1980I. Was four years old.
And, and I could not, I could not work anymore because I
couldn't. I, I, I had no balance, but that
didn't matter when I was playingthe guitar.
They just thought, oh hell, he'sdrunk.

(20:13):
No problem. The note, the notes are OK,
Everything's fine. But yeah, we, we did that and I,
I guess I toured, we toured until let me get this right.
I think it was 9899. I I think we stopped touring in,

(20:34):
in 2000. I think it was 2000.
I did. I kept playing, but it was just
regionally we didn't, we didn't go out and you know, we'd go out
and wouldn't see, wouldn't see New Mexico for four months.
And it was, it was a great thing.
It was. It was something that I look
back on with great fondness. Where does the music obsession

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come from? My.
'Cause you're not. It's not like you just used to
play. We kind of did a pre tour of
this place. Well, my, my grandmother, my
sainted grandmother was a, a Baptist Church pianist.
That's how I knew her. And my earliest memories are
sitting on the Pew next to her. And if I've misbehaved, I got

(21:18):
the knuckle on the forehead and of course, I'm up there in front
of the whole church. So, so, so I'm, I'm on display,
you know, So it was, it was pretty tough there, but it, my
grandmother had three sisters and they all played musical
instruments and went to the community houses.
And, you know, I was from a townof 325 people when I in 1950 and

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everybody, all the sisters had married husbands and stuff.
So they didn't play together anymore.
But still, when the family reunion, we get together, there
was nothing but music. And it was a wonderful thing.
But I I knew it only as piano. And then when I was about 7

(22:05):
years old, I found an old guitarin the farmhouse attic and it
had a a hula dancer and a palm tree and a kind of an ocean.
And I grabbed that old guitar with the rusty strings and ran
down and said, Grandma, what is this?
And she tuned that sucker up andplayed.

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Right there on the spot. On the spot and I was stunned
and I said, grandmother, will you teach me how to do that?
And she said yes, after you learn how to play the piano.
So I spent the next, I spent thenext 5 or 6 years learning how
to play the piano to meet her satisfaction.

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And then when it came time for me to get a guitar, she took me
to the music store and made sureI got a good instrument.
That started it. And that started it.
And then there was my And then in junior high school, the kid
came up to me and introduced himself as the best drummer I

(23:10):
was ever going to meet. And he was two years younger.
And his mother. You because you were known for.
Being because I was known for being a guitar.
I was known for playing guitar. And he said, he says I
understand you play guitar. And I said yes.
And he says, well, I'm the best damn drummer you ever met.
And it turned out he was right. He was also a better guitar

(23:33):
player than me, and a better singer and a songwriter.
And he was an inventor, too, butthat's another story.
Did he go on to be some household name?
No, he never did. He never did.
And it was kind of a shame, you know.
But he, he did invent some things, you know, a highly
efficient electric motor, you know, and had, he had several, I

(23:54):
think he had 20 patents when he passed.
But he was a musician and he played the, the, the bluegrass
things up up in Durango and Telluride.
He'd play those with his band. I think the band he had was
called Colebank Holler. But we were friends until he
passed, you know, but he was right.

(24:15):
He was. Even though I remember him as a
guitar player, he still was the best drummer ever played with.
All that is amazing to me. I just, I could play by ear
barely on some things when I wasa little kid, but as far as
tuning a guitar and learning that and drumming, I don't know
how people could just keep up with the drumming.
Well, you know, my, my mother played the piano, of course, she

(24:36):
was a, a, a, a Baptist Church pianist and organist.
And, and so it was there was piano and there was a piano and
an organ. There was a Hammond organ in the
living room in my childhood home.
So it was the music was there and it was, it was kind of
inevitable. I just, it just the, the, the

(24:59):
medical stuff just kind of fell out of this, the coldness of the
draft. Yeah.
In 1970, when you. When you guys so you were able
to avoid all that getting shipped overseas and and all the
crazy that. Because I, because they sent me
to Air Force training, medical training, and once I got through

(25:26):
the basic training, they said, OK, this guy can actually, we
need you here. We need you here.
So they, they gave me a full 6 months worth of training where
everybody else got 2, which was great.
It also helped me with promotions once I got into the
active thing. But and once I got through with
that, the tech school, then theysent me to Clovis, which I was

(25:50):
going with. Everybody's going on.
We want to be anywhere but Texas.
So I got 10 miles outside of Texas.
Given your history in that, I want to get back to the music in
a little bit, but you know, withthe medical, you know, what are
some of the things that you wereable to see, some of the things
that how you see, you know, veterans now.

(26:11):
I think some systems, some cities, some states are better
than others and taking care of the veterans because I think I
have to get overly political here.
But you and I have known each other for a while where we're
pretty unfiltered in the things that we talk about, Right?
Yeah. Is it as I want?
I don't want to say is it as badas it seems?
Because I do know some areas area lot better than the others.

(26:33):
But you know what? Aren't they telling us?
Well. Based on things you've seen.
Based on things that I've seen, I, I, I think there's a severe
lack of healthcare providers. And as a perfect example of my,
my normal appointment would havebeen this month, but they sent
me a letter last month saying that it'll be in December, you

(26:58):
know, five days before Christmas.
And so I, I, I think that's pretty much par for the course.
That's what's happening to our veterans today.
You know, I it's, it's, it's been sounds.
Like it's been a problem for a while.
It has been a problem for a while.
And I, I never claimed disability when I got out of the

(27:20):
military. I went in after I retired, I
went in to see if they would give me discounted medical care
and they, they had me medically evaluated and they came back 70%
disabled. And I think that's pretty much

(27:41):
right on. And I see guys, we have a pretty
good VA here, but the other V asthat I've been to, I've attended
a couple of my veteran buddies deaths in other VA hospitals and
it was despicable. That's the only thing I could
say. And I think maybe I get treated

(28:04):
a little bit better at the VA because of my long work history
with the University connection and the VA connection as I did
sell orthopedic implants and anddevices.
What do they need to do to improve it in your opinion?
Staff. Just staff.
It's just a. Staffing issue staff, we've got,

(28:25):
we've got all these wonderful young physicians that I see come
through the University of New Mexico medical school, which
I've been affiliated with since 1974 and and they're they're
great physicians. They're physicians for the right
reasons, and we can't keep them.They, they, they're here and

(28:48):
then they're gone. They go someplace where they can
make a lot of money. And you can't blame them.
You know, New Mexico is the middle of nowhere.
Albuquerque is, you know, take aleft turn in Albuquerque, you
know, and you'll end up in Juarez.
Yeah, if you guys weren't here, I would not be here.

(29:09):
Well, yeah, I think you're right.
Yeah. I think you're right.
It was I, I, I'm proud of my service.
I'm proud of my service. I'm I'm proud of the people that
I worked with at the university and at the VA hospital.
Getting back to the music, doingall the touring, kind of rubbing

(29:32):
shoulders with other musicians. Over time, some fell off, some
became somebody or somebody's where there are multiple.
Like how does it happen? Are there multiple music?
I don't know, I don't want to say festivals, but events where
there was just like hundreds of band bands there or?
There was a lot of of quote UN quote day long shows or weekend

(29:55):
shows where they had multiple bands that I would play.
And I was fortunate enough to, to meet some pretty prominent
musicians. And not that I got to know them
well, but sure got to meet them and exchange a few things about
equipment or, or the weather, whatever.
You know, you ever get to play with anybody?
Oh, you know, like I said, play or did anybody get to play with

(30:17):
you? You know, I, I, I got, I, well,
Rick Derringer played with us, you know, in, in Flagstaff, AZ.
And I had just joined the band and saw this guy in a blue blade
in a, in a burgundy blazer sitting at the bar and I, and
there was a spot next to him. So I sat down and I said, are

(30:39):
you Rick Derringer? And he said, yes, Sir.
And so that was my first night with the band.
And within, within two hours, we're up on stage playing,
playing music. I'm up on stage with with, with
Mr. Rock'n'roll Hoochie COO, youknow, which was pretty
incredible. Especially looking back at.

(31:00):
It yeah, I look, I looking back at it, it was just it was just
marvelous. And and we actually we had a bad
van crash later that night. It was a snowstorm and Flagstaff
and and Rick sound man broke hisleg and Rick, Rick jumped in the
one good van we had. And of course, me with the
medical training, I had to take the sound man to the hospital.

(31:22):
So I missed the, I missed the after party, but the next night
the sound man was unable to do it.
So our sound man covered for Rick.
So we got to go and see the sound check and it was of
course, ZZ Top and with the, with all the animals, with the
Longhorns and, and the Buffalo that they had on stage with

(31:43):
them. And that was pretty cool getting
to meet, getting to meet those guys.
You know, Frank Beard was reallyvery personable.
I didn't get to talk with Billy or Dusty much, but Frank was
just as approachable as anybody.He was a very nice guy.
But yeah, that was that was crazy.

(32:05):
And there was, there was other times when there were, when
there were musicians that I got to be on the bill with them, you
know, on the bill with B.B. King, you know.
That's pretty cool. That's that's that's something
that you don't get to say very often.
I wasn't the first band. I'm Amy, but I was one of the
bands before him. You know, I was very fortunate

(32:27):
that I was able to pull that off.
And then when it it looked it just as the the band stuff
started to go away, you know, that was I had to I I that's
when I dunkle down and started on the medical thing going.
It's just as hard as I could go.And of course that led to
divorce and and of course, divorce led to me playing music

(32:51):
again when? Was the last time you were able
to play? Oh, the last gig, The last gig I
played was in 2019. It's not too long ago.
Not too long ago. They were just pick up like
which which of your guitars do you actually play with versus
just look at? I play all of them.
I really like my early my late 50s Les Paul specials.

(33:19):
They're double cuts. I play slide guitar.
So it I need that extra little bit of the neck, you know, but
those are those are those are the ones that I play the most, I
think, and that maybe just because they're recently
acquired in the last five to seven years.

(33:40):
My favorite guitar is the I havea 2005 Les Paul Standard, which
was one of the 25 guitars made by Gibson for Jimmy Page to pick
his personal instrument from. I got second pick.

(34:05):
Well. I was overwhelmed when I
realized that I got second pick,but I was back to Missouri for a
family reunion and I was close enough to Nashville and I had my
son with me and I said, let's goto Nashville.
And I had a friend in Nashville that I stayed with.

(34:26):
And so we went to the Gibson showroom and, and I said, I
looked up at this beautiful, what I thought was a 59 Les
Paul. And I said, is that what I think
it is? And he says, oh, you're, you're
right on the money. That's Jimmy Page's number one.
And I said, Oh yeah. And, and, and he said he said,

(34:50):
yeah, that's it. And he wouldn't give me any
discount, but he did. He said, you know, if you if you
want a discount, you can go to Guitar Center.
They've got a few of these, but not from the run of 25 that we
made for Jimmy to pick his instrument from.
So I, I thought that was pretty cool.
So I really like that guitar. I really do.

(35:12):
And I beat it up. I play slide on it too, you
know, but I at least I use a a glass slide.
I used to use metal but now I use glass.
Has a little more subtle tone, not as sharp as as metal is.
How many guitars do you have? 2829.
What start of the obsession to start buying the guitars?

(35:36):
Well, after, after college, I sold my Hagstrom 12 string and
my Super Reverb. And when I went into the
military and, and I, I traded, Iactually, I traded the amp for a
banjo and an acoustic guitar. And I decided I was going to,

(35:57):
was going to be maybe the Shaky's guy, you know, playing
the banjo at the pizza joint because I'd seen that thought
that was pretty cool. Course that didn't last long,
you know, And I I traded the banjo for a set of Polyglass
tires for my 68 Camaro pace car.There you go.
There you go. And I thought it was well worth

(36:19):
it. And, and when I when I when I
broke my back, they sent me homeand I was walking with a cane
and I had that that Gibson guitar that I'd bought 67,
bought in 60-7 and it made a flight and I didn't and it got

(36:41):
smashed. That led to me coming to
Albuquerque eventually. It was months later and buying a
guitar from my friend Louis Campos, who became my musical
mentor for my whole life. He always had faith in me.
And when I didn't have a job, he'd say, well, call this person

(37:02):
or call that person and they'd say, oh, Louis sent you.
Well then you're OK and I I do miss him but I was I was
fortunate enough at the end of his life and you'll love this.
I took him to the Crest in my NSX once a month.

(37:22):
Yeah. And we'd also go out to the
reservation and have a Laguna Burger and.
That was a. It was really a he.
He was a hoot because he was always a car guy.
You know he was a Beamer guy. I'd bought his wife's BMW after
they got a divorce. 2002, 7074, 2002.

(37:46):
Did you guys smash it up? No, I drove that car until it
had. 247,000 miles on it and I had replaced the front
suspension. Any electrical problems?
You said BMW. No, had no electrical problems
in that car. I did buy a donor vehicle.
Because I needed the, the suspension was going in the

(38:07):
front. So I, I bought a donor vehicle
and, and was able to, to, to putthe also take the transmission
out and put it in there in the the 74.
And then I sold the donor vehicle for more money than I
paid for it. So you've been in the cars

(38:27):
since? High school on the farm.
I was driving a pickup truck with a hay wagon or a tractor
behind me with a block on the brake and the clutch so that my
feet could depress it. What Car did you want growing
up, Randy? I always thought it would be a
Corvette, you know, but. You look like a Corvette guy.

(38:51):
But but you know, and I drove all the Corvettes.
There were several Corvette owners that I got to drive their
car around the block, but the myfavorite car up until the NSX
was the 1969 pace car convertible.
It just had all the bells and whistles include.

(39:13):
I'd put a pioneer tape deck in it and and some nice speakers.
It was a great car and I I just loved it and I got it.
It got totaled while I was in Clovis, but I had it for three.
Three years and it was just great.

(39:33):
But one thing about that car was, especially in the 60s, is
you met yourself at least once aday because every Chevy dealer
in America had one or two of those pace cars, and there was
four of them in Clovis. And I don't, I don't know how
big Clovis is, but it doesn't sound like a city that's going

(39:54):
to be that big. Well, Clovis I think was about
20 was about 20,000 people when I got there and there was at
least 16,000 people that worked on the base.
Now part of those people were Clovis populations.
But, but it was, it was a, a tacfighter base and we we flew a

(40:16):
lot of missions out of there. Where the NSX.
The NSX. We're in a nice.
Santa, I had my friend the drummer was selling satellite
TV. So I started selling satellite
TV and I'm sitting here watching, you know, it's 3:00 in

(40:39):
the morning. I'm watching Santa at Suzuka
Santa and Prost and I'm thinkingthis is living, you know,
because I was watching it live. You.
Know and it was it was a big thing and once again something
that I shared with my friend Michael the drummer, you know he

(41:00):
he was selling satellite TV and I sold I sold several systems
down here so I'm I made a littlemoney selling it too, but it was
watching Formula One on the satellite dishes that that got
me. And I can remember in the pre

(41:20):
race stuff, which of course there were no commercials.
I'm getting a direct feed from Suzuka, you know, and I see this
beautiful red car with a black hard top on it, and Senna gets
out of it and I went someday, someday.

(41:42):
So it's a different, it's kind of a different Senna story than
you typically hear. But I saw him drive that car and
it wasn't long after that. There's a, a YouTube video, it's
in high, early, high death of him wearing a pair of loafers
driving the NSX at Suzuka. And it once again, I, I must

(42:07):
have watched that 100 times, if not 1000, you know, it was just
wonderful watching it. And, and Santa was, he was my
hero. My friends would all come over
on, you know, on Sunday morning with that, we'd be up here 4:00
in the morning. But you know, watching the race
from Europe, you know, and it was a, it was a terrible day

(42:29):
when he when he lost his life, right?
It wasn't, it was it really affected me, but it was that
that association with Santa, with that car and then seeing
the high definition video of himdriving the car that really sold

(42:50):
me on the car. Now, did you only have?
Have you had two first gens? Or just the one?
I only had the one. I only had the 1 and I, I was, I
had a Integra that had 247,000 miles on it when I got rid of
it. And I just, I drove it

(43:11):
everywhere. I drove it to Seattle, I drove
it up and down the coast. I drove it back to Missouri.
I drove it to floor. I drove it everywhere in that
car. I did.
A year of your Integra. And it was a 92 GS with an
automatic. Oh, OK.
So I thought, you know, this carmaybe I should step up to an

(43:32):
NSX. So I went out to the Acura
dealer because I knew them already with having worked
worked on my Integra and I said,you know, I think maybe I'd like
to get one of them NS XS. And of course when you say that
do. They just look at you funny or.
They looked at me kind of funny and then they and and I said and

(43:56):
then and I said, you know, I'm looking for one with just to
stock one with an automatic, just something I can cruise
around in 'cause it'd be just like my Integra wasn't.
Three days later they called me and said, well, you know, we've
got just exactly what you're looking for, except it's a 5
speed. And I said I'll take it, right.

(44:17):
I didn't even ask how much. And I and so when they got it,
when they got it on the floor atthe dealership, I walked in and
I announced who is going to sellme this car?
And the owner said this gentleman here is going to sell

(44:39):
you that car. Was that black and ivory or
black? And black and ivory.
It was black and ivory. And the owner said that sent the
salesman to do the paperwork andthen the owner, who was an NSX
owner himself. OK.
Showed me everything, you know, all the little insurance and

(45:01):
outs of closing the trunk and you know, all those little,
little things that you don't know.
And I was, I was impressed with,with the way they handled it and
I loved the car immediately. And I put when I bought it, it
had 60,000 miles on it. I paid $30,000 for it and it has

(45:25):
90,000 miles on it today and I've gone through a set of track
tires that were on the fat fivesI have.
I have two sets of Chrome fat fives.
I bid on two of them on eBay andone of them both but but I.
And. They're terrible.
The fat fives are just absolute.But I like the silver ones are

(45:46):
nice for some weird. Reason.
But I didn't. But you know, I was new to the.
I was new to it. I had no clue what I was doing
and we went. Meanwhile, I'm somewhere
daydreaming about 1. Anyway, so I so after I bought
the car or when I bought the car, they handed me a card of a
gentleman named Philippe Bruno and it, his card said NSX club

(46:08):
of, of New Mexico. And I can remember laughing
saying, oh, I'm not going to join the card club.
But of course, you know, within 30 days I'm a card carrying
member of the club, you know, and it turned out to be one of
the best decisions of my life. And we drove all over, all over
New Mexico and Southern Coloradoin those NS XS.

(46:32):
And I just, I just loved every mile that I put on the 91.
What year did you get this thing?
And I bought it in. Let me get this right.
Ish. 2. 1000. You're 75, so I'll allow you to
be off a year or two. I'm going to say I've had it 10.
I've had it 12 years. So probably around the same
time. So 2011, 2012.

(46:54):
Yes, because you, yeah, I, I took it to, I, I went to, that's
when I met you. When we went to Palm Springs, NS
Expo, NS Expo and I, I was the last person that they let
register. So it was a last minute

(47:15):
registrant and we drove out. There was like 5 of us went out.
It was just the most wonderful thing.
And that's when I met you at at Science of Speed.
And I think like, no, it didn't meet you until we got to to Palm
Springs, but. Yeah, but then you guys also
came through. And then we came through.
Cruise at some point. And we came through in 2017, we

(47:37):
did a cruise where we went over to Arizona with the science of
speed and then came back right to to Albuquerque.
And it was on that trip that they called me and said we've
got a 2017 NSX for you. We take the saddle interior and

(47:58):
no options other than the stereoand wheels.
And I said, yeah, I'll take it. Did you have them get it for you
or did you already? They, they, they, they got it.
For me. It was a, it was on the showroom
floor for Hurricane Harvey. So it was in San Antonio or

(48:19):
Houston. It was in Houston.
So it was inside, it was protected, it wasn't flooded at
all. But the all the other cars were
absolutely ruined. So they were under the gun to
get all of this insurance stuff.So they didn't want it.
So they would they love to to get rid of the car so.
Able to get it at a decent price.

(48:39):
I paid they they they I I boughtthe car for 145,000 there you
go. And the list on it was 175 Yep
there you go. And that's a low option.
You know that that's just the interior, the stereo and I got.
The options. And there wasn't a lot of
options. And I never was thinking that I

(49:00):
needed it to sound better, you know, be louder or go faster
because my gosh, The thing is incredibly fast.
It's incredibly quick and nimblewith that extra torque vector
you get with the all-wheel drive.
It's it's really, I have got myself in trouble going to get

(49:22):
gas in my 91 thinking that I'm in the 2017 and I'm going into
that 90° corner a little faster than I.
Should be. Right.
You know, it's because it, it isthat much quicker through the
corners, especially at lower speeds, you know, but could I
pick one of them that I like more than the other?

(49:43):
I don't think I could. You could.
Maybe I could? They're different, right?
But they're totally different and, and I go back to once
again, we saw it the same day, Peter Cunningham get in that
black NSX and take those laps around there and when he got out
of that car. It was like a total eclipse of

(50:07):
the sun, his smile when he got out of that car.
And it was when he gave the the gal from Colorado the ride, you
know, and he got out of that carbeaming like that.
And I said to myself, I think I want to buy one of those.
And, and it was, it was it was the right time.

(50:28):
Some investments that I had madecame to fruition and and it was
a it was a great purchase. It it has been a great car and
do I want to sell it? No.
Do I want to modify it? No.
My son, do you? Have do you still have?
You still have the first intersex as well.
Yes, I have them both. Had them both there.
They're 30 yards. They're 30 yards away.

(50:49):
OK, Yeah, they're 30 yards. Get done we'll we can check
those out really quick and. That that would be perfectly all
right with me. It's it's kind of a kind of a
kluge because it is a AA75 year old.
Garages. It's my 75 year old garage, you
know I. I'm a piler.

(51:09):
Hey, that's OK. You were telling me earlier that
this, the main part of this residence, has been here for a
long time. The main part of this residence
has been here since probably 19201930.
And it was just a one room Adobe.
And then they added a a kitchen and a bathroom and then they

(51:34):
added up another room and and then a bedroom and a living
room. And then that's when I bought
the house. And then I added, put on a 1000
square foot addition, I think, yeah.
I was gonna say, we're sitting in a space that's probably
bigger than the rest of the house.
Combined. Yes, it is.
Yeah, it is. It is and and my neighbor.

(51:56):
My neighbor is a contractor and a car guy so he has done almost
all of the work over here and itdidn't matter what he charged
me. It was well worth every penny.
We're going to talk about the best car you've ever had.
Well, the best car I've ever hadis the 91 NSX.

(52:16):
The second best would be the 92 Integra.
What's the third? The white Accord that's out
there. I know.
You love that car. I do love that car 'cause it's
got the 6 speed and it's an automatic 6 speed, but it's got
the six cylinder and it's a 2 door and that's they've only
made that till 2017. So I really like that car and it

(52:40):
has got the style. The only thing I don't like is
the seats. Yeah, they're not.
They're hard compared to accuracy.
Switched them out with some other more comfortable Honda
seats. You know, I just haven't, I'm
lazy. Probably, I probably, I probably
could do that. I did the the guy, I had a, a
junkyard down here that I went every time my, my Integra broke

(53:04):
down. He had several of them down
there, but he closed, he closed that place down and and retired.
So there's still four or five Integra's down there to to be
scavenged, but but you can't getinto the yard anymore.
So you like eBay? You were telling me that
earlier? Oh, I've I've I like eBay.
Sex die casts all over this place.

(53:25):
You know, I bought, I bought three of these, these three red
guitars. I bought off.
EBay and I and they're they weretwo of them were one owner
guitars. I bought them from the original
owners in 1960 and 1962. I was going to say you got to go
to Facebook Marketplace, man. You'll get those seats.
I can promise you that. You don't even have to look for.

(53:46):
Them though, Oh, I know. Oh, I know that.
Yeah, they'll have them. They'll have them.
And I should, and I should buy them.
I should. And they're, you know, it's got,
it's got a great hard drive, youknow, has every friggin option
that I guess that you could get on a Honda Accord.
But it's got also 135,000 miles on it now.
Yeah, because I've driven it allover and and I love the car.

(54:10):
I don't hesitate to drive and it's quick, handles well, stops
parks easily and small enough you know you can you can get in
places that you can't get in a bigger car.
So you've told me offline stories of sex, drugs and
rock'n'roll and and booze, but you don't drink.

(54:30):
I haven't. I love to drink.
When? When was the last time you drank
and why don't you drink? I, I quit drinking in 2008 and I
was a tequila drinker and one ofmy drummer buddies that I, I had
AI had AI had a band with two drummers and two guitar players

(54:52):
and keep, you know, we had the basically The Allman Brothers
and, and we, we drank our share there.
And I, I realized after basically after music, that
probably wasn't a good idea for me to continue to drink because

(55:14):
we were all affluent and we werebuying high dollar booze and
drinking it. And in 2008, my 2 tequila
drinking buddies moved Gracias adios.

(55:36):
And that's, that's when I quit. Yeah.
And and I'm glad that I quit. There was no actual, it's just.
There was no, there was like no,no DWI, no, no, no accident,
none, none of that stuff. It was just OK, I need to stop.
And I did and I was successful. And one of my friends that of

(56:02):
the two guys that that moved away is he works with James
Cameron. Or D James.
Cameron yes. D James Cameron yes, yes, he
does 3D rendering and shit like that.
He he was, he worked at Sandia Labs in the micro in the micro
area, you know, so he, that the film industry loved him when he

(56:23):
moved to California. You know, he's he, he lives, I
think he lives in Big Sur, has awife that speaks 6 languages,
you know? Big Sur's nice.
That's a beautiful part. That was a long time ago.
And that was a long time ago. And before it because I had a
car before. Between the Integra and the yeah

(56:45):
I'm trying to even remember whatit was but oh, I had Acls.
OK. A 3.0 CLS because yeah.
We went for Hondas. And it was, it was a great car.
It was a great car. And I had, I've had three 1200
Hondas and all of them were great cars and I was able to
work on them myself and keep them running.

(57:08):
And I, I was fortunate enough tohang with a couple of Honda
mechanics who had raced Civics in and in Southern California at
the dawn of Honda coming to America, right.
So they, they, they were the ones that really got me driving
Hondas. There was three brothers, you

(57:30):
know, and, and two of them have passed.
One of them became one of my best friends, my golfing buddy,
and they were all Native American.
I mean, you're 75, it'll be 76 in a couple months.
Well, everything you've been into, the music, the cars, the
medical field, the everything, what do you think is something
you look back on is damn, that was amazing.

(57:54):
Well, I think it will always be the music.
You know, there's, there's something, there's something
about playing in front of an electric.
Crowd. There's, there's just something
about that that it brings something out of me anyway that

(58:15):
I didn't even know was there. And so the, the music is, is
definitely the biggest part of my whole life.
And that it without the music, Ithink my, my life would have

(58:36):
been a a complete total waste, right.
And, and yes, it was great to have that wonderful job working
for the big orthopedic group. It was wonderful selling stuff
that I was getting 15 and 20 and30% Commission off of and people
were lined up to buy it. It was, it was a, a great, a

(58:58):
great experience. But as I said, you know, when
they when they said I couldn't take the doctor's golfing
anymore, I knew that my sales career was over.
You want to tell us, Tell the podcast people what that means.
Well, when I when I was working for the large orthopedic group,
they sold the group and my physician called me in and he

(59:23):
says you need to get another job.
And he says, Sam, what do you mean I need you?
What did I do? And he says you didn't do
anything, we sold the business. You are the highest paid person
that has that doesn't have an MD, don't need to say anything

(59:43):
else. And I said, no, you don't.
And I called up the three guys who'd offered me jobs in the
last year, and one of those guyshired me immediately.
To play golf with his doctors. And I said that was your job.

(01:00:04):
That was my job was to take the doctors golfing because he
didn't play golf and I did. He didn't want to learn how to
play golf. And I said I can't take these
people. Golfing.
I can't afford that. And he handed me a credit card.

(01:00:24):
Pretty good. Pay, huh?
Pretty good pay. Pretty good pay, yeah.
I went through, let's see, I went through three Kia Sportages
and. So now we're up to $40,000.
Yeah, you know. That wasn't much.
They were all junk, right? But they were great.
They were they were utility vehicles, sure.

(01:00:45):
They served the purpose. They really I.
Used to want a Sportage pretty bad so.
You know, I they were great, they were great vehicles, but
but all three of them had had a busted exhaust manifold.
There was a problem with that, with the, with those motors.
So but yeah, I, I, I really did enjoy, enjoy the sales.

(01:01:05):
It was great. And I got to travel and one of
the companies that I worked for was a golf oriented company.
So I got to play some of the most expensive golf courses in
America on the company dollar because they'd have a a national

(01:01:26):
sales convention. And we're at Defuski Island,
which is one stop away from Hilton Head.
Yeah, you still play golf all the time.
I still play golf all the time. Don't get paid to do.
It I don't get paid to do it nowI pay to play to play golf and I
and I play with with three pharmacists and a lawyer.

(01:01:47):
One of the pharmacists is also an attorney and and I've played
with the same three guys for many, many years.
And one of the pharmacists is one of my musician buddies from
the 70s. And he was also the guy that got

(01:02:10):
my ex-wife into Manx cats, whichhave no tails, you know, which
was, and for a while we had like6 or 7 Manx cats in my son's
bedroom before he was born. But that was one of the things
that also was a rift between me and my first wife, my only wife.

(01:02:32):
I'm not looking for a second one.
No, not looking. I mean, but you never know.
I mean, there was, there's been a couple of, you know, I live in
a Hispanic neighborhood. I've been here 40 years.
So when the wife was gone, everybody knows what happened.

(01:02:53):
The single women in the neighborhood, they all went
through me, you know, and I, I was very fortunate that I, the
one that the one that I, the onethat I really liked, she got
sick and died. Well, that tells you something.
You know, and, and I, I really miss her.

(01:03:15):
Yeah, I really miss her. And I she, it's, it's funny.
I, I'm with the sound man, living with him and, and we go
to the Albertson's and get stufffor it to cook.
And I look up at the checkout girl and I see this Hispanic

(01:03:38):
woman with this beautiful smile and, and this bubbly
personality. And I said to my, to my partner,
the sound man, I said, you know,that's what I'm looking for.
And I met her a week later at a party in the neighborhood.
Yeah. And I was smitten.

(01:03:59):
And it was, that was all she wrote, you know, and I had, I
had six or seven wonderful yearswith her.
She was wonderful. Just just was really good for
my, for my ego at the time, you know, going through a 20
something year, 25 year relationship with the same woman

(01:04:23):
and I was just sure that I was going to be with her forever.
It was no bigger surprise to anyone than me that I fell in
love again. And I did.
And at her funeral, her mother said, you know, you were the
only man she ever loved. Well.
I'm crying right now. Yeah.

(01:04:47):
But you know, emotion like that,you can't put a price on that.
You cannot. Yeah, she was.
She was something. She was still.
She was something. I really do miss her.
And she's been gone. She's been going a long time.

(01:05:11):
How long? 11 years.
Yeah. Yeah, she's been gone 11 years.
Yeah, I would have married her that, but she didn't want to get
married. Yeah, I think she knew.
I think she knew more than I knew 'cause she got sick and and

(01:05:33):
she got she, she died of hepatitis and she died three or
four months before they had the cure, you know?
Yeah, you just, you just, you just don't know.
And that's and that teaches you to treasure every moment, if not
even every second. Randy, that's why I'm here,

(01:05:55):
dude. I told you, that's right.
I said I'm coming out. We're going to do this.
Yeah, and it I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I've, it's kind of a cleansing
for me to, to say some of these things and talk about some of
this stuff. You know, I mean, I, like I said
for those three days when I was sure I was going to be in a

(01:06:18):
wheelchair for the rest of my life, that was pretty heavy
stuff. What would you say to my boy
Bryce, who's in the hospital right now?
Don't give up and listen to the doctors.
You know, there's they, they cando some, they, the things

(01:06:42):
they're doing today in orthopedics.
It's light years from the stuff I was selling just 15 years ago.
Sure. You know, and I, I worked for
Johnson and Johnson, I worked for Depew.
I worked for the biggest companies in, in America.

(01:07:03):
It was, it was a great, it was agreat career.
It really was. And when it was over, I was glad
it was over. Sure.
My, my last experience with Arthro care, I had briefly
talked about that earlier. We where I was selling a bunch
of spinal ones and, and I knew the company was doing something

(01:07:24):
funny with inventory, but I was making money, so I wasn't going
to say anything. And then I realized that it was
time for me to retire. And my business partner said,
well, we're going to have a national sales meeting.
Why don't you go? And that'll be your retirement
gift, you know, so I went and they said, Oh, well, you got,

(01:07:46):
you sold more of this product than anybody else did.
So we want to know why you're selling this stuff and nobody
else is selling it. And I said, well, you know, I'm,
I think it was a good product. And I said, well, we had this
new company that we formed to tobill for this product and you've
been sitting here through these classes.

(01:08:07):
What do you think? And I looked the president of
the company in the eye and I said, somebody is going to jail.
And he got white, and the two vice presidents next to him
looked very uncomfortable. Probably not what they were
looking to hear. That wasn't what they were
looking to hear. But the the the punch line is,

(01:08:32):
the three individuals I was speaking to all got prison
sentences. Jeez.
The president of the company got20 years and the other two guys
got six and four years because they were defrauding the
government. You know, not to go down that
rabbit hole, but I don't know ifI had sent it to you and I could

(01:08:53):
send it after this, but very recently they've been busting
all these companies for doing just that.
We're talking billions of dollars.
Right. And that's it's, they're finally
realizing that all of these medical companies have been
doing this. They park inventory someplace
and then it looks like it's beensold and then at the end of the

(01:09:16):
year consolidation. Well, where did this go?
And it's obviously they're selling stuff that they
shouldn't be selling. I mean, it's illegal, you know,
and as a, as a salesperson, I didn't realize what was going on
at first. But when they replaced all my

(01:09:38):
inventory and, and then I went to the, which was ready to
expire, you know, that was goingto be several $1000 that I was
going to eat. So, yeah, but when they, when
they offered me the the the opportunity to, to get the out
of Dodge, I did. Sure.

(01:09:59):
And I'm glad I did. And I've never looked back.
Yeah, and that was my last corporate function was telling
that gentleman that he probably was in trouble.
Want to talk about cars and guitars?
Sure. We're going to go around and
we're going to do the second part of the video.
We're going to point at some cool shit.

(01:10:19):
OK. But for those people who are
listening instead of watching the video, which I keep telling
people they need to start watching these videos, but if
you're listening the rest of it,we're going to be walking around
and Randy's going to be telling us about some of the stuff we're
seeing. How many guitars did you say you
had? I think I have 28.
Could you put a value on those today?

(01:10:41):
Not what you bought them for, but just.
Today it's probably it's, you know, I've got.
I don't know what. The Jimmy Page is worth, but
I'll bet I I wouldn't sell it, sure, but I would.
I'm going to guess that it's probably worth 30 to 40 grand.
That's just one of them. That's just one.
Because you've built what? What's behind me?

(01:11:05):
I built a guitar vault. Guitar vault.
My my neighbor, the builder had just remodeled a pawn shop and
one of the things that they did was they.
Drew up a. A safe room.
So it was really easy to use those plans and translate them

(01:11:28):
to sticking it in the corner of the house that we'd already, you
know, and I paid, we paid for anarchitect to draw it up and
everything. And we went through all the
right things, getting the permits, all that stuff.
It's great. And the best thing that I've
done since I've been here is I put solar up and I did the solar
in 2000 and and 12 you know, so it's long since paid for itself.

(01:11:55):
Well, let's take a look at it. Sure.
OK, Randy, what are we looking at here?
First off, I have a question foryou.
Want to explain what this is? Well, that's my dear friend
Christian's leather work. He did the SRV when he was
living in Oak Cliff. And what that's that's my

(01:12:16):
initials RA in my ruling planet being Saturn.
So he made those custom covers for me in the 2000s and I'm very
pleased with how how they are. Of course I don't use big amps
anymore, so. What's the thing that nobody
would actually know about? Who made those?

(01:12:38):
It's Christian Brooks who did the Stevie Ray Vaughan SRV
strap. There you go.
He went to high school with Stevie Ray.
This is a 1976 Gibson. Explorer this white one here
White and. The the natural mahogany with
the white pickguard. They made a run of Firebirds,
Explorers and Flying VS, and I bought it in 1976 from Maynard's

(01:13:05):
Music in Old Town. And as I said earlier, my dear
friend Tim Pierce, studio musician in Los Angeles.
I used to fight him for first time at the I'd go in there and
he'd be playing it or I'd go, I'd be playing it and he'd walk
in. Tell us this is the significance

(01:13:25):
of that name. Timmy Pierce is probably the
most recorded guitarist in modern history.
He was the guy in the bowler haton Jesse's Girl at the dawn of
MTV. This is a 1994 Gibson special
Les Paul special in what they refer to as ATV Yellow.

(01:13:53):
This is 1 of 300 that they made in celebration of Gibson's 100th
year. This actually left the factory
on my birthday in 1994 and somehow I bought it randomly on
eBay. This is a 2005 Jimmy Page Les

(01:14:16):
Paul Standard. This is one of the 25 guitars
that Gibson made for Jimmy Page to pick his personal instrument
from. I was fortunate enough that I
was the second guy through the door and I bought the the second
one. It's the one you talked about
earlier. And I, I, it is an unbelievable

(01:14:38):
guitar. It has some Jimmy Page tweaks on
it that really make you go, oh, that's how he gets that sound
'cause this has a split coil here and a coil tap.
It's, it's really quite the instrument.
It is a 1959 Les Paul special. What's the difference between

(01:14:59):
that one and the one right therenext to it?
This has P90 pickups that are single coil and they have a
little bit more bike. Since I'm a slide guitar player,
I like that and see I can turn this into a single coil here and
get that same bite off of this Les Paul.
But the 50 nines had a manufacturing defect because the

(01:15:25):
neck stopped right at the body, so most of them snapped off
during play. One year later in 1960 they had
moved the neck in a fingers worth into the body and that
corrected most of the problems. So this is a 1960.

(01:15:52):
Both of these guitars we're one owner guitars.
The same person owned them. This one, this one here is a
1962 Les Paul Standard. It also is A1 owner guitar.

(01:16:13):
I bought it from the original owner whose son learned how to
play and did change out the pickups to EM GS but changed
them all back. So it is exactly as it came from
the factory in 1962. And I think this is probably
worth 35 maybe 40 grand. These 2020 I have.

(01:16:40):
I can't place a value on that onthat Jimmy Page.
Sure. I I I don't know the the Gibson
explorer from 1976. It's probably 4 to 4 to 7000
bucks and the limited edition from 1994, the Centennial year
and and maybe 4 because they they they were pretty special

(01:17:04):
guitars. All right.
So we're in the vaults. We're in the vault.
We're in the vaults. With all my dead people over
here, you know that that clapping's not dead yet.
And then here's a few shots of me and Newport Beach Hooters.
Nice. And obviously I'm into Asher.
What what does it take to get into the vault with the

(01:17:25):
different pictures? And sometimes there's articles
of clothing, there's some car stuff in here.
How do you decide? Something that means something
to me, you know, like the Jeff Beck bag.
We got to sit there and watch sound check and we were, you
know, in the third row. It was fabulous, you know, and

(01:17:48):
you could hear, you could hear him breathing.
It was fabulous, you know, And of course, the shot of me and
Billy and and Dusty there that was, that was, that was
something I was pretty proud of.All right, we're we have sitting
in front of us right here on thefloor.

(01:18:09):
This is a 1964 SG special. Why is it in here?
1 owner, as you can see, has a little honest wear on the back
of it. It's in here because I, I wanted
and I'm still trying to have a Gibson from every year from 1959

(01:18:37):
to I'm sorry, from 1958 to 1968.I have a 68 SG over here.
It's in one of these cases there's three SG cases are you?
So I have to keep labels on the ones and I haven't labeled all
of the cases yet. Well, I think it has to do then.

(01:18:58):
I I think it has to do with the fact that I play G3 times.
You know it it it does have thatand I have I have a couple of
acoustic guitars backs here. I have.
Yeah, I was going to ask you about that.
I see electric everywhere. I have a a A Gibson here.
It is probably my my nicest acoustic guitar and I will have

(01:19:20):
to take it out of the wall to show it to you, but this guitar
is what Elvis used not to spray guitar but one like it on his
comeback special. How'd this one get in there?
What's What's the story? Well, I saw an ad for this
guitar in the Albuquerque paper and I went to see it and I

(01:19:45):
noticed that it had these cracksin the Ebony here.
So I called up my friend Louis, the guitar owner.
The guitar store owner told him what I had.
The guy wanted $450 for it. It's a 1973 Dove and it was 1974

(01:20:12):
of the guy who owned it. His father owned a bar in
Roswell and I was able to get itfor 3:50 because that piece.
Cost 100. And 50 from Gibson.
I never replaced it and this guitar is one of the sweetest

(01:20:36):
sounding guitars on the planet. It's probably not in tune.
You need to turn it up, but it'sthis is a very special
instrument. I have never found one that has
this kind of of, and let's see that inlay.
That's all wood inlay, all individual pieces of wood.

(01:20:57):
Oh. Wow.
And then the book matches. So this piece of wood was the
same as this piece at one time. Well, it's crazy because the the
the phone isn't even capturing the the richness and the
deepness of that red. Oh yeah, and it's, and this is
the loudest acoustic guitar I'veever played.

(01:21:20):
So I played this at Molly's. Molly had a little a, a liquor
store about half the size of this room and she built a
beautiful bar. And my friend Mike and I and my
friend David Red Truck, we were the first people to play in the
bar. And my friend Michael had a, had
a Gibson Hummingbird, which is like a step down from the Dove

(01:21:44):
and the Dove is like a step downfrom the Super Jumbo.
But this is one of Gibson's mostexpensive instruments and and
it's in 1973 and I bought it for$350.00 and it's all new for
1500 in 1973. Today this instrument is 5 to

(01:22:08):
$10,000. I would say it is my favorite
acoustic instrument I've ever played is a 1965 Gibson SG
Standard. It at one time was in nine
separate pieces after riding. Through.

(01:22:31):
A tail end collision. It was in the trunk.
So where does one go to rebuild the guitar?
You have to find it's a very special kind of person who can
take an instrument that's been, this was in nine pieces.
Yeah. I mean, there's there's breaks
across here. There was a severe break here.

(01:22:51):
This was in three or four pieces.
But it's a real we we have here a a real Craftsman who did this.
He said it wasn't worth doing it.
I said I don't care what it cost, fix it for me anyway.
It means that much to me. I bought this guitar for $60.00
in 1974 with none of the hardware, none of the stuff, no

(01:23:15):
no pickguard on it. I just bought the guitar for 60
bucks. So I put all new hardware on it
and it was my favorite guitar. How much was this thing to to
restore? It was, it was $600 to, to get
to get it restored. And that was a bargain at twice

(01:23:37):
the price. If this were an undamaged 1965
SG, you're looking at 10 to 15, maybe even $20,000.
You know, I bought it for, like I said, 60 bucks, 60 bucks in a
box from the bass player, you know, and it's been my, it's

(01:24:01):
been my go to guitar ever since.But this would be my favorite.
And it just roars. And it has a patent APAF here
and a patent number. And guitar player aficionados
knows that those two are the most desirable Gibson pickups of

(01:24:24):
the 60s. As I say, this one is a this one
is a tea bucker. So and then this one is not so.
This one is the the old one and this one is the tea bucker.
So this is the one, huh? Oh yeah, this is my favorite
guitar. It was always mine.
It was always my favorite. And it doesn't weigh anything.

(01:24:45):
It's it's it doesn't weigh. It's really lightweight.
It's actually a 2019 in the rarecolor of a Pelham Blue, and this
will take you back. There was a a a TV show that
starred Paul Revere and the Raiders and Paul's guitar player

(01:25:10):
had a blue SG like this. It's a beautiful.
Color and I always wanted one. So in 19 Gibson made these in
two different colors and believeit or not this was $1800
including shipping and it just absolutely screams.

(01:25:32):
I replaced the Gibson pickups with dollars and they are high
dollar custom pickups and I converted it to original wiring,
which this had a circuit board in here.
So I got a modern guitar with antique wiring and antique

(01:25:54):
pickups. So it just sparks like at the
moon for sure. It's just a great guitar.
Firebird from 2013. The biggest case, the one next
to the one right next to the yellow sticker.
Yeah right next to the yellow sticker.

(01:26:14):
I called Gibson I, after I bought the guitar, I became
friends with a couple guys at Gibson.
I'm sure 'cause you spend $10,000 to answer your phone,
right? You know, So I called them in
2008 and I said winter guitar. And there it is.
There's the ad, Gibson ad right there in the corner for the

(01:26:36):
Johnny Winter guitar, I said. And I was at the NAMM show,
which is, you know, like the Carmel show for cars.
I'm at the NAMM show and I'm going, well, how much is this
guitar? And I say, well, that guitar is
going to be $11,000. And I said, damn, that's a lot

(01:27:00):
of money. And I'm sitting there playing
this guitar at the NAMM show andI hear this guy behind me going,
that Firebird sounds pretty damngood.
And it was Uli Yon Roth who tookthe guitar out of my hands and
immediately grabbed the next Gibson Rep and that guitar was

(01:27:24):
gone. Damn.
So I sold that one for Gibson toLulion Roth and then I so I got
home and I called Gibson. I said, you know, you sons of
bitches, blah blah blah, and I was too much fucking money.
My God, He says, well, you know,those were a special run of
Johnny Winter Guitars, blah, blah, blah.

(01:27:44):
You know, and we've already madethe only ones we're going to
make, he says, But I don't have any on the showroom floor.
Can I make you one? So I got that one made nice.
And it is everything but the paperwork.
It's a Johnny Winter Firebird, and it's in.

(01:28:07):
It barks it, it does. It barks.
It just screams. But it also weighs 15 lbs.

(01:29:05):
So we're looking at your 2017 NSX and your 1990s a 91, right?
It's a 91. It has the 95 wheels, aren't
they? Or are they 96 wheels?
They're 90, technically 94 + 9490. 494 plus and I bought
those. I went to Cars and Coffee in

(01:29:25):
Santa Fe and the Santa Fe paper had those wheels in there and I
thought that Chris had told me he was going to sell his.
So I called Chris and said are those your wheels in the paper?
He says no. So I called the guy went over
there. Typical story.
I got the book, I got the wheels.

(01:29:45):
I was going to get the car and the wife said later for you, so
would you like the book with thewheels?
Great. So I bought the wheels for 600
bucks nice. And then my neighbor refinished
on God. He's been great for me.
He really has. And did you see the Gibson?

(01:30:09):
Oh yeah, there's. Never been a better time to get
a Gibson. And then there's one of my
Blues. All Star Blues jam with my name
and lights. Randy Alameda every Wednesday of
the Drag Gulch Brewing Company and Grill.

(01:30:32):
They had great. Food and they had good deer.
It was a It was a great gay. Those are my favorite wheels for
the first Gen. by the way. I like mine too.
And, and because they've got thethe 2 tone, you know, they've
got, they've got the smooth hair.
Yeah, it's polished. It's silver, but you have the
Dolan. You're polished.
And he? And it glistens when you drive.

(01:30:54):
And, and he, he, he did a great job when he did these, he went
online and looked at a lot of them and they said, OK, I'll fix
these for him. And he's, he's refinished
several sets of wheels. He did them for my BMW too.
Boy, they were great once he gotthose done.
And they were just the plain BMWwheels, but they had that
sparkle like you're talking about there.

(01:31:15):
When do you decide between thesetwo?
What you're going to drive? Since I've got 90,000 miles on
this one here, it's usually thisone, but this one is so much fun
to drive and people just go crazy.
As you know, every time I park it, people are going, wow, where

(01:31:40):
did you find? This.
And I say the same things. In the garage, be careful.
What you wish for the Acula dealer because both of these
were just that. I said I might like 191.
Well, they had one for me in three days.

(01:32:01):
Oh, would you like to buy 2017 for 30 grand off?
Yes, as a matter of fact I would.
What a deal this. Is it?
This is my third set of Michelins.
But it's got, I think it's got 3034 thousand miles on it now.
You drive it? Yep.
I drive it. Yeah, well, and Roby does too.

(01:32:23):
And I know and I tell, I tell him to do that.
Thanks for showing us your cars and your guitars.
Hey guys, thank you for checkingout the show.
If you like what you heard or even if you didn't like what you
heard, if you're watching this on YouTube, go ahead and hit
that thumbs up. Hit the subscribe button.
If you're listening to it on traditional podcast media, go
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(01:32:46):
subscribe. Trying to move everything to
YouTube. It's been a lot of good time
trying to make these videos. But anyway so with that being
said, I do want to thank the show sponsors, Wright Honda,
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Honda, can't forget arcusfoundry.com and of course
Auto Cannon officially licensed Honda and Acura gear one.

(01:33:08):
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(01:33:29):
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(01:33:49):
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Inside Randy Alameda's Gibson Guitar Collection | Cars & Guitars Passion

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Inside Randy Alameda's Gibson Guitar Collection | Cars & Guitars Passion