The Audition

The auditions for this band were being held in a rehearsal studio that was rented by concert acts before they went out on tours. It was a big place, in fact, there were a number of totally soundproofed studios in this building...with concert sound and stage equipment already there...and huge stages. It was a level in the business I had heard about, but never experienced. When we walked into the building, we were told to go to the fourth floor for the audition. When I stepped out of the elevator with Don, we were greeted by the sight of about 150 guitarists sitting in the hallways, on flight cases, everywhere and anywhere they could... all feverishly playing the four songs I was there to play...and I realized, that I was just one of an army of guitar players who were all vying for this job. I immediately started to feel like "what am I doing here?"...but I also realized it was too late to back out now. I found out later on, that over four hundred guitar players had auditioned for the job over that week... About fifteen minutes later, my name was called, and I found myself in the room, shaking hands with the guys in the band, and having a conversation with them...it was a surreal moment for me, because I had a lot of their albums, and had never dreamed when I had listened to those albums.. that I would ever be auditioning to be in the band. After a few minutes, it was time to "do it", because they had many other guys to listen to. When we hit the first few notes of the first song, I felt like I was being carried on a tidal wave of sound...it was very powerful, and I  had never felt anything like that before..but in a few seconds I acclamated, and settled down to do the best I could. I remember watching the roadies, standing off stage, smiling...and talking and nodding to each other as I was playing, and it dawned on me that I was impressing them. I did the best I could to not let them see how surprised I was about that.. When I finished, Rick Derringer came up to me and said.."you are a very good player, and we'll be in touch"...and as I left the room and headed towards the elevator, I think I was "floating"...