Pallas Photo

In August of 1985, I left Michigan for Chicago. I began working for Pallas Photo Labs in the River North district. This was a large, 3 story building which had been a Catholic school in the the early to mid 1900's. I had no experience with the big city. There were a lot of new things here for me. It seemed like almost everyone that worked for Pallas was creative. There were a lot of photographers and musicians. There were lots of discussions about music. I fit right in. After a short while, everyone knew that I played guitar. A few people told me about Mario. He had been on vacation when I started. Everyone said I needed talk to him when he got back.  Mario was also a guitarist and he was a Ted Nugent fanatic.

The day he came back, we talked a little. He told me he had a Gibson Byrdland just like Ted's and we shook hands in the style that all teenagers did in the 70's (where the shakers kind of angle their hands up).

About a year later, I was settled in and used to working at a large commercial lab. While I was on the third floor getting some supplies, I heard someone playing a guitar. I followed the sound to a little office in the front of the building and there was Mario playing the chords to a minor blues. There were about three or four people watching him. He was using a strap and there was even a little distortion pedal plugged in between the guitar and amp. Mario had his eyes closed and was holding his head high. He was really into it. When a natural break in Mario's playing came, Kevin (one of the on-lookers) said to me, "hey, why don't you play something?" Mario handed me the guitar and I played a short version of Jeff Beck's “Jeff's Boogie” with a few of his classic tricks thrown in for good measure. Then, I headed downstairs and back to work.

Later that day, I was on the second floor in film processing, where Kevin worked. He said, "man, you really smoked Mario's ass!" I really didn't know what to say. Thanks?, It was nothing? What do you say?

A few years later, Rich McGuire and I went to see Joe Zawinul at a tiny club just around the corner from Pallas Photo. He had an unbelievable band with several up and coming players. The guitarist was Scott Henderson. He was already an unreal player. In between sets, Scott just kind of stood around. He was just a regular guy wearing a t-shirt. I told Rich that I'd really like to go talk to him, but didn't know what to say. I was awestruck. Rich told me to say, "man, you really smoked Mario's ass!"