August
12, 2005
The Guitar Smash
Friday
morning was a pretty good day that started early. I'd spent the night in Manhattan,
sleeping at my cousin Sandy's suite at the Waldorf Astoria hotel on Park Ave,
and got a 7:30 wake up call. We had to be in Times Square by 9:00. The marketers
of Lennon had called me a few days ago and asked me to participate
in a promotional event known as "The World's Largest Guitar Smash".
This was organized by the people at the Hard Rock Cafe to promote the opening
of their new location on 43rd and 7th Avenue, just around the corner from the
Broadhurst. The idea was that a hundred guitars would be smashed by a group
of celebrities headed up by veteran guitarist/actor Steven Van Zandt (who also
broadcasts his own radio show from the Hard Rock). The guitars were all provided
by Gibson/Epiphone and the idea was, for every smashed guitar a new unsmashed
one would be donated to community service programs set up to curb street violence
- and keep it on the stage, where it belongs (wink). Don't worry, kids, the
axes designated for smashing were all factory seconds that would never be used.
Sandy and I checked in and went into the VIP Lounge for breakfast and met a few other "celebs". Sandy struck up a conversation with The Naked Cowboy, a tall, handsome, pumped-up guy from Cincinnati who busks regularly in Times Square wearing nothing but a cowboy hat, boots and white Fruit of the Loom briefs ...and an acoustic guitar He did most of the talking. I made the aquaintence of a few guys from other Broadway shows like Rent, Movin' Out and All Shook Up. Anyway, we listened attentively as the head of the Hard Rock gave specific instructions on how we were to smash our guitars. No Townshendesque free-styling allowed, please, we don't want anyone getting hurt. By 10:30 we all had a guitar each, mostly black Epiphone SG's that had been perforated for easy breaking, and took our places out on the sidewalk with our own cinder block to break it on. We were also equipped with our own protective gear - hard hats, safety glasses and gloves. Clearly they were leaving nothing to chance. I left mine off.
I was looking around at all the smashers-to-be, but didn't really see any celebrities. Then I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw Brian Wilson standing smack in front of the pack along with his guitarist/singer Jeffrey Foskett. I was in awe. My family and I had seen Wilson and his band perform live last year and were floored, and SMiLE, his masterpiece, is still in heavy rotation on every medium I have. I wanted so badly to meet them, if nothing else just to say thanks, but it was a long shot.
The city closed 7th Avenue for a few minutes as the publicity stunt commenced. Little Steven Van Zandt emerged from a Brinks truck with his own guitar and he and Mr Wilson embraced. Then a speech was made proclaiming it Hard Rock Cafe Day for the city of New York by order of Mayor Bloomberg. Then on cue we all raised our instruments, and as we counted down from five, a hundred guitars met their doom against a hundred cinder blocks. It was over.
The ensemble quickly disbursed amidst the mass of splintered wood, strings and hardware, and Sandy and I went back to the VIP lounge so I could get my bags and stuff. Who should be sitting in there but Brian and Jeffrey, at a table with their road manager! Thinking fast, I found my marketing rep and asked for an introduction. She happened to be standing next to the Gibson people, who were just the folks who could make it happen. I got to meet them both. I was very brief with Brian, knowing how shy he is around strangers, but Jeffrey was especially gracious and kind, and invited me to their gig. My theatre commitments kept me from going, but I knew my wife would jump at the chance. So Jeffrey set her and my sisters up with tickets and backstage passes for the Saturday evening concert at Jones Beach. I was beside myself, and my wife...big brownie points, friends.
It was all over by 11:30 and I had the whole day to bum around the city before the evening's show. I thought I'd seen all the guitars I was gonna see for the day. And then I showed up at the theatre. As a gift of thanks before opening, Don Scardino had bought each castmember a brand new Ephiphone guitar. Everyone got acoustics with a sunburst finish, except me. I got an electric hollow-body Casino. Yes!!
Oh yeah, it was a pretty good day.