Today is June 17th, 2012. We want to wish Gregg Rolie a Happy 65th Birthday today.
It is also Father’s Day and our 39th wedding anniversary. It’s nice to have all this in common with Gregg Rolie. As many of you know I am a huge, long time Santana fan. Gregg Rolie was the original lead singer and keyboardist with Santana. He later founded Journey with ex-Santana member, guitarist Neil Schon.
It’s been a great year for Gregg Rolie. He is presently on tour with Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band. Tonight they are playing at Mohegan Sun Casino Arena in Uncasville, Ct.
Earlier this year he put on a tour of small clubs called “An Intimate Evening With Gregg Rolie”. He performed with Texas blues guitarist Alan Haynes. He performed his songs, answered questions from the audience, staying until the end of the night signing autographs and greeting fans.
I can attest how down to earth Gregg Rolie in person can be. Several years back I caught the Gregg Rolie Band at a free concert at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Ct. The night took on an interesting twist when GRB was playing Santana songs from Woodstock. The wind kicked up and lightning/rain threatened to end the show. (It felt like Woodstock and “No More Rain” was upon us.) GRB hung tough, completed the show and stayed to sign autographs for us, despite the threatening weather. It was really cool to chat with Gregg Rolie and Michael Carabello (Original Santana conga player) that night. They signed my copy of the book Voices of Latin Rock as we discussed the significance of the music book topic in relationship to rock history .
