Jimmy McCullough

I remember when I got my first guitar just like it was yesterday.

My cousin Jimmy had an old Kay acoustic guitar with a little pickup glued to it. I think I was 13 at the time. It was so cool. I suddenly realized that I needed to learn how to play it, as the four notes necessary to play Smoke On The Water get old very quickly, especially on an acoustic guitar!
Up to that point, my influences had been mostly via AM rock on 13Q in Pittsburgh. Stuff that is classic now, but was just AM rock back then. Then, one day, I was driving with my big brother, Wayne, in his ‘70 GTO. He had Led Zeppelin on the cassette player. I was hooked. My rock and roll life was certainly ready to roll!

My dad always looked for what he called a ‘bellringer’ Christmas gift for everybody. After about 6 months, I realized that playing rock and roll on my little acoustic guitar through the family stereo wasn’t gonna work. So I was saving for a little Harmony guitar that I saw in a catalog for a local electronics store. There was no internet, so where else does a 14 year old look for guitars in 1975? Well, I got the guitar for Christmas, I got a paper route for a few months(in the middle of the winter), saved enough dough to buy my first little amp, and I was on my way.

Time has a funny way of compressing memories, but there was a lot of activity in the next couple of years. Between 1974 and 1978, I managed to save up and purchase various little gizmos for my ’sound’. But in 1977, I realized that it was time to step up and buy a ‘real’ guitar. It was a Fender Strat. It was white. It screamed ‘Jimi’(not me). And I bought a BIG amp, because…well…it was BIG! Then I bought my 1978 Les Paul custom, which I still own and play.

I met a guy named Slug in 1978. He introduced me to the barre chord, and a book on playing lead guitar. It was an epiphany at the time. THAT was how they did it! We formed a little band named Spartacus, and we were……pretty terrible! But it was a start.

In 1980, I was invited to come over and jam with some friends of mine, who were starting a basement band. One of the guys was Carl O. Eventually, we played out for a while, but by 1982, the band Prodigy was defunct. That was it for me and bands until 1998. I spent about 16 years jamming, moving in and out of genres(from 80’s metal to blues to 90’s alternative), getting married, having kids, and all of the other real life stuff.

In 1998, my buddy, John Vento, asked if I would come out of retirement and join his band, The Businessmen. I played with them for eight years. All the while, I would be reminded monthly by Carl O. about a little project that he was involved with. I would go over to jam once in a while. It was fun. It was freeing. It was open-ended. I loved it.

After taking a break from The Businessmen for a couple of years, and in need of some serious distraction from real-life stuff, I decided to go out to The Farm and jam with Carl, Tim, Monica and Scotty on a more regular basis. It wasn’t long until I realized that this is where I needed to be.

I have a ton of musical influences, from a lot of musical genres, so here’s but a few, in no particular order:

• Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Neil Schon
• David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Jimi Hendrix
• BB King, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton
• Duane Allman, Alex Lifeson, Tony Iommi
• Mark Slaugenhaupt(Slug), Timmy Hadley

As far as bands go, I am all over the map, so bear with me:

• Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd
• Van Halen, The Allman Brothers, Rush
• Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica
• Nirvana, Soundgarden, Tool

Magical rock and roll memories:

• I saw Van Halen open up for Black Sabbath in 1978. I was there to see Black Sabbath, and figured that VH would be OK. I figured there was no way that this guy ‘Edward’ Van Halen could pull out THAT sound live…man, was I wrong there! In my opinion, EVH set the stage for rock and roll guitar players for many years to come.
• I played with my buddy John Vento’s band, The Businessmen, outdoors in the Garden of the Gods at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. We played rock-n-roll during a convention dinner. It was a balmy evening, with palm trees all around, pro sound and lighting. It was waaaaaay cool! Except during sound check at 2PM. It was 105 degrees!
• I was at the first Blues Festival in Pittsburgh. BB King and Buddy Guy headlined. Buddy guy ditched his security guys and walked through the crowd! He let some little kid beat on his strings. The kid was thrilled. It was impressive.
• John Vento, Timmy Hadley, and I saw Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in about 2000. Neil Young always created tension in that band, because…..he was Neil Young. I had never seen a song with a ten minute rock-n-roll ending until that night. The CSN part of the band stood to one side of the stage and could not get Neil to end the song! They were not happy! He was losing his mind! And we dug the hell out of it!