“And this one time at band camp, I got to play with Joe Perry, Mark Clarke, and Steve Morse!”
Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp, that is. After an impassioned written plea from his daughter Kristin, Bernardston’s Bill Cheney got to swap solos with some of his childhood heroes when the weekend warriors met worldwide megastars at a multi-day event at Foxwoods Casino Jan. 15-18.
“I am writing to you as a form of entry into the Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp Contest, although not for myself,” Kristin Cheney’s letter began. “I want to enter my father, Bill, into the contest. My dad is the kindest, most peaceful man I have ever met. He deserves the world … but all life seems to do is knock him down.”
Kristin went on to explain that, to her knowledge, the only two things that seemed to bring joy to her father when he wasn’t working for the past 34 years was playing the guitar — often songs by his favorite, Joe Perry — and enjoying his family’s cockapoo, Tanner.
“Sadly, we had to put Tanner down at 13 years old this past summer,” she continued. “That leaves him with his music. He has been an Aerosmith fan since his teen years and we got our first tattoos together — his being the Aerosmith logo.”
“I had seen the ad for the camp in a guitar magazine and didn’t think much of it,” father Bill recalls. “The next thing I know, I come home on a Friday and my family was sitting at the table with champagne, so I knew something was up. Then Kristin read me her wonderful letter and told me we won. Joe Perry was the reason I wanted to play guitar since age 12, so this was truly a dream come true.”
Prior to trading licks with one half of Aerosmith’s fabled “toxic twins,” however, Cheney says he was assigned one Mark Clarke as his official “Rock Coach.” In addition to showing him the rock ’n’ roll ropes, “pulling his best performances out” and the like, Cheney admits he was equally enthralled just to hear firsthand accounts from behind the proverbial velvet rope, too.
“In between things, Mark would tell me stories like his first show being in front of 400,000 people … times he had with the Monkees, Ritchie Blackmore … the Rolling Stones. Joe Walsh pulling up to some music awards show in a Sherman tank,” he recalls, with the wide-eyed amazement of a child looking over the wares at his favorite candy shop. “I also learned that he co-wrote one of my favorite songs, Uriah Heep’s ‘The Wizard.’ ”
Before he knew it, Cheney says, he was told to walk this way … and get up on stage at Foxwoods to perform “Walk This Way” with the man himself, Joe Perry.
“Obviously it was amazing just being there,” he recalls. “But what was really cool was that when it got time for the solo, Joe and I went to do it at the same time … I had been practicing. He gave me the nod to let me do it, then afterward he said, ‘That was really good, man!’ Which was absolutely mind-blowing.”
The next three rock camps include Sammy Hagar, Lita Ford, Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult, Bill Ward, and Rudy Sarzo and will all occur in Las Vegas.
Pittsfield stop: The City of Pittsfield plays host to two decidedly different entertainment options this weekend. On Thursday, Feb. 4, jam-band staple Reverend Tor releases his fourth annual Dead of Winter jam at The Garage in Pittsfield for an 8 p.m. show. On Valentine’s Day, Saturday, Feb. 14, Pittsfield’s Colonial plays host to the Golden Oldies Spectacular, a salute to the The Drifters, The Platters, and The Marvelettes. For more info and ticket purchasing options, kindly point your browser to berkshiretheatregroup.org.•
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.
