Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick - 2 days after the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

This week I had the great pleasure of talking with Rick Nielsen, the legendary guitarist of CHEAP TRICK. Rick was still brimming with excitement from Cheap Trick’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in New York City just days before. This wasn’t an “interview” but more of a conversation. Despite their legacy, he deflects questions about key moments in their career but instead choose to tell stories, LOTS of stories of all those times in-between the benchmarks. I haven’t had this much fun in a long time because he had so much to say and so much to share. Mid-conversation he’d pull out his cell and show me pictures of him with Little Richard or Little Steven or Bobby Cannavale from the HBO show Vinyl, or to have me read his acceptance speech from Saturday night. Even after 40 years as lead guitarist for Cheap Trick, he still loves it. He’s unstoppable. We met at hotel bar in Toronto and talked for over 30 minutes. it was the last interview of full day of press and I learned later that he had started at 7am in the morning and had gone non-stop til 6pm when we finished up. We talk about the new Cheap Trick album: Bang-Zoom-Crazy-Hello; the 150 date tour; playing Mike McCready’s (Pearl Jam)birthday party; people bitching about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Kid Rock’s induction speech for the band; the tv show Vinyl as a mirror of the 70s; his infamous 5-necked guitar and that he was a drummer first and why he switched to the guitar. Rick got all misty when talked about the late producer George Martin; the Ringo album that never happened that he was going to co-produce with David Bowie; the guitar he designed for John Lennon and how he attempted to save his soon to be released album (Double Fantasy) from sounding like the “lounge-record” it turned out to be; recording the unreleased “Baby Mumbles” with John. I asked about the 5 neck guitar and whether was for show or was actually authentic and playable. He had some very kind things to say about Dave Grohl and his experiences with the Sound City & Sonic Highways film and documentaries. There should be a book about all this stuff. Until he finally slows down and takes time to write it, grab your favourite beverage and settle into this. Nb. The rattling you’ll hear is Rick’s chain bracelet dangling the glass-top table we were at. Enjoy