"Rockin Rocky" Farnsworth - All Stringed Instruments, (Including - Synth Guitars, Rhythm & Lead Guitars, Fretted and Fretless Bass), all Vocals, if any, (At least until we add someone who can actually sing!!). And if I had the 'Dough-Ray-Me's' to afford Drums, I'd be playin' them too!! But, until that happens, I have to rely on my 'Good 'Ol Buddy', DIB!!!'................
"DIB" - All Percussion, (DIB= Drummer Inna Box).....
Influences
Well I don't know if you'd call these first three 'Influences', but without their increadible inventions... well, you get the picture, anyway, three great inventors- Jim Marshall the giant who invented Marshall Amplifiers and launched the sound heard 'round the world!, Leo Fender the great mind behind Fender Guitars, and Les Paul who invented, well, if I have to say, then what rock have you been living under?!?!, Then come the 3 Great 'J's, (Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, & Jeff Beck), Eric Clapton, Cream, Washington DC area hero-"Punky" Meadows who was lead guitarist in The English Setters, The Cherry People, Daddy Warbux and Angel, and also who I learned to play from watching... also another short lived local group that played the DC area-Lady, Rory Gallager, David Bowie, My buddy Dave - (Lowel... you know who you are!!!!), The Beatles, Aerosmith, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, The Who, The Joe Perry Project, Gentle Giant, Santana, Jan Hamer, The Kinks, Stanley Clarke, George Duke, The Zombies who recorded the song that really got me hooked on rock & roll-"Shes Not There', The Oneders!, (The Wonders, oh, and The ShrimpShack 5!!), Montrose, Johnny & Edgar Winter, Les Paul, and any really good blues-rock/classic-rock, etc... too many to think of at the moment...
I started playing, (and taking lessons), drums when I was 5, till I had major back surgery when I was about 12-13, then, since I was stuck in a full-body cast from the neck to da knees, I switched to guitar. And armed with a cheap-a$$ classical guitar, a cassette player swiped from elementry school, and a tape of Cream Live, I taught myself how to play. I've been playing guitar and bass now to this day, (even through close to 20 more surgeries, and 17 heart-attacks!!), and I can pretty much figure out most instruments with strings. In High School, I ticked this guy off when he said I couldn't play a REAL instrument, (his banjo), so after about 3-5 minutes of figuring out how it was tuned,etc... I proceeded to play, 'Johnny-B-Goode' on it, at which point he snatched it away from me, and stalked off muttering something about 'Blasfimy', and 'shouldn't be able to do that on a banjo'... I don't think he was very happy! I've tried to get somewhere with music, but it seems everytime I start getting something good going, I end up in the hospital, (seems my body keeps breaking down!), this last time I found myself waking up in the ICU after 36 hours of emergency brain surgery, (so THAT'S why I'm so nutz!!), seems that the headaches I kept complaining about were not due to sinus problems like all the doctors said, but a cyst the size of a softball, (5½" in diameter), that was growing on the center of my brain, (shheeesh!! I didn't even know I HAD one!!!), and had finally gotten so big it put me out, litterely, I was told I was DOA when they got me to the OR, so I guess I'm here for something? Anyway, I'm still plunkin' away on the guitar hopin' to one day get my 15 minutes of fame... Note to world:
"I AIN'T GIVIN UP!!!"
Well, now I guess I might'as well live with it, as so far this week I've gone through 1 and a 1/2 bottles of Nitro Tabs for my heart... I must've gotten in the defective heart line when I was being put together!! Maybe I need to get together with some folks and jam out, might make me feel better, and get rid of these attacks.... Maybe??
