RIFFING

ON “ AROUND AND AROUND ” BY CHUCK BERRY FROM THE CHUCK BERRY CHESS BOX

I was Chuck ’ s backup guitarist and played in his band for a few shows . We did Bo Diddley , Del Shannon , Freddy Cannon , and Chuck Berry on the old Dick Clark stuff . Our introduction to him came right before we played . He said , “ I don ’ t need you . If you screw up I ’ ll get rid of you . I can do the show myself . But if you ’ re good , you should have a good time .” He says to our keyboard player , “ Give me a Bb .” Who tunes with a Bb ? I was like the Paul Schaffer of the band . Chuck would start the song and I ’ d look to see what key he was in and yell back whatever the key was . He ’ d never tell us what key , what tempo , nothing . He ’ d start “ Lucille ” in Ab . There was never anything logical . When he went down with his hand it meant stop . You had to watch what he was doing . We were never sure . At the end of the night he and I were trading solos and

8 GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER DIGITAL EDITION

Cheap Trick by Paul Natkin

MARCH / APRIL