In The Wilderness: Ronnie G!

~Ronnie G!-

Wow, Ron's bio would fill several volumes, but if you ever meet him, he'll be sure to tell you a good bit of it orally. Along with Vic, Ronnie G. and I were the only members of the band to already be best friends. I remember the first time I met Ron in Mrs. Lingerfelt's 9th grade English class. We were in one of those popular air-conditioned cubicles--probably the spring of 1980--when Mrs. Lingerfelt asked Ron to move his desk because he was distracting the entire class from the lesson at the time. Well, Ron not only moved his desk, but he did a little number where the desk--a big desk--actually flipped over his head and landed with a loud crash on the cubicle carpet. Man, I knew it was going to be a good day and semester from that point on in Mrs. Lingerfelt's English class. The first time I was invited to spend the night at his wild house--I mean, from his mother who I had, or still do, have a tremendous crush on, to his father and brother and sister--it was indescribable the goings on at 772 Ellis Avenue. I remember Ronnie using the over sized spoon hanging on the wall to eat his entire box of sweetened cereal. There are too many more incidents to relate in this particular blog right now, but . . . oh, you'll hear them soon enough. I haven't even scratched the surface of this wild and crazy family whom I still love today, despite divorces, being kicked out of his home and we'll just stop right there. In the band, Ron was the one that just literally spoke to the people. He had a connection with the audience--believe it or not, this is an extremely rare trait in performers, regardless of one's standing in the all-encompassing entertainment industry--I mean when he talked, sang, people listened, because they absolutely knew he was coming straight from the heart. Ronnie G. did this on-stage and off and despite the still agonizing fact that he tried to throw me in the Mediterranean from a US Destroyer off the coast of Italy in 1988, I still love the cat, even despite some things he 'mistakenly' did, concerning me long after that. Hey, he was probably right, but it still hurts. Ronnie G! There will only be one. We simply couldn't handle another.