A Beatle’s Guitar in San Diego
You remember Intravaia’s buddy, right—they found out he’d been playing John Lennon’s guitar for the last forty years?”
Gillespie Field Groove, Chapter 3:The Mostly
When I started writing Gillespie Field Groove, I knew the plot would center around a highly collectible Jimi Hendrix guitar that had gone missing. And I knew I’d have to do some research on the process of identifying and assessing guitars that had been owned by legendary rock stars. Little did I know that a remarkable “lost” guitar story had moved in next door to me.
As I left my condo apartment one day, my neighbor two doors down was also leaving. I hadn’t met him before. He looked about my age and I noticed he was carrying a couple of guitar cases. I said hello and asked the brilliant question:
“Are you a guitar player?“
And, of course, he was. His name’s Marc Intravaia and, unlike me, he’s still performing, someone who’s actually managed to carve out a career in the music business (Richie Furay Band, Back to the Garden and more). We chatted a bit, realized we might have crossed paths a few times in the past and agreed to meet later for coffee.
A few days later, at the coffee shop, we managed to piece together some shared history and realized we’d played on the same bill at the Roxy Theatre in Pacific Beach forty years ago. Yipes! We’d also worked with a few of the same musicians from around town.
I gave Marc one of my books and told him about the new one I was working on. That’s when he dropped the bombshell. He’d been involved in the discovery and identification of a lost John Lennon guitar several years earlier. The guitar had been in San Diego since at least 1967 and had been played and owned by one of Marc’s guitar students, John McCaw, since 1969. It was eventually put up for auction and sold for a then record $2.41 million dollars (half of which went to Lennon’s estate).
It’s a remarkable story, and I won’t go into it here but you can get the full details from this 2016 MusicRadar story. Suffice to say, I learned a lot about collectible guitars from Marc and his story, some of which I was able to use in Gillespie Field Groove.
Interview – Inside Art
I recently had a chance to talk about Gillespie Field Groove with Dave Drexler, host of the Inside Art radio program on KSDS Jazz 88.3. You can have a listen below.
You also stream the interview from the program’s web page (audio player will appear at the bottom edge of your browser).
Ultimate Sherlock Holmes Giveaway
A copy of my newest Rolly Waters mystery, Gillespie Field Groove, is just one of the included prizes in the BookSweeps Ultimate Sherlock Holmes Giveaway. Contest ends March 27.
A Song called Someday
What’s the easiest way to make one of your old songs a big hit?
Make it a fictional hit.
That’s what I’ve done in the new Rolly Waters mystery, Gillespie Field Groove, in which the fictional country-pop star Ruby Dean gets her big break in the music business with a song titled Someday. The song is a real one from my back catalog and you can listen to it below.
This version was recorded by my band Bad Dog (1988 – 1994) and it’s a bit different from anything else on our records. First off, it’s a torch song, which is a bit of a departure for me songwriting-wise. It’s also one of the few Bad Dog songs to feature our female vocalist, Judy Jackson, rather than my brother Bruce, who handled most of the lead vocals for the band.
I think it holds up pretty well and could definitely been a hit, for Bad Dog or Ruby Dean. What do you think?
Someday is included on the Best of Bad Dog (Remastered 2022), available on Apple Music or Spotify
Gillespie Field Grooves
The fifth Rolly Waters mystery, arriving March 15, 2023, is titled Gillespie Field Groove. Like all of my books, it uses an actual San Diego County location as part of the title (ie Black’s Beach, Border Field, Ballast Point), as well as a setting for some of the action. In this case I’ve used Gillespie Field, a small airport located in the eastern part of the county, in the city of El Cajon.
Like much of San Diego’s infrastructure, Gillespie Field’s history begins with World War II. The land was originally commissioned as a Marine Corps parachute training facility during the war. Marines practiced their parachuting skills there from 1942 to 1944. The field was named for Marine Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie, who commanded various California regiments during the Mexican-American War. In 1946 the County of San Diego leased Gillespie Field from the U.S. government and converted it to a public airport. The County was granted full ownership of the land in 1952.
As a I explained last month, part of the plot of Gillespie Field Groove is the search for a “lost” Jimi Hendrix guitar. So how was I going to work Gillespie Field into that? I found a couple of ways.
Surrounding the airport on both sides of the runway are a number of industrial parks. Since I’d already come up with a Russian gangster character, it was easy to imagine him running an illicit business out of one of these buildings, perhaps using the airport for moving contraband. A record producer is also one of the characters, so I created a professional recording studio in the area (as I realized later, Doubletime Studios, one of San Diego’s more durable and long-running studios, wasn’t far away).
Last, but not least, the headquarters and showroom for Taylor, San Diego’s high-end guitar manufacturer, is located in one of the surrounding industrial buildings, just a couple of blocks west of the airport. Since one of my characters was a luthier, I decided to have them work at Taylor (although I changed the name to Taybor).
On a reconnaissance visit to the area, I ate at the Gillespie Field Cafe, which sits just below the control tower on the concrete apron with dozens of small planes parked nearby. The restaurant’s patio provides a good view of takeoffs and landings through a widely-spaced metal fence. For those in the know, a pass-coded gate allows access to and from the parked planes. I worked the cafe into the plot as well, although I changed the name of the cafe to Archibald’s in honor of the airfield’s original namesake.
In addition to all of the above, the San Diego County Sheriff’s aviation division, ASTREA, is headquartered at Gillespie Field. The San Diego Air & Space Museum (located in Balboa Park) maintains a museum annex as well as buildings for restoration work and storage. It all worked out well for the book. I even managed to work in some white-knuckle flight time for Rolly.
