1936-2017
I was very saddened (yet relieved) to hear of Glen Campbell’s passing. I owe a great deal of my musical development as a young player to Glen, an astoundingly versatile and naturally gifted guitarist, as everyone knows. Glen was one of the three greatest influences on my playing, and oddly enough it was through his ‘Goodtime Hour’ TV show (1969-72) that I was exposed to the other two: Mason Williams and the late great John Hartford
Many years later, I was fortunate enough to briefly meet Hartford in Bloomington, and he gave me an impromptu dance lesson when I showed him my own version of clogging with a banjo (John demonstrated his step and advised me to “stay on your toes”… good advice in a multitude of ways). Mason, I got to know better and opened a concert for him out in Bakersfield during my Cali years, playing ‘Classical Gas’ in a duet with him.
But I never had the chance to meet Glen, the man who was the lynchpin in that whole trifecta of influences. I would have liked to shake his hand and thank him not only for his music but for MY music, as well. In that regard, I’m certainly one of a large number of guitar players who owe that to Glen Campbell.
He’s in a better place now, and sorely missed, but his music lives on. RIP, Glen.
