With Les Paul's passing, the music world lost an incredible person that truly made this world a better place. Everyone I knew who had any contact with Les loved him & was touched by his generosity, kindness, support & brilliance.
A few years ago, I was recording at Capitol Records in Hollywood. Les was there & I went to say hello to him. We're chatting away & Les is telling all these stories from the old days...with incredible detail!
Finally I say, "Les , I'm sure you don't remember, but I was very young when I first met you....." He interrupts me & proceeds to tell me, " Yeah, I remember. I was playing at Donte's in North Hollywood on a Monday Guitar night in 1974. You walked in & maybe you were around 20 years old. Everyone was saying you were the new hot, young, guitar player"
Wow, needless to say, I was shocked he could remember something like that from 30 years ago!!! No wonder this man made so many incredible contributions to Music & the way we make it today!
On another note, I never played Les Paul Guitars too much. In general I've always been more of a 335 & L-5 kinda guy. However several months ago, I decided to order from the Gibson Custom Shop the recently released 50th anniversary "1959 Les Paul Standard". Mike Mcguire & his team built me one from scratch. An incredible guitar! The new guitar arrived at my studio in Los Angeles the day Les died....Needless to say, I will cherish that guitar & all the contributions from Les ...forever.
Lee Ritenour