Steve Conte Waxes Nostalgic for Chuck Berry

Steve Conte Waxes Nostalgic for Chuck Berry: Singer, songwriter, guitarist and former New York Doll Steve Conte told us about his Chuck Berry experience.

Steve Conte: I’ve seen some amazing gigs since I started going to shows as a kid; Bob Marley, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, Les Paul, Miles Davis, Rev. Al Green, the Who, Prince, BB & Albert King and loads of other greats — including my first guitar hero, Chuck Berry who my dad took me to see at Madison Square Garden when I was 13.

And as incredible as all those shows were, I never got a feeling from an evening of music like I did when Chuck Berry played the Meadowlands Racetrack on a hot, muggy August night in 1988. Perhaps that feeling came from actually being on the stage with him for that gig – but I was just as much a spectator. It was an out of body experience.

When we hit the stage, out of total respect and awe for the man I laid waaaay back. From the first bunch of songs – “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Sweet Little Sixteen”, “Maybelline” – the set list read like the history of rock & roll, delivered by the architect of the genre. It was a surreal feeling watching Chuck play those songs that I’d been listening to for so many years; songs that changed popular music, ones that our favorite British Invasion bands covered – and standing right next to him on the stage while he was doing it. Not to mention the dream come true of actually playing guitar with him. The huge sound of Chuck’s Gibson ES-335 roaring through 2 Fender Dual Showman amps coming from his side of the stage mixing with my Telecaster blaring out of a Fender Bandmaster was mind blowing.

After more of his classics; “Rock And Roll Music”, “Memphis”, “Oh Carol” and “Reeling and Rocking”, Chuck gives me a few solos. This is “pinch me” stuff, but it was no dream. He was giving the audience their money’s worth – and me, stories to tell my future children. And speaking of stories, that is what Chuck Berry was doing all night – delivering his lyrics like a master storyteller. I was transfixed. I got sucked right into them, like I was living in some 1950s movie.

As for the guitar playing, he still had it. To watch those classic riffs roll off the actual man’s fingers was sublime. His hands were as big as baseball catcher’s mitts and I could see that his guitar neck was so thin in comparison, that he was bending the strings with all his fingers when playing chords. And yet he sounded perfectly in tune… it was weird.

On “Johnny B. Goode” he breaks his high E string and after the song ends he hands me his Gibson saying, “Change my string!” Gladly. He grabs my Tele and spends 10 minutes “un-tuning” my perfectly tuned guitar. Then it dawned on me – he knows exactly how much to detune the strings because he bends them all sharp when he plays with those huge mitts of his.

Ninety minutes in, the crowd is totally loving it, witnessing the creator of guitar rock & roll laying it out to settle the score once and for all (Elvis who?) He finishes off with “Around And Around” and the show ends with his usual, wonderful chaos where he brings audience members up onstage to dance, mostly pretty girls (and one drunk dude, who he had to throw off the stage.)

These days I look back at this gig with such reverence. I thank my lucky stars that I got the chance to see Chuck play again, especially up that close…and that I got to make music with that legend of a man. But back then, what crossed my mind as I watched him walk to his car with guitar case in hand was, “Damn, I forgot to bring my Chuck Berry’s Golden Decade vinyl for him to sign.”

Steve Conte Waxes Nostalgic for Chuck Berry: Steve Conte’s album Bronx Cheer is out November 5. The “Dog Days of Summer” single is out now.