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Roy Rogers had a showstopper of a lifetime.
During the third song at a May 2010 concert in Guerneville, the slide guitarist realized his feeling of heartburn wasn't going away. Then the power went out, halting the show.
Rogers was suffering a heart attack.
“I was getting ready to call the show from the stage and thought, ‘I can't do this,' and the power goes out, so the decision was made for me,” Rogers said. “I got back to my room and told my roadie, Ralph, ‘You better call somebody because this is not right.' It felt like a hot poker in my chest.”
Ninety minutes later, a stent was placed in the 60-year-old's heart. The expediency of the operation prevented a life-changing, if not life-ending, occurrence.
Five days later, Rogers performed in Ukiah before 3,000 people.
Rogers doesn't smoke, has never been overweight and has a good diet. Doctors say the heart attack was due to genetics, but are optimistic blues fans will have a chance to hear and see Rogers for many more years to come.
“At my last appointment with a doctor, he said, ‘Let me put it this way, Roy. If I was your new cardiologist and had never seen you before and if you didn't have a stent, I wouldn't have known you had a heart attack. There is no scar tissue at all.”
It's been suggested by more than one that maybe from heaven Rogers' longtime musical partner Norton Buffalo flicked off the power to the stage.
Roy Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings play the final Bluesdays! show of the season at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30. It wraps up the third year of free shows at the Village at Squaw Valley USA in July and August featuring national touring blues bands.
Bluesdays! has been such a success it is now considered a “core event” at the resort, and will be back for a fourth season, said the events and operations manager, David Greenleaf. This year set an overall attendance record, and the estimated individual mark for a show set in 2010 by Tinsley Ellis was broken this year by both Curtis Salgado and Ana Popovic.
“I wouldn't be surprised if the record is broken by Roy Rogers because everyone seems to be excited about him,” Greenleaf said.
Rogers is fired up, too.
“End of summer things are always fun,” he said. “It's kind of a swan song in getting ready for the fall, which is so lovely here in the mountains. I love the fall in Nevada City (where Rogers lives) and Tahoe is gorgeous.”
Tuesday will be one of the final performances with the Rhythm Kings for drummer Jimmy Sanchez, who is moving to Thailand. Drummer Billy Lee Lewis returns to the Rhythm Kings in October. Lewis also is known for his years with Tommy Castro.
Bass player Steve Ehrmann has been in and out of the Delta Rhythm Kings for 25 years. Rogers said Ehrmann was responsible for connecting him with John Lee Hooker in the 1980s, when the two collaborated on a pair of Grammy winning projects.
Rogers and Ray Manzarek, the former Doors keyboardist, this year released their second album, “Translucent Blues,” which this month ascended to No. 1 on Billboard's Roots Rock chart. Because of the second album's success, the two will “woodshed” — write songs — in September then make another record.
Rogers and Manzarek performed last year in the Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room when a fan stopped a question-and-answer session to have Manzarek sign dozens of photos.
“You never know how those things are going to go,” Rogers said, “and Ray just kind of goes with the flow. Sometimes things can get a little weird because people can get so Doors crazy.”
Although he's been an acclaimed recording artist for decades, Rogers still sometimes gets confused with Roy Rogers, the singer and cowboy actor.
An East Coast venue earlier this year advertised a show with photos of Manzarek and the Roy Rogers who died in 1998.
“The classic question is, ‘What's your real name?'” said Rogers, who described a typical conversation.
“Well, you play country music, right?”
“No, I don't play country music.”
“Well, your name is Roy Rogers but you don't play country music? Well, what do you play?”
“I play blues. I play slide guitar.
“Ohh. ... Ohh.”
Rogers' favorite description of the two Roy Rogerses came early in his career when he played in a harmonica-guitar duo with David Bergen. A Minneapolis Reader story had “Roy Rogers (No, not that one. This Roy Rogers has chops, not chaps.)”
Rogers also has a stent and a good reason to be optimistic about his future.
“It's one of the lucky ones,” he said.
During the third song at a May 2010 concert in Guerneville, the slide guitarist realized his feeling of heartburn wasn't going away. Then the power went out, halting the show.
Rogers was suffering a heart attack.
“I was getting ready to call the show from the stage and thought, ‘I can't do this,' and the power goes out, so the decision was made for me,” Rogers said. “I got back to my room and told my roadie, Ralph, ‘You better call somebody because this is not right.' It felt like a hot poker in my chest.”
Ninety minutes later, a stent was placed in the 60-year-old's heart. The expediency of the operation prevented a life-changing, if not life-ending, occurrence.
Five days later, Rogers performed in Ukiah before 3,000 people.
Rogers doesn't smoke, has never been overweight and has a good diet. Doctors say the heart attack was due to genetics, but are optimistic blues fans will have a chance to hear and see Rogers for many more years to come.
“At my last appointment with a doctor, he said, ‘Let me put it this way, Roy. If I was your new cardiologist and had never seen you before and if you didn't have a stent, I wouldn't have known you had a heart attack. There is no scar tissue at all.”
It's been suggested by more than one that maybe from heaven Rogers' longtime musical partner Norton Buffalo flicked off the power to the stage.
Roy Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings play the final Bluesdays! show of the season at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30. It wraps up the third year of free shows at the Village at Squaw Valley USA in July and August featuring national touring blues bands.
Bluesdays! has been such a success it is now considered a “core event” at the resort, and will be back for a fourth season, said the events and operations manager, David Greenleaf. This year set an overall attendance record, and the estimated individual mark for a show set in 2010 by Tinsley Ellis was broken this year by both Curtis Salgado and Ana Popovic.
“I wouldn't be surprised if the record is broken by Roy Rogers because everyone seems to be excited about him,” Greenleaf said.
Rogers is fired up, too.
“End of summer things are always fun,” he said. “It's kind of a swan song in getting ready for the fall, which is so lovely here in the mountains. I love the fall in Nevada City (where Rogers lives) and Tahoe is gorgeous.”
Tuesday will be one of the final performances with the Rhythm Kings for drummer Jimmy Sanchez, who is moving to Thailand. Drummer Billy Lee Lewis returns to the Rhythm Kings in October. Lewis also is known for his years with Tommy Castro.
Bass player Steve Ehrmann has been in and out of the Delta Rhythm Kings for 25 years. Rogers said Ehrmann was responsible for connecting him with John Lee Hooker in the 1980s, when the two collaborated on a pair of Grammy winning projects.
Rogers and Ray Manzarek, the former Doors keyboardist, this year released their second album, “Translucent Blues,” which this month ascended to No. 1 on Billboard's Roots Rock chart. Because of the second album's success, the two will “woodshed” — write songs — in September then make another record.
Rogers and Manzarek performed last year in the Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room when a fan stopped a question-and-answer session to have Manzarek sign dozens of photos.
“You never know how those things are going to go,” Rogers said, “and Ray just kind of goes with the flow. Sometimes things can get a little weird because people can get so Doors crazy.”
Although he's been an acclaimed recording artist for decades, Rogers still sometimes gets confused with Roy Rogers, the singer and cowboy actor.
An East Coast venue earlier this year advertised a show with photos of Manzarek and the Roy Rogers who died in 1998.
“The classic question is, ‘What's your real name?'” said Rogers, who described a typical conversation.
“Well, you play country music, right?”
“No, I don't play country music.”
“Well, your name is Roy Rogers but you don't play country music? Well, what do you play?”
“I play blues. I play slide guitar.
“Ohh. ... Ohh.”
Rogers' favorite description of the two Roy Rogerses came early in his career when he played in a harmonica-guitar duo with David Bergen. A Minneapolis Reader story had “Roy Rogers (No, not that one. This Roy Rogers has chops, not chaps.)”
Rogers also has a stent and a good reason to be optimistic about his future.
“It's one of the lucky ones,” he said.
