I think I can tell this one. It illustrates Fred and John's tendency toward true comedic genius. But I will do it in 2 parts.
I met Fred because one night in the mid 80s, on a club date in the Bronx, (that place under the Throgs Neck bridge), I mentioned to John on a break that I lost my ass playing black jack in Tahoe while doing the Eddy Arnold Show.
Somehow, I mentioned to John that I was supposed to be in Vegas the following week. I told John that the conductor had called me earlier that day asking for a good drummer who could read fly ****. John immediately said, "I've got a drummer for you..........Fred Lite!" He also added, "and he'll teach you how to play 21........the right way, trust me. Call Fred." Now, picture this. Trumpeter Richie Vitale black tux- shaved head- soul patch- tinted sunglasses and his little brother are standing there listening to us. Richie is just nodding in agreement to everthing John has just said. I'm thinking what the **** is going on here for a just a split second. My recollection of Richie is you never know what Richie's thinking. The 2 Vitale's are just nodding and mumbling. "yeah man, call Fred, yeah he needs the bread."
So I hooked Fred up. Anyway, we get to Vegas and Fred's my new roomate. We are in the hotel room at Ceasar's and he has the drum book and Fred's looking at it like it's Chinese. Every ****ing thing is written out. It's a 30 piece orchestra with strings. He is starting to turn a pasty grey color. The conductor, calls me and says rehearsal's in the morning at 10 am.
We get to rehearsal and Fred is terrified. Eddy comes over while he's setting up and says, "Hi young man, I'm Eddy Arnold and I hear your quite a drummer! You're Chuck's buddy from New York. I've heard great things about you." Now Fred's really turning red. Bright red. He's keeps looking over at me. With this, "what the **** did John get me into look."
So now he has set up and the stage engineer wants a level in the cans. He asks Fred to play some to get a level in the monitors. Fred starts doing his Elvin thing, full out. He just blasts off. Man, it was good. One of the string players almost has a heart attack. He's grooving on the ride, goes through all the toms, the snare, the high hat. Holy ****! It was great. Anyway, the engineer has a smirk on his face and says to Fred, "what do want in the cans? Rhythm section and vocals or just YOU." .................{to be continued}
