Page 11 - ION Indie Magazine JulyAugust 2020

RL: In the beginning, it was my brother Charlie showing me how to play songs. He had
only been playing for 6 months when he started several of my brothers, myself, and some
neighborhood kids on the guitar. It was a mystery to me how he could learn songs off a
record, however, that changed as I practiced learning songs myself. Eventually, my ear
developed where I was able to learn songs accurately. That had a lot to do with the
popularity of Roc Lochner back in the day. Although we did write and record records, we
covered a variety of music and people wanted to see how I was playing Van Halen, Randy
Rhoads, Ritchie Blackmore, George Lynch, or whoever. It's actually how I started teaching.
I was asked by a store in Tucson called L.A. Music to teach there because people were
wanting to learn what I was doing. The uniqueness of my playing was inspired from when
I had learned Van Halen's tapping. I knew I needed to do more with it. The logical thing for
me was to use all the fingers of my right hand. It was an incredible moment for me when I
first stumbled on to it. A whole new world opened up. It was quite exciting to explore. Jeff
Watson's solo on ‘Rock in America’ was the first time I heard someone using more than
one finger to tap. I ended up meeting Jeff and we jammed together at my friend Willie
White's house after their concert at the TCC. He told me, ‘You are the first guy I've seen
use more than one finger to tap.’ Which I replied, ‘You are the first one I've seen as well.’
He was cool and he showed me how to play the solo to ‘Rock in America.’ My style of
tapping was way different than his and what was interesting was that he kept trying to get
me to put my pick down while I tapped. Part of my uniqueness is that I can move in and
out of tapping and picking by sliding the pick up and down my first finger with my thumb. I
did play left-handed on stage for a number of years. That started out because my younger
brother played left-handed and it got me thinking how cool it would be to play both left and
right-handed. Also, I figure it would help develop my right hand further. Eventually, I
stopped using the left-handed stringing and ended up just flipping a right-handed guitar
over so I would be playing upside down. What I discovered by doing that was what I call
inverted licks. I would take any basic lick, like say, a three-note-climb, and play it left-
handed with the same motion of movement and get an inverted sound. Eventually, I figured
out every lick would have at least 16 variations, if not 32 or 64.

MH: Speaking of 4th Avenue clubs, do you remember Choo Choo's, later to become
The Night Train? I have great memories of the place…and not so great.

RL: I do remember them as both. I went there a few times when I was underage to
see bands. I saw Yesterday & Today there. I also saw Alien with Ace Baker and Don
Jamison. I did play there one time with Roc Lochner, but it was long after the heyday. They
had closed down and opened for like a minute, and we played there during that minute.

MH: Robby, correct me if I'm wrong, I have read in a couple other articles somewhere
that you are related to the great Robert Schumann, music composer, pianist, and
influential music critic from the early to mid-1800s. Yes? And if so, would you say
you inherited some of his musical genius? I know you have a brother that is also a
musician and has shared the stage with you in past band projects. Is there anyone
else in your family that is musical?