“A buddy of mine worked at Ocean Way for about a dozen years. He was on staff – meaning, he did a lot of the maintenance, helped out in the control room, did secondary mixes, stuff like that. He isn’t some famous rock’n’roll guy, but he’s worked with all of them.
In the early ’90s, Patty Scialfa came in to do some overdubs for Human Touch. Bruce Springsteen stopped by for a few hours – not long, but long enough to say hi to everybody, hang out, help out, and generally be awesome. And they finished up the overdubs, and that was that.
Fast-forward seven years and my buddy was visiting another buddy at Staples Center, where he’d just finished installing the sound system. Springsteen and the E-street band were the inaugural concerts and the room is pretty much empty, except for a dude who looked like a guitar tech on stage, noodling around with a guitar. So my buddy walks past the stage and on his way up to the crow’s nest –
‘Hey, Jim, how are you doing’?’
It’s Bruce Springsteen, on stage, tuning his own guitar in an empty arena, and he remembers my buddy from seven years previous after a half day’s acquaintance.
I got a lot of respect for that man.”
