It wasn't that good ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=79&v=j7VNmAWI3t8

Good times!

I met Dave Getz, their drummer, in about 1996 at a Home Depot in San Ramon CA. He was buying sprinkler parts. He's pretty much a genius and accomplished in a few areas. Thanks for the memories.

THIS IS ANOTHER OF MY LONG STORIES: FEEL FREE TO IGNORE IT since I seem to have a way of making stories WAY too long. But this is related to Janis Joplin, in the most distant way.

I was in the Provo mission center (LTM) in August 1968 for 3 months, going to the Brasil Central Mission. About 2 weeks after I got there, another group arrived and there was an elder who was about 6’6” tall, by the name of Rick Bos. (and his surname is spelled correctly). We of course weren’t supposed to use first names but I found that out later. When he got to Brasil, he was at least 8-10 inches taller than any Brasileiros

I didn’t see much of him until we were both in Brasil and he was in the same district or whatever they were called. He was a real interesting guy, told us stories about his life before his mission and that the weekend before he left home (in the LA area) he smoked pot with some friends in his ward. He was also a guitarist and had played in a band in that area on a regular basis, with hair down to his shoulders. I don’t remember how he ended up going on a mission but he was there.

Later on, when I’d been there about 15 months or so, I was assigned to Ribeirão Preto, my absolute favorite place. The mission president (lots of stories about him) allowed Elder Bos and Elder Evans and a couple of other guys to form a mission band to tour the mission, playing rock music of the day to convert all those Brasileiros. Needless to say, it wasn’t a real good proselyting tool.

https://imgur.com/a/lKyg1

But as we sat in a rented hall (don’t remember all the details, dammit) these guys played ROCK AND ROLL. Elder Bos introduced me to Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder and more importantly, Janis Joplin. I loved her music. They traveled with a small record player with speakers. I sure wish I had pictures of that night, maybe a couple of them, but I don’t. I saw him occasionally after the Mission Band was disbanded and he was still the tallest person around.

I ran into him again at BYU when we were both home and we hung out a couple of times. I recall having a conversation with him after we were both home and we talked about awful it was that Janis had died. Janis died in October 1970, and I came home in November 1970 and he was home early 1971. Then we didn’t connect again after the first few months. I think we both hated BYU really badly and didn't stick around.

I always wondered what happened to him and then a lots of years later, about 2008, I got an email from him. He told me he had searched for me and found a Yahoo email I used. He was living in Saratoga Springs, with his wife and 4-5 kids and I was in Las Vegas. We made plans to meet for lunch the next time I was in Utah and that of course didn’t happen. Then in 2010, I was reading Utah obituaries and found his name there. I knew that he’d been successful in the music business, not as a performer but as a product developer and entrepreneur. I had some contact with one of his daughters after I left a condolence in the obituary online, and she said he had so many good memories of Brasil. He had a hard 2 years battle with cancer.

I wish I’d kept in contact and never think of Janis Joplin that I don’t think of Rick Bos and thank him for introducing her music to me.

That's a beautiful story.