This Friday night, August 16th, Foghat is playing a FREE concert at South Park Amphitheater. The show is part of the 2019 Allegheny County Summer Concert Series, and yes, you read that correctly, it's FREE.
This week I talked with one of the founding members of Foghat, drummer Roger Earl, and he said, “I love playing in Pittsburgh. STEELERS!”
The show will actually be a homecoming for several Foghat members. Lead guitarist Bryan Bassett (a founding member of Wild Cherry) was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Sound engineer Brandy Meullier and drum tech Mark Petrocelli are also from the Burgh, and Roger’s wife, Linda, is related to Matt Barranti, whose band will be opening for Foghat on Friday.
Barranti also filled in on guitar for Foghat when Bryan Bassett was dealing with some health issues a couple years ago. “Everybody in the band has a stand in…not that we use them very often,” said Earl, “but Matt Barranti was incredible and is a great guitar player.”
Before Foghat, Roger Earl was in Savoy Brown, and since we are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock this weekend, I had to ask him where they were playing while that was happening back in August of 1969. Kim Simmonds said that Savoy Brown was playing a gig in New York City, however Earl told me he was under the impression that they might have been in San Francisco.
“I don’t think we missed too much. Apparently it was soggy and very uncomfortable,” Earl said about Woodstock, but he seemed somewhat disappointed that he missed seeing all of the incredible bands, especially Santana, who is one of his favorites. However, they were no strangers to that type of music festival atmosphere. “We had our own minor run-ins with large (crowds) of people in muddy fields.”
I also mentioned to Roger that Sean McDowell retired from DVE last month, and he said, “Retirement? I’m never retiring!”
You can listen to the full interview below.
CLICK HERE to get more info about the Foghat show on Friday night!
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Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images