A Q&A With Frank Marino (Yes, the one from Mahogany Rush)

While researching my book, I met tons of music fans whose eyes would turn glassy as they reminisced about the good ‘ol days of attending concerts at the Erie County Fieldhouse. The conversations would usually turn to them listing some of the shows they could recall attending. The usual big-name bands (KISS, AC/DC, Rush, etc.) and the ones that played there a lot (BOC, Nazareth, etc.) would commonly get mentioned, but I found it odd that one particular single-engagement concert was frequently listed — Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush (7/28/1978).

Sure, Marino’s not the most recognizable name in classic rock, much less even in the pantheon of artists who play the Fieldhouse. But for those people who know guitar — really good guitar —  Marino is right up there with the greats — especially Hendrix, whom he is most often compared to. On the website www.mahoganyrush.com, Marino recalls one of the most famous rumors that has plagued him his whole career:

“The most often heard story is that I took an overdose and woke up from a coma in the hospital and somehow became the spirit of Hendrix, or that I met this spirit and it entered me, endowing me with this amazing ability to play a guitar and magically know everything about it. Later on the story changed into a version that said I was in a car accident, died and came back as Jimi Hendrix in my body. They never ask me the truth and when I told them, they wouldn’t listen. The short truth about it is that I learned how to play guitar while recuperating from my trip. The guitar became a soothing help for me because of my great fear of letting my mind wander back into the trip if I wasn’t occupied and besides it was the only thing in the hospital relaxation room. I never even thought about the guitar before since I played the drums quite well anyway. I had this trip while Hendrix was still alive and began to play his music because it matched perfectly to what I was going through at the time.”

When I posted on Facebook the following photos (courtesy of Jeff Crock) from Marino’s Fieldhouse performance, they elicited responses such as:

“ He has to be one of the best I’ve ever seen play.“

“He was incredible!!!“

“He was really underrated.”

“He was amazing.”

“One that I missed and regret.“

I decided to reach out to Frank and see if he would answer a few questions I had about what he’s been up to lately. He was very cordial and prompt in his responses — exactly the nice guy everyone has made him out to be. Below are my questions and his responses.

1. Where do you live? Montreal, Canada.

2. Married? Yes, 34 years.

3. Kids? Yes, 3.

4. What is life like for you now? Do you have a different job or is music still your sole moneymaker?

Still a musician.  But to call it a “moneymaker” would be stretching the truth, in my case anyway!

5. I didn’t see any gigs listed on the web page. Anything coming up?

I’m not gigging until I finish a project I began almost 4 years ago.

6. What are you doing musically these days? Recording?

I’m finishing a DVD of a gig I did in Cleveland in December of 2010.  It needed extensive repairing and it’s taken a long time to do it.  It’s almost 12 hours of music.

7. How is your music different now than it was in the 1970s and 1980s?

I’d say it’s the same thing, but probably a little more mature in its writing, but especially in its production.

8. What ever happened to Paul Harwood and Jimmy Ayoub? Do you see/talk with them?

I see Jimmy from time to time, Paul not as much.

9. Is your brother Vince still playing? Do you guys ever play together?

Vince still plays.  He lives in a different city.  We haven’t actually played together for quite a few years.

10. What are some of the most unusual shows you remember from “back in the day?”

My first gig away from home by plane was in Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, for the native people.  It’s sort of on the edge of the arctic circle.  I like to joke that I gigged at the North Pole.

11. You’ve influenced so many guitarists. Who have you been most surprised to hear that you had an influence on?

I’m surprised when anyone lists me as an influence.  I never really thought I’d influenced anybody until I started hearing about it in the 90’s.

12. Any comments on the new Hendrix biopic that’s coming out soon called “Jimi: All Is by My Side?”

I have not seen it, nor had I even heard of it until only a couple of weeks ago.  I hope they are allowed to use his actual music in it.

13. During your heyday, who were you most star struck by when you met them?

Johnny Winter.  I did many gigs with him and was never able to say anything to him except a muted hello while passing by in a hallway or something.

14. In your comments on the website about Randy Hansen you said, “…so they came up with all kinds of sensational stories about me and my past, and never really bothered to print my own rebuttals which I gave hundreds of times.” What were some of the biggest misconceptions or incorrect facts printed about you back then?

Well, the biggest was obviously that ridiculous assertion that I was some sort of reincarnated person.  At first they said, correctly, that I had been in the hospital on drugs.  That was true, I did go through that and did learn to play guitar from that experience.  But then they added that reincarnation thing.  Then the hospital on drugs became a car accident which killed me.  No one listened to my many rebuttals until the Internet came along.

15.   Musical equipment has changed (e.g., lighter weight amps, different materials being use, etc.) significantly over even just the last decade. Do you stay up to date on new musical technology, and is there one advancement you would have liked to have had back in the 1970s?

I’m a very technical guy.  I build all of my own stuff, most from scratch.  So, yes, electronics and technology is something I think is a good thing.  But I did an album in ’93 which only came out about 7 years later.  It was called Eye Of The Storm.  When I did that I purposely used nothing that was not available in ’70/’71 when I did my very first record, Maxoom.  And that included studio equipment as well.  I wanted to see if gear really made a difference.  Well, Eye Of The Storm is light-years ahead of Maxoom in production and quality, so the only difference is experience and knowledge, not gear at all.  The point of the experiment is to show that, with only the knowledge and experience gathered over 20 years or so, Eye Of The Storm could have truly been made in ’71.  And if you listen to it against the backdrop of every other record production from ’71, and especially my own early album, you can see that it would have been mind-blowing to hear an album like that back then.  Those who lived back then and remember the times will know what I mean by that.

• classic rock
• Erie County Fieldhouse
• Frank Marino
• Jimi Hendrix
• Mahogany Rush