| Back in 1979, I was a 19 year old boy. Freddie Fender was mucho "HOT" on the charts - with songs like "Wasted Days & Wasted Nights", "Before The Next Teardrop Falls", and so many others. Freddie came to my hometown, Ellwood City PA, to do a couple of shows at the Lincoln High School Auditorium. I also performed on the show. Freddie and I, and Freddie's band all shared the same dressing room. A local band - Dave Mac and the Country Swingers were on the stage. We were all in the dressing room drinking some beer. I opened up my guitar case and took out a Gibson J45 Jumbo sunbirst. Freddie's eyes lit up! He told his guitar player, "Hey Johnny, look at this." Then he said " Can I play it little brother?" I handed him the guitar, as he sit in front of the dressing mirror adorned with lights. He sit there and picked it for a minute, then he paused, rolled his left pant leg up over his boot, pulled out a wad of $100 bills and looked at me and said "How much do you want for the guitar little brother?" I looked at him and said "Freddie, this guitar belonged to my Mother, she had it from the time she was 16, and she just died recently." "I really don't want to part with the guitar." Freddie Fender rolled the $100 bills back up as they were, placed them back into his boot, and pulled his pant leg back down. He looked at me and said "I'll say no more little brother, I understand!" I have always respected him for this -- to this day -- and I hope that our paths cross sometime, so I can tell him this story. I was a young boy, and those hundred dollar bill$ looked awefully good to me. He could have probably had that guitar that night -- if he wanted it bad enough, but he understood that people have feelings and that the guitar had sentimental value to me. I have always respected him for that -- and ya know what? I still have that same guitar to this day! Tony Barge |