When I first came to this area, in 1978, I was playing a Lowrey Contempo 80 at a piano bar, six nights a week. I'd been there a couple of weeks when a young man came up and introduced himself to me.
He said his name was Bob Bryant and that he owned the piano and organ section of the local music store. He asked me to come by and see him when I got a chance.
A few days later, I did go see him. He told me he wanted me playing a Yamaha organ, and that he would sell me one below his cost so that people could see me playing it. He also said that he would pay a referral fee for anyone I sent to him that bought one. We struck a deal pretty quickly, as I had just about beaten that Lowrey to death anyway.
I later began working some during Christmas time and for a couple of months before, in the store, demonstrating and selling pianos and organs.
Bob was an excellent piano player, and even spent some time on the road with Ray Price many years later. He retired from the store about two years ago, when the owner sold it. We have been good friends all these years.
Today I got a call saying that Bob's body was found in his apartment. He apparently died from "natural causes". He had lost a lot of weight and had been having stomach problems for several months. I suspect it was cancer of some kind, but we'll never know for sure.
He was a great person and good friend. He was liked and respected by a large number of fellow musicians, but I was about his only real friend. He never married, although was close a couple of times that didn't work out. I just reached his sister, I think his only surviving relative an hour or so ago, to tell her the bad news.
I just needed to express my thoughts and I have a lot of friends here that perhaps won't mind.
Thanks for listening.