In 1974 ,I had the good fortune to play and tour with Ray Manzarek  on his first solo  tour, Ray was the Keyboardist and a writer for The Doors, one of the biggest rock groups in the world. We played the songs from "The Golden Scarab" album. The legendary Steve Forman, who I grew up with in Phoenix, did the charts and played percussion on that album. Myself ,Tim Downs (drums), Dave Ferguson(Guitar )and Rick Gardner Were playing together in Phoenix. Rick was an exceptional Trumpet player and Ray let him tour with us and play occasionally. We were recommended by Steve to do the tour. This was my introduction to the Hollywood "Rock Star" life. Needless to say I decided to stay , no matter what else happened along the way. Ray was without a doubt the classiest artist I ever worked with and for, everything was first class and it was everything you can imagine it was, if you get my drift. This was not the first time I had played with a star ,I played and toured with Chase out of Chicago and had an incredible group that Tim Downs and I put together called Calliope , we toured all over the United States,playing with Little Richard, Redd Foxx ,we opened for Buddy Rich,Della Reese, Lou Rawls,Sceamin Jay Hawkins  and Kenny Rodgers. After Ray, I played with alot of other "stars" and was signed to Epic Records with a group called Pages a truly great musical experience but Ray was the beginning of an incredible story that I will be telling more of as we sail around in our SOLAR BOAT and we explore Jerry Manfredi .com .Please have a good trip. There's GOOD ROCKIN ahead.