(AKA "Rick Thunderstorm") "Honestly, I don't see why more people appreciate the drummer." Bassist of the Blood Wolves.
Personality: Rick is the epitome of the chilled-out, "I-don't-give-a-damn-if-the-world-is-going-to-explode" rocker. He is perpetually laid-back and calm, much to the annoyance of his more incendiary critics - the bassist once stated that "if [someone] came to him looking for an argument, [they] may as well argue with the furniture". He has an almost fatherly demeanor towards his bandmates, looking after them through thick and thin. He is perpetually in an optimistic, positive mood (although not upbeat or energetic by any stretch of the imagination), and this mood seems to trickle into anyone who spends too much time around him - an aspect of his personality that earned him the nickname "The Defuser" because people can't seem to stay hostile around him without actually trying to be hostile around him.
He hates the name "Blood Wolves", and is one of the band's most outspoken proponents of a name-change.
As for the whole "Riding Hoods/Blood Wolves" thing, Rick is passive about the record deal. Being the mostly settled, calm person that he is, he has learned to tolerate - if not appreciate - musicians and bands that his people have a "rivalry" with.
He also heavily appreciates the presence of the Blood Wolves' drummer and "medicine-man" Brendon Arnold. The calmest and most level-headed member of the Blood Wolves is also the hardest partier and heaviest drinker, and many a long night has been spent in the parking lot of the local pharmacy or chain store with Brendon mixing up a miracle "hangover cure" with Rick upending the contents of his stomach into a storm drain.
A note: The most agressive you will ever see Rick is if you ever denounce the name of Mark Sandman around him. Rick treats the late bassist of Morphine, The Hypnosonics and Treat Her Right as some sort of major deity, and cites him (alongside Les Claypool and Chris Ballew) as the greatest influence on his playing style. Indeed, the only reason Rick has a basitar is because "Mark Sandman invented it, so I learned it".
Instruments:
- Rick's custom-made Rickenbacker Model 4003 bass guitar, nicknamed "Big Daddy" (or "The Compensator", to Rick's critics). It has an extended neck to accomodate an astonishing 32 frets, whereas most basses have 22-24 frets. Depending on which song opens that day's setlist/recording session, Rick will play this bass with either two strings and a slide or all four strings. Rick prefers flatwound nickel strings.
- A Fender Jazz Bass with a Tobacco Brown finish, which is completely unremarkable in almost every way. This being Rick's "first bass", he carries it mostly for sentimental value and occasionally as a replacement for his Rickenbacker.
- Rick's "basitar", a (heavily) modified Epiphone Casino strung with two bass strings.
- An imported seven-string Russian acoustic guitar, custom made by an acclaimed luthier, awarded as a gift for a set Rick played in Moscow years back with one of his numerous bands. It was given half as an in-joke due to the fact that, while performing the acoustic portion of the set, Rick's guitar strap popped off his own guitar and he dropped it. Said guitar plummeted to the floor and broke. This is one of the few recorded examples of Rick being angry at anything.
Amplifiers:
- Two 600-watt Mesa Boogie bass cabinets
- A Mesa Boogie M3 Carbine 300-watt tube amp
Miscellaneous:
- 16G Sandisk Sansa MP3 Player
- Several changes of clothes
- A speed clip hooked to a keyring containing at least two dozen miscellaneous keys, the purpose to most of which only Rick knows
- Wallet containing money, driver's liscence, liscence to carry a handgun, rewards cards for various chain stores and several McDonalds' Monopoly pieces
Rick was born and raised in Five Ponds, Indiana, a little town remarkable for absolutely nothing at all, the son of a carpenter and an insurance broker and the eldest of two brothers and a sister. In high school, Rick was known for having consistently average grades, playing wing right on the high school football team for two seasons, and playing lots and lots of bass.
When he graduated, Rick decided he would stick with music as his primary source of income and therefore signed on with a local garage band, where he perfected his unique style of playing bass with a slide. After a while (and a petty squabble over who got a bigger cut of the band's final gig payout), Rick left the band and wandered solo for a while, working several odd jobs and eventually deciding to travel abroad. He joined several bands as he travelled, some of which took off like rockets, most of which fizzled out and died on the launch-pad. Eventually, having travelled around the world and experienced many types of music and culture on an entirely shoestring budget, Rick found himself back in America.
Having settled down once again in the country of his birth, Rick decided to join one more band. The bassist secured his position as a member of the Blood Wolves during its formative days, his unique bass style (which sounds a lot like this) added another layer of depth to the band, and he quickly helped them soar to new levels of fame and record-deal-ness.