One of my two guitarists (Nick Lohri) on my first album was actually slated to be the replacement for the late Pete Hamm in the late 70s, for what was to be the first Badfinger reunion and tour. But one of the member's mother died unexpectedly and they scrapped the project.
A real shame because Nick would have been perfect. He was a great guitarist, also played slide and decent keyboards and could sing all the Hamm parts...even wrote material in the Badfinger style and looked the part! He was my best friend from high school's guitarist for years and did a lot of NYC area session work (amazingly fast sight reader.) He was a Badfinger/Beatles freak, although he could play anything from Beck to Clapton.
I was living in Rochester at the time and thought he'd be the perfect second guitarist we needed for our project to complement Dick Grammatico, Lou Gramm's brother, our other guitarist.) When I called him for the gig. he had just learned that the Badfinger job got cancelled a couple days earlier. His bad luck turned out to be good luck for us. Eerily. our other guitarist Dick, had committed to joining the project but was booked for a two month gig and said he had to wait until that was over.....two days later he called and said the venue had burned down the next day with all the bads gear in it, so he was available. So, that's how I snagged two great players. Crazy, no?
I have a 60s Thunderbird case that I got from Baz....supposedly made for the export market...black, form-fit, heavier than chipboard but not wood. Baz got it from someone in the Badfinger camp. I've never seen another one like it in the U.S. Maybe it's more common in Europe? Attaching a pic.....have my 1963 Firebird carcass in it that I got from an old Kalamazoo employee...has one of the rare two-piece necks and is factory stamped with a '63 SN#. Never assembled. I have all the original parts except the PUPs...so it's on my list of 'projects.'
