A Note on the Troy's videos for Historical Accuracy

Off-Topic
#1

Hello all…

You know those stories Troy is telling you in these videos… like entering a guitar contest at a Long Island Night Club, named SPIT? You may be thinking it is a bit of storytelling… but…

I can tell you that it is absolutely true.

There was a nightclub named SPIT… in Levittown on Hempstead Turnpike. He did play in that cub in a contest. He did loose the competition. All of that is very true…

How do I know? I was one of the Judges in the contest. I actually voted for Troy. (and I believe I told him so after the contest that night. I found him and told him that I voted for him. Not sure if he remembers that.)

He lost because most of the other judges were Female co-workers of mine. (I worked for Marshall/Korg at the time) The guy who won was “Hotter” to them then Troy. They all said it… !!! I was the only one voting for Troy… I was so pissed because they were not judging on skill or creativity. They could have been deaf and still voted the way they did.

Anyway, if I remember correctly, Troy played a Les Paul that night. I may be mistaking as it was a long time ago…

The funny thing is most of the other contestants blamed their loss on the guitar sounds and not being able to use effects. But even so, the guy who won was not the best out of all of them, probably would rank around 4th. Troy was clearly the best I though and played creatively differently than everyone else.

Anyhow, that is my sharing here. Troy was there. It’s all true… Funny to see the story retold.

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#2

Haha, cool trivia! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: Thanks for sharing the story!

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#3

Hey thanks for sharing that story - very cool to hear!!

#4

The moral of this story is that a strategically-placed cucumber wrapped in an old sock is equivalent to at least an extra 5 notes per second

#5

Does that work while recording? Um, asking for a friend…

#6

FWIW I too can confirm that story. At least second hand. I attended the same school as Troy back in the late eighties and early nineties. I played guitar, and weirdly not many other students did. In fact, jamming with other players was nearly impossible and those four years were lost years as a player for me. The frustration of going from high school where it seemed everyone played at least a little guitar to a place where only classically trained kids ever picked up an instrument meant I was hyper aware of any guitar related stories and gossip.

I heard the story of how someone from our University had competed in a “Battle of the Bands” style competition by playing TV show tunes as Yngvie style shredding guitar. I particularly remember someone laughing about how he played “The Love Boat”. I don’t remember feeling very charitable towards the unknown classmate at the time. It seemed like the kind of thing one of the classically trained kids would do to show their contempt for popular music and their super human technical skills on an instrument --all at the same time. No wonder the townies hated us. Turns out that wasn’t what happened at all.

It was genuinely a shock thirty years later to hear the same story told in an online video I was watching. I never met Troy, and did not recognize him physically; but I remembered the story very clearly.

How weirdly small the world can turn out to be.

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