Always Have A Fallback Position

When he’s not busy waking up weekday mornings at Zero-Dark-Oh-My-God to co-host the syndicated Johnjay & Rich show, our guitar-toting pal Rich Berra spends many of his evenings out on the town in the Greater Phoenix area entertaining the masses as the frontman for the cleverly named Rich Berra Band. We are pleased to report that those three extra chords Rich learned since last summer are now paying dividends — no less a prestigious publication than Arizona Foothills just published its annual “Best Of Our Valley” issue, and to our delight and partial shock, The Rich Berra Band, breathlessly described in the mag as “a get-up-and-move, hands-in-the-air electric party-pop experience” was just voted “Best Local Band/Musician.” We will now allow three minutes for rebuttal — from Mr. Berra himself, who tells RAMP, “I’m not sure how we got chosen, but this is clearly yellow journalism. I am personally offended as I have heard us play quite a bit and I’m not impressed. Still… I’d like to thank my family for being so busy on Friday nights that I thought I might as well go out and play some Def Leppard songs.”

That great philosopher Scotty Finck of Hollywood Records said it best when he remarked of Berra, “He’s gotten up at 4am for his day job Johnjay & Rich as long as I’ve known him. And still manages to go to bed at God-knows-what hour after gigging. Man is driven. Man is dedicated. Man is as pure about playing music as any pro player ever. Man is Rich Berra.”