SPECIAL ALERT

On February 21, 2007 my 1959 Fender Precision Bass and Neil Diamond touring Case were stolen in Encinitas CA. Here are the particulars:

1959 FENDER PRECISION BASS AND CASE
Stolen from Encinitas on February 21, 2007
Maple Neck, Sunburst Finish, Gold Anodized Pick Guard, Serial number #36995.
Case: Black with Yellow Square and the Words "Neil Diamond" in yellow letters!
If you see or might know who took the instrument please contact me immediately!!!!  Generous reward for information leading to the return of this instrument! 

After I left Bakersfield, California in 1962 I Moved to LA, changed my name to Randy Sterling, ‘cause nobody could pronounce Cierley, and seriously dived into the Hollywood music scene. Through One of the Mize Brothers, Buddy, I found myself in the studio after being there only about two months. I still had some contacts from when our high school band, “Rick Lee and The Barons,”
backed "The Paradons" on "Diamonds And Pearls" in 1959 and, with that and a career making performance on 12 string guitar at The Troubador night club one night in 1964, things just kind of took off for me from there. I soon became one of the "A" list studio rhythm guitar players for about three years. An opportunity opened up in 1965 and I moved to San Francisco to play, tour, write, and record with The Trident Corporation (Management and production company) under the direction of Frank Werber while learning recording engineering, record production, and the WHOLE music business in general. I arranged "You Were On My Mind" for "We Five", recorded, produced, and wrote for "The Kingston Trio," "Sons Of Champlin," The Mystery Trend," "Blackburn and Snow," (Please visit acerecords.co.uk for releases of albums of these almost forgotten and lost recordings faithfully and lovingly found and compiled by Alec Palao) and a few memorable sessions with "Sly Stone." Became friends with Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, even Moby Grape! I had an altogether fantastic two and a half years. But by that time the "City By The Bay" was becoming just a bit too bizarre, even for me, so I decided to get back to Hollywood.

Upon returning to L. A. I hooked up with three old folk music friends, Mike Crowley, Mike Clough, and Linda Carey, who wanted to do something different. We found this drummer, Jim Keltner, working in a music shop in Pasadena just down the street from the old “Ice House” coffeehouse and knew we really had a group. We were signed by Warner Bros. under the name “MC Squared” and proceeded to try to make an album of all our own material. The only problem was that the producer who was assigned to us didn't have a clue as to what we were doing. He never came to one rehearsal and when we went into the studio he tried to make us sound like every other group he was producing. Since I had met and become friends with Mo Ostin, who was now president of “Reprise Records,” while working with the “Kingston Trio” I decided that we had nothing to lose and went to see him one day. I sat in his office and told him that even though we liked our producer, he didn’t
understand what we were trying to do. So I asked if he would give me a chance to produce a demo so he could see what we were all about. To my delight and surprise Mo said, “OK, but if I don’t hear what your talking about, our guy produces or your deal is off.” We were given three hours in some little side street studio and the next day took what we had done back to him. He sat...listened...turned to me and said, “Randy, pick the studio you want and gimmie an album.” Well, we made one hell of an album. We found out later that in a little hidden vocal booth our sessions were being watched by Steven Stills, Joni Mitchel, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, David Crosby, and a host of others who suprised the hell out of us one night when they came out and complimented us on the work we were doing. The only problem with the recording was that Reprise's producer was so pissed off that we had made him look bad, he managed to get our product lost in the shuffle. (Aural Illusions has re-released the MC Squared album on CD. Now available at "Randy's eBay Store.")

After that debacle the drummer, Jim Keltner, and I returned to the studios and played for just about everybody who was recording at the time. Which led to some of the most wonderful sessions with Gabor Szabo (Jazz Guitarist) produced by Cal Tjader and Gary McFarland with whom we did several other projects. Then one day I received a call from the “Kingston Trio’s” ex road manager, who had also decided to leave San Francisco, and he told me that Neil Diamond had been hiding out in Los Angeles while clearing up some problems with his old record company (And I do mean hiding out! I was told that he had gotten unwittingly involved with an underworld owned record company in New York and ended up having to sign over some or all the rights to many of those first hits or else find himself floating in the Hudson.) and that Neil was ready to start recording and touring again and would I be interested in helping put together a band. Of course it took me about a millisecond to say, “Where do you want me and when!” So I spent the next three years recording and touring with one of the nicest guys in the business. What made it even better was that Neil hated long tours so we only toured on the weekends, leaving me free to continue my session work. During that time I had some of the best, worst, and wildest times in my life. With great friend and bandmate, Carol Hunter (Her solo CD is now available from randysterling@cox.net), we stormed through many an adventure during those years which were to become the birth years of "Neil Diamond the Superstar."

Being with Neil Diamond gave me that little extra prestige so my session work increased about five fold. Suddenly everybody wanted me to play, record, write, and/or produce for them. Finally after about four years of that madness I found myself strung out on cocaine, speed, and tranquilizers. I woke up one morning, looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize the physical wreck staring back at me. I realized that if I continued that lifestyle I would be dead in a year. I had already lost three close friends, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Brian Cole (Bass player for “The Association”) and,
since I didn’t relish the idea of becoming a statistic, I gave everybody two weeks notice and got the hell out of the business. I felt that I had accomplished those dreams I used to have when "The Barons" played the “Bakersfield Woman’s Club” dances so many years before and that it was time to clean up and get on with my life. I moved to a cabin in the mountains and spent about nine months returning to a human state.

Knowing that anything to do with the music business would be too much of a temptation, I decided to pursue one of my other passions and for the next seven years I was a professional photographer. After a time I joined a huge
Audio/Visual production company as a photographer, producer, director and recording engineer. And I do mean HUGE. I’m talking about 50 slide projectors, 3 full motion projectors, 3 separate lasers with custom built
light splitters, pyrotechnics, custom built animated neon logos, (all computer controlled) and topped off with original music and 25 dancers. Some of the clients included; Ford Motor Company, Harley-Davidson, Beechcraft and Piper Aircraft, Control Data Corporation, The Aladdin Hotel in Vegas, Ceasers Palace, and on and on. It was during that time that I met a life long friend, Jeff Rodengen, who has since become a successful and prolific writer and publisher. You can check out his stuff at "www.writestuffbooks.com"

By this time I now had two young sons about to enter school. I checked around the Santa Ana area and looked at the schools that were available and made another large career and lifestyle choice. We picked up and moved to northern San Diego County, bought a piece of property, began building our dream home (Another passion of mine.) and was in the process of establishing my own A/V production company. Then fate stepped in and gave me a good ass kicking. The day we signed the final loan papers, to finance the construction, I hopped on my motorcycle to go return some videos and some poor kid, in a hurry to see his girlfriend, rolled a stop sign and nailed me. He never saw me and to this day I don’t remember seeing him. I was doing about 60 when the bike stopped dead and I was sent flying about a hundred feet
and landed on my head. The way my spine was aligned when I hit, instead of breaking my neck, my third and fourth thoracic vertebrae literally exploded and took out about three and a half inches of my spinal cord. The only thing that saved us from total financial destruction was Blue Cross but, since they only pay a percentage, we were just barely hanging on. So the situation at that point was....I was 45 years old, paralyzed from the chest down, no job, with a wife and two kids and just enough from the insurance settlement and sale of the property to get a house. A divorce ensued and then I was on my own.

If I have learned nothing else...I am a survivor. Went through the, to be expected, depression phase then looked around and decided to get on with my life. Tried for six months to land a job but the prospects for a man in my
condition were pretty grim. (Don't ever believe that there isn't prejudice against age and someone in a wheelchair!) I finally swallowed my pride and applied for disability. Not much but enough to live on. I had decided that, because of my condition, I would never play music again and decided to sell all my instruments just to pay some outstanding bills and have some cash to get at least a few luxuries, such as food and shelter. I opened the yellow pages and picked the first music store that my finger pointed to. My plan was to have my instruments appraised then get the best price by selling them myself. As it turned out fate had guided me to a music store that was owned buy a guy I had played with back in ‘65 and who, like me, had become disillusioned with the LA scene and was a better business man than a musician. After a lot of reminiscing and all that, he said, “Why aren’t you playing, you’re one of the best musicians I have ever known?” Somehow the thought just hadn’t occurred to me before that. I still had my arms, hands, and brain so I picked up the bass and guitar, connected with two very talented musicians from the area (David Morgan and Stacey Slaughter), and formed, “Spare Change,” a group to play music for the reason I started in the first place, for the
pure joy of it! With our pooled resources we built our own studio and from 1992 to 1998 recorded four Spare Change albums and played just about every venue in the area. Our intention was not to “make it” but just to play the music we wanted, the way we wanted, where we wanted, and when we wanted. Sadly, on July 12, 2000 we lost Stacey. She was overcome by emotional and physical problems too great for her to endure and she
took her own life. She will be missed by all who knew her and her music.

I have had several offers to get back into studio and touring work but I have been through the music business madness once and that is quite enough for one lifetime. I am very happy to continue making music for myself and anybody who cares to listen. However, if someone wants to take one of my songs, record it, and give me a ton of money I will accept. I didn’t lose that many brain
cells in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

NEW UPDATE: And here it is several years later and so much has happened both musically and personally. Aural Illusions Recorded Products and Morgan Ranch Studios has had the pleasure of recording some of the greatest musicians covering a wide spectrum of styles. Just to name a few ... Jose Smith (Latin Harp - Guitar - Accordian - Singer), Carmen Elena Barreiro (Venezuelan Harp - Refered to in her country as "La Riena Del Arpa." [Queen Of The Harp], Cesar Daniel Lopez (World renown Paraguayan Harpist), Heloise Love (Singer of American and Celtic folk music.), Michael McMahon (Songwriter and singer of pure Irish music.) Raw Courage (Contemporary folk, blues, rock, country, and a few without catagory.) Mark Jackson (Country singer/songwriter), Melissa Morgan (Classical and Celtic harpist), Reiko Obata (Japanese Koto Harp.) N0W AVAILABLE ... "Latin Harp Night Live." which features Jose Smith, Carmen Elena Barreiro, and Cesar Daniel Lopez. You've heard of The Three Tenors, well these are The Three Harpists! A wonderfully intimate live concert with three of the finest solo harpists you will ever hear! Aural Illusions has also re-released the original album by MC Squared ("They Came In Peace") recorded in 1968, digitally remastered and on CD. If you have any interest in any of these CDs or artists please email: randysterling@cox.net.

Over the last couple of years I have been through some lingering health problems that have now been resolved and I am finally back to recording, producing, and performing. I have recently met and become friends with an artist, David J. Sherry, who does a Neil Diamond Tribute show that is phenomenal! I have seen a lot of Neil Diamond imitators and copycats but this guy is fantastic. A true Tribute Artist! I went to see his show and, honestly, was taken back to the 1969-1972 years I toured and recorded with Neil ... He was that good. Check him out! Also, any Neil Diamond fans out there who haven't found the "iaisnd.com" fan site should do so. Eydie has done a fantastic job. Thanks Eydie and also thanks to ToniB for the flood of memories.

My musical partner and good friend of 16 years, David Morgan and I are continuing to write and record. We have several "Raw Courage" and "Sterling & Morgan" projects in the works that we are very excited about. 

If you would like to make any comments, ask any questions, say hello, or perhaps purchase CD’s of any of the above artists, Please contact me at: randysterling@cox.net.  Or, of course, click the "Randy's eBay Store" link at the bottom of the page.
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Thanks for visiting my little corner of the web. Hope you haven't been bored to tears but, Hey, you clicked on the site! =0) If you would like to see some photos of the above mentioned people and a few of my award winning (Really!) photos please click the "Photos" link on the menu at the top of the this page.