10
TOWER
|
Winter 2013
A
fter nearly 50 years in the music business,
the largely self-taught Vito is still learning
and evolving.
“I’m in this for life,” Vito said.
The Stones’ comments so early in his career, and again
a year later at another session, gave him confidence.
“It made me feel like I can do this,” Vito said. “That
validation fortified what up to then had just been my
own perception.”
The Stones wouldn’t be alone in recognizing Vito’s abili-
ties: he frequently performed with 70’s rock royalty, including
Little Richard, Bob Seger, Mick Fleetwood, Delaney &
Bonnie, John Mayall, Bonnie Raitt, Roger McGuinn, Bobby
Whitlock, Jackson Browne and with many other big names.
Vito was the lead guitarist of Fleetwood Mac from 1987
to 1991. He toured with Seger in 1986-87, and with Raitt in
1977, 1980-81 and 1998-99. Today, he’s still a featured guitar-
ist with the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, whose first album,
“Blue Again,” earned a 2010 Grammy nomination.
For Vito, growing up near Philly
in the 1950s and 1960s and
being the son of John Vito, a Wildwood, N.J., bar manager,
was like attending a school for rock.
“Bandstand was the center of the universe for a lot of
rock ‘n’ roll bands,” Vito recalled. “There were great DJs in Philly –
Jerry Blavat, Hi Lit, Joe Grady and Ed Hurst. With all
the rhythm and blues they played, I was exposed to a lot of great
music. And Wildwood was just jumpin’ as far as entertainment.”
Even at home, music infused Vito’s life.
His mother, Irene,
played Hawaiian guitar. “So when Elvis came along, I just
grabbed her guitar and started wailing,” Vito said.
His parents bought him a Stella six string and called in Frank
DiPrima, his uncle, who played in New York pit orchestras.
“I wasn’t a very good student,” Vito confessed. “I couldn’t
get into my uncle’s conservative style.”
Sensing Vito’s leanings, DiPrima hooked him up with James
Burton, whose weekly guitar solos rocked Ricky Nelson’s perfor-
mances at the close of each TV episode of “The Adventures
of Ozzie and Harriet.”
“He taught me how to knead the strings and play higher on
the neck,” Vito said.
After that, Vito’s guitar education became listening to
successful guitarists and learning to play their style – “increasing
my vocabulary,” Vito called it.
“I struggled to mimic rock pioneer Chuck Berry,” he recalled.
“When I heard Keith Richards playing it, I could understand it
better. The Stones were covering a lot of blues tunes and R&B.
Then I learned about Paul Butterfield, John Mayall and
Eric Clapton.”
Recordings of great guitarists became his teachers.
“I couldn’t read music,” he said. “I still can’t very well.”
That hasn’t stopped him from having an illustrious career –
Vito is the recipient of the W.C. Handy Blues Award, has nine
solo CDs and six solo DVDs to his credit, is featured in four
Fleetwood Mac albums and has performed with giants of
rock ‘n’ roll since 1972.
Left: Rick Vito performs
on stage in Schaeffer
Auditorium in October.
Below: On stage with
Bonnie Raitt. Right:
Posing with Fleetwood
Mac for a promotional
photo in 1988.
RICK VITO, who attended KU from 1967 to 1971, was playing
guitar at a recording session less than a year after leaving school
when the Rolling Stones walked in.
“The producer was Jimmy Miller, who produced the Stones,
too,” Vito explained. “It was exciting when the Stones came in.
Here they were, full of compliments about my playing – and I
had learned everything from them.”
