Guitar player extraordinaire, Mickey Wells, whos career spanned pop music from the
“English Invasion” in the 60s all the way thru modern
country music of today, has died in Tujunga, California (October 2017) at the age of 72. Mickey was born in the UK on September 5, 1945 and immigrated to Glendale,
California with his parents “Little Good” Marg and “Big Bad” Pat in 1954. They bought a
typical English style, brick house in the Chevy Chase/ Glenoaks area of Glendale and lived
there for thirty years. Mick attended RD White elementary, Wilson Junior High and graduated
Glendale High in 1964.
After working in a music store for a while, by the mid-sixties, he started
playing guitar in Hollywood with local bands, including Ilford Subway where Bobby Siebenberg
was the drummer and Scott Gorham the bass player. Bobby later went on to star with Super Tramp
and Scott with Thin Lizzie. He then moved to Billy Doherty’s band The Lost Souls as rhythm
guitar when Tony Leon was needed in Viet Nam. That band won the Battle of the Bands at the old Hullabaloo in Hollywood in 1966.
The Lost Souls play in Hollywood in the mid-60s. In the early 70s. he moved up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where he stayed for
a decade working at the Cowboy Bar as both a bartender and pedal steel player. He had
moved into steel when arthritis (a malady both he and his father suffered from) took its
toll on his hands and fingers. Big time musicians would play there and Mickey got to
know and play with a lot of them including Willie Nelson. |
After a decade of Wyoming winters, he migrated back to So Cal where he played
solely steel for a number of country bands across the southland. He also got re-acquainted with at least
a dozen of his old high school buddies and former band members, all in one swoop, by joining NSAA
softball. He played for 5 years, and while at it, composed and played on a song with John Burrows called
“On the Junket” describing the annual season-ending beach bash that the softball group held every
August in Del Mar, CA. He also put together an hour long video documentary entitled
“Inside the NSAA’, a tongue-in-cheek piece lampooning many of his old buddies.
That thing played on You Tube for years. In October 1983 Mickey married Joyce Hooper Cefaratt and they moved to a place
in Burbank where they lived for somewhere around 8 years before the marriage broke up. Ironically, today
she would have been his sole survivor, as Mickey never re-married, had no children nor
any siblings. After that he moved back to Glendale then eventually up to Sunland, California where
he spent his remaining years.
Sometime in the early 90s, Mickey joined Larry Dean and the Shooters country
band, a group that played regular gigs in the San Fernando valley at cowboy bars like the Palomino and
the Hideaway. They were regulars at Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm too. It was with Larry that Mickey
won the California Country Music Association "Pedal Steel Player of the Year" award in 1995.
After Larry Dean, he freelanced and never again played regular with any band.
On one of his gigs, he hooked on briefly with Ted Swindley’s “Always Patsy Cline”
the popular off-Broadway musical, where he played the part of Patsy’s pedal steel player
Curly Chalker. Ironically, due to worsening arthritis, other band members had to help
him up onto the stage but the audience thought it was all part of the act. He claimed
it added some levity to the show. Unfortunately, by 2010 his arthritis got so bad he could no longer play guitar
or even drive. He spent his remaining years pretty much confined to his apartment, although
frequently visited by his many fans and friends.
No obit or death notice from a morturary or the County of Los Angeles has appeared
online, so exactly what he died from and exactly when (approx. October 2017) has not yet been determined. If/ when this
shows up, I will post it up here. As for now, rest in peace, old buddy. Billy Doherty, Gretchen Elliott and Steve Scatchard contributed to this story. If anyone has
comments or any additional information, send them over to
commish2525@yahoo.com
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