(BD) Dziedzic, who introduced me to drummer Tommy Pierce. I got a hold of Paul Angerosa again and the four of us started Skychurch. We got the name from a quote by Jimi Hendrix stating he got his song ideas “from the air, from the sky church.” We performed original songs. I was writing a lot. I had catalogs of material. What were some of the highlights with Skychurch? Places played, etc.? I think our biggest things were playing the Clinton Arena. They had to close the doors every time because we filled the place. We played The Purple Turtle in Eagle Bay. The Hacienda on Route 12 is where we became the Sunday band. “It’s time for church – Skychurch!” was the advertising. Back then, things were different. Tony Cee’s agency was good to us. He had us playing in Atlanta, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale. We could play seven nights a week and many times we played eight times a week with an afternoon show on the weekend. The music scene at that time was fabulous. Every little town had a club that wanted a band. High school functions every weekend. And the pay was good. We went over like gangbusters. It really felt that big things may be coming. What brought Skychurch to an end? We went through several personnel chang-
es. I was the only permanent member. BD got married and wanted to do more of a jam band like The Grateful Dead. And Tommy was replaced by Russ. We had Daryl Mattison on drums for a while. We also had Steve Edwards (Ronnie Dio’s Elf) and Paul Angerosa together dueling guitars for some time. But when BD left, it seemed as though the heart of the band went with him. I guess it just ran its course. But it was a great five or six years from ’69 to ’74 or ’75. What did you do after that? I basically stopped playing for a bit. I moved out to Arizona. My wife got pregnant during one of the hottest years and we moved back to New York. I ended up in a country band named – Arizona. Later I joined Eddie Reilly and Dan Sisti in Greenback. I’ve been lucky to play with some of the best area musicians over that time. I also put a band together with Tim Boehlert and Lenny Milano just to play Four Acres in Marcy. I began writing songs with Tim, which leads to an interesting story. I was at a party and Beckin, with Joel Beaton and Mike Allinger, were playing. They asked me to play and agreed to let me do an original song. So I went into a corner with Tim and a few minutes later, we came up with a new a song, “Let It Slide.” We quickly taught it to Beckin and performed it for the first time.
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When I left for Los Angeles, Paul Angerosa asked if The Frogs could use “Let It Slide.” I agreed. It became a hit for them. It’s on one of the WOUR albums. That kept my name alive around here while I was gone. I appreciated that. So what happened in Los Angeles? I went out to audition for bands and played solo gigs as well. I joined a couple of guys from a formerly popular band (that I won’t name). It wasn’t very good. Michael Della Gala (Sail) came out to see me in rehearsals for a show at The Topanga Canyon Corral. Although they had money and fame, he saw it wasn’t going to work. So Michael started playing with me and adding harmonies to my songs, and we used the name Stik and the Branches again. After some time, Paul moved out there and Russ was already living in the area, so we continued as a Stik on vocals, Paul Angerosa on guitar
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