“IFIRST met them in 1962. I was playing a club in London with this cool little band and these guys were standing in the corner listening to us. Turns out they were Americans and they were working with The Everly Brothers. My jaw dropped because I was such a huge fan. That was the start of a long relationship.
“In the ’70s, I did some American shows with The Crickets and I was invited to do a gig at the Speakeasy in Los Angeles. It’s a small, late-night club where a lot of musicians used to gather. I went down on a Tuesday night and played with Don. After that, we spent a lot of time playing together and got quite close. We’d do a couple of gigs together, or we’d spend a Sunday afternoon jamming at his apartment in Sunset Towers on Sunset Boulevard. I think he appreciated having me as a sidekick there for a while, because he missed his brother on stage. “In 1983, they were deciding which musicians they wanted at their reunion show at Royal Albert Hall, and to my great luck they both chose me to be their guitar player.