Happy Birthday Rick Derringer

Ricky Dean Zehringer was born August 5, 1947 in Fort Recovery, Ohio. That’s funny, I fought recovery for many years and I believe so did Rick. Apparently Fort Recovery was created during the civil war. It was where they sent alcoholic soldiers. To cure them off the wild turkey. 

Rick formed the “McCoys” after eight grade and then played around with other names such as ‘Ricky Ricardo and the Retards’, ‘Rick & Morty’, ‘Rickormortis’ & ‘Rick McMahon’. The McCoys bought the song ‘Hang on Snoopy’ from Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz. They renamed it to ‘Sloopy’ and had a huge hit. 

Rock n Roll Hoochie Koo! In the 1970’s, Rick had a successful solo career and also played with ‘Johnny Winter And’ & ‘Edgar Winter’s White Trash’. He played on almost every album released in the 70’s including, Alice Cooper, ’Steely Dan’, & Todd Rundgren. Rick and his wife were frequent visitors to the Andy Warhol factory.  

Things got weird and somehow Rick discovered Weird Al in a mens room playing the accordion. “I caught him staring at my junk” said Rick. “It wasn’t just a parting glance, it was an awkward stare. I farted on him and we both had a good laugh. I ended up producing his grammy award winning nonsense ‘Eat It’. Can you imagine taking a great song like Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ and changing one letter to ‘Eat It’ and dummies buy it!? Go figure. But anyway it made me a lot of money.”

Guns n Wrestlers

Things got weirder and somehow Rick got involved with Wrestling and wrestling albums. He then got arrested for attempting to board a Delta Airlines flight carrying a loaded gun. “If I knew that was frowned upon, I would have never done it” said Derringer. “There really should be a sign or something.”

Rick is a national treasure and incredibly talented singer, songwriter, vocalist, guitarist and producer. Happy Birthday!  Cheers Rick!