RIP Robert 'Rocky' Ford
In 1976 Warner Bros. Records hosted four nights of music at New York's Beacon Theater titled California Soul. The West Coast label was making a big move into black music with a slew of signings that included George Benson, Ashford & Simpson, Al Jarreau and Graham Central Station. It was attending the GCS show that would change my life. I was in my freshman year in college and excited to see Larry Graham's smoking post-Sly & the Family Stone band live. I was already interested in being a music critic, regularly reading Rolling Stone and the Village Voice and contributing record reviews to a college newspaper. As Graham started thumping his bass the crowd rose to dance. A few rows ahead of me there was a brother with a curly Afro scribbling into a notebook with a pen that lit up. Surely, I thought, that guy most be a music critic. After the show I followed the writer out of the Beacon and, to the consternation of his girlfriend, stopped him and blurted out my aspirations to be a music critic. Robert 'Rocky' Ford didn't dis me. Instead he wrote down an address and his phone number. "Send me your clips and I'll take a look," he told me. A couple of weeks later I followed up. Rocky told me he liked my piece on the O'Jays 'Family Reunion' album and invited me up to where he worked -- Billboard magazine. Billboard's offices were at 1515 Broadway, right in the heart of sleazy '70s Times Square. In their offices Rocky introduced me to the staff of cynical, funny and eccentric writers and editors of the music trade publication. Before long I was being send out to review shows from the two genres of music no one in the industry respected at the time -- heavy metal and disco. I saw First Choice, Ted Nugent, Sylvester, and Hot Tuna among many other acts. The disco editor, Radcliff Joe, gave me chances to interview disco record pool members and club promoters. Though I was attending classes at St. John's University and already interning at the Amsterdam News in Harlem, I caught on at Billboard as a free-lancer. I was an apprentice in the world music, both its art and business, and Rocky got me through it and watched by back. I did one of the first interviews ever with Chic's Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards. It was almost the end of my career. The publicist was offended they'd sent a youngster over to interview the hot disco act. Luckily for me Rocky got the call, cooled her off and made sure the management at Billboard never knew about that complaint. It would be one of many times over the next few years Rocky caught me before I fell. He was my first true mentor and will be forever grateful. I wrote about him in my book City Kid a few years ago, but with his passing a week ago I know there's more to say. One day I will. Until then #riprobertrockyford