And a Great NEW EP!Same Mirror, Different Reflections
1. Don’t Surrender
2. Learning To Love
3. Indigo Blue
4. Baby’s Got A Secret
By: Rick Roberts
Rick,
I got an email from a guy I know in St. Louis complaining about someone inviting my friends friends to his own bands gigs, and saying my friend was in the band, which he wasn't! It reminded me of this little event in my own life. They're not exactly the same, but I think you'll understand the link. 
About ten years ago, after I had semi-retired, a friend asked me a question that I didn't quite understand. The thing is, I had gotten pretty used to being on tour and arriving in some town, only to hear that someone had been around the day before, gone to some bar, announced that he was Rick Roberts, and had all his drinks bought for him, and maybe even got lucky and went home with some lovely young thing with stars in her eyes. That was just part of the package deal in those days. It happened a whole bunch of times, and after a while it wasn't too big a surprise.
But this was different. In the first place, I hadn't been on tour for a while. But more important was the fact that my friend asked me if I was still drinking as much as I had been. When I asked why, he said he thought that what had happened in Texas would have been a wakeup call, even for me. I said I didn't know what he was talking about, and he said that no matter how bad a shape I had been in, I couldn't have forgotten TEXAS!! So I asked him to explain. This is what he told me:
"When you were on tour as a soloist last summer, you didn't have a lot of cash, so a friend of mine (his) said he would put you up, and drive you around to some of your first gigs." He said his friend had let me sleep ON HIS COUCH!! His friend had told him that I was pretty drunk for every one of the first two or three gigs, but they were in small towns in the middle of nowhere, and were kind of warm up shows. His friend also told him I was really bad. Then came the first show in a fairly large city. According to his pal, I was trashed again! By this time in the story, I was so astonished that I didn't even catch the name of the city. I stopped him and said he was out of his mind, and that I hadn't even been on tour for about two and a half years, and definitely nowhere near Texas. In fact, I had not played any gigs outside of Colorado or California since I had gotten married. Anyway, he said he couldn't believe I was so out of it I didn't even remember. He said his friend was totally disgusted by that time, and felt like I was also making him look like a fool, so instead of taking me to the show, he had driven me to the airport, taken my ticket, and put me on a flight to Denver. From there on, I was supposed to find my own way back to Boulder. 
I asked my friend who his friend was, and did I know him before I supposedly went to Texas. He said I didn't, and that was one reason he was upset, and had never talked to me about it. He said he was humiliated because his friend had taken me in because my friend said I was good people. I got my wife to verify the fact that I was nowhere near Texas the previous summer, and finally my friend realized that I was telling the truth, and that someone had pulled off a gigantic scam.
Here's the funny part. I just kind of shrugged my shoulders, shook my head, and said it was incredible, but no one had ever tried to sue me, or anything else untoward, so I supposed we should just chalk it up to another crazy. Welllll....my wife didn't quite see it that way! She was absolutely furious, I mean just short of going postal. She thought about what we should do about it, and after a day or two, when nothing really came to mind, she grabbed the Boulder-Denver phone book, and started calling all the Rick Roberts' that were listed. Oh yeah, I forgot. The impostor had ID that identified him as Rick Roberts (there's a lot of R.R.'s around). After calling three or four, and asking if they were Rick Roberts the singer, a woman answered her call, and said, yes, her husband was the singer from Firefall. My wife screamed at her "NO HE'S NOT......MINE IS!!!!", and slammed the phone down. So far as I know, there has never been any further mix up concerning who is who! And to tell the truth, if you'd heard my wife, you would have made sure no one you were married to ever crossed my wife's path again.
Just thought I'd share that with you. I got a note back from my pal in St. L. saying he was withdrawing his own complaints, considering what goes on in the "shadow world" of R&R.
Rick
About Rick Roberts
Rick Roberts (born August 31, 1949, in Florida) is a country rock and classic rock singer-songwriter who recorded with many influential artists over several genres in the 1970s. He is best known for his work with The Flying Burrito Brothers on their 1971 self-titled album, and as a founding member and lead singer of Firefall from 1976 to 1981.
He started his music career in 1970, with the Flying Burrito Bros., a direct offshoot of the legendary Byrds. After the band parted company with Gram Parsons, Rick stepped in as rhythm guitarist, splitting the vocals with Chris Hillman, and composing both with Hillman and by himself. He recorded with the Burrito’s on their third and fourth albums before the original group broke up. Rick then recorded two critically acclaimed albums before forming the group Firefall in Colorado in 1974.
Rick wrote and sang the hit songs “You Are The Woman”, “Just Remember I Love You”, “Livin’ Ain’t Livin’”, “Strange Way To Tell Me You Love Me”, “Headed For A Fall”, “Goodbye, I love You”, before leaving the band in 1981. After taking some time off, Rick formed another band in southern California with Randy Meisner, original bass player and singer of The Eagles, called The Roberts-Meisner Band, and toured nationally during the late 1980’s. Unfortunately there is no commercially recorded music of the band, but you
can view some of their television performances on YouTube. His earlier hits continue to receive strong radio airplay worldwide. “You Are The Woman” has just topped 5 million airplays, while “Just Remember” hit 3.5 million, and “Strange Way”, almost 2 million.
For the past twenty years, Rick has been living a more relaxed lifestyle, enjoying his life and marriage. Rick is excited to be releasing new songs in 2010 after so many years and is taking advantage of the internet to make those songs widely available.
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