I've had the good fortune to meet him a few times as one of my good friend's uncle is Doc McGhee. The time that sticks out in my mind is Doc's brother's funeral. This was in the mid 90's and Richie was still very popular. We were at a restaurant in the suburbs of Chicago just after the funeral and he had come to sit next to me at the bar, to bum a cigarette. Almost instantly he was surrounded by young girls, he took the time to talk with all of them and sign autographs. He spent about an hour with the small group of people. He politely excused himself as he had to get back to the private room where the dinner was being held.
Does he deserve a Signature Marshall? Who's to say? I guess the determining factor is, will it sell? If the answer is yes, they'd probably make an Obama Signature Marshall.
I can't say I'm good friends with Richie, actually that was the last time I ever ran into him, but he certainly came off as a good guy the few times I was in his company. I'm not going to defend the poor decisions he has made, but everyone makes mistakes. Just my $0.02 on the guy.
No Sambora hate here. He's written some tasty licks with Bon Jovi and he has a great voice. Love them or hate them, gotta say they are one of the few 80's bands still working, still touring, still writing new music, and still relevant. Not sure what happened that landed him in rehab, I never pictured him as much of a drinker or drug user, but I hope he gets through the process and back to playing music soon. But as far as a signature head, I'm just pretty down on signature gear in general. Occassionally you'll run across something that that has some feature you are looking for that just happens to be a piece of signature gear, but in general it seem like a way for the companies to justify a huge price markup on a middle of the road piece of equipment.
