During his successful career as a guitar tech, Ace Bergman has worked alongside Slash, Ozzy Osbourne, Christina Aguilera, Journey and My Chemical Romance, However, when reflecting on his worst gig ever, he’s said that the one that stands out is a show with Guns N’ Roses.
“Over the years I have had a few, but one stands out,” he told Ultimate Guitar. “When I flew out to cover Slash on Guns N’ Roses the first show in Manila, I shadowed Adam Day to learn the gig. (Side note: Adam Day is an amazing guitar tech and a good friend of mine). Then we flew to Kuala Lumpur to do my first show by myself. It was raining hard, the kind of rain you only get in the jungle, where you have to cover your mouth not to breathe in water.”
“The band was just about to take the stage and I tested Slash’s wah pedal one last time. It wasn’t working.”
Bergman revealed he went into panic mode and had to pause the gig right as they were about to start.
“Slash has multiple wahs positioned around the stage. I had to call over the radio to hold the band, and keep rolling the intro. I ran out there and resealed and re-waterproofed all the wahs as fast as humanly possible. Ran back, tested them and they worked.”
Luckily, the wahs continued to work throughout the gig but Bergman reveals his was “sweating bullets” through the entire show, worried that the rain would cause the wahs to fail again.
“I was sweating bullets. Needless to say, it is a little nerve wracking to be the “new guy” on the biggest tour in the world and call for extra time before your first gig. I, of course, didn’t tell Slash at the time, he has enough on his mind – you don’t send your artist on stage worried his wahs are going to fail. In fact, I have never told him.”
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Bergman revealed that the stressful show taught him to always make sure he has a back up plan so that he wouldn’t have to endure another “nightmare” show situation again.
“The key to avoiding gig nightmares is to always be thinking and always have a backup plan. I run through scenarios in my head “if this fails, I am going to do this”. Have a spare, know where it is. Try and find what is likely to fail and repair or replace it before it does.”
In other news, late last year Slash teased new music on the horizon with both Guns N’ Roses and his band with Myles Kennedy for 2021.
Slash told Cleveland.com that he would “like to think that we’d have some new stuff out next year — from both camps.”
“Duff [Guns N’ Roses bassist] and I did some jamming and we also worked on the Guns record, and I’ve had a couple of ancillary recordings and jams on top of that, so there’s been a lot of stuff going on. I’m really not good at slowing down and just sitting around.” he added.
For more on this topic follow the Rock Observer.
Watch ‘November Rain’ by Guns N’ Roses:
