So, I had to run up to our neighborhood grocery store, Randalls, one morning, as I do most days. It was a few days before new years’ eve 2016/2017, just a few months before Gregg and the band Journey were inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame.
Anyway, so I’m in Randalls, nobody is there, it’s about 11am on a Thursday or something, very average day. Then I see this guy walk in the store, all dressed in black and I immediately say to myself, “Why did Gregg Rolie just walk into my grocery store?”. So I went to see where he was going and he had headed straight for the beer and wine section, lol, and was stocking up, I assume for the New Year celebration that was a day or so away.
I go about my shopping and check for him every now and then, no Gregg, so I figure he must have left and I just missed my opportunity to say, “Hi!”. So, I head up to the register to check out and I see him in line, so I get behind him, and he’s done checking out. He just bought beer, wine, 10 bottles or so and a few other things. At Randall’s, they have this loyalty card that’s free, but you have to have it to get the discounts and deals.
Anyway, he was checking his receipt as I was checking out, and noticed they did not take off the discount if you purchased 6 bottles of wine or more. His bill totaled to about $700, so his discount was supposed to be around $70. As he was asking the clerk, I stepped in and said, “Oh, you need one of these cards to get the discount, here, use mine”, “Man, you look familiar, are you Gregg Rolie?” I asked. He said, “Yes, I am as a matter of fact”. “Man, I love your voice!”. He was gracious and said thank you so much. Listen to his voice in this video…so cool!
I introduced myself and said I was a big fan of Santana, Journey and the work he’s been doing with Ringo Starr and asked if he was playing in Cedar Park? He said he happened to live nearby, I think in the Marble Falls area, and was just visiting his son for the holidays, who lives in our neighborhood I guess. “Wow” I said, I turned to the clerk and folks that worked there and said, “This is Gregg Rolie”, you know, “from Journey and Santana” The kid working the register had no clue. Gregg was super nice, shook my hand, took a picture with me, etc.
Anyway, I offered him my loyalty card, which I do occasionally for people in line in front of me that don’t have one, so he could get the discount but he had already completed the purchase so we had to go over to the customer service desk to sort through it all, meanwhile the guy is ringing up all of my groceries, 10 feet away.
So, I’m being pulled away from helping Gregg so I can pay for my groceries, people behind me are giving me the evil eye. Ends up, Gregg was going to have to return all the bottles and sign up for a card and then ring everything up again, and he just said, “Don’t worry about it, I think I can afford it” and I said, “Oh come on man…it’s $70 bucks!”, but he seemed more concerned with putting everyone out…which I thought was pretty cool. I asked the girl behind counter, “Don’t you know who this is?” and she just looked at me with a blank stare…”come on, Santana, Journey, RINGO STARR!”…nothing. Gregg took it in stride and just kept telling me to not worry about it..I was fighting for him though.
Anyway, I had to go back and tend to my groceries and next thing I knew he was standing in front of me thanking me for helping him out and before I could say much, he was heading for the door, I tried to hurry up and check out and go catch up with him but he was gone…darn! I was going to mention my bass playing again, you never know, right? But that was it…he had disappeared.
I think his son works as a mastering engineer at Bubble studio here in town, I heard from some of my musician friends. He probably just happens to live in my neighborhood and his good old dad, was bringing him some goodies for the new year. How cool is that?
Pay attention, you never know who you might run into at the grocery store.
A few months later, Gregg Rolie was on stage giving his acceptance speech at the Rock ‘n’ Roll hall of fame in Cleveland, and I swear, he was wearing the same thing the day I met him, see for yourself. Super nice guy and what a great musician.
