Spencer Gonzalez of Scottsbluff grew up with a love for playing the guitar, and he was encouraged to be the best guitar player he could be by his dad, Ralph Gonzalez Sr., a talented saxophone player. At one point, Spencer thought his dream of working full-time in the music industry might be over, but he stayed driven, and now he’s fulfilling his lifelong dream as a music producer for his own albums and other people’s albums and also as a talented lead guitar player for the Randy Burghardt Band.
JEFF FIELDER Editor
SCOTTSBLUFF – Spencer Gonzalez always remembers music playing in his family’s house growing up. Often, the music came from his dad, the late Ralph Gonzalez Sr., who was a talented tenor and alto saxophone player who played in several bands, including the popular, local R&B band called Brown Sugar.
“He was one of the best saxophone players around – not just locally but also nationally,” Spencer said. “Everyone loved listening to him play.”
The younger Gonzalez admired his dad’s musical talents and desired to be a musician himself someday. His passion for music grew even more at age 7 when his dad bought him his first guitar, an inexpensive Menudo toy guitar made by Mattel. Menudo was a pop group that had its own cartoon on ABC.
“I told my dad, ‘I want a guitar like the one used by Ricky Martin of Menudo,’” Gonzalez said with a smile. “My dad bought me one, and I loved it. It had six strings, so I would tune it up and play it all the time.”
Gonzalez spent the next couple years teaching himself how to play the guitar, mostly from trying to copy the sounds he heard while watching music artists like Prince, White Snake and Led Zeppelin on MTV or listening to many other rock bands on the radio. He would also try to copy the jazz and R&B music that his dad would play at the house.
“It was amazing how much I could learn just using a toy guitar,” he said. “I wanted to be the best guitar player I could be. I wanted to be a rock star.”
You can read the entire story in the October issue of Nspire Today! magazine. A one-year subscription (12 issues) is only $15. You may sign up for a subscription by sending $15 to Nspire Today!, P.O. Box 454, Scottsbluff, NE 69363, or you may pay with a credit card by calling 308-220-8865.
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