First off, Rick is a man of many nicknames. Amongst the best are....

"Tricky" Rick

"Pickles"

"ChaChi"

"Groovy" a.k.a. "Rick Groovy"

Born: Fernie (snow capital of BC), raised in Cumberland.

A little trivia about Cumberland is that the town has been dubbed "The Luckiest Town in The World" by Labatt's Brewery. Why? Because the town drinks the most "Lucky" beer in the world. Keep this in mind.

We once asked Rick, when did he start to play guitar. His answer was "That depends", asked to clarify that, he responded "That depends on how you define playing the guitar". Rick loves life and is almost always ready to share a good laugh. His positive energy and enthusiasm is great to be around. Anyone who knows Rick, knows what I mean. He's Groovy!

Long before his days with "The Crawl", Rick played in a hometown Cumberland band. In the beginning they agonized for months on what to call themselves. Then came the day when Rick got shot in the ass with a pellet gun. "PITA"...... which stands for Pellet In The Ass was the bands new name. We love that story! When asked why these things seem to keep happening to him, Rick replied "Lucky", I guess.

Rick was there in the very beginning.... Somewhere around 1994, he was working with Todd Boutin. Rick says that Todd was a musical mentor for him in those days, helping to get him to a level where he was happy to be on stage. From that day on "The Funky Whyte Boyz" were born. In a year they picked up James Austin. Getting James ready for the stage was another story altogether, thankfully for him, this article is about Rick. Things moved ahead for several years, but the largest catalyst was finding Pete Wilson in 2002. "The Crawl" was born along with initial drummer, "Dr." John Wirtz. Since 2007, Brett Vokes is the drummer. Rick was there in the beginning.....

Rick is married to his longtime sweetheart, Cheryl. She loves the music of the band, and is one of our top fans. She currently puts up with the Thursday night band mayhem and noise. So kind is Cheryl that she usually spoils us with nice snacks during our breaks. We love her for that and many reasons more. Thank you Cheryl!

Rick says that the stress relief of the weekly band practice probably saves him a monthly average of about $1200 in psychotherapy and $70 in Jagermeister. That alone makes it worth his time. Truthfully, he says that he "....wouldn't change it for the world". He hopes that the Thursday Nights  with the band, the fun with these friends, will continue for a long long time.

In his more serious life, during the day, Rick runs a successful plumbing business in Victoria, "Royal Flush Plumbing Inc" has been in business for 14 years. Like the rest of his life, Rick truly enjoys his job and gets into it. "Lucky", I guess.