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Glen Burtnik was the first person to ever attempt to teach me how to play the guitar -- the first of many to fail at that task, but the only one who went on to play Paul McCartney onstage in "Beatlemania."

He also married Rosemary, a beautiful girl down the street from me, so I saw him in passing from time to time.

The only time I believe we were in the same room together in the last 40 years was probably around 1984 when my wife and I went to The Stone Pony in Asbury Park on a Sunday night to wait with the faithful to see if Bruce Springsteen would show up and play a set with the club's house band, Cats on a Smooth Surface. Their guitarist? Glen Burtnik.

Music has been very good to Glen over the years. During his "Beatlemania" run, he built a lasting friendship with the performer cast as John Lennon -- Marshall Crenshaw. During that same period of time, he was hired by Jan Hammer to be the singer in his band, Hammer. That's how he met his friend and future Santana and Journey player Neal Schon.

(An aside: During his time with Cats on a Smooth Surface, he became friendly with a guy named Jon Bongiovi, who invited him to join his new band. Glen declined and Bon Jovi went on without him.)

Glen recorded two solo albums for A&M Records, Heroes and Zeroes and Talking in Code. When going out on his own didn't work out as hoped, he received a phone message one day from Dennis DeYoung asking if he would consider auditioning for his band -- Styx. Tommy Shaw had moved on to tour with Damn Yankees and the band needed a second guitarist and another songwriter.

If you didn't know Glen before, you've certain got good reason to get to know my old neighbor now.

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