Elmore spoke with the Hit Men’s bassist Jeff Ganz, who told us about bridging the gap with stars—in this case, Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Hot Tuna’s Jack Casady.

I grew up in the era when my heroes were my heroes, and now that I’ve been working with them, your heroes become your peers. It’s not always the easiest transition. They don’t want to be treated as heroes and have you fawn over them if you’re another musician. They want to be treated like just another guy.

I was playing with Johnny Winter at the time, back in 1991, and we had a date at the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa. There were a bunch of different bands on that show, so because of the number of bands there wasn’t time to do a proper sound check, and instead we did what is called a “line check,” which is where you just play a couple of notes just to make sure that everything is plugged in and the sound man is getting everything he’s supposed to get.

I was using a wireless system at the time, very much like the one I’m using with the Hit Men right now, so I didn’t even have to go on stage; I was backstage playing the bass, and though you could hear the amp on stage, I was nowhere to be found. So I’m sitting there playing, and all the sudden this very familiar face comes over to me and the guy starts asking me about the wireless, asking technical questions. He introduced himself, and it turned out to be Jack Casady, the bassist from Jefferson Airplane! He was as nice as could be, but I was in awe of meeting someone of that of that stature. So I told him, “Check it out—here’s how it works,” and I started with the baseline from “White Rabbit.” He smiled, patted me on the back and started to walk away. I called after him, “Hey Jack! Welcome to the 20th century!” He looked back, and gave me the thumbs up.

The Hit Men connect with audiences on a level rarely seen by today’s musical artists, playing an interactive sets of music from rock and roll history that are also their personal histories, because these men recorded the music. The short list of acts the band’s members have performed and recorded with: Blood Sweat & Tears, Johnny Winter, Cheap Trick, Lou Reed, Dr. John, Vanilla Fudge, Carly Simon, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Sting, the Ramones, LL Cool J, Luther Vandross, Korn, Paula Abdul, Jack Bruce, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Dave Mason, Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross, the Turtles, Micky Dolenz, Gary Puckett, Mitch Ryder, Barry Manilow, Tony Orlando, Tommy James, the Four Seasons, and (drumroll) Sesame Street.