What would it be?

Stick-focused question: What approaches/inspirations do you use/have to challenge yourself on the Stick?

General music question-suite: What keeps you going, musically? Why are you still compelled to create? What dictates your musical decisions these days?

Stickmen played @Roxy&Dukes in Dunellan NJ for Prog Nite and I was working the kitchen at the time. After soundcheck I went up to Tony, pulled out my keychain, And waved my Stick truss wrench. He smiled. He showed me his board. They were using IEMs by this time, and they were the LOUDEST band I ever heard there (and I was working 4 nites a week).

Back around 2007 I had the honor of doing an opening set for Tony and the California Guitar Trio. I was Emmett's webmaster at the time and spent some time before the show having Tony grill me about some of the newer models and their details. That was surreal and, honestly, just seemed backward . Over the course of the conversation I realized that Tony didn't really pay much attention to the details of his gear. If he picked up an instrument that played and sounded great, that's what he played.

Many moons ago I briefly had a guitar teacher like that. He couldn't tell me anything about guitar models on the market or even what he was playing. The dude played better than anyone I'd ever sat in a room with though.

I definitely admired that.

I would ask about his approach to applying Stick to tunes originally written and recorded on bass guitar. Is it a different approach, or does he just look at it as, more or less, a "doesn't matter which instrument, the notes are what the notes are" kind of thing?

That, and what the settings are on his Cali75 compressor.

I'd ask him why Peter Gabriel never plays anything from "Peter Gabriel 2" anymore haha

Glenn may have just answered it. But I was always wondering if Tony preferred 90's model Sticks over newer, 36" scale with Fret Rails. I had assumed that maybe he didn't keep up with new Sticks, as it looks like he's not bought a Stick since the 12-strings came out.

Ever played the Stick in the studio? And did you ever play the melody side in studio or live or just bass side?

I would ask him about his experience with John Lennon. How did it come about? And I'd ask him to describe what it was like playing on his last album, just before he was murdered.

My second question would be to follow up on something he told me at his Anaheim hotel at the NAMM Show, when he arrived late for our interview and apologized, explaining he was up all night jamming with Paul Allen on his yacht, the biggest yacht in the world at the time with a built in recording studio. What was that experience like?

I'd ask him about compression and coffee