'Taco' Bob Rezak

I had a call from my old pal and long time booking agent Dave Rezak this morning informing me that his uncle and my buddy Taco Bob had died. What a guy and what a life ! I met Bob probably 25 years ago when Dave booked me at Taco Bob’s Wayside Inn in Sandy Creek. We hit it off immediately probably because we were both rebels at heart and stubborn as mules ( and I’d like to think good guys ). Old fans and friends from ‘up North’ would come out to his pole barn and ‘party hearty’ just like theˇ old ‘Lodge’ days. Bob liked to smoke, he liked his adult beverages, he liked to party but most of all he liked people. Folks loved Bob up in Sandy Creek and I was one of them. His health started to fail in the last few years but it didn’t stop Bob from living life his way. Last year he spent the whole night in his wheel chair with his oxygen tank listening to the band. This year he was too ill to attend and before our last gig up there in September one of the women that helped take care of him called me and asked if I could stop in to his house and see him before the gig. Of course I said ‘just give me directions’. He was bedridden by then in his living room over looking the water in a very peaceful setting. We talked for about 20 minutes, said ‘I love you’ and honestly both shed a tear. We both knew it would be the last time. I went to the club and when I mentioned on stage I had seen Bob, a cheer went up, not for me but for the guy we all were thinking about; Taco Bob. My pal Taco Bob; what a character