Gary James' Interview With
Rick Cua



Before he became a member of The Outlaws, Rick Cua was a well-known musician in Syracuse, New York. He was part of local groups such as The Legends, The Campus Walkers, The Larry Arlotta Trio, Dove and C.R.A.C. (Cua, Rozzano, Arlotta, Chisolm). These days Rick Cua calls Nashville home and so we spoke with Rick Cua about his journey that has taken him all over the world.

Q - Rick, in all the time you were playing in these Syracuse bands, did you ever have the opportunity to go to college?

A - Yeah, I did three semesters at Onondaga Community College (O.C.C.). Great school. I never got a degree. It was the logical thing to do at that age, go to college. But I was playing in a band six nights a week by then and I just decided that my school work wasn't at the top of the list for me. I had the privilege of playing with some incredible, professional musicians and I learned on the job, so to speak.

Q - You were going to Midtown Plaza then?

A - Oh, yes. I was on Water Street.

Q - And you were studying what?

A - Just general studies. Just your normal Liberal Arts kind of thing, English, Western Civilization. Just general kind of studies.

Q - I recall seeing you in a band called Dove with Mark Doyle and Dave Hanlon on a Sunday night in 1975 at The Lost Horizon.

A - Wow!

Q - The place was packed. Was that a one-off gig? Did you guys play out very much?

A - We did. There were several versions of Dove. The original Dove was recently inducted into the SAMMY Hall Of Fame this past March (2018) in Syracuse. That was the original Dove that lasted the longest, but then we had a couple of other versions of Dove. One was with Mark Prentiss and Dave Porter and then The Duv. Dove was myself, Mark Doyle and Dave Hanlon as you mentioned. Yeah, we played for I don't know how long, maybe a year. Maybe a little more. I can't remember exactly, but we did a handful of dates. Had a ball doing what we were doing.

Q - That really was a Syracuse Supergroup.

A - That's kind of you to say. I sure look at Mark Doyle that way and Dave Hanlon as well, but I was blessed to be a part of that band.

Q - You mentioned you were in a band that was working six nights a week. You could actually make a living at that time working in a band, couldn't you?

A - Yup. I was again fortunate. We played at The Red Rooster over there on Route 11 in North Syracuse. We played Tuesday through Sunday from 10 PM to 2 AM, Tuesday through Sunday.

Q - Unfortunately that place no longer exists. They tore it down recently.

A - I heard they tore it down. Unbelievable. We worked there for almost three years. That was a great band and for the gig to last that long was really cool.

Q - One summer, C.R.A.C. was touring up and down the East Coast and even into the Mid-West. How could a band without a record deal, and C.R.A.C. didn't have a record deal, tour and make money?

A - Yeah, well, it was just a combination of I feel of being a real good band that knew how to entertain people and get 'em dancing and having a good time, and also we chased after opportunities pretty good. I think we were always pretty good businessmen as well, whether it was managing the band, booking the band. Of course we has some great booking agents with us. Dave Rezek. Just a bunch of great folks. We did a lot of stuff ourselves and we were pretty aggressive at trying to figure it our.

Q - I also saw you perform on a flat-bed truck with C.R.A.C. on a Sunday afternoon in Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse. And of course you were also playing Soo-Lin's. Next thing I hear you're a member of The Outlaws. How did that happen?

A - Yeah. It's funny, Gary. I was rehearsing over at Larry Arlotta's house one day with C.R.A.C. and I got a phone call while I was there from Bob Daitz. Bob was a guy that worked with C.R.A.C. kind of as a road manager guy. Then he went on to work for other bands. He went to work for The Outlaws. He was their stage manager. They needed a bass player and he said, "Let me call Rick Cua and see what happens." So, he gave me a call and filled me in on the opportunity. I wasn't really familiar with The Outlaws at that point, but I went out and bought their records and learned some music and made a couple of calls on my own. I wound up getting an audition and I wound up getting the gig. What happened was as I flew down to Tampa, Florida and did the audition, this is on a Saturday morning, flew back. I was a little late for the gig at Soo-Lin's. We were supposed to start at maybe 9:30 PM and I got there just about 10 o'clock and the place was packed. I remember I stopped home first because I had to check the answering machine and I got the message that I got the gig. So, I went in and Buddy Pines, the owner of the club, came up to me and said, "Ricky, Ricky, you're late. C'mon, we gotta get going. We have a full house." I said, "Buddy, I'm so sorry, but I can promise you one thing. It'll never happen again." (laughs) That's because I had to start the gig with The Outlaws on Monday and that was a Saturday. So, that was the beginning of The Outlwas.

Q - Did you tell Buddy Pines you were joining The Outlaws?

A - No. I told him at the end of the night on Saturday. They're so wonderful, they already had a replacement for me knowing if I got the gig I might be out the door. If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure Pat De Salvo replaced me for awhile.

Q - Do you remember News Channel 9 doing a story on you showing you carrying your bass guitar up the stairs to a U.S. Air jet?

A - I totally remember that. Oh, my gosh. That's a long time ago.

Q - Was being in The Outlaws all that you expected it to be? Was it your dream as a kid to be in a national touring, recording group?

A - Yeah. You know, it really was. It was everything I expected and more. I got in that band. It was a big, big band. Flying first class, limousines, the whole deal. Man, it was the big stage. They treated us like kings. It was a lot of big audiences. Traveled abroad as well as the States, Canada. It was really cool.

Q - You spent how long with The Outlaws?

A - Three and a half years.

Q - After that three and a half year time period, you sold your home in Laurelwood. Is that correct?

A - No. My home was off of Wadsworth Street in Syracuse, on Harold Street. Grant Boulevard, Fiegel Ave, got married and wound up on Harold Street, my wife and I. We lived above my grandparents on Grant Boulevard for about four and half years, then bought our home on Harold Street. We lived there for ten years, until we moved to Nashville.

Q - Why Nashville?

A - It was just Music City. It's where I was signed to a record label at that time and starting to make records in Nashville. I traveled down and came home and traveled down and came home. It seemed like things were starting to dry up for me in Syracuse a little. I honestly think it was God just telling me and my wife, it's time for a move. There were more resources for musicians in Nashville. Even some of the banks had drive-in tellers that were the height of tour buses, so the tour bus could just pull in and the window would be bus height. I mean, so much of it was built around the music community that we had a lot of resources there. You know, I'm crazy about Syracuse. Syracuse is my roots. I have two homes now. Syracuse and of course Nashville after thirty-four years. Nashville was great. It was wonderful. Our kids were 9 and 13 when we moved. We raised them down here and there's so much opportunity that they stayed, which is really good because I didn't want to be in an area where to chance an opportunity they might've had to move.

Q - Nashville is growing, isn't it?

A - Right now it's growing like a weed. It's growing really, really quickly.

Q - The popularity of Country music is exploding, but you're not known as a Country music artist. You had a number one album as a Christian artist.

A - Yeah.

Q - How did that happen? Did you try to write Country songs and realized you'd have more success becoming a Christian artist?

A - No. I started out in the secular local bands in Syracuse. Of course The Outlaws were a secular band, but when I was midway through my time with The Outlaws I got a Christian record deal. I'm still living in Syracuse. I made my first Christian record. The first single went to number one and then I made a second record and the first single went off that went to number one. Then I realized, you know what? I gotta get to Nashville. So, I didn't go to Nashville for Country music. I went there for Christian music. I just pursued it down there because at that time there were really three centers for Christian music. One was Waco, Texas. The other one was Los Angeles, California and then Nashville, Tennessee. Over the years everything moved to Nashville, just about everything. So, I think we had some insight that this was going to be the place to be for Contemporary Christian music.

Q - Had you been listening to other Christian artists before you started writing your own material?

A - Not really. The story there is I grew up in the Catholic church and then came to know the Lord in a very personal way and started going to non-denominational churches. From that point I really didn't know much about (it). I was still a professional musician in Syracuse, but I was a Believer. My wife at that point brought home a Phil Keaggy record. I'm listening to Steely Dan, Donald Fagen's the Nightfly, Gino Vanelli, Chick Corea, and I heard this Keaggy guy and he was awesome. Then not long after that, I ran into a friend of mine, Joe English who was in a band from Rochester, (New York) called Jam Factory, and he went on to play with Paul McCartney And Wings. Joe got a deal with Refuge Records and he sent me his Christian album. This is when we're writing letters back and forth. So I wrote Joe a letter saying, "Joe, I love the record. It's great. Man, it's incredible. Who knows, maybe someday I'll get to do what you're doing." He connected me with this manager who met me in Nashville. I was playing a show. We were on tour with Black Sabbath at that point. The Outlaws and Black Sabbath. We played in the arena down in Nashville. The record label president came out to meet me and we had a meeting in my hotel room after the show and three hours later I had a record deal. That was the beginning of the Christian recording situation.

Q - Did you start your own Christian music label?

A - I did, years later. It was called United Christian Alliance. The acronym was UCA Records. That was a number of years later. I made about a dozen Christian records. Of course, currently we're getting ready to make our fourth record with Blues Counsel, actually a fifth record with Blues Counsel.

Q - Was UCA Records just for your records or did you bring in other people?

A - I had other people in. I had a number one song with an artist by the name of Morgan Cryar and then we also had another guy, Nathan Digesare. Mike Caputi was on that label. So, we did about five releases and included some of the other guys as well.

Q - Running a record label is much different than being an artist. You had to know about promotion, publicity, distribution. What did you know about all that?

A - Well, I learned over the years. Fortunately, I had some great people who kind of mentored me through some of that stuff in my early years. You can't do it yourself. It's not like I wore all those hats myself. We had a team as well with the people who distributed the product. We did a lot of work on our own, but we had great people around us and that's what it really takes.

Q - You had Rick Cua Entertainment where you managed artists, you worked in music publishing, film and TV licensing. Was that just with Christian artists as well?

A - Yes. Well, I managed some Christian artists for A Season Of Time and I also worked at E.M.I. Music, which is now Capitol and I was the Vice-President of publishing in the Christian division on the creative side. We did so a lot of film and TV licensing. I'd travel out to Los Angeles six or seven times a year and put our songs in a lot of popular shows. Then I continued licensing after I left E.M.I. on my own and it was mostly Christian music, but there were a few records that were not from Christians, but friends of mine. We tried to license them in as many shows as we could. So that's something we did for A Season as well.

Q - Had you remained in Syracuse would all those opportunities have come your way?

A - Well, you know what? It could've been other stuff though. Again, I have a great love for Syracuse and the people there and the opportunity there as well. What I did by moving to Nashville, that was the certain path that came to life where I was and kind of the ambition we had when we did those things. But, who knows, Gary? Being in Syracuse I think God would maybe have opened up other doors. For me, I was supposed to go to Nashville and follow that course. The only reason I say that is you don't necessarily have to leave where you are to become successful. You have to listen to the voice of God and follow His lead on where He wants you to be.

Q - Now, in Nashville, when you would tell people, "I've got to go back to Syracuse. I'm getting a SAMMY Award. We're being inducted into the Hall Of Fame," have people heard about the SAMMYs?

A - Well, I mean, I'm sure some of them have. There's a bunch of musicians that live here from Syracuse. I've got a friend from the Indianapolis, Indiana area. He's made a bunch of records with his band and he was so impressed with the fact that Syracuse, New York has something like the Syracuse Area Music Awards that have been around for twenty-five years. That's not in every big city. There are certainly cities that have that, but Syracuse is really special in that way.

Q - Quite a few musicians from Syracuse, yourself included, have made a name for themselves, but they had to go to other cities to do it. If Syracuse only had the record companies, the publishing companies and the management offices that London, England had or Nashville or Los Angeles or New York City.

A - Yeah, but by the same token, what incredible work the Syracuse musicians and the people who run the SAMMY Awards have done to take what they've been given and ramp it up to way beyond a lot of cities in this United States.

Q - These days you're Minister Rick Cua? Did you need specialized training for that?

A - No. I got ordained first in 1989 and then I was ordained a few more times after that by different organizations. Most recently Grace Chapel, the church that I go to, ordained me almost eleven years ago. I did not to go seminary. My training is just life experience and being a Christian for many years and reading the Bible and studying the Bible and just trusting God for His wisdom that he would pass through me when I council. My wife also councils with me.

Q - You're not just counseling musicians then, but everybody who comes through.

A - Yeah. Musicians, there's always been a number of them because I am a musician and I think sometimes we're of the same tribe, so to speak, but we counsel everybody. We do a lot of marriage counseling, pre-marital counseling and then marriage counseling. Many times we refer people to other folks that have their Masters or their Doctorate, psychologists and other professional therapists as well. Our whole thing with folks is we want them to get the best help they can get. Many times God works through us. Sometimes they need someone who can prescribe medication possibly or has a little more experience with their issue.

Official Website: www.RickCua.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.



Photo from Gary James' press kit collection