The goofy, geeky, eccentric lead guitarist and primary songwriter and founding member of Cheap Trick is 67 today. Hailing from Rockford Illinois, Nielsen was born into a musical family, with both parents being opera singers. His father directed symphonies, choirs and recorded over forty solo albums. His family also owned a music store in Rockford, Illinois. Rick initially played drums, but began playing guitar and keyboards in his teens. After being in some school-age bands, Nielsen briefly replaced Todd Rundgren in Nazz, and then formed Cheap Trick in 1973.

Apart from being a Cheap Trick fan for years, I had the opportunity to meet Nielsen, and Cheap Trick vocalist Robin Zander after a show, circa 1995, at The Library on the OSU campus. It was basically, me and my friend, Nielsen and Zander and maybe 3 other people in the whole bar. Zander was fairly standoff-ish but we struck up a conversation with Nielsen, bought and downed a shot with him and chatted him up for a bit more before they skeedaddled. He didn’t really want the shot, from what I recall, but was gracious enough to have it with us. Weird to think too that when he met him, he was younger than I am now. Happy birthday, Rick.