I’m a little surprised that I hadn’t crossed paths with John Bernadot before our unforgettable encounter in front of the Viroqua Heritage Inn in the late 1980s. He had been a disc jockey at WCOW Radio, in Sparta, 31 miles to the north, which we affectionately called W-MOOO in honor of the area’s dairy farming history. I had spent the first twenty years of my life in Sparta, except for weekdays at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse for the last two of those years. After three more years of higher education in Minnesota and Ohio, I had landed in Viroqua, bouncing back to Minnesota to work at a Bible college for a year. John had deejayed at the Viroqua station WISV, now called WVRQ.

In any case, I found myself walking next to the surf guitar star on the sidewalk in front of the Victorian mansion where I had tuned the old grand piano for the radio show he was about to host. He looked at me on my short crutches and remarked, “You’re pretty fast on those things!” I replied, “Wanna race?”

Before he knew what was happening, I had galloped up Jefferson Street, turned up the walk to the Inn, leapt up the wooden stairs, and was laughing at him as he stood back, slackjawed, on the sidewalk.

That incident, which John retold numerous times, began a 30 year friendship which included me performing on his radio shows and at his events around western Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota, and his producing much of my antismoking CD “Censored by a Cigarette,” which is available from the store on this website. Our recording sessions took place on the second floor of his rustic farmhouse in Homer, south of Winona, Minnesota, powered by his generator and rewarded by beef stew prepared by his wife Therese.

Over the last years of John’s life, I made many trips to Homer and Winona. We graced the booths of the Acoustic Cafe, Perkins, the Green Mill, and other homey spots. I joined him at performances in Lake City, rural Preston, and more, and he joined me at St. Anne of Winona. He asked me to write his memoirs, which I am doing with the help of our friend Fran Bockenhaur. Stay tuned to www.LaCrossePiano.com!