SALT LAKE CITY — Wearing a mechanic’s coverall, Joe McQueen stepped into Brad Wheeler’s bar on Ogden’s 25th Street, refused to pay a cover charge and gave the blues musician booked that night a hard time.
The musician was A.C. Reed — Buddy Guy’s former saxophonist — but to McQueen, it made no difference.
“Joe doesn’t really care about blues or rock 'n’ roll — he just thinks it’s the worst music in the world,” Wheeler said with a laugh. “He’s into jazz.”
That happened about 20 years ago, and it was the first time Wheeler, then 27, had ever seen McQueen.
“I’d only heard stories about him growing up,” he said. “He was almost like Keyser Soze — a guy someone talks about but nobody ever really saw.”
But for Wheeler, McQueen ceased to be a mythical figure that day. Eager to hear the saxophonist’s tales of life as an African American musician in the 1940s, frequenting Ogden’s jazz clubs and connecting with the likes of Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Count Basie, Wheeler called McQueen up the next morning.
“We can hang out right now,” McQueen told him.
After arriving at McQueen’s house, Wheeler quickly learned that “hang out” meant performing manual labor and helping McQueen lay cement.
“He just put me right to work. … It was like Mr. Miyagi and the Karate Kid,” he said. “I was like, ‘What is going on? This old guy is working me over.’”
But over cement, an unlikely friendship gradually began to form between a 27-year-old blues musician who thought all jazz songs sounded the same and a jazz musician in his late 70s who had zero interest in the blues. And over the years, McQueen has grown from being a mythical figure to an integral figure in Wheeler’s life.
“I don’t know how to say it; I guess we fell in love with each other,” Wheeler said.
Which is why Wheeler knew he needed to do something special for McQueen’s 100th birthday on May 30. Although McQueen is reaching a century of life experience, according to Wheeler, the only thing slowing down about the musician was his horn — one he’d been blowing on for decades. So Wheeler contacted the Sandy-based company Cannonball Musical Instruments earlier this year to see if they’d be willing to gift McQueen a new horn.
“He’s playing more than people a quarter of his age. I know 25-year-olds that would kill for six gigs a month. He’s got five gigs this week!” Wheeler said. “What else would you get him?”
A couple of weeks later, at the end of January, Wheeler was at the factory with McQueen, watching him take his pick between two horns — one silver and the other gold.
“I’ve never been a silver man,” he recalled McQueen saying.
So McQueen picked up and held the gold horn for about 45 minutes before even playing a note, Wheeler said. And soon after that, to McQueen’s surprise, the company engraved his signature on the saxophone.
“I’ve never seen him get like a kid like that,” Wheeler said. “He and that horn are bonding. I haven’t seen the other saxophone in a long time.”
I lean on him an awful lot. I get a lot of strength from him being alive. – Brad Wheeler
Audiences have a chance to see and hear McQueen’s new horn Wednesday, May 29, at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City, and Friday, May 31, at the Lighthouse Lounge in Ogden. The performances celebrate McQueen’s 100th birthday, and Wheeler will be there to celebrate right along with him because these days, the two are practically inseparable.
“I lean on him an awful lot,” Wheeler said. “I get a lot of strength from him being alive.”
‘The Lord listens to Joe’
The strong bond between Wheeler and McQueen has only gotten stronger since an accident three years ago. Today, the specific details of the incident are fuzzy to Wheeler: McQueen, then a month shy of his 97th birthday, was parallel parking and trying to back into a tight space. Wheeler got out to help, standing behind the car and guiding McQueen.
“I was looking at the rearview mirror — we were both looking at each other in the eye — and I heard the car go ‘clunk clunk’ like it (went) into park and then something weird happened, like the car just revved up real quick,” Wheeler said. “And then all of a sudden the car shot backwards.”
That motion left Wheeler pinned between two cars, his right leg degloved from behind his knee down to his ankle. He still remembers seeing his own blood.
“I started getting cold and I started getting tired and I started getting scared and I thought I was going to die,” Wheeler said. “I literally told Joe, ‘I think I’m going to die. I think this is it.’ I said, ‘Joe you need to tell my mom that I love her ‘cause this is it.’ And he’s like, ‘I’m not going to let you die. I’m not going to let you die, you hear me?’”
While waiting for the ambulance, McQueen created a tourniquet using Wheeler’s belt to try to limit the flow of blood. But it’s what McQueen did next that has since had the greatest influence on Wheeler.
“He got down on one knee at 97 years old, and he held my head and he held my hand and he started praying,” Wheeler said as he began to cry. “When you think you’re going to die, to see somebody that you love look you in the eye and give you comfort … I know the Lord listens to Joe, that’s all I can really say.”
McQueen continued to comfort Wheeler as he recovered in the hospital, encouraging him to be a light to his fellow patients who were in pain and suffering.
“I tell all my friends, if you’re going to get run over, you better hope it’s by Joe McQueen,” Wheeler said with a laugh. “There’s no other way I would have survived it. … The whole experience has transformed me. … I’m a much more spiritual person.”
Because of that experience, it’s not always easy for Wheeler to talk about McQueen without getting emotional. The first day the pair met, McQueen was a legend to Wheeler, a musical icon of Ogden lore who once bluntly told Louis Armstrong he didn’t like his style. Now, though still a bit rough around the edges, he’s a spiritual anchor who reminds Wheeler to “never pray to the Lord and ask him for something unless you’re asking for somebody else.”
These days, especially, the two are like family. Wheeler, who over the years has developed a spot-on impression of McQueen, said the jazz legend has recently started introducing him to people as his grandson — something that has meant the world to Wheeler. And what’s been most impressive to Wheeler is that even as McQueen approaches 100 and continues to be a legendary figure in Utah’s music scene, the saxophonist has never lost sight of what really matters.
“Joe is a humble person. He’s never done any of this stuff to be famous; he’s always done it because he loves it,” Wheeler said. “But he’s so much more proud of the fact that he and (his wife) Thelma (will) have been married 75 years on June 10.
“Joe said to me, ‘Brad, when I die, the first thing I’m going to do is check on (my wife Thelma) and the next thing I’ll do is come and check on you,′” Wheeler continued. "‘I will always be a part of you.’”
If you go …
What: Joe McQueen Quartet
When: Wednesday, May 29, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main
How much: Free
Also ...
What: Joe McQueen Quartet
When: Friday, May 31, 8 p.m.
Where: Lighthouse Lounge, 130 25th St., Ogden
How much: $10 cover charge