Colorful guitar player remembered

Irreverent? Not for Bruce Findlay, former guitar player for the Electric Lunatics, who was 48 when he died Feb. 5 of Hodgkin's disease. Bruce, known for his zany antics onstage, delighted in dressing in wild and brightly colored outfits, to the point that he became known as Bruce-ter the Rooster.

Bruce himself coined the band's name because he thought it sounded crazy, energetic, wild and entertaining, Ketcik said. For the five years that Bruce was with the Electric Lunatics, Bruce brought his special brand of guitar playing to area bars, bowling alleys and festivals.

One may view a video clip of Bruce performing by visiting www willcounty.com. Bruce is survived by his siblings: Denise Ervin of Joliet, Jan Ceja of Odell and Brian Findlay of Wilmington. Bruce was known to his nieces and nephews as Uncle Sunny.

One night, Ketcik said, during a festival performance, a booking agent approached the band and asked them to open for Jefferson Starship.

"After we finished our opening set, I sat next to Bruce close to the stage to watch Starship perform and I remember thinking, 'Starship's guitar player is considered world-class and plays all over the world,'" Ketcik said. "'And he ain't got nothing on the Rooster.'"

Bruce always felt that no Electric Lunatics show was complete without audience participation. "At one point in every gig, Bruce would drag people onstage to join us during a song," Ketcik said. "Sometimes there would be seven band members and 20 people from the packed audience squeezed onto the stage to sing, dance and shake maracas and tambourines with us."

No one ever guessed that behind Bruce's enthusiastic stage presence was a man fighting a terminal illness. "The band was in its infancy when Bruce got sick and needed an operation to remove part of his stomach," Ketcik said. "It wasn't long after this major operation that we began rehearsing again and played our first gig ever. There was Bruce sitting on a stool with a ton of stitches in his stomach just hamming away on his guitar. He never complained."

Former Electric Lunatics singer Mark Peal of Joliet said that he is a better person for having known Bruce. "He challenged me and pushed me to my limits," Peal said. "Bruce was one of the main driving forces of the band and without his guitar-playing and brand of music, I don't think I could have pushed it that hard."

For one year after the Electric Lunatics ended, Bruce and Ketcik hosted a Sunday night radio show on 105.5 FM and focused on local talent. Bruce loved talking to the people who sent him their tapes and he never judged their skill level or the content of their lyrics. He just loved giving them a chance to be heard, Ketcik said.

"He didn't have an ego. He was never a guy who bragged about his own accomplishments," Ketcik said. "In fact, when we'd run into someone who would bore the hell out of you telling you how good they were, he would laugh and shake his head and saying, 'You don't tell someone how good you are. You show us and let your playing do your talking.' If you watched him perform, he talked loud and clear."

Bruce began playing the guitar when he was 11 years old, his love for the instrument nourished through the mentorship of Ceja's first husband Rodger Hawkins (deceased), also a musician.

At 25, Bruce was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Doctors told him he would not live to see 26. At 29 and out of remission, doctors removed part of Bruce's stomach and pancreas. Ye the disease never affected his sense of humor or ability to love life and people. Bruce preferred listening to people to talking with them. "He said he learned more about people by observing them," Brian said.

Then, in August 2005, Bruce sold his Joliet home, bought 12 acres and a trailer in Centralia where he reveled in living a very simple life. Perhaps, said Brian, Bruce knew his time was short.

When he and Ceja brought Bruce to the hospital for the last time on Jan. 16, the admitting nurse, noting that it was Bruce's birthday, said she bet Bruce wished he was somewhere else. Bruce disagreed. "He said, 'I'm a cancer survivor. Every day has been a bonus,'" Ceja said.

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