Talking Story with Bobby Ingano - Part 2

April 10, 2026 • Geronimo "Geri" Valdriz • Steel Guitar History

Ed. Note: This is the second installment of a new series called "Talking Story with Geri Valdriz". This series will include interviews Geri conducts with Hawaiian steel guitar players. Due to the length of content in these interviews, Talking Story is chapterized, with subsequent chapters slated for future publication. Many of these chapters may contain information about your favorite Hawaiian steel guitar players not previously known to you.

The masthead was created using Google's Nano Banana AI image generator with an actual photo of Geri as a basis. Additional graphics provided by SVGBackgrounds.com

PART TWO

GV: It's well known that Feet Rogers is your mentor. How did you first meet up with him?
BI : Well, I was working at Tamashiro Market at the time, listening to the Sons of Hawaii and Feet's playing. I would copy his style of playing on my C6 tuning although I didn't know that he was playing a different tuning. Feet's cousin Ronald Kanahele came in to Tamashiro Market one day and befriended me. We went to eat and talk story during my break and I found out that Feet's Rickenbacher Bakelite steel guitar was stolen during a television show recording. That Bakelite was given to Feet from his father when he was 15 years old!

Eddie Kamae then bought Feet a pre-war (1930's) Bakelite steel to replace the one that was stolen. However, Feet preferred playing the post-war (1940s) Bakelite model because of its more trebly sound. He played the Rogers family D Major tuning (D / D / F# / A / D / F# low to high).

So I went to the Blue Dolphin Room at Waikīkī to watch and listen to him play with the Sons, but I wasn't brave enough to approach him. After all this is Feet Rogers my idol!

Eddie Kamae and The Sons of Hawai‘i: Dennis Kamakahi, Joe Marshall, Eddie Kamae, and David "Feet" Rogers.
pc-The Hawaiian Legacy Foundation

I later talked to Ronald Kanahele again and I told him that I just bought a post-war Bakelite from a friend. I was willing sell this steel guitar to Feet because this is the tone that he is looking for. It turns out that Feet lived at Akepo Arms just across from Mayor Wright Housing and near to Tamashiro Market where I worked. Ronald called Feet to let him know that I was coming to meet him.

So that evening after I pau work I went to Feet's third floor apartment. The door was open and Feet was sitting down just inside. I was invited in and we talked a little before I showed him the Bakelite steel. He was very surprised that it looked so new and it was identical to his stolen guitar. I bought the steel guitar for $600 but I offered it to sell it to Feet for $500. He thought about, closed the case and said "No, I cannot afford that, I live day to day with money from my gigs."

I told him that I was happy for the chance to meet him and started walking out of his apartment with the steel. As I was leaving I thought to myself "this is Feet Rogers my idol." So I stopped, turned around and gave him the steel guitar as a gift and told him not to worry I can get another steel guitar later on. Feet was so surprised and thankful that he cried. He shook my hands, held me and hugged me. We sat for awhile, drank a few beers and Feet offered to teach me his tuning and style of playing the steel guitar. I told him no because I was already self-taught by ear and comfortable with that. But I asked him if it was okay to come by his apartment every once in awhile to visit him and just talk story. And that's how Feet came to give me lessons in life and Hawaiian music.

GV: What did Feet teach you?
BI : He asked me about my life growing up and I told him that I moved away from my parents once I reached 18 years old because my father was too strict. But Feet told me that my father is probably a good man and that I am just a young punk. "You cannot handle what your father is trying to teach you. But I can see some good in you because you gave me a steel guitar. That 'good' in you is what your father gave to you. I will help you to find your heart. You don't judge people, you watch their actions and I see a lot of good in the way you act."

When I met Feet he was just like my father. No nonsense and no beat around the bush. But the difference between them is that I couldn't run away from Feet because he was my idol and he was teaching me about Hawaiian music and steel guitar.

I told Feet one day that I was surprised that he lived in a small apartment. After all he was the steel guitar player in the top Hawaiian Band at the time. I thought he would be living in a big house somewhere. Feet told me not to judge people by the material things they have or where they live. "You must look to their heart, how they act, and their true intentions." He put me on the path of being a pure musician.

When I first met Feet I never played in front of him for a long time, because he is "Feet Rogers." One day I was playing with my Hawaiian band called the "Kukui Nuts" at a place called the Hawaiian 6oo Club located across from Akepo Arms. I played all of the Sons of Hawaii songs. Feet and his father "Pops" came to the bar and was watching me play and I froze up when I found out that he was there. During the break I told Feet that I couldn't play with him watching me. I told him that I froze because he is "Feet Rogers." Feet said "So what? You are Bobby Ingano. Everybody in life is equal, you play blues guitar and I cannot play that. I'm no better than you brah. I never taught you steel guitar, you learned C6 tuning all by yourself." I thought to myself, "Wow!" I found Feet to be a wise, good and humble person and I try to be like that. I even thought of re-tuning my steel guitar to Feet's tuning but then it would be like starting all over, learning to crawl again.

GV: What did Feet teach you about Hawaiian music or lap steel?
BI: I never took any sit down steel guitar lessons from Feet. He just told me to play tastefully and in a Hawaiian way. He told me that I should always learn to play the melody of the song first. Old timers like to hear the melody first before you start to improvise on songs.

Weave through the singer's words and play only where there is space. Support and enhance the singer, and color the song with your steel guitar. Play harmonics on the steel guitar because it is like another voice, it doesn't clash with the singer. In fact it's like a second voice.

Never step on the singer during a song. Never play notes when the singer is singing. And play it simple and sweet. Playing melody on the steel is hard, its easier to play chord solos or improvised notes!

GV: Aside from Feet Rogers, Benny Rogers, Jerry Byrd and Gabby Pahinui, is there any other steel guitarists that influenced you early on?
BI: Yes, Billy Hew Len. I heard Billy on the Lena Machado record and I couldn't figure out his playing on my C6 tuning. I tried and tried and thought that he must have an extra string or something! Then finally a friend told me that Billy Hew Len plays the A6 tuning (C# / E / F# / A / C# / E low to high). I went home and retuned my steel guitar and there it was, just like the records. But I had been playing C6 for three years now and I didn't want to start all over with a new tuning. After months of playing around with the A6 tuning I realized that it is the same tuning as my C6 tuning except that I needed to add a G note above my high E. And that's why I got my seven-string steel guitar.

Other players who influenced me are Jake Keli‘ikoa, David Keli‘i, Barney Isaacs, and Jules Ah See.

Talking Story with Bobby Ingano - Part 1