Joseph Clare Anthony "Joe" Recchia

1944 - 2024  (79 years)

• Name	Joseph Clare Anthony "Joe" Recchia
  Born	29 Dec 1944	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Gender	Male
  FindAGrave	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/266027921
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-161986
  Died	15 Jan 2024	Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Buried	Cremated
  Person ID	I161986	Generations
  Last Modified	25 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	James Recchia,   b. 12 Jul 1915, Toronto, York Co., Ontario, Canada ,   d. 23 Jan 1959, Baltimore, Baltimore (City), Maryland, USA  (Age 43 years)
  Mother	Catherine Anne Longo,   b. 1919, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 18 Sep 2004  (Age 85 years)
  Family ID	F282843	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Susan Forwell
  Last Modified	26 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F46211	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Joy Campbell,   b. 29 May 1959,   d. 2 Aug 2004  (Age 45 years)
  Last Modified	26 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F63448	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 3	Betty Anne Keller
  Last Modified	26 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F63814	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Local concert promoter has hosted Supertramp in his backyard, mentored a young Elton John 'They trusted me. I was an ally. Money wasn't the defining force,' says Waterloo's Joe Recchia He's an enigma wrapped in a riddle, a musical anecdote dispenser with an engineering degree, a straight-shooting business whip who became Elton's John's life coach for one memorable week, stood up to rock legends who tried to shaft him on finances and turned Waterloo from a sleepy entertainment "wasteland" into a university concert mecca. And when Joe Recchia tells me about the time British rock band Supertramp played a concert in his Waterloo backyard, I almost fall off my chair. "That band sounds a lot like Supertramp!" the retired concert booker recalls a neighbour commenting about a party that prompted calls to police over excessive noise and naked women climbing in and out of the pool. "Does it?" Recchia, never a hog for the spotlight, responded. "Don't kid me, that IS Supertramp!" "You think so?" Because the backdrop is mired in a labyrinth of behind-the-scenes business connections, it's hard to pin down specifics of how the prog rock powerhouse ended up playing a suburban pool party at the same time they were selling out stadiums. In the end, like all his stories, it comes to down to the cultural magnet's rep as an honest broker in an industry rife with sleaze and corruption, a guy who put his money where his mouth was, kept a cool head and treated flamboyant rock stars no differently than a friend he'd meet on the sidewalk. "If I buy you a Ferrari, you're gonna be star-struck," explains the personable rock pioneer, who comes off like a folksier Joe Biden: avuncular, reassuring, with a strain of "Don't (bleep) with me!" determination. "Having said that, by the time I get 10 Lamborghinis, five McLarens and 50 Ferraris, you're not gonna be star-struck with the next Ferrari.' He laughs. "It's another Ferrari!" In the case of Supertramp, he hit it off with their manager, who told him if the band ever needed a rehearsal gig before a U.S. tour, Waterloo could have it. When the call came, Recchia - being the kind of guy he is \emdash offered to put them up at his William Street home. "They trusted me," he explains simply. "I was an ally. Money wasn't the defining force." It's an attitude that came in handy when Elton John's manager called \emdash six months before the fledgling superstar's American breakthrough \emdash with an offer he couldn't refuse. "He said 'I have an act for you for a helluva price!'" recalls the impassioned storyteller, who booked Elton and his piano into the 250-seat University of Waterloo student pub for five nights in 1970. "You have no idea who it is but by the time he gets there people will be clawing to get in. I guarantee you're not gonna be sorry!" The catch: Elton \emdash an English success with no profile overseas \emdash was nervous. He needed a guiding hand before his high-profile gig at Los Angeles club The Troubadour. Could Recchia help? "In the movie "Rocketman," you see Elton talk about how frightened he was to come to North America," notes the university trained chemical engineer, who conducted sideline careers as a tire exporter, pinball machine operator and ran a tour bus company for rock shows. "What you're not gonna see is that they brought him to me." What was he like? "A nice guy \emdash a little strung out. He talked to me about his concerns: What's California like? Would they accept him as gay? He didn't want that hidden or disguised. I told him 'They're gonna love you!' Needless to say, the shows sold out, Elton went on to conquer the world and Recchia never saw him again, though their paths crossed years later when the flamboyant pop star played a Toronto stadium, requested a pinball machine for his dressing room and told his handlers to contact his old pal "Joe from Waterloo." "He autographed it for me," recalls Recchia, who delivered a Captain Fantastic machine to John's dressing room with the singer's own likeness. "I sold it for $10,000!" But Recchia is modest. Play it down, he tells me. Don't highlight Elton. Don't make a fuss about Supertramp. It was no big deal. It's this humble, no fuss quality that makes the soft-spoken 76-year-old a reflection of the low-key city in which he grew up. "I've had a really happy life," he tells me more than once. "I'm happily married. I have really great grandchildren. If I die tomorrow, so be it." At which point it seems appropriate to mention I'd been meaning to interview this cultural upstart, whose name pops up in every conversation about the region's music history, for some time. But like many things during COVID, it got pushed back, again and again, until I started hearing through the grapevine that his health wasn't good \emdash "blood cancer" and "chemo" were tossed about \emdash and if I was going to pick his brain about his musical accomplishments, I better get my butt over there, like now. So it was with a sense of relief that I arrived at his immaculately decorated Beechwood home on a street lined with giant inflatable Santas to find the behind-the-scenes maverick robust and in good spirits, dismissing health concerns with a friendly wave. The lymphoma he's being treated for is real, he admits, blaming a long-ago stint at Kitchener's B.F. Goodrich tire plant that saw eight of his peers also emerge with devastating health ailments. But Recchia isn't interested in the compensation claims other rubber workers have pursued through lawyers and media. He doesn't need the money, he says \emdash let those who do take his share. He's at heart a raconteur, a storyteller, a guy who's all about personal connections and the friendships that result. Unless, of course, you try to mess with him. "Ike Turner was a total a\emdash hole and an idiot!" he tells me, still smarting from a long ago confrontation where the belligerent R&B legend \emdash appearing with his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Tina Turner \emdash demanded the university's ballet studio as his dressing room, despite its strict "no shoes" policy. "I explained to him why we couldn't do that. They threatened to leave. I informed them they would be leaving without their equipment and instruments." He smiles, reliving the standoff that turned in his favour: "He had a contractual obligation to play and I had over 200 people working for me, with lots of support. I wasn't the least bit nervous." Things were equally testy when rock pioneer Chuck Berry \emdash notoriously difficult about money \emdash announced he wanted an extra $5,000 shortly before showtime and, if he didn't get it, would refuse to play. Recchia calmly agreed, and once the show was over, refused to fork over the dough. "We had a contract!" insisted Chuck. Recchia shot right back: "Under duress!" "I've heard 'I won't play!' before and, in every case, the act played," he tells me about staring down trouble. "Most of the time you're being tested." He's an interesting guy, perched on a living room chair as his wife, Susan Forwell \emdash a former Waterloo councillor who became mayor for eight days in 1994 until a recount dashed those dreams \emdash bustles in the kitchen. Soft-spoken and low key, with a keen memory for conversations that happened a half century ago, he spits out stories with relentless efficiency, like a rock and roll vending machine, his most colourful nuggets encapsulated in both TheMuseum exhibit "Reverberations | Our Rock and Soul Legacy" and the upcoming rock doc "Rock This Town." "Who would play him in a movie?" I ask people who know him best. Jeff Daniels, says one. John Turturro, says another. Quirky, principled "nice guys" who hover on the sidelines and make things happen. "I was driven," he explains, noting that his father's death at 13 forced him to grow up early. "That's what got me where I am today. I learned to take on a lot of responsibility at an early age." It's what prompted him to start booking concerts when he arrived at the University of Waterloo in 1963 \emdash an engineer-in-the-making \emdash and found himself mired in "an entertainment wasteland." At first it was one show every two months, then monthly, then twice monthly, then four times, then 12. "We were making money hand over foot," he recalls, noting his idea to donate a share of profits to the Save the Children fund. "It's like we were printing it!" Success had its benefits. Like Zelig and Forrest Gump in their respective movies, hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone Recchia \emdash whose immigrant grandfather opened a movie theatre and founded a wholesale produce company \emdash found himself present for history-making moments that today seem unbelievable. When face-painted Kiss opened for Chuck Berry at Wilfrid Laurier University \emdash think about that one for a minute \emdash he asked why had they plastered themselves with so much makeup. In what may be the most honest self-assessment in rock and roll history, they responded "Because we're not very good!" When he arranged a talent showcase for buzzworthy bands to market themselves to bookers, a little known horn act named Chicago turned up, blew everyone away and \emdash years before they became the second most successful American rock band of all time \emdash thanked Recchia for kick-starting their career. Recchia has a million stories like this, all cheerfully rendered in his concise, matter-of-fact way, punctuated with the enthused declaration, "This one you'll really appreciate!" But wait, I interrupt. I need years, venues. When did The Byrds play Bingemans? Where did Iggy Pop open for Alice Cooper? What year did Little Richard say "I'll take what I can get!" before appearing at the Waterloo Inn? "Look at this!" he insists, directing me to a poster on his basement wall that indicates Joe Cocker, Kiss, Steppenwolf, Moe Koffman, Sha Na Na, Nazareth and Bruce Cockburn all played Waterloo Region in a three-month period in fall '74. "You're asking me for the dates? I was going 'Holy s\emdash t, who's next?'" Joel Rubinoff is a Waterloo Region-based staff reporter and columnist for The Record. Reach him via email: jrubinoff@therecord.com "Local Concert Promoter Has Hosted Supertramp In His Backyard, Mentored A Young Elton John". 2021. Therecord.Com. https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2021/12/20/local-concert-promoter-has-hosted-supertramp-in-his-backyard-mentored-a-young-elton-john.html. _______________ Joseph Clare Anthony Recchia, age 79, of Waterloo, Ontario, died on January 15, 2024, peacefully in his own home and on his own terms. He is survived by his loving wife Susan, as well as his children, Carol (Dick) Tompkins, Jonathon (Irene) Recchia, Holly Recchia (Martin Darveau), and Carleigh McCannell, and grandchildren, Liliana, Park, Alexandra, Katherine, Samuel, Arya, Lucie, Dax, and Laya. Joseph was also a much-loved stepdad to Susan's children Ryan Forwell (Nicole Golda) and Elliot (Bryn) Forwell and grandchildren Riley, Karson, Mason and Sophie whom he lovingly embraced into his family. He will also be sorely missed by his brother Leo, his nieces, Melinda and Amber, his former wife Betty Anne Keller, as well as the many other family members and friends whose lives he touched. Joseph was predeceased by his parents, James and Catherine (née Longo), as well as his former wife, Joy. Joseph completed his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (1968) and his M.Sc. in Management Sciences and Systems Engineering (1971) at the University of Waterloo. Subsequently, he worked in the tire industry for many years, combining a shrewd business acumen with warmth and genuine care for his colleagues and customers. Alongside his professional success, he enriched the Waterloo community in various ways, from his work promoting rock concerts; to his local entrepreneurship such as operating video arcades; to his volunteer service to community organizations such as HopeSpring. He threw great parties and told great stories, and was unwaveringly and fiercely supportive of those he loved. He travelled often to countries around the world, for both business and pleasure, and was an avid collector of toy cars, stamps, coins, and other memorabilia. He appreciated the small things in life - good donuts, lunches with friends (especially Fridays with Jim, Darren, and Chris), and walking his beloved dog Brody. He made a point of treating everyone around him with kindness, generosity, and respect, no matter who they were. He will be remembered by many for leaving a legacy of love. Joseph's family is grateful to his doctors and the palliative care team at Grand River Regional Cancer Centre for providing excellent care and support up to his final days. Cremation has taken place followed by a private family interment. Arrangements entrusted to the Henry Walser Funeral Home (519) 749-8467. All of Joe's family, friends and colleagues are invited to attend a Celebration of Life to be held on February 24, 2024, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Ballroom at Bingemans Conference Center, 425 Bingemans Centre Drive in Kitchener. Memorial donations may be made to the Food Bank of Waterloo Region (cards available at the funeral home). Visit www.henrywalser.com to view Joseph's memorial. Published online January 17, 2024 in the Waterloo Record

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 29 Dec 1944 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 15 Jan 2024 - Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth