If there were one rock star out there I could call an acquaintance, maybe even a low-grade friend, pal, compadre, it would be my boy Robin Zander, frontman of Cheap Trick. (Of course, the next time I see Robin, he will no doubt call me "Larry Dacy" and ask how life is at the Trib. But I digress...) Robin and his fam live one town over, and I've had the chance to hang with him a few times. If he ever needs a biographer, he knows I'm his man. (Here's "Trick Daddy," one of the fanboy features I've gushed about him.)

Robin and Cheap Trick have been making a buzz lately playing the entirety of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which last year turned 40. At tribute shows in L.A. and New York, special guests have shown up to help, including Joan Osborne, Ian Ball from Gomez and Geoff Emerick, the man who engineered the original Pepper's. Yep, Geoff has been working the soundboard.

And now, Robin is bringing the Beatles back home, to Clearwater's Ruth Eckerd Hall on Friday, Nov. 21. (For tickets, GO HERE.) That "Sunshine Superman" from the '60s, Donovan, has already signed on to help out. More special cameos are expected. Anyway, should be a great event, and I'm chatting with Robin next Friday for a story. So...

WHO HAS QUESTIONS FOR ROBIN ZANDER?

Photo by my other celebrity pal, Bob Croslin