My Favorite Cigar
Ray Parker Jr. • Musician • Illusione Epernay
Ray Parker Jr. will be forever linked to the phrase “Who ya gonna call?” The words are from the song “Ghostbusters,” a hit single in 1984 (made for the movie of the same name) that was more successful than anyone involved could have imagined. Pop single aside, you might not know that Parker is truly a musician’s musician. He was the guy who people like Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock and Barry White called when they needed a rhythm guitarist with unique licks and extraordinary talent. Eventually, Parker embarked on a solo career.
When he wrote “Ghostbusters,” he locked himself in a studio and finished it in just a few days. Now 70 years old, the Detroit native slows down with a cigar almost every day. It started five years ago on a boat ride back from Cuba when his friends convinced him to try one. Since then, cigars have become a daily ritual either at his home in Tahoe, Nevada or at his local cigar shop. “It’s almost like people playing golf, it’s a nice little club,” he says. “Sometimes we discuss music, but we trash talk and ask questions like ‘Who would win, Rocky Marciano or Muhammad Ali?’ By the way,” he adds, “Marciano would have never beaten Ali.”
