MY HAIL MARY EMAIL TO THE OWNER OF B.C. RICH GUITARS

Clay wore the BC Rich shirt on purpose. Saturday night he was up late doing what he does now, scrolling guitars he was not about to buy, and landed on the Masters of Shred interview with the guy who bought the company. BC Rich had gone from an ’80s USA shred icon to a cheap Chinese starter brand. New owner’s pitch was the reverse: no filter, no nonsense, call it what it turned into, build it back. Everybody on camera had the same plain black logo tee. Clay likes a black T-shirt. He ordered one.

In the shipper-notes box, five or six Andy Gators deep at 2 a.m., girlfriend asleep, he threw a Hail Mary. Saw the interview. Enjoyed it. BC Rich was on the wall as a kid. Owned a couple over the years. Has a radio show. Gonna wear the shirt on the stream. He wasn’t asking for anything. He figured it would die in a warehouse auto-reply.

Sunday, during football, the reply came back. Not a bot. Not an assistant. Dan Bill Xavier, the CEO, the guy who put the investors together and bought the brand. Every point Clay made got its own paragraph. You can tell when something’s written by AI. This wasn’t. They went back and forth for hours. Guitars, the company, the rebuild.

The Mississippi part is the one that recalibrated him. Bill lived in Meridian for six years. He was in the building during Eddie Van Halen’s run with Peavey and the 5150 brand. When that deal ended around ’04, the line moved to Fender. Fender kept the technology, as they should. EVH and 5150 live there now. Bill was in artist relations while Eddie was still Eddie. Clay’s version of the résumé may be a little loose. He’s doing the homework before the interview. The point stands. The guy who owns one of the most iconic rock-guitar brands of the ’80s spent six years in Mississippi and had a hand in the Van Halen years.

CC DeVille and half the hair-metal wall played BC Rich. Clay grew up on the posters. He was buying a $25 shirt. The CEO answered like he was hand-building a $6,000 guitar.

That’s the segment. Not a gear review. A customer-service story from a guy who sells for a living. Clay’s spent real money on guitars lately. None of those sellers sent a thank-you. The $25 shirt did. If it ever comes down to a coin toss between a BC Rich and something else, everything else equal, he takes the BC Rich. Personal reply, and a company that still answers the customer after the sale.

He wasn’t fishing for a guest. Closed mouths don’t get fed anyway. He offered. Bill reached back the next day and said yes. Date’s