Hello from Horst everyone.

 The Happy Schnapps Combo will be playing our last jobs EVER on Aug. 2nd & 3rd, 2003. We will be recording a live album those days for release later this year so come on out, yell, raise it and be part of it once more. I wanted to write a letter giving a history of us, a personal thanks to everyone ever involved with us and to say goodbye to all the great fans. So pour youself a cup of coffee, no get a beer and sit back and take it in. This could get long.

 In 1991 on Super Bowl Sunday the Happy Schnapps Combo played it's first job. The idea came from our Founder Jim (OTTO) Krueger to play some superior music (polkas) with guitars. The music was great and the stories of our drinking are real. I'll tell you more about that as we review everyone who has ever played with us.


FORMER MEMBERS:

• Jim (OTTO) Krueger - World class guitarist. Formerly Dave Mason's lead player. Wrote so many of our great tunes. Anyone who never saw OTTO in our early days really missed it. One of my greatest frustations was only getting to work with him for a few years. I always felt cheated by the shortness of our relationship. A great guitar player but even a finer human being.
  
  

• Steve (WOLFGANG) Heise - Our first bass player and MC. The master at falling out of his chair. His finest performance, June 1991 while standing on two chairs slipped, fell sideways, knocked over all our music stands and knocked himself out for about 10 seconds in the middle of a song.
  
  

• Dave (HELMUT) Heise - Rhythm guitar player. Great dresser, fine dancer and world class drinker. Almost killed me when he slipped while dancing on a chair. Came down and his guitar nearly decapitated me.
  
  

• Terry (ROLF) Miles - Our 2nd bass player. A great mixture of alcohol and insanity. Scared us when he wore the wedding dress on stage.
  
  

• Ron (HANS) Hanson - Currently the great lead singer for the Groove Hogs. Helped us out for a year. I think we scared him.
  
  
  

CURRENT MEMBERS:

• Eric (KLAUS) Werner - Very underrated guitar player. Has the physical abality of a trained acrobat. Remember him falling out of his chair many times at the 2000 fall fest. Finally held in his chair and got help playing rythem by Artie the party.
  
  

• Steve (GUENTER) Klein - Explosive fire comes from his guitar. A great moment in Schnapps history. At Milwaukee Summerfest, threw his guitar sky high to end star spangled banner. Missed it and it crashed into feedback to end our show. Our version of Keith Moon smashing his drums on Ed Sullivan.
  
  

• Rich (WENZEL) Krueger - I could write a book on this guy. Always gave us a very hyper insane beat. So many drinking adventures you wouldn't believe it. Heres one. While on the road I took him to his room in a wheelchair after passing out. At 5.30 am he was missing from our radio sound check but was found sleeping behind the stage curtain. After some coffee and a few slaps in the face Wenzel proudly yelled "raise it" at 6am as we cracked a bottle of schnapps on national radio.
  
  

• Shawn (KLINK) Sargent - Our 3rd bass player. Fellow songwriter and solid bass player. Tries to inject some common sense into the rest of these nut cases. Our stupidest looking member and that's a compliment. You almost believe he's a real farmer.
  
  
  

 I would like to give you one for my own resume. Playing by Manitowocs Maritime Inn. We were covered in coal dust. A good reason to get drunk. After drinking 3/4 of a quart of tequila I proceeded to start on OTTO'S blackberry brandy. I fell off my chair backwards and hit my head on the cement. I got tangled in my own cords but continued to play. I was driven home where I crashed for 14 hours. Woke up with a big hangover but still humilated three partners golfing.

There are a lot of other people to thank:

• Gizzmo - Sound man in recent years.
  

• Romy - Bartender, dancer ,singer, an overall fine idiot. He holds drinking records even we cant touch.
  

• Rueben - Accordian on some albums and on stage.
  

• Heimie - Former sound man and sax on polka power.
  

• Earl - Fiddle on beer muscle and has played several shows with us.
  

• Lugar - Van Halen style guitar on beer muscle and on stage.
  

• The 100 Proof Horns - Reinhardt, Steinhart, Kleinhart souded great on Start Suckin.
  

• Caholic - A last minuite addition on glockinspiel for Start Suckin.
  

• Stash - Fine trumpet and harmonica on stage. Always a pleasure. Made me feel like we had a horn section.
  

• Freidrich - Recorded us on raise it and backwards guitar on polka #9.
  

• Dave Scroggins - Recorded our 1st, 3rd and 4th albums.
  

• John Nienow - Recorded our 2nd album.
  

• Mark Lamar - Recorded our 5th album.
  

• The Schnappettes - sang choruses on Bears Still Suck.
  

• The Schnapps kids - sang choruses on I Saw Elvis.
  

• Steve Krautkramer - Made us a fantastic website for you all to enjoy. We probably wouldn't be half as successfull without you.
  

• General Mark - Wrote drinking mans waltz and gave us business advice.
  

• Lauren Reed - Booking in the early days.
  

• Ron Kalista - Booking in recent years.
  

• Dave Carstens - Emergency drummer when Wenzel was in JAIL.
  

• Bobber - Thanks for helping with the album covers.
  
  
  

I hope I didn't forget anyone. If I did I'm sorry it wasnt intentional.
Well, I better go it's been a great ride and thanks to the best fans anyone could ever want.

                                                        Horst

P.S. (my letter writing skills especially punctuation are the worst. Live with it)

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