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Musicians with Arizona ties, from Stevie Nicks to Alice Cooper<\/p>\n
Here are 12 of the biggest music celebrities who are Arizona natives or who have lived here, including Wayne Newton, Tanya Tucker and John Denver.<\/p>\n
The Republic<\/p>\n
Timmy Stamper isn\u2019t selling Tracks in Wax because the business isn\u2019t doing well. It\u2019s just that he\u2019s been feeling like it might be time to see what else this world has to offer.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been nearly 10 years since Stamper purchased Tracks in Wax, a record store at 4741 N. Central Ave., just south of Camelback Road in Phoenix, from Julie Chiesa, the widow of Dennis Chiesa, who opened the business with his brother Don in 1982.<\/p>\n
By the time he bought it, Stamper had been working there for nearly 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that since I’ve had the store, I’ve put on hold: playing in bands, making records, vacationing, that sort of thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t have employees, so it’s just a matter of hitting the wall and getting burnt out on being a stool jockey. It just becomes a grind after a while, like any job. And when you get burnt out, it’s time for something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s especially interested in getting back to music, having played guitar for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you run a business, you have a lot of priorities that take away from creativity,\u201d he says. “Once you’ve gotten through the things you have to do all day, you’re spent.”<\/p>\n
Tracks in Wax owner bought the record store to keep it open<\/p>\n
Owning a record store was never something Stamper dreamed of doing, to be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really great friends with the brothers that opened the store and doing business there as a customer before I started helping out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere just always seemed to be a certain magic to that space, some sort of energy that’s really special. I don’t know how to explain it other than that. You know, a place could be haunted or something. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s haunted. But when the time came for the widow to sell, I didn’t want to see the store closed.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Julie Chiesa\u2019s idea for Stamper to buy the store after telling him she planned to either sell the store or shut it down. By that time, both brothers had died and Julie Chiesa was running the store with Stamper\u2019s help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, ‘Oh, no, don’t close the store,\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201cShe said, ‘Well, maybe you might want to buy it.’ I said, ‘Hell no.'”<\/p>\n
Stamper laughs.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then I really thought about it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I’m like, ‘Well, she’s gonna close the store, and I don’t want to see this place close. There’s too many memories, too many people here in Arizona that remember that place as a kind of historical landmark.<\/p>\n
“As I really started thinking about it and rattling the idea around in my brain for a week or so, I decided, ‘Oh, let’s do it.’ And I jumped into it just like you jump into the water off of a big cliff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stamper laughs and then adds, \u201cIt was never a goal of mine to do something like that. It just happened by chance, and it worked out great. And it has worked out great for a real long time.\u201d<\/p>\n