Bassist Backs Boss in Life, Musical Path

As Dick Dale’s bass-playing sidekick since 1980, Ron Eglit rode out the lean times when Dale’s musical world didn’t range beyond the Southern California bar circuit. Now he is along for the ride as the resurgent Dale expands his reach across the United States and to Europe, Japan and Australia.

Along the way, Eglit, a Huntington Beach resident, has found he is basically a homebody.

“It wears me out,” Eglit, 47, said of the touring grind. “I think Dick will outlive everybody; he’s stronger than me about it, I’ll tell you. We’re gone a lot, and my son [Derek, 14, who has his own band] is a big part of my life. I wouldn’t suggest the road for anybody. It’s good for a kid who has no ties, but it’s tough when you get older.”

Eglit is a versatile player whose ideal musical life would center more on the session work he tries to schedule around Dale’s itinerary.

“I’ve [toured] to support what Dick does,” he said. “If I’ve had a disappointment, I’d have to say it’s that we should be doing major venues, major concerts [in the United States] by now. I think Dick deserves that. He should be warming up for White Zombie or Pearl Jam, that type of thing.”

On Dale’s new album, “Calling Up Spirits,” Eglit receives co-producer credit for the first time, along with a special note of thanks from Dale in the CD booklet “for keeping up my spirits and confidence.”

At one point during the “Spirits” sessions, Dale said, “I was just weak and exhausted and all of a sudden I was going, ‘What am I doing?’ And he said, ‘Dick, this is the best you’ve ever done.’ He gets so excited in what I do, what I play. He’s really turned on. That’s what makes me thank him so much.”