Cancer, music draw dad, son closer
“Washboard” Tony Frochio of Connoquenessing has played a lot of music in a lot of places.
The longtime professional drummer, singer and songwriter has traveled back and forth across the country performing in rock and blues bands with names such as G Force and Street Talk since he graduated from Lincoln High School in Elwood City in 1984.
But perhaps the most satisfying is the music he's making these days with his son, Nic Temple.
“I traveled all over the U.S. back in my heyday. I was healthy and young. If I didn't play music, I wouldn't have seen some of the things I've seen on the road,” said Frochio.
However when he was diagnosed in 2005 with stage 4 colon cancer, Frochio's days on the road ended. He had to stay close to his doctors and treatments at Benbrook Medical Center.
“They found a tumor the size of a grapefruit and operated to remove it,” Frochio said. “They removed my gall bladder and appendix and fixed me with a colostomy bag.”
Unfortunately the surgical team found the cancer had entangled itself with his other organs and couldn't be removed.
He began to undergo radiation and chemotherapy treatments.
“It didn't look too good. I was in denial. I didn't talk to some of my friends. Other friends quit coming around because they didn't know how to act around me.”
Frochio said a second 18-hour operation successfully removed the tumor.
Frochio's cancer has been in remission for five years now, but the treatments and surgeries he's undergone have left him with health issues.
“It took a long time before I even started moving again,” said Frochio. “I was hunched over and weak.”
He said, “This thing took everything out of me.”One unexpected, but welcome, consequence of Frochio's illness, he said, was growing closer to his son, Nic, 19, a musician in his own right.“When he was younger, he started to get interested in music,” said Frochio. “I took him to places where I played.”“I took him to my concerts. He was always around music, hearing live music,” said Frochio.Although, Frochio blames his illness for destroying his relationship with Nic's mother, the trying time brought father and son closer together.“I knew it was pretty detrimental,” said Nic of his father's illness. “I was pretty young at the time. I remember lots of trips to the hospital.”Nic started following his father's musical lead, playing drums at first before moving on to guitar and bass.“He went to Knoch High, and they had 'Rock It Knoch', which was like a battle of the bands,” Frochio said.Frochio was asked to coordinate the event and be its sound technician.“That brought me back into music,” Frochio said. At the same time, Nic bought a guitar and started writing his own songs.Three years ago as his health improved, Frochio began playing with a 10-piece country band every Saturday night at First United Methodist Church, 200 E. North St.“There are a lot of people in Butler who like country music. We do a nice service and we draw about 300 people,” Frochio said.“I never have done country music and I never played in church,” Frochio said before starting to sit in at the 7 p.m. weekly service.
“It's a blessing. I quit playing music for years. It got me to playing,” he said. “I was done with music. I could only talk about it in the past.”“Everybody around here knows me as 'Washboard Tony,'” he said. “I'm the blessed one. I want to give something back.”The group and the service itself is called God's Country.“Tony was asked to play three months before I was hired here,” said Von McCommons, the worship leader and coordinator for the God's Country services. “He filled in for the current drummer, and he became a percussionist for the group when the drummer came back. When the drummer left we asked him to be the full-time drummer. He makes all the rehearsals. He's very dependable for sure.”“He really is a man who believes that God has sustained him because he should have been dead and buried years ago.”Frochio said he got Nic to come to church at Christmas and play together on a song.“He has done that several times,” said McCommons. “His son is a very, very talented kid, a very humble kid.”Nic plays guitars, drums, bass and sings. He said he's mostly self-taught, although he credits growing up with Tony as a big influence.Since then, Nic and Tony have teamed up for a performance at the Butler Public Library and at Butler Symphony Association office. They most recently played at Alameda Park on Tuesday.Speaking of their Christmas performance at church, Nic said, “People really liked it, so we thought we could play together.”“We've been playing a good bit of shows around the Butler area,” said Nic.
For now, Nic works for a friend's father renovating houses for flipping and playing with two bands.“There's Portrait People. The original music I write goes into that band,” Nic said.Nic said he's played a lot of venues in the Pittsburgh area with his band.“I'm taking a break right now. I'm trying to get some recording done,” he said.Two years after graduating from Knoch, Nic hopes to turn making music into a profession.“He's a great singer/songwriter,” said his father. “He's developed a beautiful voice. I've told him 'You've got a gift, but you have to stay humble.'”“All I'm trying to do is enjoy the passing moments we can play right now as a father and son,” Frochio said.“He brings joy to my life. He has a special gift,” said Frochio. “I just want him to have a good life. I want him to do things right. I am really proud of him.”The pair play folk music — Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan — “but with a twist to make it our own,” he said.They don't practice but get together a day or two before a performance and hammer out a set list.“It's really nice. I'm used to playing rock. It's nice to reach down and just have fun,” said Nic about performing with his father. Hie plays guitar, his father plays drums and they both sing.For Father's Day, Frochio said Nic will “play at the church with God's Country. He will probably stay with me overnight. We will probably have that whole weekend.”Reflecting on his father, Nic said, “He's very caring. He's always been there when you need him. He's very loving.”“I can't do the things I used to do but I am reinventing myself,” said Frochio.“Probably with what I went through with cancer, I learned life is fragile. This Father's Day, even if you are not close, make that call,” he said.
