The Cars – Drive (Symphonic Version)

This guitar was found for Ric by lead guitarist Elliot Easton at a hock shop for $80 in 1980 (Fender Jaguars and Jazzmasters were VERY cheap back then, considered "old surf guitars"). See the excript from the 1981 Musician Magazine interview regarding his Jazzmaster and THIS guitar.

MUSICIAN MAGAZINE 1981 "Gear Used on Shake It Up" http://dailyeventsbookpagethree.blogspot.com/2007/04/cars-musician-magazine-shake-it-up-1982.html

"Ocasek's guitar line-up is much simpler. His favorite guitar is an eight-year old Fender Jazzmaster, painted pink. "I used it on this record a lot, and I use it on every record, all the time," he said. But he didn't use it on the last tour. Instead, he took an old Fender Jaguar Easton found for him in a hock-shop. It cost $80. "I think it was just the idea of it being old and beat up," he said. "So I used that on the tour. I should have used the other one, because it sounds cleaner.""

The guitar continued to tour with The Cars despite not being as clean sounding though. It can be seen (along side several of Ric's guitars) sitting on the backline during a Door to Door tour (1987) era soundcheck along with the Jazzmaster.

Another notable use of this instrument was not by Ric Ocasek, but by Weezer, as Ric was producing Weezer's debut "Blue Album" and offered several of his guitars (many used with The Cars) for the band to use during recording of the album. Rivers Cuomo used the Jag on "Say It Ain't So" for the clean parts per multiple sources online and a Guitar World interview from 1995. - The dailyeventsbookblog that has a lot of Cars related gear info still has a post on this - http://dailyeventsbookpagethree.blogspot.com/2006/02/rics-guitars-used-on-weezers-blue.html

Ric still has the Jaguar and the last time it was seen used by him was on the Stephen Colbert show in 2011 in support of "Move Like This" - he used it on "My Best Friend's Girl" - which used to be on the site, is searchable, but currently is not availble for some reason. Probably was used because Rooney may have still had the Jazzmaster at that point.

Here's a link to the video despite it not currently being availble....as it looks like the site is changing a bit..... http://www.cc.com/video-clips/myof3i/the-colbert-report-exclusive---the-cars----my-best-friend-s-girl-

Ric Ocasek started using the Gibson Les Paul Special (Double Cutaway) variants sometime around 1979-1980, and continued to use them off and on through the rest of The Cars career and on through his solo career up through the 1990's. Ric owns several of these including a Cherry one (Panorama tour), a Gray One (the provided Viva Variety Clip), and a TV yellow one (Drive Music video).

Ric said he like's Les Pauls but never a Heavy one, per the interview below.....mostly it focuses on Greg Hawkes - Ric's "Right Hand Man", but it does mention gear... see quote below link... http://dailyeventsbookpagethree.blogspot.com/2006/03/rics-right-hand-man-greg-hawkes.html

Ric Ocasek is a Gibson guitar man, playing mostly a '55 Les Paul Jr or an SG. Occasionally, he'll switch to a Fender guitar, usually his pink Jazzmaster. All are sent through Marshall amps with a minimum of treatment.