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Sterling Clay has been a part of the RAC Team for nearly a year and has built a rapport with not only his colleagues, but more importantly with the members that see him on a daily basis at the RAC Cafe & Bar. Not only a whiz in the kitchen, Sterling has parlayed his love of music into a Thursday night gig at the RAC playing live music. We sat down with him to find out what makes him tick.

Q: What is your favorite part about working at the RAC?

A: I love how it feels like a family environment. You come in here and meet a lot of cool people (that work here and work out here) and at the same time I can get advice from everyone and get the support I need. I have never really had that at a job and it is really nice to have that. It brings a different feel to the job and that is probably the best part about working here.

Q: What is your favorite thing to make in the RAC Cafe & Bar?

A: That’s a really hard question. For coffee, I pretty much like to make any latte. It is kind of an art and you have to practice at it a lot. I also like making lunch wraps because I really like making a meal for people.

Q: Do you experiment in your own kitchen?

A: Yeah. I love cooking and I love making coffee and whenever I am at home I just go crazy and even when I am here and I need something to drink, I’ll make something crazy.

Q: You perform live music here on Thursday nights, where do draw your musical inspiration from?

A: People always ask me that and I really have so many inspirations. My father was a musician and I was pretty much raised on his music. Rock n’ Roll … Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Deep Purple, White Room and Eric Clapton. I’m really big into jam bands, so Grateful Dead, String Cheese Incident, Phish, Umphrey’s McGee. I am really, really into all of those bands right now.

Q: If you had five bands you had to listen to for the rest of your life, who are they?

A: No. 1 would be String Cheese Incident, they are my all time favorite band and I love them. Then it would probably be Grateful Dead, Phish, Led Zeppelin and the either Stevie Ray Vaughn or Jimi Hendrix … they are probably a tie.

Q: What is your ‘go to’ song to play?

A: I have really been digging Franklin’s Tower right now by Grateful Dead. It’s an easy four chord progression, super simple, but at the same time I can do a lot with that. So I can make it longer, I can make it shorter, I can throw in another song in the middle of it, etc. I have been playing a lot of Grateful Dead covers lately.

Q: What is your favorite thing a member has said to you?

A: I love when customers come up and they tell me that my presence make them happy. I’ve had multiple people tell me that and that just feels good. To have someone come up and tell me that I make them feel a little bit better and help them have a good day … it’s great to be able to do that for someone and to know that I can impact someone.