I don’t find the story credible when he doesn’t know how they pronounced “Chico.” It’s chick-oh, not cheek-oh.
With you on that. Same thing goes for music writers and critics who mispronounce the Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive guitarist Randy Bachman’s name. According to Randy, it’s “Back-man”, not “Bock-man”.
It’s simple sign of courtesy and respect to learn to spell and properly pronounce someone’s name.