My friend John

Yup, been slackin here. I've meant to write something here for several days now, but to be honest, I've been avoiding it. Last Thursday afternoon, I received some sad news. A long time friend of mine, and former Band mate, unexpectedly lost his wife. She was just 47. I met them as a young adult, barely 19 and fresh out of the service. John, my friend, had heard I was a drummer and he was looking to fill that spot in a band, one of many in his career. We developed an instant friendship and I spent many hours at their house practicing, talking, goofing off, etc... We had a fairly successful run for a couple of years, but life and it's curve balls ran its course and that band dissolved, all going their seperate ways. Over the course of the years, we stayed in touch, often teaming together for short projects, fill ins, recordings, etc.. here and there. John's wife developed some medical issues and there was a peroid of years where we lost touch as they moved to New Hampshire. One day, John rolls back into town and knocks on my door with the idea to start yet another band and Flashback was born. 7 years is a long run for a band. I think we did some of our best music. It was funny as we went back so far, the music we played back then had become "classic" now, so we dusted off the old playlist and has a full night's set list within a couple of hours. It ended.. as all things do and life goes on. Again, we kinda lost touch a little for a few years, but John being who he was, started asking around and tracked me down and he and his wife popped in for a visit a few weeks ago. Was nice to see them again as it'd been several years since we last spoke. John is an amazing person and just an incredible musician. Can play damn near anything on the spot, and has music knowledge that would make many websites envious. He's the kind of musician that knows every part in the band, can play most instruments, can lead sing, and knows everyones vocal harmony parts, knows the lyrics to 100,000 songs, who did them, when they did it, who played with them, what studio it was done, what year, well you get the idea. I've never met anyone else with this level of talent - a truly amazing joy to play on-stage with. A true friend - as much the older brother I never had as anyone I know. I know he is hurting right now, and time will be the only medicine. I was truly in a daze from the news for a couple of days. It made me reflect on 25 years of life in a single instant. I'm not really sure if I've fully come to grips with it all even now, but I know I could not make a journal entry here without talking about this. Perhaps putting down a little of what I'm feeling here will help with my thoughts of my friend John and his family. My thoughts and prayers are with them in this difficult time. To my friend John - I'm thinking about ya bro.

I've played a couple of demo songs from the band (Flashback) on AGN. For anyone interested, here are links to the 3 demos we did in the Studio in 1999.

Flashback-Have You Ever Seen the Rain:
Flashback-Jenny:
Flashback-Gimme Some Lovin: