Seems like yesterday...

I was talking with my sister, CAT- Tank and we had the..."remember where you were when you heard so&so died" talk. Got me thinking about Bonham, Lennon, Rhoads, Burton, Vaughan,Cobain...and even Selena!

John Henry Bonham is the patron saint of ESG and his death on Sept. 25, 1980 really shook me ( no pun intended) and I cannot remember the specifics, maybe it's a memory repression so as to protect my fragile psyche! But I do recall thinking it cannot be true! When it was finally in the newspaper, a little write up on the 4th page or some shit, i went to my room, put on my headphones, put on I..then II,III, IV etc... reading the article over and over and cried, it hurt so fucking bad! I 'm crying now...always have, always will.

Lennon, Dec. 1980, I was sick with something and had already been in bed for a couple of days, I had my trusty clock radio on KLAQ and the news broke in the evening, the lady DJ cried ( then and I knew she was not lying...) as she spoke and played Strawberry Fields or Day in the Life...as I drifted in and out for days on end I recall really hearing the Beatles for the first time, really listening and finally "getting it".

Randy, March 1982, this one hurt too, the Madman tour had just been through our town in February literally like two weeks earlier! I was just walking outside my folks front door when my brother pulled up jump out of his car and said real matter of fact..."Hey, Randy Rhoads just died..."...I recall saying something along the lines of 'hahaha Fuck off" or "hahaha, Shut -up" but I knew he wasn't joking because he knew I took this shit very serious...he said he was sorry..I had just seen him! Kicking so much ass, one of the best players I'd ever seen up to that point!...I was physically ill, I cried, I'm crying now....

Burton, Sept. '86. I'm pretty hazing on this, I was living by myself in a small apartment on Partello St. behind my old high school... I'd been dumped by my HS sweetheart so I was a total mess but had a good job for 19 years old and blew loads of dough on herb and Bush tallboys...jammed tunes all night and day, paying off the complainers ( these two old gay guys) with cases of Budweiser and the occasional pinner. I heard rumors that Cliff was dead, ( Mr.666?) but Metallica was not a main stream band...yet..but it was confirmed in Kerrang with full page spreads taken out by friends and family. This gave me an excuse to get really plastered for a few months...I came out of it...got a better, more fun job with the afore mentioned Mr. 666, met an even hotter chick and all was well until...and justice came out! hahaha

SRV, August 1990, I had followed the hotter chick mentioned above to school in N. Texas and had snagged a gig at the University book store, bagging books for frat boys and North Texas debutantes, real shit gig but I was desperate having gone out there with my brother, our Camaros and very little else. Again my brother broke the news and he was bummed... he walked up and said "hey man Stevie Ray died yesterday, sucks hu?" Yeah man still sucks 20 years later. I was lucky enough to see him twice once at a fest '89, outside about 110 degrees about 10 feet from him tripping on 'shrooms! And another time at the Colosseum, he stopped in the middle of a song cause a fight broke out, he told everyone to cool it or he would call the gig off! Shit was quite after that and he killed it for two hours, best player I ever saw something like supernatural or superhuman at least was happening. We miss you Stevie!

Kurt,1994... man you know I got to think on this... I was bummed, not catatonic but it was profound it felt like losing a friend, I think cause he was my age, from my generation telling the man to shove it but not in a hippie way. Kurt symbolized a lot of what me and my friends were about; partyin', diggin' Sabbath one minute, then Bowie to Misfits to Neil Young to Slayer, I know we could have hung out.

Selena 1995, though not a fan I still remember this because of the way it affect those around me. My friend and co-worker Juanito walked in crying like a little boy! I ran over and asked him what happened? He said Selena was murdered! He wept like he had lost his mother, again I think she represented much more then a singer especially to people like Juan who came to America to find a better life. Although she was a Texan, she symbolized the American dream to him; hard work being rewarded because this is the ultimate meritocracy. And the fact that she was killed at such a young age made it that much harder, my boss sent him home, I thought that was cool, people wrote memorials on their cars and drove with their lights on for months.

If you have a "..I remember where I was" story, please share. Till next time dig this.

This is from a BBC special with a great story from Jason.



Double Fantasy came out just before his death. This always takes me back to 1980.



Dig them White Marshall Stacks! I read somewhere that the Randy didn't like this Sandoval? He seemed to play it allot.



SRV, ACL, KICK ASS! Best left hand ever?!?!
Pretty clean strat for Stevie must have busted a string on "Lenny".



Fairly tight version of Love Buzz...was Kurt an underrated player?



How's about some Hollywood stereotyping...Anything for Selenas...