Dear Dave,
To say things have changed is an
understatement. I thought I would take
some time to ponder over it all as I am still processing most of it. I have been talking to your daughter. She is lovely. She & I have much in common. Mostly you.
You will be happy to know that we are exchanging details about things
that you shared with us, things we knew about you, things she knew about you…with
each other. Once the memory door is opened
things just flood in. Trouble is when you start to write them down, the words
fail me. There are so many things that
we laughed & cried over. It is my
intention of sharing things with her that pop into my mind, a story at a time. Your one liners, she recognizes, the subject
matters that defined you are so strong & evident. I’m gonna start the first memory on what
would be your 62nd birthday. You do know that you sort of got your wish…
you said you didn’t wanna get old. Passing
away at age 55 is right in that grey area where you liked to walk a lot. I know you always wanted to “make it big”. That was a goal that you got to almost touch
many times & in many ways, you made it big to a lot of people. Everybody you met along the way, felt you if they
heard you. You got to live the life of a
rock star… ok a poor rock star but hey… if you are a starving musician you
already made one of your goals. You were the best. It would wrong to ignore the
fact that as a road musician you really enjoyed the gift of alcohol. This is how we spent some of the time we were
hangin out. I think I drank more in the
times that we were on the road than I ever have in my life. I was not trying to keep up with you but for
me… wow. I mention this because it is
very much apart of the first story I am about to share.
We were playin in a town called Gordon
Nebraska for a special thing in the town that they have once a year. The town is close to a reservation so
there are many Native Americans in this area, more than Dave had ever seen in
one place all at once. We were there in
the local little watering hole in the middle of the town. It was hot, down south kinda hot. Dave slept with the fan on all the time or he
couldn’t sleep, but if we were not in the bar setting up or playin, he spent the time in front of the fan. No air conditioning in the band house. When I say band house, it was up stairs above
the bar. Narrow staircase. Two windows in the area where Dave & Hap
the drummer were gonna share. No cross
breeze at all. My room was a small white
room with a black curtain over the area where a door was supposed to be. Dave popped his head in, looked around the
room & of course we started to sing the
song by Cream “In my white room with black curtains”. Despite the heat & the cramped quarters,
once the moods adjusted to the situation, road players just adjust fast. Grumpy leaves as soon as the music
starts. I felt a bit rebellious &
punked out in my attire for the evening, right down to the black lipstick,
leather & accessories. When Rog
& I went down to the bar Dave had already been there a while…. He yelled
out.. MY PEOPLE!!! He loved the look
of Rock & Roll, it was mostly the
music of it all, but he had that bit of vanity thing that he wanted it to LOOK
it as well as feel it. He was cooling
off at the bar… yeah that means exactly what you would think it means. I knew the music end of things was gonna be
interesting to say the least.
We started to play, & more drinks started
showing up… it was a great crowd, packed house.
David was fascinated at how hard they partied, he was playin his butt
off cause the crowd was digging him & he gave it right back. He was really toasted, but his playin was not
toasted at all. He was not ok to drive
by a long shot, but if you put 6 strings in front of him & just listened,
you would never know he was that far gone.
After the show we stayed up with the owners & staff, laughing,
relaxin into the wee hours of the morning but asleep before sunrise. Here is where it gets interesting. Dave didn’t really get hangovers. You would have to stop drinking to get
hangovers. Sometimes he was just running
on empty & needed fuel. This place
was not the lap of luxury, it made us all wanna drink!!! Daves buzz lasted into his sleep, thru the
morning when he opened his eyes. I am not
sure what happened before I heard the scream, but it was loud, accompanied by
laughter. We got up & ran into the
main room to see what was going on. Dave
had had a moment… still tipsy, not fully
awake he looked out the window. Now
remember this was a celebration for the town.
There was a parade going on in the street below the windows. Drums, very loud drums, fancy dancers, lots
of em, feathers, head dresses, horses, more feathers, leather, traditional
Indian outfits, the street was full of this activity as far as you could see. In a nutshell, Dave thought we were under
attack, or at least the vodka helped him with this idea. He was pretty shook
until he saw us all laughing. He calmed
down & enjoyed the rest of the parade from the safety of the upstairs
window, in his underwear. Once he got
his whopper, coke & cigarettes he was just fine.
It loses something in the telling of this
story. You had to know him to see his
facial expressions, his reactions. We
got to tease him for a long time on this one.
He was fascinated with the culture, the place, the people. He ended up being really good friends with
one of our drummers (Mike) who is Native American. He gave Dave a bone choker necklace that he cherished
for years. They met the 2nd
time Dave was on tour with us. We played
48 weeks out of the year give or take.
We were road dogs after all, you don’t take time off or you don’t make a
wage. When we had down time or a scheduled
week off, or just replacing players, we would go to our house. The couch had many a musician on it on a regular
basis. Dave took residence in my office
on the floor, a pile of blankets & pillows.
We had a fog machine that we called Nessy. We used vanilla fog in her so she smelled
purdy. If you have ever been in a road
band, or traveled with one you know how practical jokes happened on a regular basis. Nessy was part of one of those jokes on
Dave. He was sound asleep in my office
at the end of the hall. We got Nessy
out of the van, hooked her up, opened the office door a crack & turned
Nessy on. The entire hallway, kitchen,
dinning room & office were full of fog.
To the sleeping beauty who was out cold that was awakened by the smell
of vanilla fog it looked like smoke from a fire. We were all waiting by the door for him as
he yelled FIRE!!! EVERYBODY OUT. He came
out of the house with a bunch of fog onto the deck where we waited for him…. First thing out of his mouth was… YOU
ASSHOLES…followed by lots of barrel laughing.
Coffee, phone calls, agents, players, repeat. It was a break in the search for
players. Needed by all of us.
… drummer was
practicing his parts in the band house,
bass player was going over his, I
had headphones on learning my parts, guitar player was workin in the sectioned
off living room workin on his parts… Dave had just joined us for tour #2. He had a big smile on his face, came up and
hugged me. He told me bout the drummer
& everyone & said… I KNOW I’m in the right place. If you knew Dave, you knew what that
meant. The music was everything, playin
it, living it, breathing it.
Dave I know you told people about the
memories while you were with us, you had your view on how things went. Your stories always were delivered from your
Rock & Roll state of mind. I will
have a drink for you on your birthday. The
number of your birthday goes up every year.
You will be forever young, well ok maybe not young but forever
Rockin. You told me once Rock & Roll
keeps you young. I believe that, but you
forgot to add that it also tires you out the older you get!!! Stay Tuned, one memory leads to the next my
friend. Your daughter misses you, so do
I. maybe just maybe you gave us a gift
for your birthday, the connection of the people that loved you…the memory of
Dave Hunt lives on & on & on…
