This is my friend Dave. We go way back to when I lived in Phoenix for 2 years, after fleeing in the aftermath of that massive Northridge earthquake. We met in electronic music production classes. He had great music and needed a singer. I sang Crazy for him and he was sold, I was his new singer. We recorded some music in his home studio and then he got the LA bug and headed West. I hooked him up with the magazine and radio syndication company where I had worked for years, doing many different jobs. They loved him and hired him to start as a messenger. I was still in Phoenix, excuse me, Scottsdale, sweating my ass off and decided to go back to LA as well. The return to LA was an experience that neither I nor Dave will never forget, but I will save that story for another time.
Dave made many friends in LA and enjoyed an amazing apartment and his job went from messenger to second engineer for the long running show, Rockline. Dave was happy. One day, the millionaire who owned the radio syndication company decided to sell his company to the evil radio corporation and retire. The evil radio corporation was swallowing all the good shows and offering crap to listeners instead. Oh, they pretended to try, so they hired Dave and the rest of the gang. They dropped the show and Dave got out. Bob Coburn, the host, offered to pay Dave to be the producer of Rockline, but those days were gone, Dave had bigger fish to fry. Dave moved to New York. He was off to work on a new show with the one and only, Alice Cooper. Though he waited months for the show to materialize and moved back to Phoenix for a while, he was now the new writer and producer of Alice's show. (I love that Dave wasn't even born until 1978) The show started off small and is now in 85 markets and was just mentioned in Billboard magazine, along with LA's own Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) show, Jonesy's Jukebox, as the two most refreshing new shows on radio. Good Job, Dave!
Last time Dave was in town, after coming home from the horror of the tsunami in Phukett, missing being there for the disaster by 2 days but staying to help in any way he could. (God bless him) He even came home sick from the unsanitary conditions but was so glad to be alive. That being said, Dave was ready to follow his dream and quit everything and move to a place on the border of Italy and Switzerland and run a recording studio with his childhood friend because life is too short.
Dave came back to town. Wednesday night, when we were sitting at our favorite wine bar, (of coarse) Dave told me that he was going ahead with his plans and would be leaving mid July. Dave, being a smart one, had already told Alice, who has become a great friend and father figure, that he would like to continue to write the show from Europe. Alice said he would give his support in any way he could to make that happen, you know, schmooze the corporate heads. Fingers crossed and good wishes for someone who deserves much success but mostly for my selfish reasons, so that I may return to Italy/Switzerland and record more tunes and drink more wine with one of my dearest friends.