Somewhere around thirty years or so ago, I answered an ad for a singer in the Illinois Entertainer. The band hired me straight off, I'm proud to say. The drummer, Mike, is the best drummer I've ever seen. Frankly, so was the lead guitar player, but this is about Mike.
The band only lasted about a year...kinda typical for bands...but we had a couple gigs and considering the various bands I've fronted, this first was by far the best. Mike was a big reason for that. Not long after the band dissolved...kinda typical for bands...I hooked him up with my brother-in-law, and Mike was their drummer for a couple of decades at least, with periodic reassembling after they parted company.
At one point, back toward the beginning, I got Mike hired where I worked at the time fixing typewriters (those are these things people used to use before computers). Mike was a good worker. Back then, getting high was routine...kinda typical for bands...and we'd get a buzz when certain tasks had us working together in the field. When he was driving, he'd pull out a pair of drumsticks and hammer away at the dashboard at traffic lights (and sometimes while steering with his knee). The dash was a mess, the vinyl having torn from the abuse. Needless to say, drumming was always on his mind.
Mike had married his high school sweetheart, and they eventually had two girls. Then they eventually divorced. Part that was Mike's musical interests, no doubt. It could also be that Mike was always compulsive and impetuous with his spending. He'd see, then buy. I think he was probably always paying something off, as he always had new expensive stuff. If it was not new drums, it was recording or sound equipment. In the townhouse he and his second wife bought, the basement was decked out as a studio, where his various bands would play and record, and he'd make some extra bucks helping bands make demo tapes. I had the pleasure about ten years ago of recording a couple of Christmas songs. I had hoped many times to get back there to do more songs as well as a few with him, because he's a really good singer as well.
He had a third daughter with this second wife. The girl was the apple of Mike's eye. She took to the drums and continued to play as well. He would often post videos of her in the studio. She's really good.
Last year was especially hard for Mike. As a self-employed painter/decorator, Covid had really hurt his ability to earn. Then, he suffered a brain aneurysm and needed surgery for that. He had one helluva long scar across his hair line to remind him of it. More recently, it was suggested he and the second wife were not getting on all that well, though I don't know that for sure. Then, his third daughter, now 14, revealed to him that she wishes to "transition" and become a boy. I learned his oldest daughter had already done this.
It's really a kick in the ass when you learn the hard way of just how despondent and distraught a close friend is. About two hours ago, while I was still at work, my brother-in-law called me to tell me Mike had hung himself in his garage.
Shit.
2 comments:
I am so sorry for your loss! The Left - including the "Christian" Left -- has more blood on their hands. This ridiculous social contagion, with the perverse fad of gaining popularity by mutilating yourself and pretending to be the other gender -- is their doing.
It was but one of the contributing factors, though likely the straw that broke the camel's back given the chronology of events. He didn't have the most solid parental influence growing up himself, and thus not likely possessed of the best parental instincts. Imagine, though, having two kids buying into the self-identity lies! But again, he was inundated with a lot of negatives over the last year which he clearly found overwhelming.
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