the cleaning up the basement and the thought of playing some vinyl had some thoughts of the past floating through my brainthen someone commented on a previous post about the 930 Club
more specifically the death of Gene Hawkins the singer of Lucy Brown
as Gene was interviewed in that movie about the 930 Club
in this email the woman who commented made mention that she did not know how Gene died
that whole thing brought up all sorts of memories
Gene was a friend of friends
Gene was good friends with some good friend of mine
this did not make us good friends
it did make us friends who hung out and had good times
that said... Gene was a good dude... and all who met him were his friends
my mind battles to talk about times with Gene or the time of his death
the time of his death seems like the direction to go
I remember the night pretty clearly
it was over a decade ago and I was living in a group house in this same neighborhood of mount pleasant
one of housemates and good friends at the time, scott, was one of the founding members of lucy brown
lucy brown was playing at the 930 club.... scott was heading over there
although scott and I went out most every night together he went to the show without me
which is understandable as he wanted to see his brothers... his former bandmates
a bunch of guys he spent a great deal of time with and shared a great number of experiences together
scott left early and came home early
scott was home so early that he was home before I went out for the night
he walked in earlier that the opening act's start time
I asked if scott was okay
scott was white like a ghost
scott responded without making eye contact and without altering his slow pace up the stairs
gene is dead is all that scott said
I did not press things
maybe a short question that got a short answer
I offered to talk then let scott go
it turns out that the band got together at sound check and Gene was no where to be found
so someone went to his apartment
not sure if they forced the door open
Gene was found dead in his apartment
dead of a heroin overdose
the death was a shock to all
to be quite honest his heroin use was a shock, at least to me
at this point in time... although I was not neccessarily close to Gene I did see him once a week
a bunch of us went stopped by to see him dj once a week for part of our bar rounds
there were hellos, there was catching up, there were shots and beers
heroin was never mentioned
gene was a great guy
I have amazing memories of hanging out with genehanging out or listening to his music
seeing him perform
whether he was playing with the forever funky Lucy Brown or fronting the local ska band THE NOW
I did not go to his funeral
as I felt that if I should attend some of his closest friends would have asked me if I were attending
having lost friends before
I knew how people can be posessive over the death of their friend people can be
and did not want to risk turning this event into a social event
it goes without saying that his loss is tragic
it has been many years since his death
there are certainly others who feel his loss greater than mine
lives have been altered by his absence
a bad combination
a set of bad choices ending up in a really bad day
emailed scott and mentioned this post
scott said that someone had just emailed him this YOUTUBE video of lucy brown
they look like kids
they were kids