Posted on: May 09, 2023 at 8:07 AM

So. Yet another birthday gone by. Never even conceived of the idea of what it would be like to be 70 back when we were helping invent heavy metal, did ya?

Posted on: Oct 29, 2020 at 4:23 PM

Hey, it's been two or three years since I checked in, so I figured it was time. Was thinking about the old band (Friends) recently. You probably heard that Doug, our lead guitarist, passed away last year (or maybe it was 2018), but do you know what happened to any of the other members, like Scott Karmienke or Larry Stevens? I heard Larry pretty much gave up the drums after Friends split up and got into some heavy stuff he shouldn't have, but beyond that? As for me, I'm still doing a couple syndicated music shows (covering the mid-60s through mid-70s between them) that run on two or three dozen stations nationwide. In fact it runs on a local Alamogordo station, KALH (Variety 95.1) Sunday nights. Other than that, I'm enjoying retirement and living in a former post office/general store out in the boonies among the largest population of Mennonites/Amish outside of Pennsylvania, surrounded by chickens (ours) and cows (in the pasture behind our back yard). Trust me, there are worse ways to end up.

Posted on: May 10, 2016 at 3:19 AM

Happy Birthday (a few days late)

I'm sorry to hear of my old bandmate's passing. I had been trying to get in contact with him for the past two years, but with no success.

Doug and I first met in late summer of 1970. Both our fathers had been transferred to Holloman from Germany that year. Even though we had lived on different bases, it turned out we had at least one friend in common (a drummer named Zach Long) and soon ended up in a band called Friends that played a few gigs at Holloman. Right after graduation, Doug and I moved out to a small town in Oklahoma to take our shot at being rock stars. We actually got pretty close, too, but ultimately ended up returning to Alamogordo the following autumn. We stayed close friends over the next few years, playing in a few bands together. In fact, Doug was the best man at my wedding in 1974. I lost track of him when I joined the Air Force that year.

Incidentally, Doug was an excellent lead guitarist when I knew him (I was the bass player back then). Kinda ironic that he ended up switching to bass while I ended up on lead guitar (but not as good as he had been).

Anyway, goodbye for now, old roommate. We'll meet up again sometime.

Happy birthday! Living in Cruces now, eh? I still remember the gig we did at your brother's frat house when the whammy bar messed up on your Hagstrom during Inside Looking Out and you did a Pete Townshend on the Hagstrom. The only sound heard in the next 10 seconds was your brother saying "That's why I don't piss him off". A truly memorable rock and roll moment.