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A Spiritual Journey

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< An Unconventional
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Making It Happen >
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
November 2003
The Brick Wall
Banned From The Air
Playing The Clubs
Almost On The Road with Toto
Another Sold Out Show
An Avalanche of Confidence
Finishing the Record
The Recording Sessions
The New Studio
Selecting The Songs for the New Record
The Material
An Avalanche of Momentum
Avalanche Sells out the Club
WCCC 106.9 FM and Avalanche
Thoughts After the Show
Avalanche Hits the Stage....Finally!
A New Day Dawns
The Final Rehearsal
Making the Choice
Patti Again
Annie and American Talent International
Taking Care of the Final Details
Trying to Keep A Perspective
The House on McCall Road
Avalanche Hits the Airwaves
The First Record is Released
The Seeds of Doom...A Side Project...The Shaboo All-Stars
The Recording Studio
The Essential Need for Momentum
Keeping the Band Happy
The Band's "Other Women"
The Politics with the Women
Our Crew
Keeping Things "Under Wraps"
Writing and Rehearsing
Avalanche is Born
Barry Easton Gets the Job..
The Responsibility of Leadership
The Relationship between Bass and Drums
Mark comes aboard
Mark Easton
Charles Calmese
Making It Happen
The Journey of Friendship
An Unconventional Plan
Finding my Musical Identity
Back on Course
Very close...but no cigar...
The Audition
A "Shot" at the "Big Time"
Annie... Sex and Drugs and Rock n'Roll
The Move to Boston...
Recuperating...
A Near Death Experience...
Finding my way back...
Clueless
A Friend Through Thick and Thin
Kilo's Sacrifice
« November 2003 Archive
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
4:23:00 PM EST
Feeling Happy
Hearing My own music

The Journey of Friendship


As I have said here before, only my closest friends were in my "inner circle", and by keeping things that way, I stayed safe. The band that was slowly taking shape in mid 1977 was the sum total of all my experience, skills, beliefs, talents, and relationships. And that was why I knew it was going to work. Just a few months before the New York audition had happened, I met a 16 year old, who was the younger brother of someone I had been doing business with.. on and off. I say on and off, because this guy had a big mouth, talked too much about the things he was doing, and I clearly felt that he could be a risk to me. He also had a set of values that I didn't share. When I met his younger brother, who was still just a teenager, it was like looking in a mirror. When I saw this kid, I saw a younger version of myself...an honest guy, who knew the value of friendship..a risk taker, like me...and a very efficient dealer, firmly rooted in the "counterculture", who knew exactly what the risks were, and conducted himself in business in much the same way I did. At 16, he had developed his own inner circle, and was also very selective about who he would "let in". We clicked on many levels...immediately. And we both knew how to have a good time..so we started to hang out together. In a few months time, we had become very close friends, and very helpful to each others' business. And a partnership emerged from that. I took Bruce under my "wing", and advised him about things he might do to protect himself, and me, from legal consequences...and he soaked it all up like a sponge. I was very comfortable with him, and often thought he was mature way beyond his years. Although I didn't feel that comfortable about selling drugs to anyone that young, he was roughly the same age I had been when I had started dealing, and it was obvious to me that Bruce and his friends were already firmly entrenched in the "life"...and nothing I did or didn't do was going to have any bearing on that...so I decided to make an exception in his case. To this day I'm glad I did. Our story is an amazing journey of its own, and that will become clearer later on. I want to say this, though...out of the ten people who eventually became the core of this new band and its crew, two are dead now, killed in highway accidents, but seven of us are still very much friends, and so the "family" that I wanted this band to be, was exactly what it became...

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