Well this isn't a Stick clip but I can say this is just a little Stick related.

Yesterday we learned of the passing of an old and dear friend. He was a Detroit restaurant owner/manager back in the 90s and was so beloved that his passing has left a huge hole in the local scene.

Well before I played Stick in the band, we recorded the tune "Johnny Telephone" which was loosely based on him. There was a story from the folks in the restaurant that the phone was constantly ringing and almost ever call ended with the bartender yelling down the stairs into the office "Johnny! Telephone!".

When I took delivery of my first Stick in 1999, I was just getting to the point where I could use it on one or two tunes with the band and that was my only intention back then. John (along with a partner Audra who is a well known local singer/songwriter) decided to start a weekly open mic at his place and relentlessly bugged me to learn some solo tunes. He kept saying "bring your Stick and play". I kept telling him I didn't do a solo and he kept saying "Why not? You should!".

We finally struck up a bargain to get me to the first one and that was a duet. We worked up a cover of the Echo & the Bunnymen tune "The Killing Moon" with me on Stick and John on acoustic guitar and vocal. After that I followed with a fairly bad arrangement of "My Favorite Things" and then proceeded to show up every week for the next year working up new tunes every week.

RIP Johnny Telephone!

That was cool. I know this is obvious but it put me in the middle of a Ennio Morricone movie. Until the Johnny Cash vocals. Coup Detroit favorite defunct band.