JunkYardSaint

I’ll never forget the first time I met Johnny Thunders – I was introduced to him by our saxaphone player, who was also a well known tatoo artist at the time by the name of Bob Roberts. Everything about the night was like a rock n’ roll dream come true for me, just being in these clubs like CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City were a fantasy come true for me, and nervous, slightly inebriated, I managed to knock a tall drink over and spill it onto Johnny Thunder’s leather jacket as I was reaching over to shake his hand. He backed his fist about two arm-lengths behind his head ready to throw a punch square to my head, the whole thing happened so quick, the poised punch looked like something from a Popeye cartoon, I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or just drop everything and run. I didn’t do any of these things and instead just stood there with a stupid smile on my face and stuttered “I…I…uh…I..I’m suh..suh…sorry…”

Bob Roberts calmed him down and I don’t think ten minutes went by before he forgot the whole thing. The next time I met him he didn’t even remember the episode.

I on the other hand never forgot it.

I played with Alejandro for years and had known him as a friend since my days in San Fransisco, when I was in a punk rock band called “The Offs” he was in a band called “The Nuns” – I used to see his band play religiously (no pun intended)- at the Mahbuay Gardens in San Fransisco California.

I moved to Austin, Texas with my friends Chip and Tony Kinman – Tony was always a very close friend of mine too, and Alejandro, his brother Javier and I started a band called “True Believers” that played for many years based in Austin Texas where I still live.

I remained in touch with Alejandro for a long time then suddenly he became unavailable. The telephone numbers I had for him were disconnected, emails go unanswered, and efforts to get in touch with him prove unsuccessful. I would consider him still a friend, but don’t really know what to think about it, for obvious reasons I don’t let it bother me too much -what can you do when old friends are like that? If he’s too big of a star to talk to an old friend I have no use for him.

I did consider him to be one of my best friends at one time, will always think fondly of him and wish him the best. I saw his name, and I’m adding names for my list of people I’ve met – since his name is already here he joins the list among some pretty impressive names. God bless ‘em all!

Played with Jorma in the late 70’s. Found him to be a nice person, interesting, even shy and reserved at times. I ended up working with him for a few years and my experiences were memorable.

I used to see him once in awhile in the North Beach area of San Francisco but recall a reading he gave in the late 70’s that was followed by a Punk Rock show that I attended. I met him, and he was very nice. I’ve always appreciated his poetry and found him to be interesting and kind in person.

I met Allen Ginsberg once, and have seen him several times. Born and raised near San Francisco I was maybe ten years old the first time I remember seeing him. It was at an event that I believe was stagged by the infamous “Diggers” if I’m not mistaken, and it was called “The Death of The Hippie” – a sort of funeral for the Haight Ashbury ‘scene’ that was pretty intense at the time.

Ten years later or so (late 70’s) I was behind the “Temple Beautiful”, a run down Jewish Synagogue that was in between “Fillmore West” and the old Jonestown “Peoples Temple” where we used to have Punk Rock shows. I was drinking “Old English 800” and offered him one, not surprisingly he declined the offer, which didn’t phase me one bit in fact it was more for me (I was a drunk then)

Allen Ginsberg and I hung out back there and talked about “Punk Rock” for about 30-45 minutes as I recall- he asked me lots of questions, and we discussed spiritual concepts which was a very unusual conversation to be having in those days. At the time I was an atheist, never having the slightest inkling that I’d one day be interested in the subject. Even then it struck me as odd but I found his conversation to be very interesting. He brought up a couple of things that haunted me after that meeting for many years that followed.

I remember another aspect of the conversation was him going into some detail as to why the “Punk Rock” movement was like “Kabuki Theatre” – something I knew as little about then as I do now, but interesting none the less.

It was one of the oddest and most interesting meetings I’ve ever experienced.

I met His Holiness Pope Shenouda III three times, but when I met him in Egypt at his Papal residence it was the most impressive. I spent three hours talking to him. He is a fascinating, intelligent and I felt I was in the presence of a very holy man. He speaks twelve languages and spoke on quite a few different subjects. I’ve read a couple of his books so I guess I was prepared to ask him a few questions, I was really impressed by his scope of knowledge on just about any subject. I’ll write more about it and post a pic of the meeting if I can. I will never forget it.