Bobby and I have been friends since high school (about 23 years). He is the only person outside of family that I have known that long. It was our love of Metal that initiated our friendship and today that friendship has evolved, changed, and matured in a host of ways. We’ve played music together in various permutations since high school and in our last band together I felt the musical chemistry between us was the most incredible. During composing/arranging sessions it felt like we knew what the other person was thinking. We had an immensely fun time and we were a very efficient musical alchemy team. Our bond encompasses much more than just music. We share similar views and outlooks on women/relationships, society, humor (he’s one of the funniest people ever), and our kitschy appreciation for things dark and macabre. He’s a very kind, friendly, and good person. Good people are hard to come by these days. We’ve had a ton of killer experiences together and have gone through personal lows and highs together as well. We have an awesome time just kickin it and hangin out. I guess I kind of look to him as a big brother. In recent years, he had a child and moved far away to Clear Lake . We didn’t see each other, hardly talked, and the band was done. I missed him greatly. One comes to realize that the number of people we love or consider true friends becomes smaller and smaller as we get older. Thus, forgetting or discarding those relationships is tragic and sad. I finally got out to Clear Lake (two years late) and hung out with Bobby and got to meet his adorable daughter. I’ve seen him a couple of times since then as well and it just felt really good. It was really great to see Bobby with his little girl and how enamored he is with her. You can just tell that he’s a great dad. It was so fun ridin around with Piper in her car seat tellin Bobby to play the music loud…ha!
I had an amusing dream about Bobby and I last night. I dreamt that we had found a new practice spot to play music and we were starting to set it all up. The weird thing was that we both looked very different. We both were wearing all black and had really long hair. It’s like we were a couple of Scandinavian Metal dudes. The best part was that he had a black flying V that he had just acquired and I was asking him if he would be doing any cool guitar moves or acrobatics with it. He then put the V part on his leg with the front of the guitar facing away from him and holding the guitar vertically started to shred and solo like a guitar god.
I told Bobby about the dream and he had a great response. He said – “You even dream Heavy Metal. That’s pretty funny”.
Ha! Indeed. It all comes back to the Metal.
Horns up fuckers!
gonzogeek.wordpress.com 
Amen to you both. Brothers of Metal (BoM).