THE ROMAN SPRING of toomanycats

[nomadh]

Sorry it didn't last longer. I was living the vicarious life for a bit. Yup, gonna resent the "dadding"
Originals is one of the daggers that killed my last band. Pushed by my drummer. "Whats the problem. He said. "I'll write up the drum parts. All you need to do is the lyrics, melody, chords and riffs"
My rule on originals is if it is as good as the top 1000 songs we keep playing over the last 50 years then no problem. So far 1 guy I've played with may have been in the ballpark.

Kids.

[toomanycats]

A couple days ago the band reached out to me and I was propositioned to play a one off gig on Saturday, October 22nd at a private Halloween themed party (costumes required). Apparently their guitarist is unavailable on that date. Compensation in sufficient cash, plus free bbq and booze.

I've kept busy playing since leaving Lucid Outbreak, fielding lots of offers for my services, gigging steadily with a duo act close to home where it is safe, as well as starting up a new partnership with an immensely talented female vocalist/songwriter named Amanda with whom I've already recorded some amazing original material which we will soon unleash upon the world as VELVET VAMPS.

I've warned Amanda about the stalker, letting her know that there is a 100% probability that this psychopath will contact her to slander me, also very likely trying to intimidate her to prevent us from working together. The stalker will be particularly provoked that I am working with a very attractive and talented lady and I anticipate that her reaction of narcissistic rage will be severe.

Recently I had a gig at a venue called B-52s in Newton, North Carolina. One of the stalker's friends named Heidi was at the bar menacingly glaring at me while I performed. She's a middle aged Canadian woman with ridiculous fake tits. On her way out the door she lingered to hurl pointed insults at me as I performed.

But returning to the business proposition made by Lucid Outbreak . . . I've elaborated previously in this thread that there's nothing that can compare to playing rock and roll music live with a group of young guys. Honestly, I miss the crazy, the energy, even the ringing in my ears the morning after. The lure is irresistible.

So I accepted the offer. I already know their set list like the back of my hand. The stalker won't be there because it's a private party. I'm under no pressure. There is no down side to playing this gig.

[Rollin Hand]

So, bringing out Frankie for the VH numbers, or would that be too weird?

[Partscaster]

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A couple days ago the band reached out to me and I was propositioned to play a one off gig on Saturday, October 22nd at a private Halloween themed party (costumes required). Apparently their guitarist is unavailable on that date. Compensation in sufficient cash, plus free bbq and booze.

I've been busy with music since I left the band, gigging steadily with an established duo act, as well as starting up a new partnership with an immensely talented female vocalist/songwriter with whom I've already recorded some amazing original material which we will soon unleash upon the world.

But as I've elaborated upon previously in this thread, there's nothing that can compare to playing rock and roll music live with a group of young guys. Honestly, I miss the crazy, the energy, even the ringing in my ears the morning after.

So I accepted the offer. I already know their set list like the back of my hand. I'm under no pressure. There is no down side to playing this gig.

Bring some empty Tupperware for that BBQ.
Let em know your evolving talents are now worth a heavier cost of chicken and ribs.

[toomanycats]

So, bringing out Frankie for the VH numbers, or would that be too weird?

Frankie may very well go to the party.

[Rollin Hand]

So, bringing out Frankie for the VH numbers, or would that be too weird?

Frankie may very well go to the party.

I hear he is a party kinda guy.

[tlarson58]

I'm glad that this opportunity arose for you. Have fun with it.

[toomanycats]

I'm attending a band rehearsal this evening in preparation for the Saturday night gig. Since I left they haven't added any new material, so it wouldn't be a problem for me to just show up at the show and play all those songs.

However, shortly after I resigned the bass player also split and there's a new guy holding down the bottom end. In effect, it's an entirely different band. I'm curious to jam with them and see what kind of player the new bassist is and how the three of them interact musically. A band is really like a recipe. If you change even one ingredient the cake is going to come out different.

[toomanycats]

I went to the rehearsal on Thursday night. It was very chill and extremely enjoyable with lots of spontaneous jamming interspersed with selectively running the set lists and drinking beers. Since I left the band they've only added one original song to their show, and even that one is being dropped from the set list for tonight.

I was reminded of what a great voice the singer has. Man, that "kid" can belt it out. He can sing Robert Plant all day long. The new bass player is polar opposite from the previous guy. He's more of Lemmy kind of player, keeping it simple, with a fat and dirty tone.

They ran the idea past me of having two guitar players, asking how I felt about joining again and sharing co-lead guitar duties with the other guy. They want to be able to do material like "Hotel California."

The next day I spoke with them and asked, "Are you serious about the two guitar player thing?" and, "What does the other guy think about the idea?" They were serious, but the other guy doesn't know anything about it. If the other guy was open to the idea of sharing the space, I'd be willing to try it out for a gig, just for the fun of it.

A band with two lead guitarists is different than a band with one lead guitar player and one rhythm guitar player. Examples of the latter would be GnR, The Scorpions, AC/DC, and the classic Def Leppard line up. Having two lead guitar players requires more discipline and cooperation. I'm talking about bands like The Eagles, Skynyrd, RATT. In such a configuration both guitarists have to go into it understanding that the whole is greater than the parts; their egos have to be sufficiently in check that they can back off when required, understanding that they each get their own chance to shine, and that showing restraint makes the entire band shine brighter.

I know some off you may think I'm nuts, as I resigned from this band not too long ago and provided a detailed list of the reasons why. This week I've had offers to join two other established gigging bands, one that's in an outlaw country vein, and one that's predominately 90s oriented. But neither of those genres is where my heart is at. With these kids I get to play Leslie West, Ronnie Montrose, Jimmy Page, Eddie VH, and Hendrix, and I get to play loud as f*ck. None of this silent stage bullsh*t that's become the "mature" thing to do with so many bands and venues, which for me is like sex with a condom or drinking O'douls.

Anyways, the gig at the private party is tonight. From what I've been told the guy putting it on is known for having a no-holds-barred Halloween bash. We play outdoors and apparently their's some kinda "stage" on this guys property. Costumes are absolutely required. With my hair and beard it takes little effort to throw something together, as I'm 3/4 of the way there already. Put a pointy hat on me and I'm a Wizard. With a robe, a cross around my neck, and a tassel around my waist I'm Rasputin. You get the idea.

[Rollin Hand]

The Rasputin costume only works if you open with a cover (rockin' of course) of the Boney M classic.

There was a Newfoundland (all acoustic) band here in Canada called Great Big Sea. They did a Halloween gig by coming out in KISS makeup and playing "Rock and Roll All Nite."

[tonebender]

Did I miss what costume you have chosen for the gig. Sorry if I did but if not what will be that night?

[toomanycats]

A lot has happened since my last post 13 months ago on 10/22/22.

The suicidal woman I publicly accused of sexual assault, demanding she cease all contact with me, terrorized me with two more emails on 11/23/22.

Having discovered that I'd found work with someone new, on on 12/7/22 Patty posted comments on Amanda's Facebook profile mocking my Aspergers and love of cats. This delusional, obsessed psycho also bemoans that I have no remorse over our "break up."

On 12/18/22 Patty communicated terroristic threats to me through her conspirator Victoria. Twelve days later, on 12/30/22, Victoria texted me more threats.

Patty and Vic have not yet had the opportunity to have me "handled," as I've almost entirely cease performing due to their relentless criminal intimidation. I contacted the Sheriff once again, who refused to meet with me or look at my evidence. Mrs TMC and I arranged to meet with a court advocate at The Family Guidance Center in Hickory. The easiest way to present that encounter is through a narrative. Like Holmes, I reverence hard facts, evidence, and logic. However, I also recognize, like Watson, that narrative is often the most compelling means of presenting that information. The following is not a literal transcript, though it is truthful account of the facts, details, subject matter, and disclosures made at that meeting.

SCENE — January 2023. John and Suzi are at The Family Guidance Center meeting with a court advocate named Alexis. They are sitting around a large table.

John: The mental torment is unbearable. Patty sexually assaulted me one year ago and has been stalking and threatening me ever since. She sends emails, contacts people I work with, slanders me, and harasses me at my jobs. The last terroristic threat was just a couple weeks ago. I can't work in my profession because of her continued threats. I've exposed what she's doing to me in real time, but I believe she gets off on the attention.

Alexis: You're probably encouraging her with that attention.

John: Aren’t those the signs of a malignant narcissist? In the last year I've made a study of criminology, abnormal psychology, stalkers, and psychopaths, but working in the court you surely have more experience dealing with this type of person.

Alexis: She definitely has some type of problem. Have you called the police?

John: I've called The Catawba County Sheriff multiple times, starting eight months ago. They refused to look at the most recent threats. Where do you go when you're being threatened and the police look the other way? I've attempted to contact the North Carolina Coalition Against Sex Assault since last March, but they've ignored me. Patty communicated her most recent threats on 12/18/22 using an accomplice named Vic, through Facebook Messenger, to a third party, with instructions to relay those threats to me. They're either incredibly stupid or . . .

Suzi: [Interjecting] Or they're protected. We've met people here who bragged that they were untouchable because they knew the cops. They're weren't joking.

Alexis: That is odd that the police haven't done anything. Who is the third party who received the threats?

John: A woman named Amanda who I've been working with for a few months. I warned her Patty would make contact. Patty spreads lies behind the scenes. When Patty tried to connect with Amanda she was blocked. She then directed a conspirator named Victoria to communicate her message, which was the same lies she's been telling for the last two years . . . that I was her lover, that I'm a liar, a cheater, and an unreliable person to work with. Amanda was waned her career would suffer if she worked with me. Patty hurts anyone who supports her enemies. Vic additionally instructed Amanda to relay the threat that either she or someone else would "handle" me, and that they had blackmail material to keep me silent. I called the Sheriff, but they refused to meet with me, look at my evidence, or investigate the threats. I have never responded to Patty or Victoria. See these dark circles under my eyes? I spent the holidays sleeping in a chair next to our front door for just a few hours a night with a shotgun on my lap anticipating a home invasion. We requested a keep check but no Sheriff vehicle has ever passed our home. I face these criminals alone with the police refusing to even look at my evidence.

Alexis: How did Patty find out you were working with Amanda?

John: Amanda opened a Facebook profile to promote our music. Recording in the studio and sharing my music online is all I have left since Patty is preventing me from performing in public.

Alexis: How has she stopped you from performing?

John: Would you want to appear in public knowing a mentally ill, suicidal lunatic who had sexually assaulted you was stalking you, sending threats, and could show up at any time at your place of work, stand in front of you, recording and taunting you, knowing that the police have refused to do anything about it? Victoria actually gloats in her message because the police haven't done anything.

Alexis: [Taking notes] Who is this person Victoria?

John: She works for Patty and lives in her house. I don't need to tell you that she's a drunk, has meth breath, is a "ho," and that Patty is jealous because more "gentleman callers" want to have sex with her than with herself . . . Patty can tell you all of that in her own words. This pierced, tattooed, rainbow haired useful idiot on Patty's payroll has been wound up, pointed in my direction, and instructed to communicate terroristic threats meant to silence me about her boss’ crimes and prevent me from working. I've spoken with her ex-boyfriend and there was fear in that man's voice. He said he has a restraining order against Vic, she is violent, and I should protect myself. I also spoke with an employee of Guitar Center who at one time lived with Vic, and they confirmed that she is a very troubled.

Suzi: These are scary people. I know Patty is crazy because I've read all her messages. I wanted to say something but Johnny wouldn't let me because he was afraid Patty would stop getting him gigs if I confronted her about her sexual harassment. We laughed about her . . . until we realized how disturbed and dangerous she really was. She wanted to be with Johnny and said I was in the way. This isn't just about Johnny. I'm a senior woman. I'm a victim too! When Johnny has a gig at night I’m home all alone and vulnerable. When a deputy came to my house last May he saw the threats sent from Patty and Victoria. Why won't the police investigate these ongoing threats?

John: Probably because we haven't coughed up our protection money. Anyways, here's my collated documentation. I've kept records of everything, from all parties involved. It's evolved into part criminal investigation, part case study in abnormal psychology, part journalistic exposé. The police refuse to look at it. I've done exactly what stalking victims are advised to do by documenting everything, recording dates and times, saving all communications, and inform others what is happening.

Alexis: Yes, absolutely. There's a lot of material here. When did you first meet Patty?

John: In February 2021 at a job at the Barracuda TapRoom, right here in Hickory. My records encompass a period from around November 2020 until the present. I even have evidence of Patty stalking me before I was aware of her existence.

Alexis: How could you be in possession of that information?

John: Patty sent it to me after she arranged to get herself introduced. She's a predator who specifically targeted me . . . because of my Aspergers, perhaps because I am a Jew. She told me she was fixated on those things and that she had hunted me. She wrote me an email saying, "It will take too long to find another one like you," . . . like I was a rare specimen she had trapped in a net. After I publicly refused Patty's sexual advances she conspired with an antisemite in her employment to terrorize me into silence. That's Vic.

Alexis: How do you know that Victoria is an antisemite?

John: One evening in November 2021 Vic got in my face at Mountain View Pub and laughed about the Holocaust and burning Jews in ovens. Patty's crew joined in laughing at me.

Suzi: I was visiting Catawba County long before we moved here from Manhattan. I experienced their antisemitism back in the 80s. Nothing has changed. Just a couple years ago a Maiden police captain told Johnny that they didn't serve him and escorted him out of the station.

John: [Nervous] Let's not talk about that incident. Vic considers Patty her mother and was jealous of the attention she gave me. Patty was gaslighting Vic with her fantasy about our romance. Fantasy isn't even the right word. Sane people can distinguish between fantasy and reality. Patty had insane delusions about two people called Felicia and Frisco.

Alexis: Are Felicia and Frisco characters Patty made up?

John: Do you have a psychiatrist here? Sometimes she'd write to me as Patty, and sometimes as Felicia. Often she'd refer to Felicia in the third person. She dreamed about Felicia and Frisco, asked if I dreamed about them too, talked about them in a past life, their destiny together, all while trying to brainwash me with this crap about angel numbers, twin flames, and predictions her psychic made. I don't know what all that means clinically speaking . . . but then I'm not a professional head shrink.

Alexis: Did you ever respond to her as Frisco.

John: Of course not. I didn't encourage her insanity. In fact, I made it absolutely clear that I wasn't interested in her that way. I constantly talked about boundaries. It didn't matter. Her advances got progressively more aggressive and her behavior more bizarre.

Alexis: These Felicia and Frisco messages happened more than just a few times?

John: There were hundreds of them, maybe even a thousand. She emailed me a dozen times a day during the eleven months I worked with her. Just do the math. I only responded to a fraction of her emails, which annoyed her. I let her ramble, and sometimes Suzi would even respond for me just to placate her. I was too busy to occupy myself with the criminal soap opera of Patty's life.

Suzi: I read most all of Johnny's emails. I’d let him know when Patty had a question about a job.

John: I explicitly informed Patty that Suzi read everything sent to me and that I hid nothing. I thought that it would make her behave herself, but she used it as a way to try to gaslight Suzi. It was unbelievable.

Alexis: How did she do that?

John: She framed message as though we were in a relationship, saying she was jealous of other women spending time with me, she was thinking about breaking up with me, and that I could move in with her and bring all of the cats. Suzi and I would roll on the floor reading these crazy home wrecking messages. Suzi is aware of the type of women I’m attracted to . . . and it ain’t Patty. She wrote that Suzi was cheating on me and that she'd told her things she wasn't supposed to repeat, but she'd reveal them if I'd meet her for a date. It was so pathetic.

Suzi: That did make me angry. She did this while hiding behind that crazy Felicia thing. I think she's done this to men before, gotten caught, and learned that if she pretends she's crazy then she can get away with it.

Alexis: That is alarming about her multiple personalities. Could Patty be pretending to be Felicia as a way of denying everything, as a way of being able to say that she'd only been playing around or acting?

John: That's the real question. Is she crazy or is she a calculating psychopath? At this point I think she's nuts. Patty carved "Felicia loves Frisco" into the wood of a bar in Denver. After I broke all ties with her she continued sending emails as Felicia. Why would she continue this act unless she really was crazy? But maybe she's acting crazy on purpose to terrorize me. Whether she's crazy or a sadistic psychopath, it's not good.

Alexis: So you do communicate with her now?

John: No! I broke all contact with her a year ago, after she attacked me onstage, put her hands and mouth on me, and called me a "scumbag" for daring to fight her off. She's continued sending me emails for the last year, signing them "Felicia," threatening to harm herself, all while portraying herself publicly on Facebook as this benign old Grandma with a kid on her lap. I have never responded to any of her messages. She's even stalked me at my job and confronted me on multiple occasions, but I don't speak with her.

Alexis: [Looking at the documentation]. From what I’m seeing here it looks like there are multiple crimes that Patty can be charged with. Assault, harassment, and communicating threats. We can start by getting a no contact order against her.

John: Great. That should stop her, right?

Alexis: No . . . not necessarily. She’ll be served with a notice about the hearing. It’s very likely that she will show up.

John: [Incredulous]. She will show up?!? Why in the world would she do that? Won’t the fact that this is actually going in front of a judge finally scare her away?

Alexis: Unfortunately, that’s not always the case with stalkers. You said that she's a narcissist and psychopath. When she’s served with papers you’ll finally be giving her the attention and interaction she’s wanted. She can also bring anyone she wants to court to testify and defend her side of the story.

John: That's very disturbing. In messages Patty says she'll spread lies to destroy anyone who crosses her. For the last year her associates have been intimidating, threatening, and victim shaming me. God knows what false accusations she could make against me in court. They have already threatened that they know things that will get me in big trouble. Isn’t that like blackmail, or criminal intimidation, or something like that?

Alexis: It could be interpreted as that. The fact is that she and anyone she wants to bring with her will have the opportunity to speak and can say anything.

John: You mean accuse me of anything, exactly like they've been doing in the bars and online, saying I was her lover, that we had a relationship, that I led her on. She's actually told people that I'm the one stalking her! You know, I’ve noticed that the thing about always believing the accusations of a victim only works when it’s a woman accusing a man, and not when it’s a man accusing a woman.

Alexis: Do you have any friends you can bring to tell your side of the story?

John: I have a former friend who can confirm my side of the story . . . Patty, in her own words. Her sexual harassment is documented in hundreds of her messages, everything from saying she loved me, to requesting dates to discuss job opportunities, to offering to pay for sex, to complaining that I haven't met my part of her quid pro quo arrangement. Patty's messages clearly establish premeditation and intent regarding her sexual assault upon me. She wrote about her sexual desire for me, even warning that she was going to touch me and that I should passively consent. She documents a sexual assault, describing her anger and frustration that I resisted her. She admits knowing that I don't want to be touched. There are reasons for that, but I don't want to get into that. Things are complicated enough already.

Alexis: I understand.

John: I'm not a lawyer, but aren't Patty's own written words corroborating evidence to my testimony? Isn't this what they call prima facia evidence?

Alexis: Yes, but it would be helpful if you also had people there who could corroborate your side of the story.

John: Suzi would be there of course, but she never witnessed Patty assault me. Patty kept her distance when Suzi came to a gig, but later she'd send me extremely bizarre emails about a fictional love triangle, insinuating that she might stop managing me if I burst the bubble of her Felicia and Frisco fantasy. It was like erotic mental masturbation she was forcing on me. I had to endure this abuse because I needed the jobs. Isn't this exactly what you woman have been complaining about with that MeToo thing, saying it's wrong to leverage power in this manner? Is it just wrong for a man to do this to a woman, or is it fundamentally wrong . . . wrong for anybody to use their relative position of power in order to coerce intimate physical contact, sex, and romance?

Alexis: No, it's wrong. Nobody should have to put up with that kind of harassment and there are laws against it.

John: Anyways, last week I did call one of the members of the band I was playing with on New Years Eve of 2021, in anticipation of you asking me about witnesses. This guy's name is Matt. He was onstage with me when Patty committed the worst of her sexual assaults. I had to push her off of me. She started screaming at me right there on the stage. It was a real scene and people were definitely aware that something extremely upsetting to me had happened. I remember locking eyes with the bass player's girlfriend for a brief moment. She looked disturbed, upset, and confused by what was happening.

Alexis: Do you know her name?

John: No. I have no idea who she was. She was a brunette with longish dark hair. Patty was sitting at the same table as her until she jumped onstage and assaulted me.

Alexis: Did this person Matt witness all of this too?

John: You have to understand, this happened around midnight on New Year's Eve. Every previous gig I'd ever played with Matt he was wasted going into the third set, and that evening was no exception. I've witnessed him exposing himself in public, embarking on extended impromptu guitar solos between songs, and literally falling out of his chair onstage. Please take that into consideration in ascertaining his worth as a witness. Unfortunately, this is what I have to work with. When I said I needed him to tell the truth about that night he said, and I quote, "You two need to just separate." I was flabergasted. It seems Patty has been feeding him a story about us being engaged in an ongoing lovers quarrel. I told him that Patty assaulted me that night, has been stalking me since then, that I have no contact with her, and that she and Victoria had just sent new terroristic threats. I was pleading with this guy for help.

Alexis: What did he say?

John: He said, and these are his exact words, "There are two sides to every story." Please take into consideration that this guy is drunk a lot of the time, stoned, frequently trips on LSD, and is an ex convict, a drug dealer I believe. He ostensibly makes a living as a performing musician around Hickory and Patty helps procure him gigs and promotes him. Even though Matt confessed that he knows Patty is obsessed with me he has a vested interest in not going against her. He has known the truth from the very beginning! Right after I joined his band in the Summer of 2021 I went to his house for a rehearsal. It's not actually his band, it's Dani's band. At that rehearsal I went out of my way to clarify to both of them that Patty was just my friend.

Alexis: Does this man Dani know the truth too?

John: Dani isn't a man, she's a young woman. Very talented lady who sings, plays guitar, writes songs. She has such a sense of style. It was her band. It was funny how she was the boss lady of a group of middle aged male musicians. Anyways, yeah, it was a rehearsal for her band. I interrupted a conversation with them about set lists, keys, you know, musician stuff, to clarify that Patty was just my friend. It was kinda embarrassing to have to go there in the context of a band rehearsal, but Suzi told me to make it clear to them that Patty had an abnormal, obsessive fixation on me, but she was just my manager. I couldn't disclose to them how crazy Patty actually was. Patty had connected me with that band and was friends with those people. I had to play it cool if I wanted the jobs which joining that band offered me. This pic shows how ingratiated Patty is with Matt and Dani.

Alexis: That guy next to her looks like he's having a good time.

John: That's Matt. He was coked up that night. Ten minutes before that pic was taken he tricked me into driving him to the gas station for cigarettes. He pulled a baggy of blow out of his waistband and started snorting it right there in the front seat of my car. After that he pulled his pants down in the hotel lobby. That was the night Patty said she'd do everybody in the dressing room except the bass player. The MeToo movement likes to call men like Harvey Weinstein a pig. Patty is a female pig. It cuts both ways.

Alexis: My goodness.

John: I had to deal with this unprofessional crap. I'm a middle aged guy who just wants to play music, make a few bucks, and make it home safe to Suzi and the cats at the end of the night without getting arrested through association with criminality. Matt and Dani have been in my home and have met Suzi. They know damn well I wasn't intimately involved with Patty. After Patty sexually assaulted me onstage on New Years Eve I called Dani, pleading with her to forbid Patty from attending an upcoming gig we had at Boatyard Eats in Cornelius. Dani knew that Patty had assaulted me, was stalking me, and that Suzi and I were both in fear of her.

Alexis: When did that call with Dani happen?

John: That was a year ago. It was the evening of January 24th, 2022.

Alexis: Why won't Matt and Dani tell the truth for you?

John: [Laughing] I'm sorry. Dani has a song called "The Truth." Nobody will ever understand the sick ironies of my situation. Patty secures them gigs and promotes them around Hickory. Matt has known Patty for a long time and has a personal connection with her. He went to high school with her kids. He feels sorry for her because her husband beat the shit out of her and cheated on her. Everyone in town seems to know all about that. He said Patty just wants love. Honestly, what does that have to do with me? This lady does not get a pass to sexually harass, assault, stalk, and threaten me just because her marriage is crap, she has mental problems, and has became fixated on me.

Alexis: Absolutely not.

John: I just wanted to play guitar to help feed my cats. I offered this woman my friendship. I looked at her like my buddy and sidekick, you know, like what Garth was to Wayne . . . except Garth wasn't trying to fondle Wayne. I think that Matt, Dani, Allen, Randy, Vic, Debbie, Theresa, Heidi . . . basically all of Patty's friends and associates . . . believed that I legitimately owed Patty a fuck for what she did to promote me. Music is a dirty, scummy, whoring, prostituting business, and I violated the rules. Everything about Patty reeked of psychological manipulation, leveraged favors, debts framed in implicit sexual terms. Our so-called friendship was a whitewash over that system of whore logic.

Alexis: She may have manufactured this drama to create excitement for herself. Are there any other musicians you've worked with who might be willing to tell the truth about Patty?

John: When something like this happens the real character of people is revealed. Hickory is a small town. Everybody knows everybody. Most of these musicians have played together for years. I'm the odd man out who dropped out of the sky. Patty is the opposite. She's imbedded in the local music scene, gregarious, and constantly works the bars and Facebook. I appreciated her friendship and genuinely enjoyed talking to her. I enjoyed the connections and work opportunities that friendship with her offered to me . . . though I certainly didn't owe her sex in exchange for such favors. She refused to respect me and treat me with dignity . . . was utterly incapable of that. There was a spiritual war going on inside of that woman; I mean really good verses evil stuff. You can read it in her messages. I honestly don't know the depth of what kind of evil and criminality she was involved in, though I saw some of it firsthand, and she frequently made allusion to the depravity and dangerous nature of what she called her "Way of life."

Alexis: What kind of things are you talking about?

John: She talked about her husband's mafia connections and how she'd like to take a hit out on her sister in law. There was violence around her. She said she was frequently beaten, even sent to the hospital with broken bones. I was threatened with violence in the presence of her family. She said she should be the madam of the whore house, meaning her home, where Vic was fornicating with many of the local musicians they promoted. I thought she was joking about being involved in prostitution until she wrote about starting a male escort business and said she wished I was gay. Then there's the drugs. She said all her friends, employees, and people who lived in her home were on hard drugs. Applying Occam's razor, the simplest explanation for Patty's psychotic behavior is that she was also on drugs. It would explain why she was up all hours of the night, her insane delusions, incoherent messages, hallucinations, and fearless aggression.

Alexis: People who use meth behave like that.

John: One message that still gives me chills is Patty writing that she was friends with the ex mayor of Hickory. He murdered a woman at the newspaper office in Newton before committing suicide. I felt like she was warning me of what could happen with sexual obsession and a victim who dared to be a whistleblower. Patty wanted me to know that she rubbed elbows with the local patricians. Maybe she walks the dog of the Chief of Police and that's how she's getting away with sending terroristic threats and no deputy will make a report.

Alexis: Oh my.

John: There are other things that are too dangerous to talk about, like the evening of 11/27/21, when a pedophile from Alabama staying at Patty's home threatened to body slam me, then beat her daughter and a child he was molesting who had been trafficked across State lines to North Carolina. Upon my direction 911 was called that night. Vic was in the home while the mother and child were being beaten. I told people at the gig what was going on, but they didn't seem to care. I was trying to protect that little girl. I'm still haunted by that.

Alexis: Just so you know, we are required by law to report anything that has to do with children.


John: [Smirking] How quaint. That's nice to know the State of North Carolina cares about children. Incidentally, are you aware that Bill Gates just annexed hundreds of acres of forest in Maiden and that my home is now land locked inside of his compound? Since you care so much about children I'll let you know when I hear them working on kid tunnels under my house.

Alexis: Really?

John: Look it up yourself. Boyd Farm Data Center. But this is about Patty. Once I realized the extent of what she was involved in I knew I had to get away from her. I'm blowing my rock and roll credibility here, but sexual promiscuity, partying, and drugs is not my lifestyle. I'm really a square. My entire life I've never been in trouble with the law because I don't associate with criminals. There's another devastating trauma I'm suffering parallel to what Patty is doing to me. It has to do with the police refusing to do anything. I've always believed that it was the job of the cops to investigate crimes. That delusion has been destroyed by this experience. I still can't believe that just a few weeks ago the Catawba County Sheriff flatly refused to meet with me about Patty's most recent threats. Can you give me any plausible explanation why the police would refuse to look at my evidence? Is there something they don't like about me, which makes me undeserving of protection under the law? How can it be at their discretion whether or not they investigate ongoing terroristic threats made by a mentally disturbed person who has previously sent me messages about self harm, who is now using a conspirator to frighten me into silence about her crimes? That's like a fire department refusing to respond to a fire. At a certain point dereliction of duty and incompetence is actual malice

Alexis: It is bizarre that the police haven't done anything.

Suzi: I told Patty the first time I met her at a gig just to be cool with Johnny. I warned her that he was long suffering, but when he's done with a situation he's done. I knew what was going to happen.


Alexis: So you’re saying that Patty had connections with musicians?

John: Yes . . . and with venues, bar owners, bar managers . . . everyone you need to know if you want to get gigs in this town. Just as important as that, she has control of a Facebook page called HickoryURock that's the center of the Hickory music scene. It promotes local bands and venues. If you want to know what's going on any given night that's the place to look. It's hard to quantify her influence. She once referred to herself as an "event coordinator." With a Facebook post on HickoryURock and a flurry of text messages she had the power to persuade dozens of people to travel to a venue and watch the performance of a favored artist, dropping cash on booze, food, and tips. That is real power. There was a price for that favoritism. She wanted attention, humoring of her romantic delusions, and ultimately, the consummation of her lust though physical contact. New Year's Eve 2021 was the night she was done being compassionate about my overdue invoice. She took from me what she believed I owed her.

Alexis: So she used her power to get you jobs as a way of forcing physical contact on you?

John: Yes, absolutely. It's all there in her messages. It was sometimes subtle, sometimes overt, but it was relentless and sustained. She often used code words, like you owe me some "nickels," or a "special favor," or "hugs." There were a lot of code words used by her and her friends, like when Allen would refer to cocaine as his "cold medicine" [Laughing]. But other times she would directly proposition me sexually, saying things like she was horny, or that she needed somebody to take care of it, or that she knew ways to relieve a man's anxiety. She might have been drunk or on drugs when she wrote a lot of this stuff. A lot of her messages were sent in the middle of the night, like between midnight and four in the morning. They have the incoherent, manic, frenetic quality of somebody who is tweaking and rambling with no filter.

Alexis: That sounds like drugs.

John: But going back to the friendship thing. I don't like to make a big deal about my Aspergers, but I believe it was part of the reason why she targeted me and groomed me with such persistence. I don't connect well with people, but for some reason I found it easy to talk with Patty. I considered her my friend in the beginning, even a confidant. She claimed she was a therapist, though she was an evil one with ulterior motives of sex, romance, the fulfillment of her ludicrous fantasies. She wrote about dressing up like I Dream of Jeanie and that she was a young Ann Margret who was going to kiss me onstage.

Alexis: She actually wrote those things to you?

John: There's even crazier stuff than that. In between pushing sex on me she'd say I reminded her of her son. She constantly asked what I dreamed and about numbers. I suspected she was fishing, you know, hoping I'd unconsciouslly reveal account numbers or passcodes.

Alexis: How did you respond to those things?

John: By ignoring them. I learned early on that there was no point in trying to dislodge this woman's mental delusions and fixations. If I wanted the gigs I had to put up with Patty having her own private, crazy version of reality. I conceded and allowed her to have that. But that doesn't mean it was real! Let me give you an example. One afternoon I met her for coffee at this place called The Vault to discuss business. Later she sent an email saying, "Most people who felt this way about each other would have just done it already." This must be what Allen meant when he said that Patty sent him weird messages and he had to be really mean to back her off.

Alexis: Who is Allen?

John: He's a guy she booked me with. She was obsessed with him before me. Allen said Patty was a stalker and wrote bizarre messages. Patty told me she had been obsessed with Allen. She said that he initiated intimate contact with her. I've seen Allen so fucked up that he actually may have believed Patty looked like a young Ann Margret. Here's a pic of the three of us outside a gig in September 2021. Allen is wasted and leaning on her. Patty has one arm around him, is leaning on me, while her other claw hand is creeping up my thigh and attempting to "break through my barriers." That's what she called it. I'm guarded, protecting my crotch with both hands, enduring the awkward situation. Patty's body language towards Allen reveals that he is conquered territory, totally compliant and pliable. At the same time she's making her advancements on me, her new conquest. In almost every pic I have with Patty near me I'm protecting my genitals. She wrote about my "package" so often that I was constantly on my guard. One time she sent me a pic of her hand groping the balls of a giant dildo. I had constant anxiety that she'd try to grab my privates if she was drunk enough and the opportunity presented itself. I was adamant that I never wanted to be alone with her, that I always wanted a third party present. That drove her crazy. She was obsessed with gaining my trust and being alone with me.

Alexis: Would Allen tell the truth?

John: Absolutely not. I stopped playing with him after he informed me couldn't defy Patty. A young guy Patty moved into her house became Allen's new guitarist. Allen may not remember many of the events I've documented. That applies to many of the other musicians Patty booked me with. The degree of alcohol and cocaine use I witnessed while gigging around Hickory was astonishing. This was another thing that set me apart from most of these guys. Sure, I have a couple beers during a gig, but many of these guys were raging alcoholics who also got coked up during a show. Several of them would routinely get so wasted that they couldn't perform. Patty actually joked about marketing me as the sober sideman who can play anything off the cuff and keep it on the rails when these guys became incapacitated. That's what I actually did a lot of the time. When you're around people like this, and you're not participating in hard partying, you get ostracized. You're not invited to the back room, or out to the car, which is where they do their illegal stuff. There's a bonding that goes on which you're not included in. You're only let into the gang if you're compromised. Understand?

Alexis: Certainly.

John: For all those reason I was never truly part of the inner circle of the musicians I played with . . . at least not on a personal level. Our lifestyles didn't jive. From the point of view of those musicians, I just showed up one day out of nowhere, was highly visible on the scene for a year, and then disappeared just as abruptly. I'm sure at least some of them wonder what happened to me. But my entire brief existence on the Hickory music scene occurred against the backdrop of the outrageous lies and fabrications Patty was telling about me . . . that I was her boyfriend, that we were engaged, that I was moving into her house. It is now clear to me that those people, just like Patty, were never my friends. There was also a lot of resentment and underlying jealousy towards me from other musicians.

Alexis: Why was that?

John: Patty gave me lots of gigs and aggressively promoted me on HickoryURock. She was constantly warring with people who were accusing her of playing favorites and running a pay for play operation. She claimed that a lot of the old guard of the Hickory music scene wanted to have sex with her, but she turned them down because she was only interested in younger musicians. She expected "favors" from these young musicians in return for promotion. I know what she wanted from me . . . hugs, kisses, dates, romance, attention, humoring her drama and delusions. I experienced all of that. More than that, I documented it all.

These older musicians resented me and probably did believe I was screwing Patty in exchange for gigs. There are plenty of guys with girlfriends, guys with wives, who have no problem with . . . and please excuse the crudity of my language . . . letting an old groupie blow them out in the parking lot in exchange for professional favors. Free blow jobs is half the reason these guys get into bands. None of them are going to speak up and defend me because they probably assumed, knowing what Patty was, that I was giving her the "favors" she was after from younger musicians. A lot of these guys were riding Victoria like the village bicycle. Do you think they're going to speak up now that she's threatening me?

Alexis: Okay, let's just proceed then assuming that you won't have anybody with you in court to defend your side of the story. You should understand that immediately after a stalker is given a no contact order is the most dangerous time. You should be vigilant, change your routine, secure your home, take extra precautions.

John: I've already been doing all of that for the last year, to the point that I think I have PTSD. I have constant anxiety and nightmares most every night. It's very upsetting to know that I'll have no protection from the cops if this nut job finally blows a fuse.

Alexis: It’s very common for stalkers to gain access to your phone, email accounts, social media accounts.

John: I’m not on social media, unless you count this one guitar forum I post on. She got caught stalking me there with two fake accounts and the website administrator reported her as a cyber stalker. It hasn't impeded her from continuing to attempt to contact me online.

Suzi: [Shaking her head in disgust.] Tell her about the DNA thing.

Alexis: What?

Suzi: She gave him a DNA test kit.

John: Yeah, that's true. Listen, nothing we're telling you here isn't in the documentation right there in front of you, in her own messages. We couldn't make this stuff up. I mean, it’s almost like she wanted to document what she was doing to me, or confess it, or like she was playing a game. That fact that she wrote everything down may be the craziest part of this whole story. Nobody would believe somebody would actually do that unless they actually saw her thousands of messages.

Alexis: Has Patty ever had access to your phone? This would explain why she's threatening that she knows things that could get you in trouble.

John: On at least one occasion I can recall her having access to my phone, while I was at a gig. Victoria and Allen may have briefly had access too it also. After that Patty dropped a hint that she was aware of the activity of my yahoo email account. She always told on herself like this, like she wanted me to know what she was doing, that she was in control. It was a power thing. I reasserted my demand for privacy and immediately changed my password.

Alexis: I’d also advise that you not communicate with any people who would facilitate cross talk between yourself and Patty. What a stalker most wants is that interaction, even if it’s through a third party. You need to deny her that motivation.

John: I’ve read about that already in my research on stalkers. That won’t be a problem. Since Patty blacklisted me no musician in Hickory will pick up their phone for me. I’ve also never responded to Patty’s or Victoria’s provocations. I won’t give them the satisfaction. I’ve also told Amanda that the ground rules for us working together is no interaction with my stalker.

Alexis: Good. Now I’ll need you to write up a short, one page description for the magistrate which describes your situation.

John: That’s going to be extremely difficult. Do you realize how many things have happened? There’s stalking, sexual harassment, sexual assault, blackmail, and conspiracy to communicate terroristic threats. There may be a hate crime component here. The Catawba County Sheriff has violated my right to equal protection. This has played out over a timeline of almost two years. How do I describe all of that, plus include my documented evidence, plus explain how she’s a schizo who thinks she’s someone named Felicia, all on one page?

Alexis: Just do the best you can. I’ll be there with your lawyer to represent you when you confront your ex girlfriend.

John: Whooah! Wait a minute! Patty was never my girlfriend!

Alexis: Oh, I’m sorry. I thought she was your ex-girlfriend. So you never actually lived with Patty?

John: No! Patty was never my girlfriend and I never lived with her! Those are the lies that she and her friends are telling. I can’t believe I’m actually having to refute them here!

Suzi: [Shaking her head and laughing.] I'm sorry . . . I can't help it. This is getting crazy. The lie is actually being repeated, in this room where we came to get help.

John: Let me go back to the beginning and clarify. Patty was just my friend and my manager. That was it. It was a work relationship. I never lived with her and she was not my girlfriend. Suzi and I have lived together for sixteen years. Patty is a nut-job who is obsessed with me. She was stalking me before I even met her. I worked with her for less than a year, then got away after she sexually assaulted me. She resumed stalking me after that and has sent terroristic threats to silence me about what she did. Proof of every single thing I just said is in my documentation.

Alexis: Unfortunately, our organization can only provide pro bono legal assistance to victims who were domestic partners with their assailant. So you never actually lived with Patty?

John: Absolutely not!

Alexis: Can you afford your own lawyer?

John: No. I can barely feed the cats, let alone afford a lawyer. Part of the way Patty is continuing to harm me is by putting me out of work. It's been financially devastating. That’s why I’m here. So let me get this straight . . . if I had actually complied with Patty's sexual requests and had an intimate relationship with her, and had even moved in with her, then you would be able to provide me with legal assistance. But since I was only a friend, who she sexually harassed, and sexually assaulted, and is now being stalked by her, and who is now being subjected to victim shaming and threats from her friends . . . I don't qualify for assistance. Do you know how messed up that sounds? Remember those sick ironies I mentioned earlier? Another one just happened.

Alexis: I'm sorry, but these are our guidelines. It looks like you’ll have to confront her without a lawyer.

John: Honestly, it sounds like I have more to lose than I have to gain by taking Patty in front of a judge. [To Suzi] With my luck the judge will be that woman who was screwing that guy in Amanda's band. I'm sure she'd be real sympathetic to me [rolls his eyes].

Alexis: What are you talking about?

John: I heard this same story from Amanda and another member of her band. The bass player was sleeping with married older women and extorting them for hush money. He did it to a woman who is a judge. Amanda got angry about it and fired him. Imagine if I had to tell my side of the story to that same woman judge in court. Do you think she'd believe me, or believe the false claims of Patty and her friends that I was screwing her? You yourself, despite everything I've presented to you, with my woman sitting here by my side, still are biased towards the idea that I fucked around with Patty. "Believe the woman" is like a reflex action for you. I know that there are a lot of bad men out there who use and abuse women . . . cheaters, adulterers, liars, gigolos . . . but I'm not one of them.

Alexis: That story about the judge really happened? Was it around here?

John: I'm just telling you what I heard. See what I mean about taking Patty in front of a judge without having a lawyer? Despite all the evidence I've collected I still haven't been able to get the cops to investigate or make a report. That fact alone makes my story appear spurious. You say the judge doesn’t have time to look at all my documentation. It will end up being Patty's word against mine in that room. I’ll be giving my stalker the opportunity to make false accusations against me in court, which her accomplices will back up, just as they've been doing for the last year. Patty's friends don't even know about her schizo persona Felicia! Patty has falsely accused me of stalking her and I believe she was setting up that entrapment before I got away from her.

Suzi: Show the messages about Patty wanting to be stalked.

John: She sent a link to her Facebook page saying she wanted me to stalk her like she was stalking me. She's a sicko desperate for attention. I called her out as one of these twisted women who get off on Lifetime stalker movies. It was only later that I realized she'd been setting me up to accuse me of stalking her. This dangerous lie will be believed without question because she's a woman and I'm a man. It's terrifying to imagine what other lies she could concoct to deflect blame from herself if her back was to the wall. She emailed me an unsolicited pic of her granddaughter asleep in bed. That's what Victoria meant when she warned me that they know things that could will get me in big trouble.


Alexis: I understand your concern.

John: Let's suppose the judge did side with me. What would I be accomplishing? I’d be giving Patty the drama and attention she wants while riling her up even more. So I'd have a piece of paper from the court that says she can't contact me or come near me. But what do I do when she send's someone else to handle me, like Vic, or someone Vic enlists to do the job, as they threatened to do just a couple weeks ago? I am still in disbelief that the Sheriff refused to even look at that threat.

Suzi: This isn't just about Johnny. Doesn't The Family Guidance Center care about me? I’m an elderly woman. Don't I count? I'm afraid in my own home! This psycho Victoria keeps sending terroristic threats to us. I keep getting mail from elected officials, from the Sheriff, from the Attorney General, and they all spout the same politically expedient crap . . . "We're keeping North Carolina families safe," "We're keeping seniors safe." Where are they now? Why haven't they helped us?

Alexis: These are things you need to think about before proceeding down this path.








SCENE — Suzi and John talking.


Suzi: I've been reading a historical novel by Aldous Huxley called The Devils of Loudun. This is unbelievable. Do you know about the Louden possessions?

John: No. What is that?

Suzi: There was this notorious witchcraft trial in France in 1634. A French Catholic priest named Urbain Grandier was tortured and burned alive at the stake. He was a handsome, had enemies who were jealous of his success, and the ladies liked him. That’s what motivated his persecution. Does that sound familiar?

John: Are you saying this is me?

Suzi: Listen for yourself. This priest visited a convent in Ursuline in 1632. What he didn’t know at that time was that the Mother Superior, named Jeane des Anges, was this neurotic, hunchbacked, sexually repressed creature who had been watching him from afar — you know, like stalking him. She was infatuated with him.

John: Oh boy. I see where this is going. So the old, ugly, hunchback woman is sexually obsessed with a younger man — got it.

Suzi: It gets worse. So this Mother Jeanne is in lust with the priest, and also insanely jealous because he gets attention from other women. She makes advances on him, offers him a residence at the convent, which he rejects. She becomes enraged, and retaliates by accusing him of seducing her, sexually antagonizing her, using black magic to bewitch her, and committing evil and impudent acts.

John: Yeah, like what acts?

Suzi: Like making her horny, and making her masturbate. She accuses him of sending a demon named Asmodai and some other imaginary beings to have sex with her.

John: Gee, imagine that. Was one of these demons named “Frisco”? So this sexually frustrated nun made up a bunch of lies and talked about people that didn’t exist. Sounds pretty far fetched [Rolling his eyes and snickering]. What happened then?

Suzi: The scorned Mother Superior makes a big noise about this, telling everyone. She gets other nuns at the Ursuline convent to make similar accusations against the priest, saying that he’s evil, a liar, a seducer. Like I said, this priest had enemies who were jealous of him and wanted to see him torn down, and they used the false accusations of the Mother Superior to frame him, put him on trial in a lurid, carnival like atmosphere, and destroy him.

John: A lurid carnival courtroom? That sounds like Facebook and the bars.

Suzi: At the trial the nuns are writhing in a frenzy, shouting, swearing, and . . . [Starting to laugh] . . . barking like dogs.

John: This isn’t funny. You weren’t there that night at Mountain View Pub when Mother Superior Patty and her crazy coven of drunk witches drove me off the stage. Those women were acting about like that.

Suzi: Sorry, but I have to laugh. The nuns accuse the priest of being a fornicator, a cheater, a liar. This story has actually been written about by philosophers, historians, and playwrights. There’s even been movies made about it. Have you heard of a band called Morbid Angel?

John: Yeah, I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never listened to their music. It’s death metal — not my thing.

Suzi: It says here that Morbid Angel wrote an album about this story.

John: [Facetiously] It’s so comforting to know that Morbid Angel understands my pain.

Suzi: It also says here that modern psychologist speculate that what made the nuns behave this way was hysteria, a need for attention, mass psychosis, multiple personalities, you know, the same type of stuff that makes these crazy women still act this way today.

John: Yep. I suppose this innocent priest’s trial is rigged.

Suzi: Of course. They torture him in the most hideous way, trying to make him confess. I'll spare you the description. He denies everything to the end.

John: Of course he does. What else is he gonna do — say that the imaginary people in the Mother Superior’s head are real and that he really did fuck the crazy old bag? So the guy told the truth. I suppose they really stuck it to him for that.

Suzi: They sure did. After torturing him the court orders him burned alive and his ashes scattered to the wind.

John: [Revolted]. Huh! Well that was a thoroughly sickening story, especially knowing that it’s true.

Suzi: In one film version of the story, after they burn the priest they put the Mother Superior in an insane asylum because she keeps flip flopping on her story, contradicting herself. They give her the charred femur of the priest, which she kisses and masturbates with.

John: It certainly sounds like something a lunatic like Patty might do.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


In June of 2023 my studio project VELVET VAMPS came to an abrupt end. Amanda's band was playing their first gig in the city of Hickory at a venue called Fyreside. Patty showed up at the show and demanded to speak with Amanda and her husband. After that Amanda informed me she was going to work with Patty, and what is more, that she believed Patty's psychotic fictions about a romnce between Felicia and Frisco. It was disturbing to learn that this seemingly educated woman who teaches psychology, is a practicing therapist, who had claimed to have dealt with stalkers, could have been so easily duped by a psychopath. After Patty spoke to Amanda's husband he told me that he didn't trust me alone with his wife.

One plausible explanation for Amanda's egregious lapse of judgement is her reason being clouded by her emotions due to recent traumatic events. The stalker is exceptionally cunning, as are most psychopaths; she targets the vulnerable and surrounds herself with those who are easily manipulated, such as alcoholics, druggies, and victims of various kinds of trauma. Amanda was in such a vulnerable state, having recently caught her husband committing adultery with a woman she described as "Old and ugly." This messed with Amanda's head and I spent hours as her friend listening to her heartache. The theme of betrayal permeates the VELVET VAMPS songs. Amanda had also been required to fire a member of her band who was using sex to extort women. It was perhaps due to these recent circumstances that Amanda was susceptible to believing that I could fuck around with an "ugly old woman" like Patty. A woman who has been deceived is more inclined to believe that what one man can do, another man can do as well. Perhaps Amanda saw in the stalker's hideous countenance a reflection of the "ugly old woman" who had seduced her own husband.

A more cynical explanation is that it was strictly business. At the point I dissolved VELVET VAMPS I had produced an entire album, having spent hundreds of hours coaching and mentoring Amanda, composing music around her lyrics, performing all instruments, and producing. I undertook this task because I appreciated her as a friend and respected her talent. I was compelled to create art, even if it was ars gratia artis. After Amanda had the finished tracks in her possession she no longer needed me. After the stalker presented herself and offered a means of advancing her goals in a way which I could not I was discarded. It's very painful to verbalize this cold reality, but exploitative, predatory behavior has become the norm in our society. Look around and tell me I'm wrong.

Amanda explicitly knew that Patty and Vic had communicated threats to me on 12/18/22 because those messages were relayed through her via her own Facebook account. As a professional therapist she knew that I mustn't have any cross talk between the stalker and myself. Yet Amanda still sided with the predator who had sexually harassed me, assaulted me, and was continuing to stalk and threaten me. She said that I was overreacting, that the threats were no big deal, and that her own life was threatened all the time. I couldn't accept these things which Amanda had normalized. Amanda's husband, who she said had a mental problem, began sitting outside my house in the woods while we recorded. The situation was too scary. I warned Amanda to be careful and said goodbye.

So ended the saga of VELVET VAMPS.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


As of November 2023 Lucid Outbreak is still going strong and has been gigging regularly on the local circuit. During Summer 2023 the drummer reached out to me, we had a great conversation, and the two of us got together to have a jam over a six pack of Guinness.

A month ago the drummer of Lucid called to touch base, asking if I was interested in gigging if they needed me. As I had nothing going on at this point, and my soul was starved to be involved in any creative musical endeavor, I told him it was a definite possibility and to keep me informed.

He'd been trying to get ahold me since Tuesday of this week through phone and text. I'd been busy earlier in the week, intensely focused on some other things, and I'd turned my phone off and put it in a drawer. If you never do this, I highly recommend it. When I finally got back to him he asked if I could play for the band in a week-and-a-halfs time. It's a venue I'm familiar with and have played before. Plus it is outside of the stalker's territory.

There's a scheduling conflict with the regular bass player, but the band is determined to play the show.The band's lead guitar player, who I had replaced when joining the band in the Summer of 2022, is moving over to bass guitar. He already plays bass in a band called Denver Days. The guitar position has been turned over to me. I've been given "The keys to the Laborghini." I've been dying to use that cheesy Michael Angel Batio quote from the Speed Kills Metal Method video.

But seriously, we won't be playing any NITRO songs . . . though there will be VH, Zep, Sabbath, SRV, Hendrix, Mountain, Montrose, Aerosmith, and ZZ Top. The current set list has a tune called "Hey Baby." I hope it's the Ted Nugent song because I've been dying to perform that one. I recently acquired two Kramer Barettas and have been playing Van Halen non-stop. It would be nice to add a couple of Ed's barn burners to the set list too. "Show Your Love" and "Hot for Teacher" immediately come to mind. These guys tend to rush the tempo, but that wouldn't be an issue with those upbeat boogies.

So continues a middle aged guy's adventures playing rock & roll with 20 something year olds while trying to avoid a stalker.

[Partscaster]

Thats great. Glad to hear it.

Could be Jimi's "Hey Baby" ? Aka, "Land Of The New Rising Sun". Probably not, its a space drifter song. ( ooh, that could be my next groups name "Space Drifter")
Have fun.

[toomanycats]

One of the things I knew about the young guys when I first became associated with them a year and a half ago, which they didn't know about themselves because . . . well, they're young . . . was how rapidly things can change at that age. I'm old enough now to look back at myself at that age, 22, 23, and see how my interest were constantly shifting and evolving. I was figuring out the world, trying things out, learning lessons (some of them the hard way).

And so, things have changed for them. It's a different situation I'm walking into this time.

Since playing with the band in the Summer of 2022 one of the members got married. One guy left the band and last I heard had a baby on the way, if not already arrived. A couple of the guys have got quite religious and also perform in a church band. The band is no longer interested in pursuing a career in music. There's no more talk of becoming rock stars and "making it," and they don't perform any original songs at their shows. They've settled into performing only once or twice a month, and rehearse only when necessary. Overall, they seem more laid back about things and realistic in their expectations.

These are just some observations on my part, as I once again prepare to cross paths with these guys in what may only be a one-off situation . . . or not. File it under topics of sociological interest relating to the subculture of rock musicians.

These guys don't update their Facebook page very often and have not updated the band photo to one with me in it. The stalker might not even be aware that I'm playing with them again — which relieves a tremendous amount of the underlying pressure and anxiety of appearing in public and returning to the stage. But then again, she's probably still cyberstalking me on this forum and is aware of my activity.

It's Patty's employee, her outspoken antisemitic accomplice Vic, that I'm more concerned with. Since the horrifying terrorist attack in Israel last month, and the ensuing Israeli-Hammas war, there has been increased violence perpetrated against Jews by antisemites all over the world, including here in North Carolina. Victoria is a radical leftist with a history of violence, demonstrating through her actions that she has no regard for the law, with an intense hatred of my being a Jew, which she has intimately expressed to me in no uncertain terms. Every day I live as though there is a target on my back. I'm afraid of our house being set ablaze in the middle of the night while Suzi and I sleep because this demon cackled in my face about Jews on fire.

Shown below is the letter the Catawba County Sheriff sent us hitting us up for a "donation" after they refused to even look at evidence documenting the terroristic threats being communicated to us by Patty and her antisemite conspirator Victoria for the previous year. This documentation contained detailed evidence demonstrating that Patty had:

* Sexually harassed me throughout 2021 and sexually assaulted me on 12/31/21.
* Has relentlessly stalked me since then.
* After assaulting me continued sending messages signed “Felicia,” indicating that she is in need of psychiatric intervention.
* Has sent me messages about self harm (further documentation proving that she needs court ordered psychiatric intervention).
* Has been reported by a third party (the administrator of this forum) to her internet service provider as a cyberstalker.
* Has directed an antisemite criminal conspirator to threaten to "handle" me if I don't remain silent about her hostile actions.

When the Catawba County Sheriff says, "To keep you and your family safe," does the Sheriff mean only those who cough up protection money? I once lived in Hells Kitchen in NYC and had to pay The Westies protection money so I could safely park my Harley on the corner of 39th Street and 10th Avenue. I once managed a private gym in the Flatiron District and had to pay the mob a "rubbish removal fee" for the one single wastebasket full of paper we produced every week. I know what a shakedown looks like.

[tonebender]

Good luck with this new stent with the band. It does sound like you enjoy playing with these guys. Back in the 90's I went to a biker bar in Tampa and saw a band play. There were not many people there at all, maybe 5-6 other than the four of us. It was four guys in the band, drummer, vocalist, bassist and guitar player. They were doing Hendrix, ZZ, etc., and at one point the guy on guitar just went off on Eruption like he wrote it and then they banged out some VH. They were extremely tight and in the pocket. The vocalist soon introduced the band and stated the regular guitar player could not be there and the guy that just pulled off all the Hendrix and VH was usually the bassist in the band. The bassist was a fill in. I remember thinking, holy crap is he is not the regular guitar player then the other guy must really be good.

[toomanycats]

Good luck with this new stent with the band. It does sound like you enjoy playing with these guys. Back in the 90's I went to a biker bar in Tampa and saw a band play. There were not many people there at all, maybe 5-6 other than the four of us. It was four guys in the band, drummer, vocalist, bassist and guitar player. They were doing Hendrix, ZZ, etc., and at one point the guy on guitar just went off on Eruption like he wrote it and then they banged out some VH. They were extremely tight and in the pocket. The vocalist soon introduced the band and stated the regular guitar player could not be there and the guy that just pulled off all the Hendrix and VH was usually the bassist in the band. The bassist was a fill in. I remember thinking, holy crap is he is not the regular guitar player then the other guy must really be good.

I have tremendous respect for any skilled lead lead guitar player who is willing to take on the role of bass. I don't mean a guy who approaches bass like Billy Sheehan, as basically a lead bassist. Don't get me wrong, I think Sheehan is great, but I'm talking about really owning the role of the bottom end, locking in with the drummer, establishing the groove, and making people's azzes shake. A guitarist has to have his ego in check to take on that job, which is entirely different than the lead guitar role. Jimmy Page first toured America as the bassist in the Yardbirds. He was already a well know session guitar player in London, but bass was the position available, he wanted the experience of playing in the States, so he adopted that role.

[toomanycats]

REPORT ON GIG OF SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2nd, 2023

A YouTube short of ZZ Tops "Tush."
https://youtube.com/shorts/cqi9dKD45pI? ... 1rh5gW2ViR

The show, considered as a whole, went really well this past Saturday night. Despite it being a new iteration of the band, albeit with members who have all previously been in the organization, though not necessarily in this particular combination, it felt very familiar and "at home" to me. Many people commented both during and after the show that it was the best version of the band they've ever seen. The bar manager's husband, who is a student of mine, said it was exceptionally packed, even for a Saturday night, and the best show they've had there that year.

At the gig I was shocked to learn that Amanda, my partner in VELPS VAMPS, had almost been strangled to death by her husband, who is presently in jail. This was chilling news. I believe that when Patty spoke with his man at Fyreside in Hickory, in June of 2022, she said things to make him distrustful of his wife coming to my house to record. After contact with Patty he explicitly told me that he did not trust me. He subsequently hide in the woods outside my house while Amanda and I were working on the final VELVET VAMPS track. This scared the hell out of Mrs TMC, who insisted that this was a dangerous situation that could not continue. Mrs TMC now feels, if not happy (for we have no ill will towards the man), than at least vindicated in having made the correct judgement.

Despite it being a rainy and foggy night there was a spectacular turn out at the bar. Imagine the weather in your typical Hammer Horror film, which is on my brain having just come off my late October Halloween binge of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee flicks. I didn't get home until nearly 3 AM and had to drive through that soup.

The soundman hired by the band was a super nice guy. Honestly, he was extremely attentive and accommodating to me in so many ways. About 7 minutes before show time he noticed that I was struggling with my Cry-Baby wah, as many of us do. Damn thing is so hard to click on and off. He say's to me, "I can fix that in a couple minutes." I'm thinking, "This guys is going to disassemble and repair one of my pedals only minutes before we start?" Before I can protest he's taken off with the pedal in one hand and a Phillips-Head screwdriver in the other. When he brings it back a few minutes later he briefly describes how her removed a washer. The pedal engages like butter, so smooth and silky, like I just got a new boutique wah pedal. I'm very impressed with this guy.

But there was one particular situation that I had to deal with.

I've mentioned many times in this thread that this band has always allowed me to play loud. In a world of old farts and pussies who wear in ears, go direct, and are into the silent stage thing, it was one of the things that appealed to me immensely about playing with this band. You've seen the video of previous gigs I've posted, and it is a loud, raw, visceral rock and roll experience. It is important to me to be authentic to the 70s and 80s hard rock ethos.

To clarify, I'm not one of those schmucks who shows up to a small bar gig with two full Marshall 100 watt Plexi stacks and then complains when people say he is too loud. What's most important to me is tone, though of necessity the tones I'm going for do involve a degree of reasonable volume, which has never been a problem for me before. I'm taking about pushing the power tubes on what are essentially non master volume amps. To that end, I have carefully assembled my rig to be ideal for producing those tones at manageable bar/club volumes.

The core of my present set up is:

An 18 watt JTM45 type head with a master voltage regulator pushing a 2x12 cab loaded with one Celestion Vintage 30 and one Celestion Alnico Blue. I typically run this amp with the master voltage set at between 1/3 and 1/2.

A Marshall SV20 pushing a Marshall Origin 4x12 loaded with two stock speakers and two Celestion Greenbacks. This head is a 5/20 watt switchable Marshall 1959 Super Lead. I was running it at 5 watts at the show.

So were talking about maybe 15 tube watts pushed hard and driving six 12" speakers. It's woody, organic, deep, wide, three-dimensional, singing, and glorious . . . without being ear bleeding loud. I've got all the touch responsiveness, sag, and push back between guitar and speakers that you'd expect from this set up.

When I initially fired up my rig this same sound man said I was way too loud. I was actually playing at less volume than I'd previously used with these guys. Let me remind you, the kid playing drums hits hard! He's got a Bonham Ludwig kit and he whacks the sh*t out of that thing. My right ear is still ringing on Wednesday morning from his snare. I'm not complaining, as I love loud and thunderous drums.

So I look over my shoulder and the aforementioned sound man is messing with the knobs on my amp. I asked him what he was doing, telling him he's messing with my tone. He asks if I have a direct line out. I'm a little incredulous. I mean, surely he must recognize what my rig is. The hand wired JTM does not have a line out. The Marshall SV20 does, as sorta a grudging concession to modern players. But who in their right mind would want to go line out on a Plexi? That would mean bypassing the sound of those big bottle EL 34 power tubes, the output transformer, not to mention the Greenback speakers, the feeling of pushing air onstage, the musical feedback, and that thump and roar that is the sound of live rock and roll played through Marshalls. But seriously, he does not get it.

Now I'm curious, so I ask the soundman if he plays guitar. He does not. In fact, he's not a musician at all. His favorite genre is metal. He makes some comments about Axe FX and Kempers. I felt it would be pointless to give a long explication how my amps are instruments in and of themselves; that the power tubes, output transformer, cabinets, and speakers are as essential to the "voice" of my guitar as are the braced maple arch top to a cello or violin; that I'm going for the tone of 70s Billy Gibbons, Paul Kossof, Jimmy Page, that type of thing.

It dawns on me with horror that what he really wants is for most of my onstage sound to being come out of my monitor, with my amp as quiet as possible, and preferably silent. I had to submit to a compromise in that moment and settle for a tone that wasn't really mine for the show. I just didn't have time to hash this stuff out in the moment. Bottom line, all I heard of myself during the performance was monitors, no amps.

The net result was that I lost that break up tone I get from power tube distortion and speaker break up. I also lost the guitar volume knob control I required. I felt like I'd been ham-stinged right before going out on the field. Obviously, this wasn't the sound man's intent; as I've said, he was a very nice guy who genuinely wanted me to sound good. I just don't think he ever encountered a situation where he had to mic a a JTM or Plexi, and has mostly dealt with modern amps, modelers, and metal tones.

Regardless, I played my ass off. I kept thinking of one of my favorite Ted Nuggent quotes, "I could plug my guitar into a diseased goat's ass and make it sound good," hoping I could similarly rise to the occasion.

This particular issue will have to be addressed before the next performance. I know and have played with people who use silent stage, with in ears and all that, and I absolutely hate and detest it. I know it's the modern way, but it's not rock and roll.

[tlarson58]

Despite the bad amp situation I'm glad that the gig turned out well. I would have had a big problem (read: hard to concentrate) having a not-to-my-taste tone all evening.

[tonebender]

I would have a real problem with a sound guy or band member turning on my amp knobs. I would not mind them asking me to adjust but cranking on my knobs would result in an unpleasant encounter.

[toomanycats]

I've got to be honest with you guys — I feel like I can no longer use this forum to write honestly, openly, and earnestly about the really interesting philosophical, gritty and raw experience of a gigging guitarist — so you're not going to be privy to all of that. Make no mistake, there is stuff going on that I could regal you with in the literary tradition of Hunter S Thompson, Jim Harrison, and Bukowski . . . but you're not going to hear these rock & roll stories from the trenches because I don't want this thread memory holed.

The nervous apprehension on my face in the pic below is because I knew the stalker would see this promo on Lucid Outbreak's Facebook profile. Not since I was sixteen years old, performing for the first time at my High School talent show, have I felt such terror at the thought of going onto a stage. I am afraid that Victoria, emboldened by the recent wave of antisemitic attacks across the county, would use this opportunity to silence me for good, as she has previously threatened to do.

The fear of violence the moment before going onstage.

[Rollin Hand]

I've got to be honest with you guys — I feel like I can no longer use this forum to write honestly, openly, and earnestly about the really interesting philosophical, gritty and raw experience of a gigging guitarist — so you're not going to be privy to all of that. Make no mistake, there is stuff going on that I could regal you with in the literary tradition of Hunter S Thompson, Jim Harrison, and Bukowski . . . but you're not going to hear these rock & roll stories from the trenches because I don't want this thread memory holed.

Why not? Does it involve gatuitous sex and drugs to go with the already demonstrated rock 'n' roll?

[tobijohn]

Why not? Does it involve gatuitous sex and drugs to go with the already demonstrated rock 'n' roll?

Why not, indeed! Especially if it involves gratuitous sex and drugs. Some of us here are living vicariously through you...

[tonebender]

You could try the Reader's Digest condensed versions and leave a little something to the imagination.

[nomadh]

I've got to be honest with you guys — I feel like I can no longer use this forum to write honestly, openly, and earnestly about the really interesting philosophical, gritty and raw experience of a gigging guitarist — so you're not going to be privy to all of that. Make no mistake, there is stuff going on that I could regal you with in the literary tradition of Hunter S Thompson, Jim Harrison, and Bukowski . . . but you're not going to hear these rock & roll stories from the trenches because I don't want this thread memory holed.

Why? What happened? I think we all want to hear what's going on

[toomanycats]

Apologies for leaving you hanging all this time, and for skirting the line of what's allowed on this forum. Yes, my Mother has read this, and she is pissed about my language; not for the words themselves, but because they describe actual events. I mean no disrespect to my fellow members and the mods. I justify the subject matter because there was a strong interest expressed in knowing what was going on, and I also cannot tell this story, with completeness and fidelity, without making extended reference to the stalker.


“The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.” - Saint Augustine


HOW DOES A SOUNDMAN NOT KNOW WHAT A JTM or PLEXI IS . . . AND WHEN DO I GET PAID?

My return to the band was weird from the beginning. I noted how the soundman asked if my JTM style head had a direct out. When I said "No," he looked puzzled, asking if it had a preamp. That was a disconcerting conversation to have with a soundman.

After that first gig I had almost no communication with the band for six weeks, from December 3rd, 2023, until mid January 2024. I hadn't been paid for the job. When summoned to reconvene in mid January of 2024 I was finally paid. The band’s manager took me aside, as though he felt guilty, disclosing that they'd played around with the lineup in the past six weeks. I was annoyed that during that time I had devoted myself to practicing the band's material, that those efforts hadn't been necessary, and I hadn't even been paid out. I didn't appreciate being treated like this, though I wasn't in a position to complain, as feline emergencies had recently occurred, vet bills were piling up like a tsunami, and I needed any work I could take on.

A different soundman assumed live mixing duties. I endeavored to communicate the tone I required. He didn’t know what a JTM was, was indifferent to my Marshall Studio Vintage 20 watt Plexi, and instead suggested I use his own 100 watt Marshall DSL with the line out. As I attempted to explain the reasons why I couldn't achieve my "voice" in this manner, he told me about his favorite bands, demonstrating cookie monster vocals and throat growls. Oy vey. He constantly approached me onstage while staring down at a tablet, asking me to turn down my stage volume. Meanwhile, strangers in the audience were approaching me and saying, “I see your fingers doing all this stuff but I can’t hear you!” Even a drummer complained that he couldn't hear me!

For every four scheduled rehearsals the band played one gig. The majority of these rehearsals were canceled at the last minute, which greatly interfered with my lesson schedule and cost me much needed income. I've already got into the semantics of "rehearsal" vs "practice" in this thread, so I won't belabor those points. Suffice it to say that I felt ill used because some of these "rehearsals" were hangs where band members were late, didn't show up at all, were not prepared, got high, and checked out early.

I still had no real musical input, being unable to add any of my song choices to the set list. I pushed Van Halen's "I'm The One," "Hot For Teacher," and "Panama," amongst other VH tunes, suggesting I bring out my EVH Frankie Relic for a mini VH set. I played Dokken's "Kiss Of Death," saying, "How about this." After jamming on Cream's "Crossroads" I asserted, "We should add that!" We didn't add any of those tunes. Meanwhile, our singer floated the idea of adding a power pop song, Fall Out Boy or something like that. WTF?


JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL!

Let me preface this next part by saying that I'm not hostile to religion. To be sure, I've got my own religious beliefs, and having formally studied academic philosophy and theology I can be hyper-articulate about these subjects, in the proper context. However, the milieu of playing bump-and-grind, bluesy rock and roll music is not that context. I’m able to partition those things in my mind. That being said, these guys had gotten vociferously religious, with praying all the time, invoking scripture, talking about Christian fellowship, and encouraging me to actively participate in worship. They prayed and proselytized at rehearsals, before a show, onstage, during breaks, pretty much constantly. Supplications were made in Jesus’ name over playing the show, driving home, the health issues of everyone they knew — you name it, there was a prayer for it. It was exhausting. It felt like brainwashing while treating the second part of the trinity as a transcendent switchboard operator.

At the same time I was being invited to smoke the devils lettuce while they boasted about how cool their preacher was because he was covered in tattoos and got high. I wasn't down with this stuff. I don't do drugs of any kind. I also had to stick my neck out and reveal that I was a Jew, saying that what they referred to as the Old Testament was to me the Torah, and that I didn't accept Jesus as my savior. I've learned the hard way to hide what I am around here, and I didn't want to have to reveal that when I was just trying to play music — but then nobody should be pushing their religion on me in the first place.

How long would it be before these "kids" realized what Led Zeppelin and rock & roll was about, along with Robert Johnson, and Muddy Waters and his Johnny Concheroo? I had been good friends with a professor emeritus of philosophy at Syracuse University named Larry Hardin, who, besides being esteemed in the field of epistemology, was also interested in the occult. We spent a lot of time in his home talking about voodoo, Magick, Thelema, Crowley, the Qabalah, and the relation of music to the mystical. Such was the depth of my background on these subjects.

One night at rehearsal our lead singer declared that he wouldn’t perform Van Halen's "Runnin' With The Devil," Led Zeppelin’s “Houses of The Holy,” or any other such music. This was a stake driven through my heart. I knew that people who went down that road eventually want to burn Shakespeare, William Blake, Norman Mailer, and forbid the flat 5th note; you know, the whole Footloose thing. Robert Frost had said something to the effect that people who don't understand metaphor aren't safe to be set free in the world. Maybe this guy would grow out of his biblical literalism and fanaticism . . . but probably not on my timeline.


FELICIA LOVES FRISCO

Long story short — several years ago I let a mentally ill stalker and sex predator be my manager in exchange for access to work. Never do that. The rest is all details.

Beginning in February 2021 the stalker booked me around Hickory. While working with her she sexually harassed me and eventually assaulted me, after which I severed all ties with her. She then sent threats that I would be "handled" if I spoke publicly about what she had done. If I wanted to work as a musician, it would have to be outside the stalker's territory, off the "127 circuit," beyond the influence of the "Hickory Music Mafia" she boasted of controlling. This was the raison d'etre of this thread. I took the job with Lucid Outbreak to escape the influence of the stalker.

Despite repeated pleas, the police refused to investigate the ongoing terroristic threats being communicated to me. When I contacted the North Carolina Coalition Against Sex Assault, I was told by a person named Ericka that they would not provide me with legal assistance because I was a man, further elaborating that the State of North Carolina does not acknowledge female upon male sexual harassment or sexual assault. I had no civil rights, no equal protection, and was overtly discriminated against based on my gender.

The real time capturing of these crimes, as they happened, has been expunged from this forum. I perceive that erasing of history as a challenge. In medias res is, after all, the most interesting of literary forms, and I willingly accept that handicap. Honestly, it's more interesting this way, like coming in on STAR WARS Episode IV – A New Hope.

I will alternately refer to the stalker as either Patty or "Felicia." Patty Decker is her real world, legal identity. Felicia is either an expression of her mental illness, or a calculated cover she has used to expedite her sex predator activity. She often referred to me as "Frisco" . . . her lover from a past life, and object of intense obsession, lust, and desire. While Patty pretended to be my platonic friend and manager, Felicia was compelled to fondle Frisco. If one resides local to where my story unfolds, the words "Felicia Loves Frisco" can be seen carved into the wood at the bar Two Trees, in Denver, NC. Another "love letter," amongst hundreds of others, penned from Felicia to Frisco. To me she is Patty/Felicia, a single entity, the craziest bitch I ever met.

When I first met Lucid Outbreak I told them about my stalker, making a joke out of it, as though it was a perverse merit badge a performing musician earns. "You've got a stalker? Ha ha! I've got one too!" After all, the cops had laughed about it too. Yet the responsible part of myself knew I owed these guys full disclosure, as Patty had warned that she would crush anyone who supported me.

She pursued me outside of Hickory to my new position with Lucid Outbreak. This thread documents how she traveled to a gig on July 17th, 2022, at Clutches in Statesville, NC, where she terrorized me as I performed onstage. Preceding this show she had sent an email alluding to self harm. I was seriously in fear of a Dimebag murder/suicide event, my terror being so pronounced that I pissed myself onstage while she leered at me.

When I first resigned from Lucid Outbreak in August of 2022 I didn't disclose that Patty's continued stalking was a significant reason why I had to leave. The fact was, I needed to cease performing altogether. Patty had continued sending me emails and my nerves just couldn't take it anymore, not knowing when she'd show up at another job. Mrs tmc was also very frightened to be left home alone during my gigs.

After leaving Lucid multiple bands contacted me and asked me to join. One such offer came from a female vocalist named Amanda who fronted her own band. I declined her, explaining that I had a stalker who had made it impossible to appear in public. She said she had a stalker too, dismissing it as no big deal. But there was something about this woman which connected with me — her intelligence, her poetic soul, her thwarted artist calling, and her own history of abuse. We agreed to begin a recording project called VELVET VAMPS (hereafter referred to as "VV"). This collaboration lasted from November of 2022 until June of 2023. I warned Amanda that Patty would be incensed that I was collaborating with her and that she would soon be contacted.

Like clockwork, in mid December of 2022 Patty made slandering posts on Amanda's Facebook page, making snide remarks about my aspergers. She was promptly blocked. Patty then directed a conspirator, an attack dog named Vic who already had a restraining order against her by another musician, and who had previously spoke to me about burning Jews in an oven, to contact Amanda. Vic warned Amanda that her career would suffer if she worked with me. She slandered me, saying that she would "handle" me personally or that somebody else would do the job. She threatened blackmail, saying that if I talked they had info on me that could get me in big trouble.

As any law abiding citizen would do, I called the Sheriff. I reminded the deputy that this was the second time I'd called about threats from these same people. I asserted that Mrs TMC and I myself were in imminent danger. The deputy refused to meet with us or look at our evidence. We were on our own.

I barricaded our doors, strung barbed wire around the property, bought more ammo, and hunkered down in anticipation of an imminent home invasion. I left home only to get food and other essentials. Okay, I confess, I also stopped at a pawn shop or two, scoring a Gibson Les Paul and a Colt Python. I flipped the LP and kept the Colt. Mrs TMC became very attached to having that magnum revolver laying next to our bed.

Around this time my AGF thread documenting all of this was deleted. Mrs TMC and I feeling isolated, alone, denied the only documentation of what was happening to us, which provided us with some personal and legal safety. In Manhattan Mrs Tmc had been friends with Jaap Polak, author of Steal a Pencil For Me. Recollecting her experiences talking with Jaap in her home, she encouraged me to continue writing about what was happening to us, no matter what. Someday our account would be read.

The songwriting partnership of VV had a bit of magic to it and was quite prolific. I spent the next six months under this pale of dread recording the VV album, composing all the music, playing all of the instruments, doing endless edits and mixes, burying myself in the project as a means of escaping the ever present terror. I had horrific nightmares most every night. Amanda continued asking me to perform our original material with her band, though my terror would not allow me to appear in public. A warned Amanda to be wary in her own perilous situation.

In June of 2023 Amanda's band performed for the first time in Hickory at a venue called Fyreside. Patty showed up and demanded a private audience. Immediately after that VV was dissolved.






One can understand my acute anxiety upon performing live again with Lucid Outbreak in December 2023. I was coming out of hiding. The guys informed me that in the interim Amanda had almost been strangled to death. I also learned that Patty's old maid insanity hadn't subsided when she resumed posting comments on Lucid Outbreak videos. Psychopaths fuck with you like this. Deniro's character Max Cady says in the film Cape Fear, "I'm not doing' nothin' . . . I'm not on your property."

The aberrant fixation of stalkers can go on for years. I once spent a week at a private estate on Martha’s Vineyard and had an experience tangentially related to stalking. I had piloted a small boat across Triangle Lake to a sand bar bordering the ocean. After strolling some way down the shore of the Atlantic, I spied, in the distance, a four wheeler rapidly approaching and aggressively heading me off. A man with a cigar in his mouth politely though very firmly addressed me, saying that I was trespassing on private property and must turn back immediately. I profusely apologized and hastily made my way back the way from which I came. After returning to the estate where I was staying and relaying my story, I was informed that I had strayed onto David Letterman’s private beach. It seems that Dave had never gotten over his much publicized ordeal with his stalker, a mentally disturbed woman named Margaret Mary Ray. It was only now, that I had experienced a stalker myself, that I understood Dave’s need for hyper vigilance. Dave's stalker claimed to be in an intimate relationship with him, just like mine. Dave's stalker kept showing up at his job, just like mine. Dave's stalker eventually killed herself.


Oops! Sorry about that Mr. Letterman.

In July of 2023, after the catastrophic implosion of Velvet Vamps caused by Patty's direct interference, I began seeing a therapist. All my trauma poured out on that sofa. I was devastated that I was unable to perform live or collaborate in the studio due to Patty's continuing harassment, slander, and threats. Even worse, I was being re-victimized by having my civil rights to equal protection violated. I showed my therapist the entirety of my documentation and meticulously kept journals. I also had, more importantly, thousands of confessional emails sent by Patty/Felicia, revealing her premeditation and assaults. My therapist warned me to back up everything in a safe location.

As I did with my therapist, I'm now going to take you back to February of 2021, when this person who had already been stalking me first revealed herself as Patty/Felicia. This story could almost completely be told in Patty/Felicia's own messages.


This is what continuous, unrelenting sexual harassment looks like. I suffered this debasing abuse for a year as a condition of having access to work as a musician.

"He said, she said," expresses a truism that there are two sides to a story. This is not the case here. I need not make accusations. I can show you Patty's own voluminous confessions, which perfectly corroborate my lengthy and detailed testimony.

Patty's story and my story exactly correspond. Her own emails corroborate my accusations of sex harassment, assault, and stalking in a way that no amount of multiplied, strenuous allegations on my part ever could. They are the perfectly matched testimony of a perpetrator and a victim. My allegations and her messages have the relation between the input and output of an electronic amplifier, her own confessions magnifying the truth of my assertions.

Psychopaths want to be the center of attention, the "star." The small fraction of my documentation revealed here places Patty almost entirely in the spotlight. She says most everything that needs proving in soliloquy. Mine is a minor supporting role. On the one hand I am the compiler of the great morass of her messages; on the other I am the victim, the necessary second voice who is the foil for her madness. Through my first person testimony, as subject who was the object of Patty's obsession, desire, infatuation, and abuse, I relay how it felt to be the victim against whom she directed the intense psychotic assault she so carefully crafted, implemented, and, unbelievably, thoroughly documented in her own words.

Why would Patty document her own crimes?
Was it a Catholic compulsion for confession?
Is she a psychopath playing a game?
Did she know she was untouchable by the law?

Dumb criminals often record their own crimes out of sheer stupidity. I suspect the reason for Patty's indiscreet disclosures are more sinister. Her malevolent cunning played out in a game of abusing me while simultaneously taunting me with confessions. It was a demonstration of power, a way of her saying, "I can get away even with this."

The truth is I still don't know if Patty is mentally ill, or if she is a calculating psychopath who lies and deceives for motives of power, control, sexual gratification, elevation of social status through association with someone she perceives as "famous," or for making her estranged husband jealous.

The argument for mental illness is supported by the message below, which is akin to the Rosetta Stone as it relates to Patty Decker and the madness of her Felicia delusion. Patty watched me perform hundreds of times, beginning before I was even aware of her existence. I understand falling in love with an artist. My romantic heart wanted to believe that Prince, Joni Mitchell, Thomas Mann, and Matisse all "spoke" to me directly, though the rational, sane core of myself which was adjusted to reality knew this wasn't true. I once had a private conversation with Steve Vai, looking him in the eye and expressing how deeply his music had impacted me — though afterwards I didn't try to follow him home. Yet Patty did actually seem to believe that my artistic output, my music, words — even my body and my thoughts — were personally hers. She had an abnormal idée fixe upon my person.

The argument that Patty is a self-aware psychopath is also supported by this same message. Remember, this person is not really "Felicia," and that may be a mask worn by a psychopath for the cover of plausible deniability. She acknowledges that I have a partner and that I'm incorruptible. She is lucid as she meditates upon being old and ugly, upon what ground she has already gained by pushing physical contact, while also premeditating putting her mouth on me in the future. She rationalizes her harmful actions because they are fulfilling her needs. That is psychopathic behavior.

Mrs tmc read Patty’s emails from the beginning and was aware of the outrageous sexual harassment I endured to obtain gigs. Patty’s insane infatuation, absurd coquetry, love bombing, and increasingly bizarre messages were a joke in our home. Willful ignorance does not describe the denial she exhibited in disregarding my repeated assertions that I wasn't interested in sex or romance with her. I brought Mrs TMC to gigs to give Patty a jolt of reality — yet she persisted in her advancements, even escalating and multiplying her strategies. This was not a normal person we were dealing with. The situation devolved into something not funny, but disturbing, degrading, and terrifying.

Patty was stalking me before we met. I was her "Crush." She only likes younger men, naming many she "made out" with. She says I'm her new #1. When I talk to #2, who I had displaced and began regularly gigging with, he warns that Patty is a stalker who wrote weird messages to him. He had to be extremely mean to back her off, and expresses his relief that she's now fixated on me. He advises that my only hope is for her to attach herself to the next guy. Patty's version of this story is that she had a romantic relationship with #2, he had initiated it, and she had broke it off.

She informed me that I'd owe her a "favor" in exchange for being made the busiest hired gun guitarist in town (a "star" and "famous," as she refers to me). "Nickels" was one of the many euphemisms she used for the physical contact It was implied that I'd owe her. She is extremely possessive, constantly brings me presents, is fixated on my being a Jew, and says she knows I have aspergers — as though it's a compromising secret. She asserts that we're "twin flames" and that her psychic says we're destined to be together. She says she's my therapist. Under the guise of "evil therapist" she relentlessly fishes for personal information, even sending questionnaires. I am queried about what I dream, numbers, finances, family, my history, my sex life. I assumed that she was kibitzing with other people in the same manner, probably keeping dossiers, because she sent me hundreds of emails revealing the most intimate details of their lives.

The favor I'd owe in exchange for bookings was explicitly revealed when she insisted that my looking sexy made in incumbent that I let old ladies grope me. It was part of my job. I protested that I was not a whore. She said I should, "Grin and bear it." She offered to pay me for sex, baiting me with gig opportunities, with the caveat that we'd have to meet for a "date" to discuss the details. She was willing to pay good money for it. She wanted me to give her a lap dance while playing guitar. She told me she was in love with me, it wasn't fair that she couldn't have me, and that if we didn't advance beyond a friendship then she'd have to MoveOn and find another musician to promote. I could go work at Walmart. She wrote about being horny, her oral fixation, about having a void that needed to be filled, and having an orgasm while watching me perform onstage. She needed one of her guy friends to, "help her out," and if I didn't do it then someone else would.

I began refusing her Andrew Cuomo style "friendly hugs" by keeping the barrier of an open car door between us in the parking lot. She expressed her great frustration that I was refusing physical contact, avoiding her, turning my back, refusing hugs and kisses, reiterating that I owed her physical contact in exchange for booking me gigs. She said I hadn't met my end of the bargain, and that we needed to discuss this.

When I tell Patty how stressful it is dealing with alcoholic musicians who smash their equipment onstage, expose themselves in public, snort lines in my vehicle, skim the band's pay for drug money, and drag ass about paying me, Felicia says I'm a "butthead" for complaining about her friends, that this is normal band stuff, that even her babysitter does cocaine, and as for my anxiety — she knows ways to relieve that in a man.

On the morning of my birthday mrs tmc opened an email revealing a pic of Patty's hand fondling the balls of a dildo as she watches a guitarist performing. As revolting as this pic is, it has a touch of genius. Patty had captured, in a single symbolic image, her own epithet. It is a hallmark of psychopaths that they frequently tell on themselves, and this image was representative of everything Patty was: A lascivious sexual pervert, a stalker, a dirty old lady incapable of restraining herself from touching the object of her desire and infactuation. It was also a depiction of the power relationship between Patty and myself, as she most certainly had me "by the balls," not only being my manager, but also the administrator of a Facebook page HickoryURock, which was the hub of the local music scene and which gave her control over my access to gigs. In the background a guitarist performs for their living as the predator watches. To their right is the ATM machine, filthy lucre, the cash nexus that relentlessly drives all working musicians; and poor as they usually are, often handicapped by alcoholism, drug addiction, and other vulnerabilities, like aspergers, or past abuse, renders them easy prey for opportunistic predators like Patty — especially if a protective woman is not constantly present to cock block. The scene is the darkened environment of a bar, Patty's hunting ground, with alcohol and food representing intoxication, hedonism, and the carnal appetites.

Like many other women, Mrs TMC too had experienced sexual harassment, knowing what it is like to put up with abuse when you really needed your job. What Patty was doing was crossing the line and causing trouble in our home. We suspected this was intentional, part of her strategy. I reminded Patty that Mrs TMC read everything and to cease sending disrespectful messages, to which she responded that we should communicate without Mrs tmc knowing about it, that she could write some "really juicy" letters in longhand, though I'd have to eat them after I read them.

Rock & roll invokes the spirit of Bacchus. Some amount of "crazy" is baked into the thing and one must have a degree of tolerance — though there are limits. Mrs TMC and I had previously dealt with eccentric people in the rock & roll world. In Eric Clapton's autobiography he tells the story of a Witch he had sex with, who afterwards stalked him with a pillow under her blouse, telling the tabloids that she was the mother of his love child. When I first met Mrs tmc in Manhattan, Clapton's Witch and her Savanah cat named Leon were sleeping on the sofa. The Witch had been a famous muse, groupie, and partner and protege of Dr John, though she was now aging, down on her luck, and working as a saleswoman at Gracious Homes. Though she had an incredible voice, our musical collaboration was stillborn. It was beyond my limit of "crazy." So was Patty, though I was trapped in my current situation out of need to care for my cats.

Mrs TMC was often entertained by Patty's craziness, which is perhaps understandable given the popularity of Lifetime movies about stalkers. There's something about the aberrant mind which fascinates people. However, she ceased being amused was when Patty wrote, "I know Mrs TMC is cheating on you," and, "You can move into my home as a houseboy and bring all your cats,"" "My son is excited about you being his new Dad," and when she spoke about the child molestation going on in her family. Felicia referred to Mrs TMC as being "in the way," elaborating that we'd have to see "Where the chips fall" with this imaginary love triangle.

Things got more bizarre as 2021 progressed, with Patty alluding to a mental breakdown, saying she desired to be evil, and declaring, "This fat bitch is being released to the world." If demons are real she may have been one.

She told me that her good friend, the mayor of Hickory, murdered a woman he was having an affair with at the Newton newspaper offices before killing himself. This murder/suicide tale felt like a telegraphed message. Most everything with Patty was a "tell" disclosing her real desire and intent. Did this Moriarty want to "take me over the falls" with her?

After discovering the "grey rock method" while researching psychopaths, I attempted to stop reacting to Patty's outlandish provocations. She complained that I was being "emotionally unavailable" and "pushing her away," intensifying her taunting, as though my silence was a green light.

She told me about starting a gigolo business and that she wished I was gay.

She wanted to write a story about the year since we had met, embellishing it with a romance. She was already promulgating such fictions, planting a seedbed of lies. People started referring to her as my girlfriend, and in one alarming instance my wife! I was dumbfounded when they said Patty showed them proof that we were in a romantic relationship. Patty had hounded me to send her my unpublished poetry. I let her read metaphysical love poems in the style of John Donne which I had written to Mrs TMC. I suspected that Patty was telling people I had written those poems to her.

She referred to the gig where she conspired to first be introduced to me as our "anniversary." She framed messages as though we actually were in a relationship, contemplating whether we should break up. I told her this was "bizarre and disturbing," and that she was writing, "far fetched fiction."

She wrote that if anyone became her enemy she would crush them, along with anybody who supported them, accomplishing this by being two faced. She'd be fake friendly in public while working behind the scenes to hurt them with her venue contacts. She laughed about the fat, ugly, old musicians she was crushing, men who wanted to have sex with her, but whom she denied because she was only interested in good looking young men. She wanted these musicians to "kiss her ass" for access to promotion on HickoryURock.



Patty's messages are indicative of premeditation of sexual assault. She had taunted me about the sex contact I owed her, and here forewarns me what she will do "next time."

She documented her sexual assaults, framing them as a child molester would, like it was fun, a game. Below she describes premeditating her assault, my rejection, her anger, and her assertion that she deserves to put her mouth on me as payment. This is textbook quid pro quo sexual harassment. There is no such thing as a "friendly kiss" from somebody who openly lusts after you and has offered to pay you for sex.

Unwelcome sexual harassment occurs when the harasser knows that the behavior is not desired by the victim. Patty knew that her repeated assaults were traumatizing me and that I didn't want to be touched by her. What she called "breaking through my barriers" was sex assault. As she told me I made her horny, her talk of "friendly hugs" was merely a cover for sexual groping. She found my acute distress funny, hence the following message:

Patty sent what could be characterized as "sexual assault poetry," rhapsodizing about her arousal, and her compulsion to touch me, while at the same time perversely apologizing for her inability to stop this groping. She knew what she was doing, confessed it, justified it, and kept on doing it. In another poem she talks about dreaming me before she met me and the possibility that I was her husband in a past life.

The Sexual Assault of 12/31/21
Patty's most egregious sexual assault occurred on 12/31/21 at Waterside, in Catawba, NC. She jumped onstage, advancing towards me with arms outstretched, a wide eyed, deranged, lunatic look on her face. She had me cornered. She seemed to leap the distance between us in a second, tightly seizing ahold of my shirt with her stubby, pincer-like, liver spotted rat claws, raking my chest like a wild animal as she writhed and dry humped. She pressed her stumpy torso against mine and poked me with those hideous tits and bulbous belly. She then bared down with that revolting peach fuzzed mouth. In that moment all the feelings of being violated as a child decades ago flooded over me. I wondered if her granddaugher felt this way while being undressed by her mommy's boyfriend. All of this flashed through my mind in that moment. My legs weakened and I was overcome with nausea. I gathered sufficient strength to pull away, standing there shocked, repulsed, humiliated, utterly stunned at what this crazy woman had just done to me in public, onstage, in front of countless witnesses! I expressed my indignation through body language and verbally. A wrathful look came over her. Psychopaths become enraged when their goals are thwarted. She flung her arms in the air, twirling and pumping her squatty little legs like Rumplestiltskin having a tantrum. She began screaming, berating me in front of the band and the audience, saying, “You scumbag!” She drew in close once again to laugh maniacally in my face with the kind of “paradoxical laughter” that accompanies mental illness.

The next night, on 1/1/22 at my gig at Fyreside, Patty stormed into the bar with her eight year old granddaughter in tow, marched directly to the stage, and demanded that I apologize for having fought her off the previous evening. I told her she had sexually assaulted me, refusing to speak with her further. She planted herself at a table and had a histrionic crying tantrum while her granddaughter cartwheeled around the bar like a Honey Boo Boo impersonator.

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." — Winston Churchill

I told everyone I had been sexually assaulted by Patty, including coworkers and employees of the venues where I performed. Realizing that she'd overplayed her hand and was in danger of being exposed, she began a savage smear campaign, broadcasting a plethora of contradictory lies in an attempt to muddy the water, saying our contact had been consensual, that it was a "friendly kiss," that she had always respected my boundaries, that I wanted it, that I had led her on, seduced her, teased her, that we were having a lovers quarrel, and even that it was I who was stalking her! She tried to turn the entire thing around, crying profusely in public, saying I was making horrible accusations against her, and playing as though she was the victim of an Lothario and cunt tease. Her coterie of friends repeated these lies verbatim, shouted me down, threatened me, and told me I was ungrateful for all the selfless things Patty had done for me. The following is the last message I sent to Patty, on January 17th, 2022.

After my final message to Patty her stalking resumed; and I say "resumed" because she'd been stalking me before we'd even met. Technically, this nutter said she'd dreamt me before she'd even seen me. Her stalking was insane beyond measure. Even though I'd told her that she'd sexually assaulted me and to keep away, she kept coming to my jobs, getting within inches of my face, acting like she owned me, demanding acknowledgement.

On 1/24/22 Patty brought a gang of friends to Mountain View Pub to heckle, harass, threaten, and victim shame me while I worked. These woman drove me off my job that night, with Patty screaming as I exited, "This is all because of me!" She lurked outside my jobs in the parking lot, leaving notes on my car. She sent an email suggesting self-harm. She threatened to reveal "nasty" things about me if I didn't shut up. She stalked me online, on this forum, using multiple fake accounts, and was reported to her internet service provider as a cyberstalker. I was warned to stay out of her area and told that I would be confronted if I came into her territory.

Every musician in Hickory abandoned me. I was a pariah. Patty was The Master who controlled Bartertown and she had shut off the valve. She was the “weird uncle” of the Hickory music scene, a creepy, short, embarrassing inappropriate weirdo who was disturbingly attracted to young people and over eager to touch — yet they refused to disown her, even defending her like family. She had warned me what she would do if I crossed her. She did exactly that, and more.


On April 21, 2022 Patty posts this epic gaslighting on Facebook. She imagines she can get away with her crimes by joking about them. She has reestablished #2 back into his former #1 position. Maybe they resumed the intimate relationship she'd written about. She mocks the idea that she is a stalker who targets "young" musicians. I believe her intent was to gloat, to personally humiliate me, communicating that she had total control of the narrative, that nobody would believe she had sexually harassed and assaulted me, and that she would continue on just as before. At the same time she made this post she was actually stalking me, sending threats, I had called the Sheriff, and she had been reported as a cyberstalker.

To help connect the dots and bring the story full circle, after this I fled Hickory and I began my first stint with Lucid Outbreak in June of 2022, which is where this thread begins. Patty followed, continuing to stalk me both online and terrestrially. I then began my partnership in Velvet Vamps in Fall of 2022, which ended in June of 2023 after Patty once again followed. I basically hide until rejoining Lucid Outbreak in December of 2023, at which time I discovered, to my horror, that this diabolical monster with a taste for young musicians, who in the previous year had threatened to send someone to "handle" me, was posting on the bands Facebook profile.

After viewing my documentation my therapist confessed that Patty/Felicia was the most extreme case of sexual harassment and psychopathic behavior she had ever seen. She said that Patty was experienced at this behavior, exceptionally cunning and manipulative, and there was no doubt she had done this before. She was in disbelief that the Sheriffs department refused to investigate terroristic threats I had received, and even more astounded that the NCCASA had discriminated against me based on my gender. Patty was a predator, sex assailant, and demonstrable fabulist getting away with her behavior because she was hiding behind the cover of being an old lady. My therapist was distraught that such a grave injustice was being done to me, though she was powerless to do anything but listen.

I apologize for getting very personal here, but what therapy has helped me to understand is that the depth of my trauma has to do with the close association of several things: 1) I was sexually assaulted as a child, when vulnerable, by a person I trusted, and was frightened into remaining silent about it. 2) Patty did the same thing, pretending to be my friend while trying to force sexual contact on me, then threatening me to remain silent about it. 3) At the same time Patty was sexually assaulting me, a little girl in her care was being sexually molested. 4) Patty was adamant that #2 had been sexually molested as a child. I suspected that Patty was a serial predator who specifically targeted people with this vulnerability.

These things were yoked together in a vicious circularity, forcing all my deeply buried pain to the surface. It was mentally excruciating. Molestation had murdered a part of my soul as a child. Patty's groping, lies, and threats to remain silent about it were forcing me to experience that murder all over again.

Have you ever worried about being shot onstage? It's a horrible feeling, robbing all the joy out of performing. Before every Lucid Outbreak gig I confided in my therapist about the terror I felt, not knowing if I would be "handled" at this show. I told members of my band that I feared for my safety. They gave me an uncomprehending look. In fairness, it probably is difficult to understand why I'm afraid of a little old lady. Patty had never been investigated by the law, and it probably doesn't seem possible that somebody could do the things I was claiming and had gotten away with it. My concerns, very real and legitimate though they were, probably seemed absurd, like overblown drama — which nobody wants in a band. I was in a hopeless, unwinnable situation. I couldn't go through this cycle all over again: Patty acting the innocent in public while telling outrageous lies about me; the renewed stalking, gaslighting, and threats; the return of Felicia; and all while the police would refuse to help me and the NCCASA openly discriminate against me.




SHOW ME YOUR RESUME

The manager of Lucid Outbreak wanted to book us at a venue called Boatyard Eats, in Cornelius, NC. It was further away than our usual gigs and we'd be playing in the opening slot, consequently earning even less pay than our typical jobs. Needless to say, I was not enthusiastic about this. In order to secure the gig, our manager requested that each band member write a short resume about themselves, including a photo, which would be submitted to the venue to demonstrate that we were the caliber of artist worthy of performing on their stage as an opener. In response I sent our manager a pro shot pic of me performing at Boatyard Eats as the headliner. I mean, what else is there to say? I clearly meet the venues qualifications. Maybe our manager thought I was being too cute by way of making a none to subtle point about myself vis a vis the rest of the band, as after this he ceased all communication with me. There could be no assistance from him going forwards regarding questions of scheduling or getting paid. It is notable that the gig pictured below was shortly after Patty sexually assaulted me on 1/31/21, that my bandmates in this photo knew about it, that I had told them I was afraid that she would assault me again, and they had consequently forbid her from attending this January 28, 2022 show at Boatyard Eats.

EVERYONE IS ON THE TAB

Parallel to my anxiety about Patty, upon my return to the young guy band there was funny stuff going on with the money. A bar gig somehow ended up being eight hours of work, the duration of a factory shift, encompassing several hours before the show and extending until long past midnight after breakdown and load up. The more time I spent lingering in a bar, the easier target I made of myself for Patty/Felicia and NaziGirl.

I've played countless gigs with pro musicians who showed up 30 minutes before a bar gig, set up their gear, killed the room for three hours (without a set list and occasionally calling out Nashville Numbers), then tore down, payed their personal tabs, split the cash on the spot, and arrived home in time to watch M*A*S*H reruns while lying safe in bed. As unglamorous as this sounds, this is how one really makes a living as a musician.

I'd protested about there being a collective tab during the eight hour marathon of a gig, and I suspected that lots of people were drinking and eating on the band during this time. This included the soundman, and possibly spouses and girlfriends. My portion of this collective tab was only ever the cost of a couple beers, if even that. The large offsetting debit of the band's tab came off the top of whatever we had grossed for the evening. I felt like a substantial amount of what I was earning was being embezzled before it made it's way into my hands. I gave everything of myself onstage, playing my fingers to the bone trying to earn enough to keep my family's head above water, not so people could drink beer and eat chicken wings all night long. That the band paid a soundman an equal cut was absurd. We were playing the kind of local bar gigs where no band brings a soundman, as it's neither necessary nor economically feasible. This guy was eating and drinking on my dime while simultaneously killing my tone.


THERE'S A CRAZY GIRLFRIEND!

To compound the aforementioned issues, a member of the band had a girlfriend who was a certified whack job. Given my experiences of the previous several years, one can surely understand my desire to stay as far away from such people as possible. She was a skinny, sorta witchy, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo type of chick who wears all black and is ubiquitous around musicians. Maybe a junior Patty/Felicia in the making? She had initially been aloof towards me. But during a gig on the evening of 2/16/24 she was loud, belligerent, and obviously intoxicated. That night she became confrontational and insulting towards me. My return had bumped her boyfriend from the position of lead guitar to bass. I didn't personally see it as a demotion, as I had tremendous respect for his musical talent and ability to change rolls within the band; but she must have perceived it as a reduction in his status, consequently seeing it as her duty to fuck with me. There was Lady Macbeth stuff going on here. She derided me in front of the band, saying, “I’m surprised you actually pulled it off. Don't worry, you'll get better.” I was performing professionally and melting faces before this skinny little bitch was a period stain in her mother’s maxi pad; I had guitars with strings older than her; and yet here she was, having the chutzpah to try to gaslight me. I addressed this issue to one of the guys in the band, saying that I did not want to deal with her.


"Since before you were even born."

At a subsequent gig I looked down from the stage, observing as though through a vignette made between my leg and the monitor upon which it was propped, this whack job girlfriend dancing and writhing like Morgan le Fay in a trance, directly in front of me, starring up at me hypnotically. Over the years I've watched hundreds of girls make these gyrations in front of me as I played onstage. It's an ancient dance. There are images of Orpheus all over my bathroom walls, which are representative of this power that music has over nature.

During the drum solo, while making my mad dash to the men’s room, the crazy girlfriend suddenly appeared in front of me, barring my path, as though by teleportation.
“I like you,” she said. “I like everything,” she seductively reiterated, raising her hands dramatically and then slowly tracing a line from my head down to my loins with her pointed fingers. She was actually a pretty little thing, in a feral animal kind of way; but God did she have a horrible, acrid body odor!
“How old are you?” she playfully asked as she panted and a bead of sweat rolled down her wet brow.
“Old enough to be your daddy,” I curtly replied.
"My boyfriend said you're jewish." she retorted, as if revealing a secret she knew about me.
"Yeah," I said, "Just like him. His family is from Russia, mine is from Poland," adding, "I suppose he's got Aspergers too."
"Yes!" She responded, adding, "And I'm bi-polar!"
"Aren't we a pair," I said, as I watched her boyfriend, the bass player, approaching from behind her. I abruptly turned and made a bee line to the men’s room, being further waylaid and forestalled in my urgent need to relieve my bladder by a series of boomer aged dudes wanting to compliment my guitar playing that evening.




CAN I PLEASE BE PAID FOR MY WORK!?!?

My end with Lucid Outbreak came abruptly. I was in dire financial straights, suffering from a serious liquidity crisis, ready to take my guitars to the pawn shops I trolled to be bent over myself. It would be a humiliating role reversal, the ultimate comeuppance for the infamous AGF pawn shop scrounge. Recently several cats had died in my arms; I'd dug their graves, solemnly burying their stiff bodies under this accursed, ultisol North Carolina red clay. Yet the vet bills kept coming. I cursed Patty every time a cat died, knowing that my refusal to give her hugs, kisses, romance, and the "special favor" she desired was the reason why I couldn't work as a musician, and subsequently why my cats hadn't gotten every comfort they might have otherwise enjoyed.

There was also an issue with the brakes on my car. I’d already gone off the road once, having a white knuckle, everything-in-slow-motion, literal "Jesus Take the Wheel" moment. I'd informed the band about my car situation and arranged for a friend to transport me to the gig that weekend. I'd never let my personal issues interfere with my band responsibilities — not even terroristic threats had done that. It was partly out of a sense of professionalism and obligation that I drove my compromised vehicle to the last band rehearsal I attended, though there were also personal reasons.

I urgently needed my pay from our last job. Mrs toomanycats had harangued me all day that we needed money for cat food. Everyone else had been paid weeks ago, from the performers, to the venue, to the bartenders, and yet I was still holding out.

The band had agreed to learn "Mr Crowley," and I was ecstatic at the thought of being able to perform that song for an audience on Saturday night. I lived to play songs like that. It had puzzled me that the lead singer, given his refusal to perform "occult" music, had been the one who suggested playing the song. When I asked him about this, he laughed dismissively and said, "Crowley's philosophy is bullshit."

Upon punctually arriving at rehearsal my heart sank when I was informed that my cash from the gig three weeks previous was not on hand. One of these guys was a salesman at a local marina and had supposedly just got a 20K commission on a half-million dollar pleasure craft. Another one of them had recently spoke about the real estate empire he was going to inherit. How could they not have the paltry sum they owed me from three weeks ago on hand, which Mrs Tmc and I needed to keep us afloat?

I was also informed that the gig for that weekend had been canceled at the last minute due to a scheduling error. My risky drive to rehearsal was turning out to be a complete wash, with my cash not being in hand, my weekend job being cancelled, and the dozens of hours I'd spent that week learning "Mr Crowley" for naught.

I reiterated how desperately I needed my pay. They said that they could drive to an ATM, but I knew that would delay the start of rehearsal and retain me there until after dark. I'd promised mrs tmc that I'd return before sunset and deer came out on the hilly, winding back roads I had to traverse to get home. The cash should have been waiting there for me, as I'd told them about my dire financial situation. I told them not to bother driving to the ATM, and that I just wanted to get out of there as soon a possible. They said some stuff about Jesus loving me, that they loved me, hugged me, and offered to taxi me around in their vehicle until my brakes were fixed. I declined their offer, as I do not get into anyone's vehicle who I know uses drugs, and some of these guys also drive after they’ve drank too much. I've dealt with this issue many times while playing in bands, which is the reason I only drive solo. That's my policy, period.

They said they had a friend who could fix my car. Again, I declined. The band's manager had told me that there was a rich-kid poor-kid economic divide within the band, like the relation between the other kids in South Park and Kenny. I would not be treated like another "Kenny," or be used as a pretext for their Christian charity. I didn't want charity — I wanted what I had earned through my own labor three weeks ago!

I'd brought a made in Japan Jackson King V to rehearsal. When I took it out of the case they freaked out, offering to buy it. I'd recently given them a sweetheart deal on an SG bass because I urgently needed the money. I imagined that they thought they could score a similar deal on the Jackson, as I was now in an even worse financial predicament. I declined to sell.

All of my alarms were going off, with my cash unavailable, offers being made to buy my gear after I'd revealed my financial crisis, and transportation being made available so the band's own interests could continue. It's taken me years to understand that I'm often taken advantage of because I'm passive, soft spoken, go-along-to-get-along, and in some ways naive and innocent — some of which is due to my aspergers. I'm really like an Idiot in Dostoyevky's sense. I've learned not to trust people when they love bomb me, want to constantly hug, and assert that I'm family when I hardly even know them. These have become warning signs to me.

I waited 45 minutes for the chronically tardy member of the band to arrive — the guy with the hot/cold, stinky, witchy, crazy girlfriend. During rehearsal he had the nerve to “shoosh” me because he couldn’t hear the Facebook drama our lead singer was dictating over the PA. At that moment I had a revelation about everything, thinking, “What the fuck am I doing here?”

Rehearsal ended after dark. I left without saying a word. Mrs tmc was pissed when I arrived home, excoriating me for wasting gas, risking my life by driving our vehicle, and for not even coming home with the money owed to me.

Before you ask, I don't Venmo.

My bandmates were aware of my dire situation. I was sure they would deliver my pay within the next day or two. I mean, that's what I would do. I'm a fool who has faith in humanity. It would drive me crazy knowing I owed somebody money and they were suffering privation; I'd crawl across broken glass to pay that debt. They knew my car was fucked up, that I was defaulting on bills, in danger of losing my home, and that I didn't even have money for food. Not only had these guys expressed concern for my body, but had also made my eternal soul their business. Surely people who had such an all encompassing concern for my welfare would not abandon me in my time of urgent need.

The week went by and there was still no contact about the money owed to me. On Sunday morning cats were crying, with almost no food left for them. I was overcome with rage. All spirit of goodwill and empathy left me. Patty too was intertwined in my rage. I looked these guys in the eye, telling them about my assailant, and yet they still allowed that predator to stalk me on their Facebook page. Their youth and ignorance was no excuse. A mentsch pays his debts. I texted the band’s group chat, telling them they were religious hypocrites, to go to hell, keep their money, and that Yahweh would judge them. That was how Jesus turned over the money changers tables.

Word got back that I was the bad guy and that they were traumatized by my saying "hell" at the moment they were about to lead their church in worship. Yeah, right, the kids who talked about snorting lines in the dressing room of Apps and Taps with a Kid Rock impersonator were all shook up because I 'd said the word "hell." Give me a fucking break! To have young guys, who live with their families, boast about their affluence, and make me have to grovel, beg, and demean myself to be paid — it was just too much to bear. Yeah, go to hell!

I finally got my pay a couple weeks later through the intervention of a third party, a young female musician named Christina who was upset because a sex harassment scandal involving the pastor of her former church had become a cause célèbre.



MR CROWLEY, WHAT WENT ON IN YOUR HEAD?

After all of this I have been thinking much about Crowley; I mean the man, not the song . . . though the song has become my theme for quitting the band, being psychologically wedded to that experience, with the many hours I spent practicing it in anticipation of a performance that shall now never come.

You see, I have studied Crowley's works academically. Full disclosure — I once made a pilgrimage, while residing on the continent, to Boleskine House along the shore of Loch Ness. This was around the time that Jimmy Page was transferring the property to the MacGillivray family.

How far I have fallen since then, from that man preoccupied with the sublime, cosmic mystery of Loch Ness, with all that it implies geologically, metaphysically, and cryptozoologically, to a middle aged dandy undergoing a crisis of confidence, cosplaying at being a half-baked "rock star" around the shores of man-made Lake Norman, a cooling pond for a nuclear reactor owned by a Gas Holding Company, and secondarily a community for neuvo riche Americans and their spoiled brat millennial offspring. What have I become?

Were I a Christian, I'd hope to be able to provide a more articulate apologetics than simply declaring that Crowley's philosophy was, "bullshit." Crowley can't be so as easily dismissed as that.

"Do What Thou Wilt" is the ruling ethos of our age, underpining the values of the boomer generation. The 60s counter-culture has won the culture war. It's values of "sex, drugs, and rock & roll" are now the default moral code. Rock music was the soundtrack of the boomer's lives, espousing the values of self-seeking, transcendence through drugs, radical freedom, hedonism, pleasure seeking, sensuousness, and materialism. Nobody today who enjoys affluence and seeks their own advantage in any situation really believes, in their heart, that, "Crowley is bullshit." "Do What Thou Wilt" is the moral equivalent to Newton's first law, the first postulate of action.

I do in fact believe that Crowley is "bullshit." There is something higher than the individual's will, something underpinning our ideas of cosmic justice and order, to which I owe my allegiance. Yes, I've got a problem with Crowley — and probably even with rock & roll itself — which is an incredibly difficult thing for me to have to admit and come to terms with.