So Long Stevie B

20 years ago I was in a band called Reelin' In Terror.

Stevie Barlow played the drums.

He played them very loud and very well.

He also drank a lot.

But only when he was awake.

He was the basis for some of my best rock and roll stories, like the time I kept seeing mysterious objects flying past my head at a Halloween gig.

I turned around towards Stevie to see what was going on.

Someone at the bar was throwing Jello shots at him. The few he didn't catch in his mouth, he still managed to get.

When I turned around, I saw Stevie standing up, leaning over to suck a jello shot off the far side of his ride cymbal.

While keeping time perfectly.

Stevie hatedto tear down the gear and put it in the van. So he would abscond at the first opportunity.

We usually finished our set with Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll," which has a mini-drum solo (about 10 seconds) at the end.

One night, in the middle of the solo, Stevie stopped unexpectedly. He put down his drumsticks, said "F@#$ this..." rather quietly, and leaped up from his kit."Where the f@#$ is he going???"He came out from behind the drums and squeezed between the bass amp and a guitar amp.That's when Frankie the bass player tackled him.

While still wearing his bass.

The otherStevie in the band, Stevie the singer, jumped on the two guys wrestling on the floor.

But he dropped his guitar first.

I stood there like a jack@ss, not knowing what the f@#$ was going on. I should have at least played " Shave and a Haircut."

Stevie Barlow's plan was to surprise us so badly that he would be able to run out of the club and get out of moving gear.

Frankie knew better, and so a wrestling match ensued.

Those are just two stories. I have quite a few more, many of which I can't tell you for reasons best left unsaid.

Well, this is the last story that Stevie Barlow will ever be in.

The biggest problem with knowing people who live out great stories is that they always end up dying in bad ones.