(The Epicenter)
 Cathi and Geof |
It was July 17th
that Cathi initiated her departure. No notice, no word (though there were troubling signs.) She just split. This set in motion all sorts of crises. Geofrey freaked out. I freaked out. There was no money, no food etc. I hit the ground running, got a job, a second hand car a driver's license and a lawyer. As the other and only available cosigner, (my name was not on the deed) Greg went to pay the mortgage, and was informed, by the bank, nineteen months worth of mortgage payments were never deposited ($27,000.) We had paying tenants (her mother, my mother etc.) The money was there, then it wasn't. To go much further is to discuss the nature of addiction. A dear friend and benefactor helped Greg finance a lawyer, to legally lock the house down. We had a home, but at a cost. Greg would spend the next ten years getting out from under this miserable financial debt. I filed pro se for divorce. I would spend the next two and half years in legal limbo, fighting for custody of my child. Needless to say, whatever plans we had for a band were put on hold. We were just gonna hunker down. |
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It was almost immediately after Cathi left that I suffered a near complete emotional collapse. For some strange reason I decided to post a band ad in some local music shops. Peter Zolli, the only person to answer one, came to the studio, jammed with us, and hated everything we played for him. As he was leaving, I commented on the Monkees sticker on his bass guitar case. And like Eric Bartlett's sitar case, two decades earlier, such a slight exchange was the beginning of a long friendship. There will be a lot more about him later in our story. |
Then we met this guy -  Peter Zolli |
 Beggarman Thief (clients)  Go here to check it out |
1994 (The Interregnum) There was only so much energy to spare. Between divorce, trying to keep my kid together and paying off the bills Cathi left behind, there was not a lot of emotional and physical resources for music. Luckily I was able to get some studio clients, because bills and stuff. It was a raw and unpleasant time for both Greg and I. In spite of that, we did complete the project begun just before all of the chaos. Apocrypha So named for all the gaslighting Greg and I experienced, Apocrypha had morphed into personal journalism. This album became a dark catalog of anguish, rage and betrayal. It was the first time Peter Zolli assisted one of my projects. It was the last record I would complete on the Tascam 80/8 1/2 inch tape machine. Note - In all fairness I was a sucky, self involved, inattentive husband. But whatever sins and dark deeds I was culpable were in no way deserving of the financial calamity and emotional devastation that was visited upon us. It was hellish |
1995
(Turnaround and rebirth)
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