Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Deserving of It's Own Space
Tydwbleach recently, in an offhand comment, mentioned that she had attended John Lee Hooker's funeral. I found this curious, and asked for further explanation, which she provided. Because that response was buried in the comments section several posts back, I thought it would be good to reprint it here for those of you who were wondering the same thing.
OH GAWD Pk there was this REALLLLLY weird guy named Billy Johnson. AKA Bart Laminuzzi. Friend of my husbands, weird guy, guitar player and one of the many wayward musicians that LIVED at our HOUSE for like 18 months He took like 6 showers a day drank 5 pots of coffee a day and had like this talking sort of relationship with our dog, a black lab named Banjo.
Bart was a crazy human being, but a brilliant guitar player. Guess who made his guitar? BILL my brilliant luthier husband. and guess who was in John Lee Hooker's band for 10 years? Bart.
WHen Hooker died, Bill knew him and went to the funeral and I went with him.
Van Morrison's daughter was there , and Bonnie Raitt and a lot of music guys I have no idea who they were. It was crowded and it was a HO FEST the music industry is MIGHTY UGLY.
Hooker was a cool guy genuinely nice I could tell you a LOT of stories. but I am too tired to write them all. but he was AWESOME.
Boom Boom Boom Boom.
OH GAWD Pk there was this REALLLLLY weird guy named Billy Johnson. AKA Bart Laminuzzi. Friend of my husbands, weird guy, guitar player and one of the many wayward musicians that LIVED at our HOUSE for like 18 months He took like 6 showers a day drank 5 pots of coffee a day and had like this talking sort of relationship with our dog, a black lab named Banjo.
Bart was a crazy human being, but a brilliant guitar player. Guess who made his guitar? BILL my brilliant luthier husband. and guess who was in John Lee Hooker's band for 10 years? Bart.
WHen Hooker died, Bill knew him and went to the funeral and I went with him.
Van Morrison's daughter was there , and Bonnie Raitt and a lot of music guys I have no idea who they were. It was crowded and it was a HO FEST the music industry is MIGHTY UGLY.
Hooker was a cool guy genuinely nice I could tell you a LOT of stories. but I am too tired to write them all. but he was AWESOME.
Boom Boom Boom Boom.
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Well he was REALLY cool actually. He was ALWAYS cool, no matter how old sick and frail he got. HE was always uhmmmm really popular with the ladies until the very end as well....
He was a real character, and he seemed to remain true to who he really was always no matter how successful he got. THe truth is, a lot of his kids and stuff got sort of caught up in you know the money he made later in his life and stuff, but he never really did. He was a simple man, and he had a few things he liked... He always dressed beautifully I mean I NEVER ONCE saw him look sloppy or just I mean he was always perfect. He also had like nine cars, and he loved to like take a different one every day - Bart served as his driver sometimes and for the last year of his life was living at Hooker's house. He lived there off and on as well as with us. JLH always took care of the musicians in his band and Bart was SOOOOO weird and no one in his family or anyone could ever understand why JLH put up with Bart and his crazy antics.. But JLH ALWAYS said that "Billy always has a place to stay, Its MY house and Billy stays." He always called him Billy.
I mean Bart is like freaking certifiable.. THere is a picture of him on Bill's website. He used to do stuff like drink vinegar, smoke clove and other weird cigarettes, he was just insane Harmless but insane One night at our house he was out really late at night and came back all like bruised and stuff, and claimed that he was being chased by a bobcat all night long. we were like hUH>?
He was always a problem on tour for JLH and the band because he was always wandering off in the airport Jlh would always be like "Where's Billy? WHose turn is it to watch Billy?" One time before a show he dyed his hair like fuschia.
JLH had this dog named Boogie and Bart was always really close to that dog too He has a thing for dogs. SOmeone was always letteing the dog out by accident and Bart would have to go find Boogie.
SO many things.
He was a real character, and he seemed to remain true to who he really was always no matter how successful he got. THe truth is, a lot of his kids and stuff got sort of caught up in you know the money he made later in his life and stuff, but he never really did. He was a simple man, and he had a few things he liked... He always dressed beautifully I mean I NEVER ONCE saw him look sloppy or just I mean he was always perfect. He also had like nine cars, and he loved to like take a different one every day - Bart served as his driver sometimes and for the last year of his life was living at Hooker's house. He lived there off and on as well as with us. JLH always took care of the musicians in his band and Bart was SOOOOO weird and no one in his family or anyone could ever understand why JLH put up with Bart and his crazy antics.. But JLH ALWAYS said that "Billy always has a place to stay, Its MY house and Billy stays." He always called him Billy.
I mean Bart is like freaking certifiable.. THere is a picture of him on Bill's website. He used to do stuff like drink vinegar, smoke clove and other weird cigarettes, he was just insane Harmless but insane One night at our house he was out really late at night and came back all like bruised and stuff, and claimed that he was being chased by a bobcat all night long. we were like hUH>?
He was always a problem on tour for JLH and the band because he was always wandering off in the airport Jlh would always be like "Where's Billy? WHose turn is it to watch Billy?" One time before a show he dyed his hair like fuschia.
JLH had this dog named Boogie and Bart was always really close to that dog too He has a thing for dogs. SOmeone was always letteing the dog out by accident and Bart would have to go find Boogie.
SO many things.
# posted by 
: 10:46 PM
: 10:46 PM
If you aren't from Detroit, this might not make sense, but John Lee Hooker lived there, and used to play at that after-hours place down in the Eastern Market. Like some other people he wasn't from Detroit-- he moved there after he became successful. And it kind of fit. I remember one great thing about growing up in Detroit was that you could always go see some amazing music of some kind-- including going to hear Techno as it was first starting, down at the City Club. I went to go see Kraftwerk a long time ago and the crowd was huge-- all these techno guys who were worshiping them. It was a great scene.
Just, whatever you do, stay away from the Temple Bar. Except you, Swanburg-- you would love it.
Just, whatever you do, stay away from the Temple Bar. Except you, Swanburg-- you would love it.
Are you saying that you never went to "Drunk Night" at The Shelter?
Hooker was from Mississippi and he went back there like all of the time.
HE was a cool guy. I had never even heard of him until I met Bill.
Hooker was from Mississippi and he went back there like all of the time.
HE was a cool guy. I had never even heard of him until I met Bill.
# posted by : 1:56 AM
: 1:56 AM
Um, yeah, I did go to the Shelter (that place under St. Andrew's, right?), but I can't really talk about it on the advice of my attorney.
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