I received this from Stu Simone:
I write this with a very heavy heart,
I'm warning you now this is a serious email,
but I please please read it!
If you're in a hurry, skip to the end and read Ty's own words...
When I first saw "The Station" Rhode Island fire
on the news as I ate breakfast this morning,
I just caught the tail end of the story, and
had NO IDEA of the scope of this tragedy...
nearly 100 dead at last count.
One in three people who went to the show are dead or missing!
One of the worst nightclub disasters in US history.
Wow.
And it really hits home here in LA (Great White's home town)...
Besides happening in the same kind of venue that we often play in and/or go to--
about the same size as our regular haunt Paladino's,
--our little musical community has been hurt badly.
Because the only band member not accounted for
is our friend and Other Voices band member Ty Longley.
I had no idea that Ty had made the fateful decision to re-join Great White until now.
He had quit Great White about two years ago, and among other projects,
joined Other Voices with John K (Escape), Gary P (Hair Guitar, Escape) and myself.
Among other gigs, we played at the Westlake Inn many times,
and played New Year's Eve together in Orange County.
It's horrific to see the video on virtually every newscast (even on BBC in England),
where you can plainly see Ty (long, curly hair waving) in a black tank top on the left side of the picture...
with flames exploding up into the ceiling right behind him.
If it wasn't true, I would not say anything, but these are the un-sugar-coated facts
that I learned from gigging with Ty for 2 years...
Ty was one of the coolest guys to work with...
NEVER complained, always in a good mood, easy going,
always on time, never too loud,
the kind of guy that every musician wants to have in their band.
And he was a great looking guy, with HUGE hair,
yet modest and rather shy.
Now that I think about it, it's really weird, but he really reminds me
of another diminutive, sweet guitarist who was taken from us way too soon, Randy Rhoads.
I met RR not long before his death, when he came to one of my parties back in the early 80's
(BTW, Great White was at that party),
and while everybody else was whooping and hollering, drinking everything in sight, RR quietly asked me,
"uh, excuse me, but do you think it wupold be, uh, OK, it I drank one of these beers."
Ty was like that.
Except Ty didn't drink AT ALL or do ANY drugs, not a single toke. Not even a beer. I learned that on New Year's Eve,
when we hung out at our hotel room after the gig was done and I pleaded with him (and his georgeous girl Heidi) to have a drink to no avail.
But you know what, he was just as much fun and just as rowdy as the rest of us... he didn't need it.
And to me, that shows character, because I can tell you from experience that when you're in that "rock star world",
there's always somebody literally INSISTING that you partake of their offerings. And I can tell you, it's hard to say no.
I'm not sure of his exact age, but he was under 30, relatively new
in town (from Boulder, Colorado, I believe),
and on his way up in this crazy rock biz.
(Check out Ty's excellent website,
http://www.tylongley.com ).
You can leave a message for him and his sweet longtime girlfrined, Heidi.
I just got off the phone with one of Hair Guitar's booking agents (based back East),
who also book Great White, and they told me that Great White had done a show recently
on Valentine's Day in Asbury Park (The Stone Pony),
about the same-sized club as The Station,
and the club said that GW had brought in pyro without their knowledge,
and actually had to go onstage and stop the pyro soon after the start of the show.
They say they angrily told GW that they were NEVER going to play there again.
So that doesn't look good for the band, and indeed they're probably being sued as we speak.
On the other hand, I've done gigs involving pyro, and I can't see how the club could
not have know it was going to happen... it takes quite some time to set up pyro,
and with wires and smokepots, it's not something you can hide.
I would imagine that the soundman, lightman, or a waitress, bartender or bouncer
must have seen them setting it up.
Considering it was a small WOODEN building, with curtains and a low ceiling,
it sure looks at this point like a HUGE lapse in common sense.
But I digress...
"the blame game" will no doubt go on and on for a long time,
but right now let's not forget...
As I write this (Friday night), Ty is listed as "Missing",
so maybe there's a minute chance that he could be
covered in bandages in the local hospital, so
if you're the least bit religious,
please let's all
PRAY FOR TY
-Stu Simone
PS Ty was also a very witty guy with a brialliant mind, and I leave you with this,
the last words in his last website diary entry...
"Let's all hope for a little peace in this world right now so we can all continue to enjoy music and have some fun on this globe! I say we send a bunch of bands, food, artists, strippers, bartenders, proctologists,psychologists and lots of love over to Iraq and North Korea for a big party! Would'nt that trip them all out? We could all have a good time listen to music, laugh, love and get a lap dance. Nobody would get hurt this way, (well maybe the proctologist would hurt a little) and we might find that we could all just get along. Well enough of my optimistic loving hippie thoughts, but hey I can dream can't I ? Oh yes I can.................and you can too!"
-Posted by TyLongley at 11:58 AM
