Just found out that a friend of mine from Alpha Music passed away. We’d lost touch after I left the teaching staff but he also left later on to return to Winston-Salem for his law degree (which I recall was his initial aspiration before being sidetracked by music). I was indirectly responsible for his teaching gig at Alpha: Scott, John Kohn and I played a gig together for his boss and that introduced him to the Alpha family.
Apparently Scott was hit by a car on his way to school and the only reason anyone even knows about it down here is because the ER people used his cell phone address book to notify his next of kin.
Scott was a free spirit type who was always encouraging me to do more as a musician and I hardly ever listened to him. He was a genuinely noble person who never seemed stressed out or bothered by anything. I remember he just decided one day to quit smoking and he just did it. He’d been smoking his whole life (he’s from NC) and he just woke up one morning and decided to stop and never complained or vocalized any desire to have a cigarette again. He just stopped. He didn’t want his students to see him smoking outside when they came in for lessons, which, even though I teased him about it, I very much admired.
I though Scott was a better vocalist than a guitarist but he made up for his shortcomings with charisma, class, and the desire to perform and teach. He was one of the few sources of intellectual non-musical conversations that I’d have at Alpha. We’d talk about anything from physics to philosophy. He was a really smart dude.
We played several shows together and I regret not staying in touch with him after I left Alpha. I figured our paths would cross again eventually but I guess that won’t be the case. I didn’t even know he and Terrie got married and had a son.
I feel awful about this.
Think about your friends. Imagine your world suddenly without them.
I’m sorry for your loss. My grandfather, I think when he was middle-aged, gave up smoking the same way, and it’s one of the things about him that I too point to as an example of what an admirable person he was. Anyway, I’m sorry for your loss.
Thanks, Val. Scott was the kind of guy that just did anything he thought was a good idea. I remember he also decided that he was going to play as many acoustic shows as possible one summer to raise the money to buy a boat. Which he did.
Most things I ever try to do blow up in my face but Scott was one of those guys that could just kind do anything even if he was totally unqualified for it. When he got said boat he just “figured out” how to sail it.