First, a small disclaimer: people are complex creatures and sometimes good people do bad things, and bad people do good things, and it is a fucked up crazy experience. I have done shit that I am mortified of, but that was a long time ago and I feel like it was part of growing past adolescence… I believe that we all, or most of us, hope that our actions remain “right”. Shit does, often, happen. I also know that there is a wide range of tolerance levels between people. I am sure that people will judge Roy Estrada harshly, and I have done my share of that as well. I can’t reconcile this with the person I met, and maybe he can’t either:
About a month ago I saw a post on Zappateers.com about Roy Estrada being in jail, with a link to an inmate record. It looked like the real deal. It turns out that it IS the real deal. Also, it seems that Roy has had problems of this kind before. I don’t know what he did, to whom, and how accurate the info is, and he will have his day in court. If it is what it seems to be then I hope he has a chance (another chance) to get help and maybe make amends.
The upshot is that Roy was supposed to play bass at the Rochefort festival. I got the call because I am familiar with the music of Captain Beefheart, and I have performed some of the music on the festival program, and I lucked out by being in the right person’s rolodex.
There was quite a bit of drama involving the airline reservations and ticket, and salvaging that and getting me a flight out of the northeast US. As of today that has all been worked out, and I am on track to be part of this very interesting festival. From this point onward my goal is to keep the blog on topic as to the content of the Beefheart tribute and my experiences related to it. Here’s to hoping that the drama is kept to a minimum!
petebrunelli 