Tag: #thankyou

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Ace Frehley and The Ongoing Departure of My Childhood Heroes

Ace Frehley was my 1st guitar hero. Kiss was my first musical love. They were my 1st obsession. Kiss Alive was the 1st album I ever bought with my own money. It was the 1st album to hook me and haunt me. They filled my childhood, which was at that point filled with fear and anger, with excitement and joy.

My obsession for Kiss long since diminished but I’d be remiss if I didn’t honor the passing of Ace Frehley who passed away 16-Oct. 2025. His death does sadden me as yet another pivotal figure of my life moves on. He joins Ozzy, Eddie Van Halen, Jeff Beck, Neil Peart, Harold Budd, Vangelis, Lemmy, Prince, Tom Petty, David Bowie, Charlie Watts, Pete Way…and on and on…as people that meant so much to me, whom I never met but who contributed to memories and moments as real and as important and any attributed to my friends and family. Their departure from this life hits me in a very real way, perhaps not as acute as a loved one but no less real. Their departure is a reminder of the passage of time and a closing of a door to further contributions from their artistry to impact my life further. Yes, I still have the contributions from when they were alive and those contributions will live on in a way, but there will not be another Sabbath album or a VH show to go to, or an entertaining story about Ace Frehley. The door is now shut.

Thank you, Ace, for giving a scared, angry kid a joyous outlet that provided so much joy. May your soul be at peace.

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Ozzy!

On July 22, I shed tears for someone I never met for the 2nd time in my life. The 1st time was for Edward Van Halen (see previous posts). Of course, this most recent moment was for the passing of Ozzy Osbourne who was already on my mind with renewed, albeit nostalgic focus as a result of his very recent farewell concert on July 5th. I think many felt it was truly a farewell but were equally shocked that his death would be so soon afterwards.

I can’t do justice in memorializing Ozzy. Its clear by what has already been said by so many on Socials that I’m but one of many who feel like a dear friend has departed. I’ll just say that his life made a difference to mine. He wasn’t a saint, but he was inspirational.

God bless Ozzy Osbourne.

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Travel, Travel, and…..Travel

Since my last update, I’ve been traveling extensively for my day job. For context, from 2005 until 2017, I was on the road approximately 80% of the year for my work and accruing over 1 million miles of air travel.

In 2017, I took a position that, thankfully, got me off the road for 5 years. However, I’m now back to traveling, having been to Green Bay, Tijuana, Virginia, and Istanbul in the last two months.

I’m not a big fan of work travel, particularly as it takes me away from my loved ones. But I do what I must and without complaint.

All this is to say that my musical activity has been interrupted by this travel and I’m adjusting to the new “normal” that now includes extended periods away.

I’ve been delayed in releasing music via Bandcamp as I stated in an earlier post but I hope to have at least one new piece up before I leave again. I’m also completing a new piece that was done fairly quickly and inspired but some ethereal elements of sound and light that I experienced (I’ll explain later…perhaps).

I hope you are well and am grateful for any interest in my music and creative output.

May God bless you.

Alan

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New Music and Spotify “Wrap” on 2022

Quick note: I have a couple of tunes in the “can” and some new ones in the works. This will be via Bandcamp.

Also, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the +1000 people who streamed my music on Spotify in the past 3 months and shared my music with others. That is a significant uptick for me and I’m most sincerely grateful. Thank you!

Cheers!

Alan