Off the Record is a production of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to another bonus episode of Off the Record. I'm your host, Jordan Runtug. Thanks so much for listening. Over the course of these interviews, I've been lucky enough to speak with those who grew up with David Bowie, performed with David Bowie, recorded with David Bowie, as some who were even romantically involved with David. Now, finally, at long last, we're getting a fans perspective, but not just
any fan. Now, I should say I don't believe in quantifying people's passion for their favorite musicians. I think we all love artists differently, and no one way is better than another. But if I did believe in the title of Bowie's number one fan, Patty Brett would pretty much be at the top of the list of contenders. I want you to take a mental journey with me for
a moment. Imagine you're in high school and your all time favorite artist comes to your town and invites you into the studio to get your thoughts on their latest batch of songs. It seems like a fantasy, right, some sort of fan fiction, But that's exactly what happened to Patty back in August of four, she was part of a group of devoted teens who kept vigil outside of
Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios for nearly two weeks. Bowie worked through the night at the Philly Soul Song Factory, exploring the bounds of funking R and B with a titanic team of musicians, including the incomparable Carlos Alamar, Robin Clark, and a young Luther Androws Rain or Shine. These kids waited on the hard cement in an alley just off a skid row holding court until Bowie left at dawn. Why well, just to be there. If you're a certain kind of fan, you get it. If not, there's nothing
I can say that can explain it. Just trust me. David became friendly with these die hards who were there to welcome him each day and send them off. Each night he'd stopped the chat and hang out. Then one night he had a special thank you for their dedication, a private listening session for his album in Progress, which would become Young Americans. Had he was one of David's chosen few, the group he would come to dub the Sigma Kids. In the decades since her love for David
has only grown since. Patty has shared her passion through the Philly Loves Bowie Week extravaganza, which she spearheads every January in her hometown. She's also the proprietor of Doobie's Bar, a Philly institution that's home to perhaps the greatest jukebox in the city of Brotherly Love. I have to say, after working on this season of Off the Record for the better part of a year, there are times when I get a little tired of all things star Man.
But Patty's enthusiasm is absolutely contagious and completely reinvigorated me. Her story appeals to the daydreaming fan and all of us, because hey, this time the fantasy actually came true. I'm so grateful of Patty for sharing her story. I hope you get as much joy from it as I did. The way that that you feel about about Bowie, I assume is how I feel about the Beatles. I have a piece of John Lennon's are a bit framed above
my desk right now as we Yeah. I mean, it wasn't something I sought out, but once it was given to me, I thought, well, I have to, you know, treat this well, uh, so, I you know, even if it's it's not for Bowie specifically, I understand that level of passion and devotion. And I mean the Beatles are responsible for every creative impulse I've ever had, They're responsible for my entire career. They just mean, you know, so
I I get that. So I I I'm so excited to talk to you about that somebody who feels that strongly about someone else too, And that That's really why I'm most thrilled to talk to you, is just I want that passion and I love that it makes it just makes me feel good. It makes me feel good to talk to people who are that passionate about something so beautiful. You know. It's it's so funny because so
many people don't understand it. My girlfriend just she says, I've never seen anyone be as passionate about a singer as you are about him. You know, I discovered him when I was seventeen and I'm sixty five, so he's he's been my whole life. He's been there. How did this begin for you? What was your first experience with his music? What got your hook? It's such a funny story. Um, so I had heard space oddity I had heard changes.
It didn't ring a bow for me. I knew of the songs connect them with David Bowie, That's just it. I didn't connect it with David Bowie. And unfortunately I can't really tell you who it was at the time that I did connect with, because quite honestly, prior to him, I just don't remember musically. I mean, I remember things that I liked growing up. I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, you know, and I loved the Beatles um
and I was lucky. My mom was nineteen when she had me, so we weren't that far apart each eyes, and she loved music. She gave me my love of music. When I was a little girl, we just listened to all kinds of things, show tunes, country music, R and B pop. So what happened was um, my senior year in high school, which was seventy two. I graduated in a class of a thousand, so parking on campus was at a premium. So they held a lottery every year and they would pick a hundred seniors that would get
a parking space on the school property. And I want to spot, so of course everyone wanted to ride to and from school with me. Um I had so it was two. I had a sixty three Cadillact cityan Deville no no fuzzy dice. A lot of people in the trunk of the car when we would go to drive in. But oh my god, that car was I could fit
ten ten of my friends in there and in the car. Yes. Um. So one day we were coming home from school and a song came on the radio and one of the people in the car screamed, put the windows up, don't let any of the sound out. And I said, what they said, it's David Bowie. It's like okay, So we put the windows up and it was Memory of a Free Festival. And by the end of the song. Uh, he had charmed me enough to look into him further. Um. And then I discovered Ziggy because it had just come out,
so um that kind of did it. Ziki came out. Um. He came to the Tower for the Sinky tour in December seventy two. Uh. I saw that show and yeah, that was that was it for me. Wherever he was going when I was going. It's funny, I've been I've been watching a lot of the Wonder years lately, So my mind's been back in sort of seventies high schools. What did it mean to be a David Bowie fan at your school? Was? No, it was incredibly difficult. Yes,
it was. So the majority of the kids that went to my school, we're all into the dead and it was you know, they had that flannel shirt, jeans and army jack at uniform. And I started wearing my grandmother's dresses from the forties and platforms and I handed my hair. So everybody at school called me a freak, which I were that title proudly. Was gonna say, yeah, yep, we're proudly because it was I was a Bowie freak and that meant something to me. So um. Yeah, So I
got tortured in high school about it. There were a few other people in my school that liked Bowie. We sought each other out, especially after the show after he played at the Tower. We found each other very quickly. You know, he was so different from anything that I had encountered and that most people had encountered at that point that I loved not being in a group with everyone else. I loved being an outsider. Yeah, that was what I was gonna ask you what he activated within you?
Like what what? What? He what? What he brought to you and made you see within yourself. Well, I think you know, at at that age, it's still difficult being in high school. It's still you know, there's there are all those people that like to bully, and I think for me, because he was so willing to be so different that I said, I can do that too. I don't have to listen to everybody else. I don't have to be like everybody else. I can be my own person, and you know, I can like what I like. I
don't have to like what everyone else likes. And that's when I discovered things like t Rex and the whole glam movement. Uh. Yeah, Well, it sounds like you had a really great community of of friends who who were into the same music that you were into, like like bo, I mean, how did you first find out that he was going to be recording in in in philiate Sigma. So he played seven shows at the Well. He was scheduled for seven shows at the Tower uh in July
of seventy four for the Diamond Dogs tour. He wound up canceling the Saturday mattin A show because that's when the band found out that they were recording for David or I guess they found out the day before and we're arguing about the rate they were being paid on Saturday, so they had canceled the matinee show. But what happened is we would after the show was over. We knew where he was staying, because back then you could call hotels and say he is David Bowie there and they'd say, yeah,
oh yeah, no not back then. Good publicity for that, yeah wow, yes, So we knew where he was staying. And actually he had stayed at the Bellevue when he was here in February seventy three, So he stayed at the Bellevue and we would leave the show Prive Street to the hotel and he would sit out on the steps and chat with us at night. So one of the nights that he was out there, he told us I'm going to be recording a new album here in Philadelphia in about a month at Sigma Sound Studio. Come
look for me. Oh my gosh. So that explains everything. Is I was gonna ask you, like, why what made you want to like sit there? And then it's oh, of course, if if David Bowie says, come look for me. I would follow him wherever he was exactly. Yep, what did you the next month? For you? Like what how did you how did you function on the next month? Like like I'm serious, Like that's incredible. Yeah, you know who who actually knows if he's really going to do this.
But we started, you know, we're talking about August of seventy four. There are no cell phones, there's no internet. Um, there are us in our cars and our telephones at home. And we just started staking at the studio. And one night a friend of mine called me at home and said his car's outside, because we knew his car from seeing it at the Bellfield. Um. And so we went down that night and we didn't see him that night, and uh, we went back the next day, and I
don't remember, unfortunately, it's just too many years ago. I don't remember if we caught him going into the studio or we caught him coming out. But um, the car was outside again. And if I was there and missed him going in, I can guarantee you I was not leaving until he came out. So and what what happened was when he was at Sigma the first night that we saw him, we followed him back to his hotel. We followed the car back to the hotel, and he
was staying at the Berkeley Hotel this time. And Um, he would have this routine where he would come out of the hotel, usually ran four o'clock in the afternoon, chat with people that were waiting up because there were always people waiting for him. Uh, sign autographs, take photographs. He'd get in his car and he'd head to the studio. So the hotel was on Rittenhouse Square, just off of Walnut Street, and the studio was at twelve Street between Vine and Race, so it was I don't know, maybe
ten twelve blocks away. And uh, we would jump in our cars, run every red light to the studio, pull up outside. He'd pull up, we'd all be and there would be people waiting at the studio as well. We jump out of our cars, same routine, chat with everybody, sign autographs, UM, take photos, go into his studio. Then
he would be in the studio for hours. He would usually come out, uh four in the morning, late three four five in the morning, and we would get in our cars, race back to the hotel and do the
same thing. So that just happened every day. UM. And because that was happening, we were seeing the band go in and out, and we got to be friendly with Carlos and Robin and Luther UM and they by the end of then recording at Stigma, Carlos was taking Leslie's camera into the studio pictures of David while while he
was recording. Carlos and Robin wouldn't invite us. They would have everything on cassette that they had laid down that night, and Carlos would always have a tape of it and say, come up to the room, we'll play you what we recorded. Oh my god at the Barclays. Yeah, So we'd go up to Carlos and Robin's room and sit around and
listen to it, UM, and you know everything. None of it really made sense to us, because a lot of what he had UM, as far as I can recall, was him, you know, his his isolated guitar work, or Robin you know, or the backing vocals for the for the singers, UM, and you know, there'd be there would be other things in there, but I don't remember any of it specifically. And and so I think Carlos was the one that convinced David that he should let us
up into the studio to listen to it. And Uh, the night that he told us about it, he went into the studio and he said, if you guys are out here when I come out, I have a surprise. I wasn't going anywhere. They sit here all night in the middle of a skid rowd no problem, right on the sidewalk. And when he came out, he said, we really appreciate everything that you've done. Because we were driving them places. We took his stewart, his bodyguard, We took
him record shopping. Uh, we were running errands for them. So, UM, David said, you know, I really appreciate everything that you've done. Um, You've you've all been so supportive that I would like for you to come up into the studio and listen to what we've done because I'd like to get some feedback. You can't tell anybody, it's just the people that are right here right now, because you were keep it under
your hat. No, there were I mean, there were there were loads of people that were there all the time. It's just you know, there were people that shifted in and out because they had jobs or you know, we were all really young. A lot of a lot of the people that were there had curfews, you know. So yes, So while I can't really say that any of the ones of us that got into the studio were any more dedicated or devoted than some of the ones that didn't get into the studio, but we just happened to
be in the right place at the right time. So um, he let us know the day before, said it's going to be tomorrow. Um. And we so always coming and going at the studio, all these people, we're all dressed up this night and everybody's saying, why are you guys so dressed? I'm not lying. This was skid row, soup kitchens, wine, nos uh derrelics, sleeping on the street. It was. Yeah, not a place you would want your seventeen eighteen year old child hanging out at three o'clock. More m I uh,
I have to send you a picture. I'm actually surprised you haven't ever seen it. It's such a great photograph. So he hired a photographer to document it. Um. Her name is Dagmar and she is the one who did the cover for David Live. Yeah, so she was at the studio she took photographs outside before we got in. Um. But the thing was, there were all these people there that night, um, because that's how it always went, and we had to get rid of them because he said
it was just us. So you know, we just hope. Ah, we just felt like getting dressed up tonight. You know. You know he's not coming out until probably five o'clock in the morning. There's no point in you sitting here and waiting. You should all go home. We got them all to leave. There were there might have been one or two that got in that that just happened to not leave and got in. Um exactly. But um, yep.
So uh. It started to ring a little bit, and he had Coco let us into the lobby of the studio so we wouldn't get wet, because he always would make sure we had food, we had a way home. You know, does anybody need money to get home? He was yes, Um. So he had Coco led us into the lobby and at some point, and I don't recall what time it was, somebody came downstairs and got us and took us upstairs and he was behind the glass
and we went into the studio. When he spoke to us from behind the glass and said, everything's really raw. We just finished it. It It needs to be mixed, it needs this, it needs this, it needs this. But into it and let me know what you think. And with that he came out and sat down all the way in the back of the studio. I'll send you the pictures that I have. Um sat all the way in the back of the studio, chewing on his nails and rocking back and forth, and you know, watching everyone's reactions.
And after it played the first time, one of the girls that was in the studio and he jumped up and screen play it again and he said really and everyone screens yes, and they played it again, and he got up and danced with everyone and chatted and we took pictures. And that's pretty much the story of Sigma. I'm getting genuinely emotional and choked up hearing this because I I putting this in my own context for the
Beatles or something like. I I just I can't imagine what that, what that must have felt like, what that must have been like, what that must have done for you at any especially at that age and such a formative age. Mean, what how did you how did you leave that day, Like what was what did you do immediately after that? Like I can't even think of like like you must have been too excited to go to sleep. Have then he've been up all night? Uh? Probably, And honestly,
I don't recall. Um. I had a job at the time I was UM. I was working at the courthouse and media the county seat in the county I lived in Um as a bookkeeper, So I don't I honestly don't recall if I went to work that day or not. But I know that we went back down to the hotel because they were leaving. We went back down to the hotel that afternoon to say goodbye to everybody. And you got to say goodbye to David too, Yeah, yep. And he took that he had Coco takedown all of
us that were in the studio. He had her takedown everyone's name and address, and he said the next time he was in town, he would make sure that we got tickets for the show. And we, of course, you know, when tickets went on sale, we camped out because we had to be in the front. This would have been this would have been seventy four. Now he came back in November. It was the latter part of the Diamond Dogs tour that they called it the Philly Soul Tour,
you know, or Philly Dogs. Yes, the theatrics were all gone. Um, he had Carlos in the band and Robin and Ava and Jeff McCormick were doing backup along with Diane Summler and oh god, Anthony Hinton and Luther and so what happened was loser the backup singers, pardon me, and the band opened the show on that portion of the tour and then David came out and then they just stayed on stage. But um, we camped out for the tickets.
We got seats in the front. At that point, he had moved from the Tower Theater, which is about a thirty three venue, to the Spectrum, which was comparable to Medicine Square Garden. And I worked at the Tower. So when I worked at the Tower, I had just gotten that job. That was my dream job, working concerts. I was an usher in the theater and they called me up. We had camped out for the Diamond Dogs tickets and uh, they called me up and said, what Bowie shows can
you work? I said, you can't work any Bowie shows that front row in the pit, and Peter, my boss, said, either work or you don't have a job here anymore. Everybody has to work these shows because they're sold out. And I got upset because I didn't want to lose that job, but I wasn't keeping on my front room. Yeah, and um, he said, you know, I'll call you a week before the show. Let me know what you want to do. And uh, I had my mom had a friend that was a nurse and she brought home stuff
to put a cast on my leg. Oh my god. Yep. So I got out of work in the shows, but I had to go with that's amazing. Yeah, we do some silly things more dedicated to I was gonna say love makes you do foolish things as the song goes, uh huh yeah, yep, So I got to keep my job and I got my front rib pit seats. Well, I mean I was gonna ask, I mean, back when when you were first hearing the music in Sigma and then also at the concert, what did you think of this?
This change in direction, this sort of Philly soul influenced Bowie, A huge change from from Ziggy and a Laddin Saint and Diamond Dogs. What did you think of it? Um, We thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't think there was anybody
there that didn't love what we were hearing. And I think a big part of it is because because we were hearing it prior to being in the studio, you know, Carlos playing us tapes and we would There was an engineer on that album named Carl and there was a window up on the second floor in the behind the glass, um, and we used to convince carl to open the window up for us, so we'd stand outside and we'd we'd
be able to hear it and it was Yeah. And you know, I think a big part of it too is growing up in Philly and and having the Philly sound be a part of our of who we all were as kids. Yours, Yeah, yep. And I know that a lot of the musicians from Stigma, that the session musicians and studio musicians didn't appreciate his wanting to come here. They felt like he was stealing their sound. And that's why there's only one person from MFS day UM that
wound up playing on Young Americans. That was Larry Washington, and that's why he had to hire the band that he hired, and thank goodness for Carlos, because Carlos put everything to gather for him. Carlos was so instrumental in
making young Americans happen. I know that David had an idea of what he wanted to do, but I really truly believe that if it weren't for car his association with Carlos, and him meeting Carlos, and then Carlos having Robin and Luther come down to Philly because they weren't supposed to be singing back up. Initially it was Carlos was coming to play guitar, and Robin came down because
Robin's Carlos's wife and Luther's their best friends. They came down to sit in on the sessions, and you know, they're just in the studio the first day or two, singing things on their own, just sort of going with the music. David heard them, and the rest is pretty much history. You know. He he had Luther arranged so much of that, and if it weren't for Carlos, that wouldn't happen. I don't know what that album would be
had it not been for Carlos. Oh, it's hard to imagine me without his guitar and without those backing vocals. It's just I love the footage from I think it was a cracked actor when when you could see them working out arrange it. I mean, it's just so injured Kate and so gorgeous. And then there are those tapes
that UM. When Sigma closed down, they took all the tapes that they had in their possession, things that had been left find um and donated them to Drexling University, and uh, the guy that's in charge of those tapes, Toby say, see sorry, Toby c allows people. So one of the reals is Bowie at for Young Americans and uh, he allows people to go into Drexel and plays it for them. And not only does he have that one, he's got another tape that's actually really long. I want
to say. It's over an hour of the backup singers working stuff out, with just them working things out and you can hear David giving them direction and then changing things and it's it's fascinating. Um. I was fortunate enough, I want to say, about two years ago to finally get in there because I've worked with Toby, because I started Philly Loves Bowie Week UM in two thousand and seventeen was our first run UM and uh we had Toby come out and play thing for people at some
of our events. So and I kept saying, I'll get in there, I'll get in there, I'll get in there. And finally I got in there and it was it was well worth the way. It was very emotional. I mean, there were there were you know what happened with young Americans was he wound up with what he had. He came back in November for those shows at the Spectrum and he played two separate shows. When was the eighteen and one was I believe. So he was in town that time recording again at Sigma and that's when he
recorded UM. The Bruce Springsteen songs. Sat in the city and growing up and Bruce came down from New York to the studio to meet with David and I was was the only person that knew who he was at the time. I loved Bruce Brant. I saw him for my eighteenth birthday Wow at this at this place that I told about the main point, this little coffee house about Yep, Wild Innocent in the East Street Shuffle had
just come out. Yeah, so Bruce came down and um, it was in the studio while David was recording, and um, and then we all know what happened. Then David went and did whatever you know. Finished the tour, went up to New York, met up with John Lennon, recorded Fame Across the Universe, knocked off, Who Can I Be Now? And Um, It's Gonna be Me and uh And I've hated Fame ever since because I wanted those other songs
to be. Yeah, it's it's kind of like how I feel about with pet Sounds with Sloop John b on there it was like edged on is it doesn't really fit with the rest of the album. It's the single, but it doesn't really Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've never and I liked the music in it, and I know Carlos was a big part of that, but boy, I do not like that song. Don't like it. I used to when he would perform it, I would turn my back
to him to show m to show my disapproval. Not just remember we were at um Snug Harbor on Staten Island on the Marathon tour in I guess two thousand two, and my friend how he started doing Fame and I turned my back, and my friend Helen hit me and he said he's watching you. I said, good, yeah, Well this begs the question, how many times have you seen Bowie? I stopped counting once I got to a hundred shows,
which was rose Land in September. UM, and then I saw him probably about fifty more times, so seemed roughly a hundred and fifty. I know, I mean compared to United Stigma. It must be hard for anything else to compare. But is there one that shines through as your definitive Bowie live moment? Oh yeah, the first time I saw him. It always, always, always always will be that ziggy show, always my favorite show. Oh my god. Yeah. I just
I sat and I unfortunately had horrible seats. I was in the upper balcony and uh, I just he had UM. He played three nights. I had tickets for the middle show, so they played Friday, Saturday, Sunday. UM. The night before he started his run there, Matta Hoopel played at the Tower and he took a taxi from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to introduce them because it was David Bowie Presents Motha
Hoople and UM. He came out on stage and I was at the show, he came out on stage and introduced them, and then he came out and sang um all the young dudes and a stone song uh on Key Talk Woman maybe with them for the encore And so that was actually the real first time I ever saw but he was singing back up, so but yeah, he So I didn't have tickets. The show sold out immediately. I didn't have tickets the first night I went. The second night I tried to because I only lived three
blocks away. Um. For the third show, I went down there and tried to get a ticket outside and couldn't, so I just stood outside the theater and listened. But you know, sitting in the upper balcony, he walked out on that stage. My jaw dropped, and I just sat in awe the whole rest of the show and probably cried a lot. I used to cry a lot when I saw him in the beginning name, I get it, I get it. Did you ever get to meet David again after those days at Sigma? Oh? Yeah, I saw
him saw him through the years. Not anything private, but um, you know, we uh followed the station to station tour for twelve shows up along on the northeast cart but saw it Boston Garden. Um. Um, we went to in Buffalo. He actually we stayed at all the same hotels because Carlos would give us the r and Carlos, Carlos and Robin are such an amazing couple. But um, yeah, Carlos would give us the itinerary and we stayed at all
the same hotels. So when we were in Buffalo, he actually came down to the hotel bar and sat with us for the night. Yeah. And you know, we'd see him places. Uh when he would play in Philadelphia, we would catch up with him at the bar. And then on the outside tour, Carlos was playing with Bowie again and we had gone up to her she which was I don't remember, several days ahead of Philadelphia, and we ran into Carlos after the show. Oh he he said,
we're coming to Philadelphia day early. Get everyone together at your bar. We're gonna hang out. So yeah, so, um, Carlos came to do VS the night before the show, and everybody started complaining, David never talks to us anymore. We never see David blah bla because you know, things changed from the seventies. Once. Um, once John Lennon was murdered. Uh, his security got really tight. And you know it wasn't fans and devotees, Uh, following their I don't want to
say idle, but following their their passion. Yes, um, but you know at that point it became stalking. And while I can guarantee if anybody ever tried to hurt him, we would have killed them. We would have killed them. That there ever was right, It's like no, no, no, no, that's not happening. But yeah, he Uh, things got very different, and you know, he his career was took off and he was huge, and so in at my bar that night,
Carlos said, all right, I'll tell you what. We have to go to Pittsburgh after the show tomorrow night, but I'm going to get you guys backstage passes and we'll
have a little um reunion. And we got to the show, he said, you know who you know who deserves passes, So just make sure that everybody that deserves one can swe I went to the show the next night and Carlos Carlos had given us twenty backstage passes, and after the show was over, we went and waited at the backstage door and they said, you know, he wants to get changed, and it'll be a little while. You're just gonna have to wait here, Okay, fine, And uh, I
don't know how long. It was forty five minutes. The door opens up and there's David standing at the backstage. Were greeting every greeting everybody and uh, shaking hands, kissing, hogging, and uh, we go, this is so funny. We got backstage and we're talking and he looked at everybody and there are people there with their kids, and he said, oh gosh, it's so great to see everybody. But you guys look old. And he runs his hands through his
hair and he says, I look fabulous. He had this little tiny goatee, little tiny chin hair, not even a real goatee, and I rubbed it nice and I don't know, you're looking a little great at me. That. Uh. Well, we had a we did have a good laugh. And um we were back there his you know, his handler kept saying, come on, we have to go, come on, we have to go, and he kept saying, no, I'm not ready yet, No, no, no, And finally, um, finally he said, we really we have to get on the
bus now. And David said okay, but not without pictures, and so we took a bunch of photos of all of us together and then off he went. So he went to Pittsburgh. I don't remember what was after that. I think they had a day off and then maybe another show somewhere, and then he was in Manassas at the Nissan Pavilion and we went to that show and Carlos gave us passes and we went bixt stage and
he had died. He died that a little it's like, okay, fine, But I personally was very thankful that while we didn't have a close like, we didn't have any kind of a close relationship, he would recognize me places he I can guarantee you if he saw me, he would not say, oh, there's Patty um. But he always recognized us UM. And I'm very happy that it got to the point where I felt comfortable enough joking with him, you know. Yeah, yeah,
that always. When I got to that point where where I just wasn't standing there awestruck, which is the first time I ever met him, I just I didn't even have to get words out of my mouth and seventy three, Uh you were great. Yeah, yeah, after the Aladdin scene shows. He you know, he dubbed us. He's the one that dubbed us the Sigma Kids, and uh you know he chose and he would look at in the audience and say,
where are my Sigma kids. He's you know, oh there you are any point wave and ask us questions and yeah, but do you keep in touch with your your fellow Sigma kids. Um? I still talked to Marla and Leslie and Linda and Barbara, and that probably it. I see Lenny on very rare occasions to have passed away. Um, and there are a couple I have no idea where they are. Um, there were ten of us. No, but who I'm happy that we all keep in touch with is we still are in touch with Carlos and Robin.
I think they just celebrated there. Yeah, they're fiftieth anniversary. And you know, when I'm around them, still they're in there. So they were married for whatever it was three years for maybe four when we met them, and they were so in love then and they're that much in love and more now. They just uh there there. It's such an inspiration to me to see them interact with one another because they they just they're amazing together, they really are. I'd love to see him play live. I've never had
the pleasure his guitar playing always blew me away. I just I don't understand how one person can have that much of a groove. Yeah, he's very talented, he just and I think it's because the way he lives his life. He's just such a humble, wonderful, open accepting human being. Um And I think because of how he's lived his life, he's able to I don't even know words to use to describe him. He just he's an amazing human being.
I'm so incredibly proud to call him my friend. There's a there's as somebody who just knows him through his his work and his inner use, there's a there's a gentleness and a stillness and a zenness to him that that really exactly like that just comes off of him and you feel that. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, he's He's a pretty special They both are. They're very very special people. I'm gonna say the same about you. Oh my God, thank you for being this open and not only taking
the time but just trusting me. And you know, I I because I know what that takes. I know how personal and special these figures are to us, which is part of the reason why I wanted to do this project in the first place. And I thank you for for trusting me and talking to me, and U was just being so generous in every way human can be generous.
It's it's been such a joy. I was getting emotional at many many points while I was because it's just it makes me so happy that you had that experience and that and you appreciated it, you know what I mean, Like, I feel like a lot of it was like, yeah, cool, I met a rock star. Oh I met one of my favorite It's like it's no, no, no, no. It had such a profound effect on me. Just seeing him the first time had such a profound effect on me. Um, Yeah, it's just I mean, he he truly was my mentor.
He and my mom were the two most important people in my life. I'm so glad. I'm so glad that I'm so glad that he was always as gracious as he was because he didn't have to be, you know, yeah, a lot of a lot of um people in his position aren't. And he was just never anything but wonderful to us. Off the record, is a production of I heart Radio. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple pod, asked,
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