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Nearly America’s Most Wanted

This is one of the true but strange events that I have experienced in my life on this planet.

It was June 1999 in Hollywood California on a Saturday night. I was in the band Madareus and we were recording the drum tracks for our upcoming 5 song demo EP available for purchase on my merch page. Bassist Keith had been renting a house in Hollywood and had a garage at the rear of the property. Keith soundproofed the garage and set up a rehearsal and mini recording studio, it was quite a nice setup.

Keith also had 2 roommates in the house, as living in California, especially Hollywood, is extremely expensive. His only roommate, Chris, had been there for a while, but they had just moved in with a new guy a month before. The house had 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a front sitting room and 2 bathrooms. The new guy, Greg, had rented out the living room (it wasn’t a big space). Greg seemed like a weird guy and now I know why and so do you.

Greg used different types of drugs, acid, heroin, whatever, apparently he abused them and had a mental disorder because of it. Well what comes on Saturday nights after “Cops” (@8pm) is right (@9pm) “Americas Most Wanted”! This genius who spoke to me on multiple occasions and saw me in the studio for a month apparently forgot who I was. Well, in “Americas Most Wanted” there was a fugitive murderer on the loose last seen in Iowa (I think he was). This escape happened a week before, otherwise the guy had been in an Idaho prison for 3 or 4 years. Greg calls the LAPD and tells them the fugitive killer is ME!

Around 10pm we stopped playing in the garage/studio and Keith (bassist) and Mark

(guitarist/vocalist) and I were talking about how the recording was going and other things related to the band. This was my first night off from work in about 3 weeks, so I wanted to leave and go home. I opened the door to the studio and I was talking to Mark as I was leaving so my back was facing the driveway and my front was still facing the studio. Now when I left the studio, I always took my bag of drumsticks with me. A drumstick bag is about 8 inches wide and 12 inches long, about the size of a soft-frame handgun case. So I finish saying whatever I was saying, I close the door, and when I turn around, there are about 15 LAPD officers with their guns drawn and pointing it at me. They weren’t yelling at all, but just a few decibels lower telling me to drop the bag and put my hands on the wall. I did as I was told and asked what was going on in the garage. They made me open the door to the study/garage and step back; to stay the least, Keith and Mark were also surprised.

Once the officers looked into the room, around the yard, and into the house, the tension dissipated. When the policeman looked in my bag of sticks, he laughed a little, turned to me and asked if he knew what was going on. I looked at him and asked him if the music we were playing was that bad. A couple of the cops started laughing then and he said “no, we were actually outside enjoying the free concert”. The cops told us that Greg called LAPD after seeing my profile on Americas Most Wanted, and told the tip line that the “RED-HEADED killer we just profiled was in his garage playing a stolen stereo too loud.” The cops seemed relieved when it was all clear and so did we (wouldn’t you have been?).

The only thing he had in common with the fugitive killer was red hair… The cops showed me the guy’s description: he was 6’4″, stocky, with tattoos on his arms and back, and a crew cut. He had hair down to half of my back among the many other differences.

Of course, Greg went to sleep after calling the police to get some drugs. PRETTY BOY HUH? Needless to say, Greg was kicked out of the house the next day!