We
went all the way up to the top floor because that's where they
had the rock bands. It was packed up there and I was like, "damn,
who is this local band that everyone came out to see?" The
band came on and they reminded me of Parliament Funkadelic on
some rock shit. I was like these guys are dope. Little did I know
that years later I would be joining them. They used to ask my
band Abstract to open shows for them. That's how we got connected.
We were opening for them at places like- another club off the
Westside highway -I think it was called the Academy. When my band
Abstract played there opening up for Funkface, I didn't realize
how big these guys were. They sold out the show. The lead singer
came on stage with a baby diaper on and a baby bottle. When I
saw that I thought these guys were on some other shit! So I was
like yeah, open up for these guys, you damn right! We were doing
our set and when they came on the place got packed. I mean packed
to the stage! I became friends with them. The other guys in the
band [Abstract] weren't that close to them but I was.
We [Abstract] were trying to get signed to a label and they were
saying they couldn't market us, they didn't know how to market
our music. The lead singer was Hispanic, the guitarist was white,
the bass player was black- there were 3 blacks in the group. They
just couldn't figure us out. They didn't want to sign us, they
didn't want to take a risk. So there was a lot of frustration
especially with our songs getting harder because of our frustration.
We were frustrated and it was going into our music and people
were being blown away. Then the lead singer became a born again
Christian and so did the bass player, they really were conflicted
about the music. At the time my band was splintering apart because
the lead singer actually cracked up. He had a nervous breakdown
and he started hearing voices. He ended up in the hospital, a
mental hospital. I couldn't believe it. He got out and he's better
now. He's married and he's got a kid now. He came back to the
band but at that time we were just jaded. None of us was man enough
to quit the band. He was the one who left first and that snowballed
down to the rest of the guys.
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