Shannon and I went to high school together (I am older by 2 years) so I naturally bullied him in between classes, at least that is what he tells me.   We bacame close friends, sharing an interest in causing trouble, skateboarding, punk rock, and old cars.  Shannon was (and still is) a Misfits Fiend, and really got into that whole black clothes, black hair thing (although it helps that he has naturally black hair).

We met for the interview at Tom Z's Flint's Original Coney Island and quickly downed some coneys and fries.  If I haven't said this enough yet, PLEASE GO TO TOM Z'S FLINT'S ORIGINAL CONEY ISLAND, 401 W. Court St. Flint, MI 48503. 810.768.0000!!!

Anyway, where were we...

Oh, yeah, the interview.  With full bellies, and a 24 hour restaurant at our disposal, we set out to gabbing about old times, and how we used to love going to hall shows and causing trouble.  We were both always broke, so we had to get inventive with ways to get money. One time, when there was something going on at the Capitol (probably not a hall show) we stood by the parking booth of a nearby parking lot and told the  cars as they drove in that parking was 3 bucks (or something).  We made a quick $30 so we had some cash to get into more trouble.

Well, Shannon kept a good number of flyers from back then, and he came through like a trooper and brought his collection of junk from back in the day.  He kept flyers, zines, pictures, and other ephemera including a rare copy of a zine that Joel Rash published prior to it being called Edge City (although I can't recall the name right now).   In one of the zines I found a review of the second 7Seconds show in Flint, Thursday August 22, 1985 (featuring Dissonance, Godspeed, and Born w/o a Face) $5.  And in the article there were 2 photos that actually have me rocking out in the front row with all the others, what a fun show 7Seconds put on.

These photos are some of the only pictures taken at Hall Shows that I am in, and they were published in a zine to boot - how cool is that!  By the way, that's me up there with the blond hair under Kevin's mic.  See who else you might know.  Sitting on the stage with his mouth open in front of me is Mark Ojeda (Drummer in Smashed and Jesus Christ and the Superstars).  I traveled out to San Diego to talk with him, and will post those field notes soon here is the interview article.

Well back to the interview with Shannon.  We talked about our old cars, Shannon used to drive a '66 Chevy Malibu that had a 2 speed transmission, and I drove a '64 Ford Falcon convertible with a 2 speed transmission.  Shannon's Malibu was cooler though, because he and his step dad rebuilt it, so it was pretty dependable.  My Falcon had Fred Flinstone floorboards (you could see right through them to the road below) and other things that a rusty old convertible brought with it like torn up roof and no radio.  While Shannon kept his Malibu around, I got into other cars like my 1979 Saab 99 (which I totally loved until the shocks in the back busted through the wheel wells in the trunk), my 1973 VW Type 3 Fastback and 1974 VW Bus.  I really had a lot of cars when I was younger.

Wait a minute, this started out as a write up about Shannon, but now it has turned into me talking about some of my old cars.  It must be getting late, so I will break off right now.