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Sunday, July 19, 2009
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hello everyone.
we usually have something exciting to share with you when we post these things but we must announce this with a sense of deep sorrow, confusion and mourning.
yesterday we learned the heart-wrenching news.
our
dear friend, mentor, colleague, one hell of an astounding human being
and loving father, Tom Pfaeffle passed away yesterday and is off to his
great big gig in the sky.
while on a camping vacation with his
family in eastern washington tom was trying to enter what he believed
was his hotel room and unknowingly began to jostle the door handle when
he was suddenly shot twice through the hotel door. tom fought
valiantly for his life with his wife val for two more hours until the
EMS arrived.
we cannot go any further into the circumstances of
his death or the on-going police investigation other than to let all of
you know the shooter is a 57 year old male who's in police custody on a
2nd degree murder (for tom's death) and a 1st degree assault charge
(for the stray bullet that nearly struck another hotel tenant).
Tom
not only embodied the best of the human spirit's ability to be a
selfless and unconditionally loving person, but he was a master of his
craft. he gave countless hours and unpaid time teaching young people
at the seattle art institute's live sound and recording engineering
programs and his roots run deep not just in the northwest music scene
but worldwide. in just the past 24 hours at the mere mention of his
name, people we don't even know overhearing the news have broken down
and relayed their very personal experiences with Tom. he touched so
many people and always felt as though he wasn't doing enough and wanted
to push to improve things and be better at anything he put his mind to.
Tom
fronted the money for the 'Kay Kay Live From the Pretty Parlor' DVD to
be pressed as well as engineered the live recording and there is
absolutely 0% cliche when we say we wouldn't be here without him.
Tom's mixing and mastering the kay kay s/t full length was the reason the
record got the acclaim it did. he spent hours and hours recording the wild orchid children EP on spec in order for us to travel the country with something to sell and show. the world is a lesser place without
tom. we truly lost a hero in every sense of the word.
Tom's hands were heavily involved with the following artists on either their records or live shows and on tour.
bb king
gatsbys american dream
nirvana
ub40
kay kay and his weathered underground
the black crowes
daphne loves derby
queensryche
candlebox
danger radio
aerosmith
iron maiden
alice cooper
heavy heavy low low
the wild orchid children
heart
warrant
marrakesh
lizzie huffman
bad company
paul rodgers
the hollowpoints
we
are all still trying to make sense of such a senseless thing. Tom
leaves behind a beautiful family two of which won't fully understand
why their daddy didn't come back from stepping outside for a brief
moment. please keep Tom in your thoughts prayers emails and stories.
each beautiful memory of Tom brings us to our knees, teaching his kids
how to defrost the thanksgiving turkey with a hair dryer or teaching
all of us how to make an aioli sauce and the proper way to bread
oysters with cajun spices. you left such a beautiful legacy hammer, we
love you, you are with us always.
lastly, we don't use the
fact that we're musicians to push any sort of agenda. there is no soap
box here, but we feel too complelled at this moment in time to not
mention anything.
we live in a country who proclaims more than any
other country in the world, the benefits of freedom, librety and the
pursuit of happiness. tom fully embraced those ideas and at the time
of his death was doing something so distinctly american. packing the
family into his american made car to cruise on the american interstate
to go vacationing in america's beautiful terrain. the idea that his
only fault was mistaking his hotel room for another, something i
personally did three or four times while on tour in the past few weeks,
sickens me. who is anyone to say life isn't fair, but the reality of
the situation is Tom would be holding his wife and children if someone
who clearly had paranoia issues hadn't been allowed to own a killing
device.
even more disheartening is knowing whole-heartedly that
there is no falsehood in saying that if this was a different country
this wouldn't have happened. firearms and concealed weapons are
illegal in all other industrialized countries and in the best country
on the planet, USA, 80 gun deaths happen every day. Tom Pfaeffle shouldn't
be another fucking stupid statistic in those findings.
here are
some links for more info or to help in anyway, please visit
gunstories.org if you knew Tom in order to share your stories with him
or your views on guns.
http://www.bradycenter.org/
http://www.bradycampaign.org/
http://www.gunstories.org/
http://www.millionmommarch.org/
thanks again for everyone's support through the good and the bad.
we
are already planning some benefit shows very soon in order to benefit
Tom's family and gun control advocacy groups and will let everyone know
about that information as soon as it's available.
we were in the middle of recording our full length with Tom and we cannot fathom finishing this work without him, yet in our hearts we know he wouldn't have had it any other way. it may take us a bit more time to complete, but those songs will forever contain Tom's spirit and drive for life and sound so we'll be taking extra care with the record so that it becomes a sort of musical metaphor for Tom's life.
thank you Tom Pfaeffle for giving your life in such a way that you'll never be forgotten. we love you so much. to val and the kids we love you too.
the wild orchid children
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8:19 PM
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