09-28-2024, 08:48 AM
(03-09-2024, 03:00 AM)danfromnj Wrote: Yes, very sad. VK and I got pretty close over the years after I did our career-spanning interview 8 years ago, and we would talk often. He called me in July and invited me out to hear the new music he was working on with his band Circle of Sanity, and we wound up doing a new interview with he and his bandmates that coincided with the first single. In fact, he was out til the wee hours of Feb 20th working on more new CoS music. Composing and performing til the end. I paid my respects at his funeral/service and burial and it was so sad saying goodbye to someone who was always the life of the party and was the one that always made sure everyone was good. One of the all-time great prog metal keyboardists for sure, and one of a kind as a person.
There will be 4-5 new songs coming out from what he left us, as his CoS bandmates Josh and Kevin complete the tracks.
I was blessed to meet him on the BLN tour in 2011 in (now flooded) Asheville, NC. When I told him how great of a job he did, he got up shook my hand and gave my wife a big hug and then said: Really? I said, yes, you are awesome and that I hoped to see him again on future tours. I did see him once or twice after that and he remembered us. A truly nice man. The west group is missing and going to miss his presence.