Our dear brother John passed away peacefully on Sunday afternoon, surrounded by his family and secure in the love and affection we all felt for him. John lived big; knowing, as those who've cheated death more than once must, that no second should be taken for granted. His days were full of purpose, and he didn't do things halfway. In fact, this was a big problem when we were trying to recruit him to be in Chum. He knew that he was incapable of giving it a partial go, and it took a lot of convincing to get him to give it a try.
Thank goodness he eventually did because John transformed Chum. From March of 2014 to July of this year, he was an inimitable "Phake Page", an exuberant, frenetic fixture on the rage side who built an instant rapport with audiences everywhere. He was the emotional center of Chum, the one most capable of feeding off crowd energy and channeling it back to them in sound and rhythm.
Behind the scenes, he kept us honest, holding a high bar for the minutiae that would go unnoticed by even the most jaded of vets. A note sung one semitone astray, a subtle lick Mike played between 1993-1999 that went missing in rehearsal — these always drew a sharp sneer. As a musician, his greatest gift was an ear that could detect the smallest detail. As bandmates, we learned not to argue with it.
John's Chum required emotional honesty too. All bands laugh, bicker, yell, hug, scream and love, but with us, it was different because of John. He favored directness over ease — he embraced difficult conversations, said what he believed, and pushed us forward. Chum could hurt, but John's massive heart was always there the next day to rebuild the foundation and keep the bonds strong. He was a community builder with a deep ability to lead others not just to be better, but to challenge themselves to continually grow as he himself did, with humor and humility.
After battling successive waves of leukemia the past few years, John was drawn to the teachings of "radical acceptance" (not that it applied to those errant harmonies) and would translate these lessons to each of us battling challenges personal, professional or musical. Yes, John was a warrior, one of the bravest we'll ever know. But he knew when the fight was won or lost. It's in this new light that I'm seeing his favorite choice of a soundcheck song — Genesis' "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight". It was partly a flex, a difficult vocal he used to impress sound engineers, but I think he saw something familiar in the pain of the first stanza; a vision of something lost that can never be recovered.
But John took this lesson in a very unexpected direction. Life had taken from him, but he would take and take and take back until the very end. Life will be hard, unfair and cruel, but John always wanted us to follow his lead and work within those constraints to find the joy, passion and love he brought to everyone in his orbit.
We love you, John. We miss you deeply. We know you're in a better place now.