I’m on e-mail black out.. If you have e-mailed me in the last few weeks and i haven’t written back its cuz my in box is bursting at about 80 unanswered mails.

Man i’m fucken tired of email haha

I’m feeling a bit sad. I found out that a friend of mine passed away. His name was Mark Bennett. The first time I saw Mark was when he was singing in this band called “The Day Old Donuts”

I remember they blew me away. To most people the Donuts were just a typical high school band. But I could see through all of that. I don’t even think the donuts themselves understood the genus in that band. Super catchy songs. Zach Cripe was an amazing guitar player. Mark the singer was amazing. His lyrics were brilliant and his voice was so unique. So many amazing sounds from one voice.

I had seen “Local” bands before but never realized you could be awesome and be a local band. After seeing them I was instantly their biggest fan but more than that, seeing these kids doing this made me realize that wanted and could do it to. Zach was a huge influence on my guitar playing early on. When I was first learning to play most of the initial songs I learned on guitar were donuts songs.

I eventually became friends with Mark and talked him and Zach into letting me get up and play a few songs with them at one of their shows. I got up and played 2 songs. It was my first time in front of an real audience and it was one of the best feelings ever. I immediately fell in love with playing live.

After that show mark and I talked about starting a side project with Jason Shoemaker.

This band was called “More Whisky and Fresh Boys for My Men” I played drums, Mark and Jason played guitar.

We had one song called Steve. It was only one chord and it was awesome. I remember we wrote a song called “Jamies got a new drum kit” That was a funny one. We only ever played 2 shows. Our first show was at Smile Coffeehouse. It only cost a quarter to get in to see the show haha!
It was at that show the first time I saw my current girlfriend Joanne she was in the audience. Little did I know then that I would be dating her 10 years later… Strange.

We had fun playing and practicing. After practice we would drive my car (the boss) around and smash into construction signs.

We eventually ended more whiskey.. I don’t remember why. I think it was because I wanted to sing and play guitar in a band. So I quit to start my first band “Burn”

So I played in Burn and Hated Youth all the while the Donuts were around as well. Eventually Smile Coffee House closed and we kinda lost touch.

Mark came to visit me before he joined the army. We had a good time and I tried to talk him out of it. Mark didn’t really have any direction after high school so I thought it might actually do him some good.

That was the last time I spoke to mark.

I got a call from Ryan a few weeks ago and he told me that Mark had passed away. Mark was living alone and didn’t have a phone. He suffered from juvenile diabetes. He went into insulin shock or something and was in a coma. No one checked on him.

They found his body 3 days after he passed away.

I had great times with mark and his music really inspired me to become a musician. He was a legend in his own time.. Even if it was only to me.