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It has been a fiscal year now since the untimely demise of my friend Chet Helms
I’m still in a quandary as to why he hasn’t been unanimously inducted into the echelons of music immortality and the hallowed chambers in Cleveland’s Hall Of Fame.
I realize that a petition has been implemented and signed by 3,000 fans who know what a presence Chet had and his influence on not only the genre but to society in general. We speak of him often and I would be remiss to say that his 3:00 A.M. calls and witticism were quite the treat and not nearly the detriment that most would envision when answering early morning rings.
He was a pillar of The Counter Culture, an intellectual well versed on a myriad of topics but much to my chagrin and his, perhaps mirrored by the worst business acumen known to mankind other than my own. Cynical at times, Chet often reflected on the fortune acquired by Bill Graham and BGP but, his was never the endeavors for monetary supremacy but more that of involvement and perpetuation of the music and attitude that defined the flower children of the day and forever footnoted Chet into the storied past of The Golden Age and The Avalon Ballroom and Family Dog.
In the summer of 2004 we were in discussion as to how best to organize a benefit that would defray medicinal costs for an impending surgery to replace his liver.
Other maladies would eventually complicate scenario but he told me when it became critical for such an event that those he knew he could count on would be the same icons that have defined the genre for all these years.
Pete Sears, a stellar musician but even a greater person as a humanitarian. David Freiberg, another legendary figure often referred to by Chet as the one person of the old guard that he could rely on if needed. Others of that ilk would be Peter S. Albin, Barry Melton, Dickie Peterson, Merl Saunders, occasionally Santana and close friends who knew him as the gentle soul amidst all the sensationalism of the west coast.
I suppose this is more for those who are the survivors than for our loss of Chet.
For Pete, Peter, David, for TC, who became closer to Chet after The Speed Museum showing in 04, Barry and others of note….the circle is somewhat smaller but how lucky we all are to have grown with the music and you and to still have you to conjure the memories of a more carefree, euphoric era when people were more important than politics. These are the artists that we still admire, who continue to make a difference and continue to put smiles on faces both young and old.
Cheers to them..and to us
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