Revlon Red Vocalist Comments On Traci Michaelz’ Death
REVLON RED VOCALIST COMMENTS ON TRACI MICHAELZ’ DEATH:
June 14, 2008
Revlon Red vocalist Marky DeSade has commented on the recent death of Peppermint Creeps drummer Traci Michaelz at www.myspace.com/revlonred.
Friends,
Please allow me to dispel any notion that it is only a rumor regarding the death of Mr. Traci Michaels, founder and drummer of Hollywood’s legendary national and recently even international touring glam band The Peppermint Creeps, and one of my closest and longest known friends…..
Indeed it is true that Traci passed away the morning of Friday, June 13th, 2008 sometime approximately between 6am and 9am, after performing lthe night before at the Rockstar Sports Bar in Fort Worth, Texas… where he had a great show and a great time doing what he loved the most in life.
My heart is deeply saddened, as most of you know that Traci was like a brother to me, or “my twin brother from another mother” as we often called each other, and as so many others also refererred to us as because we shared a kindred spirit in terms of having so many ridiculously similar personality traits in life in terms of our interests, goals, wants, needs, and the way that we thought, felt, and even talked like one another….
As such, and also as the original singer of The Peppermint Creeps, naturally I was one of the first people to receive the fated phone call…. I was contacted immediately by one of our very closest friends, brother in common, and our shared band tech Erickk Pulley, who proceeded to deliver this tragic news to me.
At this time all I am able to share is that the rest of the band and their camp, relatives and friends are awaiting news on the autopsy report and the release of the body for transfer back to Los Angeles, and in the meantime they are making funeral arrangements.
Though Traci was known for his unabashed and unapologetic use of alcohol and his love of partying, which he often wrote about in his songs, and was indeed drinking alcohol the night before his death, it has not yet been concluded that this was a definitive cause or contribution to his death, although it is assumed at this time that that may have been a factor.
Traci had self divulged to a few close individuals that he had been in a state of on-again, off-again poor health since on or before the first of the year, and that he had been suffering from purported liver complications, but this also has not yet been concluded to have been a definitive cause or contribution to his death either.
There is no indication of drug abuse or intentional suicide involved at this time, nor is there expected to be.
Sadly, Traci had also divulged to a few close individuals as well that he felt and knew that his time of death was coming soon, but then again he was not really the type to burden too many people very often with his personal problems or issues…. and he often stated that he had no fear of death.
In the very early ’90’s when I first met Traci he had not been in town for very long. To this day he still loved telling people the story of how we met. At the time both of us were down on our luck, with myself recently unemployed and he being knew in town and without work, and I met Traci and Trash in line at the Social Services office, where we were all attempting to sign up to receive general relief checks. I was “dressed down” and I approached the two of them, and they thought that I was a member of the Suicidal Tendencies gang or something until I started telling them who I was, what music I liked, who I knew in the scene and in local and national bands, and that I wrote reviews as “Captain Anarchy” for Rock City News, and that I was wondering if they would be interested in starting a glam band with me.
Traci used to love to embellish the story by saying that I asked them if they wanted to start a glam, metal, glitter rock, junkie rock, power pop, pop punk, old school punk, new wave, nu romantic, goth, death rock, death metal, speed metal, thrash, classic rock, funk, soul, rhythm and blues, swing, jazz fusion band… and how they thought I was some crazy person at first…. and it always got a good laugh out of everyone when he told them so !!!
Over the years we grew to be very close friends, we hung out and partied together at shows, the Rainbow, at after parties, and at various apartments and houses that we occupied or crashed, and in the times when we were single we cruised for girls all that we could and shared many illicit nights together.
At the tail end of the second wave of the glam scene, when all of the national acts were throwing in the towel and the local bands were cutting their hair and going grunge rock, it seemed like it was virtually almost Traci and myself alone that waved the glam flag high, keeping what little of what was left of the scene in Hollywood alive and almost singlehandedly spearheading the “next wave” of glam rock, and hence the return of interest by the fans and bands that hence reformed… doing so by forming our own bands, uniting musicians, booking shows, releasing demos, mass flyering, making hundreds of endless phone calls per show, placing ads in the papers, writing reviews, spreading the word every way possible, and strutting the Sunset Strip together or separately with our teased-up mile high hair, full face makeup and stilletto heeled boots… and meeting up almost nightly at the Rainbow to drink “red death” cocktails and hob nob with people.
In the beginning it was Traci’s then-current band Heart Throb Mob that my band played our very first show with, at the Whisky A Go-Go, along with our pals Chuck “Legend” Bernal and his band mates in The Fizzy Bangers. And one person that we all had undeniably connecting us together was Gerry Gittelson, the man responsible for introducing me to my eventual band mates in the first place and people and other bands in the scene in general.
After some time Traci and I began playing music together in each others bands once H.T.M. disbanded and he moved on to joining and forming new groups, and eventually it resulted in me joining his final band The Peppermint Creeps to play shows and record, and in him playing many shows as the “fifth Beatle” so to speak in my band Revlon Red whenever our drummer couldn’t do a show due to scheduling problems or whatever. And in the end our bands shared the stage together many times at most of L.A.’s seediest and also most prestgious venues… and we even lived together here and there for days or weeks at a time.
Like many friends there were naturally occassional times when we didn’t see eye-to-eye on some issues and we even scrapped fist to cuff more than once, which from time to time caused our friendship to be estranged, but in the end we always remained friends and with the greatest respect and admiration for each other…. and Traci was indeed a good friend that could usually be counted on in a pinch. And out of all of Traci’s friends he always used to tell me and everyone else that I was one of the few friends that he had that his mother always really liked a lot, and I grieve immensely for her for the loss of her beloved son, and for those closest to him.
Though Traci often pronounced that he was an athiest, in my heart I know that we will feast together in the Halls of Our Ancestors when we meet on the other side.
Our Beloved Traci Michaels – R.I.P.
He was an icon of the glam rock scene and the Sunset Strip….
You will be sorely missed…. I love you bro.
Sincerely,
Marky DeSade – REVLON RED.
Courtesy of www.revlonred.com