This was the song I had on repeat when I was in high school.
It was the song I had in mind when I wrote my first original short story. Yes, it was suitably gothic, with a matching vampire hero, baby steps into world building and was derivative of all my fave vampire fandoms. I was 12 years old. I didn’t care. I was so proud. And I had Bat Out of Hell II as my soundtrack.
I saved my allowance money to buy that cassette tape and wore it out.
Even now, I have his songs on repeat. I can still chant the lyrics to Wasted Youth and the blood of that guitar was chuck. berry. red.
I remember everything. I will remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday.
I know everyone is having mixed feelings about Saints Row reboot right now, but I have some very terrible news that couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Finding this fucks me up so much. I was literally just talking to him in DMs on Discord just 3 days ago.
I know to many of yall he was just another dev at Volition who also made a mod for SR2, but I knew him personally, and he was a really awesome guy. I was one of the first people to find out about his cancer when he got diagnosed in the May of last year. It was horrible to hear it. Even worse watching him go and fight it, just for the cancer to come back, with doctors unable to do anything about it this time. He’s been suffering in silence since january of this year, he told us this back then and a lot of us knew it there was nothing to do about it. That our friend was going to die soon. Its funny, even when you know these things in advance, you are never ready for when the time actually comes.
The last time we talked, literally a night before he passed away, is something that is going to stay with me forever. I remember, I was having a whole breakdown over the Killbane thing with the teaser, when I got a random DM from him. He told me I shouldn’t worry that much about Volition recycling content and be excited for the reveal. When I thanked him, he told me to consider it a parting gift.
All he wanted to do in last 2 years has been to fandom’s reaction to the reboot; to the game he has been working extremely hard on. He wanted us to be as excited about it as he was for past 4 years. And yet, he died a day before the reveal.
Its sucks, life is unfair, but at least he didn’t get to see a massive backlash the trailer recieved, and the last memory he has of this community is watching us getting excited over a brick wall.
Men like IdolNinja only come once, we didn’t deserve him, and yet, he was here for us. We lost a great one. Rest in Peace, Mike.
“For me, becoming a celebrity was like being in the eye of a hurricane. Suddenly I was an international cover girl. Everybody was lapping up my Hemingwayness. They wanted to rub elbows with me or brush up against me. As a child I had seen Lauren Hut-ton on a magazine cover, and I thought that the fast lane was as exhilarating as racing down a mountain on skis. I was meeting famous people and constantly traveling all over the world. I remember being really poor until I got my first $250,000 check from Fabergé That was pretty nice; I put it in the bank and from that moment on there seemed to be a lot of champagne and limousines in my life. Being on the cover of TIME was another high for me. I lost my passport in Spain, and that cover got me through customs.”- Margaux Hemingway for People Magazine(1988)
Moving Moments: “ - JERRY F*CKING JUDGE… THIS SONG IS FOR YOU MY BROTHEEERRR!!!” [Johnny’s tribute to Jerry Judge]
2 years ago, on May 10, the Hollywood Vampires started their 2019 Spring Tour and during their next 7 shows, while singing his cover of “People Who Died”, Johnny opened his heart and made a lovely tribute to his late friend and bodyguard, Jerry Judge, who passed away just one month earlier.
The song, originally from The Jim Carroll Band, is known for being “a catalogue of young people Carroll knew growing up who met tragic ends”. During the tour, the Hollywood Vampires also pays homage to their loved ones who passed away, like Hunter S. Thompson, Marlon Brando, Lemmy Kilmister, Prince, Bela Lugosi and others who had their photos added on a backdrop video screened on the big screen behind the members.
Johnny’s homage comes after the chorus of the 5th verse, replacing the 6th verse for a speech. All the members slow down their instruments and Johnny got very emotional (something I think most of us didn’t have seen in a long time). Now the backdrop shows a photo of Jerry, taken during the filming of “Dark Shadows” in 2011. Johnny looks up to him, points up proudly, and for the first time talks to the audience on stage expressing his feelings toward his huge friend… We all know how hard is for him to talk on public and stage and he did it throughout the next 7 nights.
“That mountain… Used to stand right there on the other side of the stage. Jerry was a bulldog, made MI5*, he’d take a bullet in the head just to keep me around… We call him equalizer, instead of his name… And then he found relief from the cancer’s pain. He is still there. Jerry f*cking judge… THIS SONG IS FOR YOU MY BROTHER!!!”
*MI5 (stands for “Military Intelligence, Section 5 and is the British domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, and part of its intelligence machinery and known for keep the country safe and to protect people from danger whether it be from terrorism or damaging espionage by hostile states)
This only one of the dozen of tributes Johnny and the Vampires did in Jerry memory. Johnny, as well his bodyguards, also wore a t-shirt with Jerry’s face on the front and a handwritten message of Johnny on the back, which were also added to the balls that they threw during the last song to the audience, and to the guitar pins they usually thrown to the audience. One of then, Johnny turned into a lapel pin and wore during one of his trial days in London, on July 24, 2020. Still in 2019, Johnny also tattooed Jerry’s face on his arm along his initials (JJ) and the number 13, which were previously written in a black piece of cloth that Johnny wore during the tour as an armband around his left arm as a symbol of mourning.
And in spirit Jerry was there, and is still taking care of Johnny on the corner of the stage, the same side we can see Johnny always playing, and wherever he goes running around to protect him.
Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Judge. Rest in power.
IN MEMORIAM: Today(April 5, 2022), marks 3 years without our eternal bodyguard, Jerry Judge.
Rest in Power, Mr. Jerry Judge…Keep protecting our baby boy.
Rock (father), Catheryne (mother) Cara (sister) and Micah (brother).
We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts to those throughout the world who offered their sympathy and condolences during our difficult time of mourning.
No public funeral service will take place. A commemoration will be held in Rick’s honour.
On August 18, from 1h00 to 4h00 at Chateauguay Community Church 111 rue Lauzon, Châteauguay, QC, Canada
For more information please contact by Messenger: Cara Connors
Lost a dear friend and mentor this week. He was a friend to my grandfather, father, and to me. A Korean war USMC vet and a longstanding member of Rancheros Visitadores, Ed Borcherdt will be missed. RIP Ed.
