New Orleans at Bobby's studio and within 60 seconds of the first song were grinning ear to ear. It had that WOWfactor we needed to val- idate it all. A few trips later we had a ninety minute set ready to go and poised and ready to hit the road. We were on cloud nine!
We played the first six shows and were booked months in advance. Show number six was at House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, SC. Jakson and I had driven up from Florida, spent the night with our friend Billy Kitchens in Savannah the night before. The day after the show we returned to Billy's and stayed the night. The following day Jak and I headed back to Florida, stopped in Jacksonville to say hello to one of my sisters, continued on where I dropped Jakson off at his home in Ft. Pierce that afternoon. It would be the last time I saw him alive.
How did the death of Jakson Spires ef- fect you? Well, two days later Jak went to North Car- olina for a few days to finish tracks on his solo record. He called twice to tell me how it was going and that he had been using a bass player friend of ours in the studio. He wanted me to go next time and add acoustic, a little piano and vocals because he wanted me to be part of it. I was excited. On Sunday morning he called from the airport in Nashville to say he would be home that afternoon and would call. I told him to get some rest and call me the next day. The next day never came.
He landed in Orlando and told his girlfriend on the way home he had the worse headache he'd ever had. A few hours later he was unre- sponsive, rescue was called at he was rushed to the emergency room. I got the call and drove straight to the hospital where he was al- ready on life support. He had suffered a mas- sive brain hemorrhage. Four days and nights I remained by his bed, slept in the room be-
side him and on the fourth day he was gone. It was March 16, 2005.
My world was shattered, it was devastating, my brother was gone. A piece of me died that day, and I can only equate the feeling to the
day my dad died in 1973. We all have, or in the future will suffer monumental losses like this. We never completely get over it, just spend the rest of our lives trying to get past it.
Amen. That is so very true. I myself think of Jakson almost daily, and I only knew him for a few short years. I’m sure it is hard on a life long friend. You guys tried to keep it going. I saw a cou- ple of great shows with Jay Johnson joining in. And there was the Mike Estes shows. Tell us why and how you quit being Blackfoot. Also please tell us your thoughts on Ricky’s “new” Black- foot. Inquiring minds want to know. Losing Jakson really knocked the wind out of our sails. But during our rehearsals preparing to start performing again we had many dis- cussions about the future, including what to do if someone broke a finger, arm or leg and was out for a couple of weeks, months or per- manently. Do we keep going? Do we keep going if one of us dies? The immediate an- swer was always "yes" and in unison. We re- cruited a drummer who was a friend of Bobby’s that we all got to know, who became
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