RIP, Bob Love

[peter]

I’ve always went with my heart in life. When I had my chance to join Veruca Salt as their drummer on their national tour to support their major label debut that ended up with two hit singles, I declined because I didn’t feel it was compatible with my faith. I instead continued to pursue forming a band of my own to play my original songs and my original arrangements of cover songs. My band’s keyboardist became my best friend and started going to with me to my church. One of my pals at church was an older man named Bob. A very sweet and kind soft spoken man that I loved talking to in the mornings before and after church. Bob would come alone to church and my friend Dave and I would sit near him. One day, I introduced a friend of mine, a manager from the leading Christian record label, Word Records, at the time, to Bob. Afterwards my friend whispers in my ear, “Do you realize who that is?” I said “Sure, that’s my friend, Bob”. He — a huge sports fan — says, “Your friend Bob is a former superstar from the Chicago Bulls., He was Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan.” I was blown away. I was a fan of the Jordan era Bulls, but didn’t really know basketball history. But Bob clearly wasn’t looking to talk about that, so I never brought it up with him. But Bob was indeed the Chicago Bulls star, Bob Love.

Almost a year ago to the day, my keyboardist, probably the biggest encourager and fan of my original music and later, one of the best friends I’d ever known, Dave, passed away from cancer. When I’m recording the original songs my band was going to perform (we never found a lead singer after auditioning more than two dozen, I disbanded the band a couple of months after I turned down Veruca Salt after I played an outdoor fest with another band with the bassist and found he was doing crack and made sexual remarks to a child while on stage), it’s impossible not to think of Dave. Carrying Dave’s casket last year was one of the very difficult moments of my life, but one I’m far too familiar with. Today, I learned that Bob just passed from cancer. Bob was such a sweet, gentle and kind man. The kind of man that inspired me in life. To anyone into pro sports, Bob wasn’t just a great athlete, he was a wonderful person. RIP, Bob, my favorite NBA star of all time, not for his stats or awards, but for who he was as a human being.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/bulls-legend-bob-love-a-three-time-nba-all-star-dies-of-cancer-at-81/

Your friend who keeps the beat. I suppose I'm also the chef at this place.

1

[peter]

The Chicago Bulls just made a nice short video about Bob.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15cVpFb6Q4/?mibextid=D5vuiz

Your friend who keeps the beat. I suppose I'm also the chef at this place.

[peter]

Watch this and I guarantee rhat it will make you smile. It wasn’t how he was for the cameras, Bob was really that sweet. It was genuine. He went from being a star basketball player to poverty, partially due to a severe stutter.

My late friend Dave — my band’s keyboardist– Bob and I all shared being stutterers. I had gone through speech therapy as a kid and stutter from time to time, but I think a lot of people who’ve heard me as a speaker probably don’t even know that. Bob went to a speech therapist and made enormous progress, as you can hear for yourself. RIP, Bob.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15CiFG7Est/?mibextid=D5vuiz

Your friend who keeps the beat. I suppose I'm also the chef at this place.

[Author]

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