A Brush With Greatness V3.0 (The Smithereens)

I first became aquainted with Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens (one of my all-time favorite power pop bands) when he was offering a service thru his website. For $100, you could send him either lyrics or music, and he'd finish off the song and send it back to you. Inspired by similar offers often seen in the back of comic books back in the day, DiNizio hoped to revive a bit of kitsch and suppliment his income when The Smithereens weren't touring.

I emailed DiNizio my lyrics and waited anxiously for the tune to arrive in the mail. It never did. Due to a sudden surge in touring after the release of "God Save The Smithereens," he was forced to abandon the project for lack of time.

Apologetically, he phoned and explained the situation to me. I understood and absolved him of the commitment to write a song with me. I was extremely disappointed not to have that little credit on my resume', but Dinizio made up for it by sending me a nice assortment of Smithereens' merch. During our conversation, we began talking about The Smithereens' newest release. DiNizio asked me how I thought it stacked up against some of their earlier work and I gave him my unfiltered opinions.

In possession of his home phone number, I called again a few weeks later to ask if I could send him a copy of my band's CD. "Sure," he said, "I'd love to give it a listen." After sending him a copy of the disc, we spoke again and talked about our favorite records and musicians. I was amazed to find him without rockstar ego, willing to chat about everyday things like what our daughters were doing.

I still talk to DiNizio every now and then and, though I wouldn't presume to consider him a close personal friend, we are at the very least friendly aquaintances. I may not have gotten to write a song with him, but there's something to be said for just being able to call the guy up and talk about music.

More on this later....