“It’s the passaggio.”

by **Don** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 10:34 am

I don't know if this has been posted already. For you reading pleasure.

http://audreyowen.wordpress.com/index/the_break/

Posted by Audrey Owen on April 1, 2010

Eliza Babbenco, draped across a velvet chaise lounge in her studio, listens intently to the headphones pressed against her ears. Recently awarded a Fellowship in Laryngology and Care of the Professional Voice from Mt. Sinai hospital, Ms. Babbenco has been the driving creative force behind some of the world’s most prominent classical vocalists for more than 30 years.

“A tenor altino, I think, very clear and quite powerful,” she said, cocking her head to one side, “with impressive control through the passaggio.”

That morning, Eliza Babbenco was listening not to a new classical artist, but to Steve Perry, former lead singer for the American rock band Journey. I called Ms. Babbenco for her professional opinion of the voice ranked number 76 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s “100 Greatest Singers of all Time”, the voice Queen guitarist Brian May called “truly luminous”.

The Passaggio, or “passage”, is an Italian term for what laypersons might call the “break”. For most of us, it’s the very definite point at which our voice cracks as we go up the scale. But there’s no such thing, according to Ms. Babbenco.

“There is no natural ‘break’, per se,” she said, settling back into the velvet as a large black and white cat leaped onto her lap. “There is, instead, a passage, a range of notes between registers. The voice can be trained to minimize the change of tone along the passaggio so that these notes can be integrated more smoothly into one register or another. It needn’t be a sudden or striking shift. In Mr. Perry’s case, the vocal control along the passaggio seems so complete that… well, as much as I hate to admit it… I cannot tell where it is!”

Other vocal experts I contacted said the same thing, citing power and clarity of tone. “Highly unusual” is the term I heard most often; as one reviewer would have it, “A freak of nature… one in a million.”

Love it or hate it, The Voice has an undeniable impact. You can’t ignore it, you can’t forget it, and even some of the most highly-trained ears can’t explain it.

The story of that voice — the story of Journey’s meteoric rise, their grueling tours, Perry’s health issues and eventual disappearance — is already well known. It has been told in exhaustive detail in interviews, articles, and most famously in the VH1 presentation Journey: Behind the Music.

Except that it isn’t. And it hasn’t.

The real story is stranger and more fascinating than anything we think we know about The Voice. The real story, according to our source, has never been told.

Until now.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s go back to the beginning, the day I got a call from Dr. Cantor Poirier, MD., about a story that, he said, just might make my career. Currently, my “career” consists of local color and police reports for a small town newspaper so I can’t afford to ignore leads; Dr. Poirier invited me to meet him at his office.

“Thank you for coming Ms. Owen.” A small man, trim and precise, gestured me to a chair. He took his own and folded his hands neatly on the desk between us. The office was small but surprisingly opulent with deep leather chairs, a richly detailed oriental rug, and exotic plants at the window to soften a ground-floor view of the parking lot.

He began by telling me that he had been asked to contact me by his colleague, a Mr. Steve Perry.

“Steve Perry… of Journey?” I asked.

“Formerly of Journey, yes.” He smiled. “That Steve Perry.”

Perry had come to his office the day before and had given him my name; he explained that Perry had been looking for a writer, a good one, without any favors to return. “A bright, open minded writer at the beginning of a promising career, that’s what we were told.”

“Open minded.” I shut like a clam. Open minded could mean anything.

“You must understand… I am in a difficult position, Ms. Owen. Mr. Perry has asked me to relate a tale that may make you wonder about my sanity. But I assure you, it is all quite true.”

And he was right, I DID wonder about his sanity, later, and you’ll wonder about mine in a minute. But I’ll tell you the story as he told it to me and you can decide for yourself.

In 1980, Dr. Cantor Poirier was a General Practitioner with a solid but by no means lucrative practice in the bay area. Steve Perry met Dr. Poirier through family frends and hired him to accompany the band and crew on the Departure tour. “Beyond my general practice, I specialize in Otolaryngology; after the rigors of the Infinity and Evolution tours, Mr. Perry wanted someone on staff to monitor his vocal health.”

Dr. Poirier, a quiet and thoughtful man, felt an immediate kinship with Steve Perry. “There was always a great deal going on, and some of the other band members and crew were quite rowdy as a rule. For all his enthusiastic stage presence, Mr. Perry tends to be a reserved, thoughtful person. We soon found we had many things in common.”

Dr. Poirier traveled with the band through the Departure tour, the Escape tour of 1981, and the performances of 1982. “That was quite enough of life on the road, so I returned to my practice. I knew that the band had begun recording their next record, Frontiers, and that they were planning another tour to support it. I was a bit concerned; they had all been on the road for so very long and I thought they all, and Mr. Perry in particular, should take a break.”

As it turned out, Steve Perry had the same idea. According to Dr. Poirier, “Tensions were growing within the band, and of course he loves performing but loathes touring. He was looking ahead to long months of buses, planes and hotels, all the hours of inactivity and lack of sleep… he didn’t know if he could stand it. My concern was the risk to his vocal health, and consequently to the quality of his performances. It was my honest, professional opinion that he shouldn’t do it.”

They talked over Steve’s options, and there weren’t many. His contract required him to tour, and of course he felt an obligation to the other band members and the crew. “Mr. Perry said he was thinking of hiring a stand-in to do the tours and publicity events; he could tag out the double when he wished to perform, and just live his life the rest of the time. When I started laughing, he said ‘Cantor, I already have someone in mind.’”

According to Dr. Poirier, Steve Perry did perform the studio vocals on the Frontiers album, there can be no doubt about that. But the man sleeping on airport benches and in strange hotel rooms, showing up for sound checks, waiting around until showtime, and afterward escaping from overly aggressive groupies? That man was NOT Steve Perry.

“Okay, if he wasn’t Steve Perry, who was he?”

“You mean,” said Dr. Poirier, “who were they?”

Yes, he said “they“. He did not, however, say who.

What he did say was that there had been four stand-ins at different times in Journey’s history. Perry himself performed the Japanese leg of the Frontiers tour; the stand-in began performing for the US dates. To cover any physical differences between the first and second parts of the tour, Perry and the stand-in cut their hair and grew the infamous mustaches for good measure.

The plan was for the stand-in to make themselves scarce, seemingly distant and aloof. That wasn’t too hard to fake; apparently, it wasn’t exactly a jovial atmosphere. The rest of the band complained that Steve would show up, sing, and take off again: “Elvis has left the building.” That pattern, as irritating as it may have been for the rest of the band, was absolutely key to the plan, which was for the stand-in was to handle most of the public duties, so Perry could step in for performances when the mood struck. Which, according to Dr. Poirier, was fairly frequently; he did love performing, he just couldn’t handle the demands performing at that level required.

At the end of the Frontiers tour, the stand-in returned to his other band (all Dr. Poirier would say was “a group well-known to the core Journey fans”) and Steve began work on his first solo album, Street Talk, which was released in 1984 with good prospects. Even so, the record company would not support a solo tour; they wanted Perry to return to the studio for the next Journey album, Raised on Radio.

This was 1985, a difficult time for Steve Perry, both professionally and personally. The recording sessions for Raised on Radio took longer than expected, and by the time Steve contacted the stand-in, the man’s voice had faded. Steve Perry needed another Steve Perry.

Eventually he found a likely candidate; again, this second stand-in had to keep his distance from the rest of the band, and again Steve himself did perform for quite a number of the shows while the stand-in did all the traveling and public events.

Near the end of the Raised on Radio tour, the stand-in’s voice began to fade just as the first man’s had and he told Steve that he’d had enough, that he’d rather be “an honest fake”.

I stopped him there. “What does that mean, an honest fake?”

Dr. Poirier smiled. “Have you ever noticed just how many Journey tribute bands there are?”

I certainly had.

“What I have always found most amusing,” Dr. Poirier said, “is that the reverse was also true; Mr. Perry himself was an honest fake.”

When the band was out on tour, Perry had to keep a very low profile, of course. Maybe it was cabin fever, maybe it was the call of the mike, but Perry did develop one slightly risky habit…

Imagine you’re in a bar with friends, a loud place, with a karaoke contest going on in the back. You’ve mostly ignored the proceedings, but suddenly you hear a voice you seem to recognize. You look, and a karaoke contestant wearing a ball cap pulled low on his forehead is singing “Don’t Stop Believing’”… and he sounds just remarkably like Steve Perry.

What would you think? You’d probably think “Wow, that guy sounds just like Steve Perry”. You would be much less likely to think “I bet that’s Steve Perry himself, crashing a karaoke contest just for grins”.

The doctor continued with his story. After Raised on Radio, Perry said that he had to stop.

“You know, truly, I believe he had no idea what he wanted to do then. He’d built a precarious existence for himself, very much dependent on other people. It was precarious emotionally, as well. But Mr. Perry is a complicated man, and it’s important to understand the many factors in play. He had,” the doctor paused, “not a fear precisely but worse, a certainty that continuing would be the end of him. Another issue had to do with the voice itself. He had always felt that it was not entirely his.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, he’s said many times that something happens to him when he performs, that he can’t sing like that in his kitchen, it’s only when he is in relationship with an audience that he can make that sound. So that voice belongs to the fans, he’s said that right along.”

“And second of all?” I asked.

Dr. Poirier held up a hand. “I’d like to wait a bit before I explain more fully… if that’s all right.”

It occurred to me that I didn’t have much of a choice.

“Thank you. As I say, he didn’t know himself what he wanted to do just then — he traveled, got out on the roads on his beloved Harley, spent some time in Portugal, renewed old acquaintances, and tried to build a sustainable life. Eventually his music drew him back to the studio to record his second solo album, Against The Wall.”

Never heard of it? That’s because it was never released. In 1989, Steve told the record company that he wanted to release Against The Wall… but he didn’t want to tour. Their reaction was a complete turnaround from the Street Talk ultimatum; this time it was “tour or we won’t release the album”. It was a standoff. No one won.

And no one heard from Steve Perry for the next five years, with two exceptions.

Later that same year, Perry appeared onstage with Bon Jovi for a surprise encore spot. It was apparently a very meaningful event; not only had he desperately missed performing, a friend now working on the Bon Jovi crew presented him with the microphone he had used on the Infinity tour. It was at this performance that jon Bon Jovi gave him the nickname The Voice.

Then in 1991, Perry performed with Journey band mates Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain for a tribute to Bill Graham at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It was an awkward performance; Perry appeared just before showtime and sent a message to the other musicians to “take it down” (in layman’s terms, play the songs in a lower key) and to send him a cheat sheet for the lyrics because he “certainly didn’t remember them”.

According to Dr. Poirier, the tribute show was a trial run for the third Perry stand-in. “They both knew that it wouldn’t be a smooth performance; Mr. Perry had only just started working with the man. The key change, the cheat sheet, these set the scene for any mishaps that might befall.”

And why start grooming another stand-in? Because Perry had begun work on a new album, eventually titled For The Love Of Strange Medicine. The record company had come back and agreed to release the album IF Perry agreed to go on tour AND go back to Journey for a reunion album and limited tour. Perry agreed. For The Love of Strange Medicine was released in 1994, but the tour was cut short by a “recurring bronchial infection” Even though Perry apparently did perform most of the shows, it was clear the third stand-in would never last until the end of the originally-planned world tour.

Perry returned to the studio with Journey to record Trial By Fire, at the same time grooming a fourth stand-in for what he expected to be a limited reunion tour. The album turned out to be remarkably successful when it was released in 1996, garnering Platinum sales within the first three months.

That immediate success, as well as the Grammy nomination for the single “When You Love a Woman,” led the band and management to rethink the “limited engagements” idea.

A Summer 1997 tour schedule was drafted in anticipation of one of the biggest concert draws of the decade, but while many would have been happy for Journey to play 24/7, Perry was clearly only interested in performing selected and staggered dates… another stand-off.

“It would have been not just a rigorous tour, but a punishing one, as aggressive as any tour of Journey’s earlier days,” Dr. Poirier said, “with no definite end to the thing.”

Dr. Poirier rose and opened the window for a welcome breath of fresh air. He stood for a moment looking out at the parking lot; bird song, the revving of a motorcycle, cigarette smoke and laughter floated in.

“Ms. Owen, you must understand. Those original tours, with that material and the vocal strength and control required to deliver at an extraordinarily high standard night after night… it is truly a wonder that Mr. Perry was able to hold out for as long as he did.”

“He said, ‘I can’t do it anymore, Cantor, not even with a double. I have to find a way out.’ I told him he would probably be closing the door for good if he left then. I knew I had to help him when he answered, ‘I know. Thank God.’”

The only real solution happened to be one Dr. Poirier believed in completely. He began drafting a medical report on Perry’s vocal, physical and emotional health demonstrating that Perry was “burnt out”, unfit to tour. At the same time, Perry traveled to Hawaii to rest and consider his situation; it was on this trip that he first encountered the physical issues that put the Trial By Fire tour officially on hold. Dr. Poirier sent him on an extended series of visits with orthopedic specialists and eventually Perry announced that he had made the decision to have his hip replaced… by which time the band had decided to move on without him.

In 1998 Journey hired singer Steve Augeri, an ironic choice after the parade of Perry replacements, as Augeri was widely considered a Perry sound-alike. Contracts were dissolved, royalty agreements were reached, Journey went on the road, and Perry went home. As a comment on the intensity of Journey tours, Augeri developed serious vocal problems over the years of grueling schedules, and was replaced in 2006 by Jeff Scott Soto. Soto performed with the band for less than a year before being replaced by Arnel Pineda, famously discovered on YouTube singing “Faithfully”.

When Dr. Poirier finished his story, I just sat there for a little while. He didn’t press for a response, which was just as well because I didn’t have one.

I could have stood up and walked out. Or called him a liar to his face. I could have gotten all upset and told him off for wasting my time. But I’ll be honest, I stayed because I was impressed.

“That is a great story. No, truly, it’s very clever! It’s improbable but not impossible… as long as I forget how ridiculous it is to think that even the best impersonator could truly pass for Steve Perry, even for Steve Perry’s on a bad night. And even if he could sound like him, it’s equally absurd to think that he would look enough like him to fool… well, he’d have to fool everyone, right?”

The doctor paused, turned his head and looked back out the window for a moment.

“Ms. Owen… do you remember when we started this conversation, and I told you that you would doubt my sanity?”

“Yes sir, I do remember that, and I must say that I am beginning to…”

He turned back and smiled, “Well, hold that thought. The most important part is still to come, but we’ll need to back up, all the way back to Pieces.”

“What the heck is ‘Pieces’?”

In 1976 a band called Pieces was trying to break into the Bay Area music scene, but with little success. One of their main assets was a singer with a solid R&B background and a great range, a guy named Steve Perry.

The band had rehearsal space in a warehouse complex, and friends would gather nightly to listen. I later found another source to validate Dr. Poirier’s version of events, an eyewitness who refused to let us use his name. Maybe it’s best to let him tell the story in his own words:

TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW W/ (name withheld)

INTERVIEWER: Tell me about the band, and the night you mentioned, the lightning.

RESPONDENT: It was great, man -- we would hang out, listen to the band, joke around.
Steve was really funny, just a really good guy. They were working, you know, Steve
was pretty serious about it. But it was fun, too.

So one night they're rehearsing -- it was a crazy night, electrical storms. Have you
ever seen one of those? Amazing! You just don't know the sky can do something like
that until you see it. Anyway, the band and just finishing this song, running
through it, right?

I: What happened?

R: Steve doesn't remember, but I was there. He was singing this long note, and...
it was sort of like lightning, right? Straight through the window and hit Steve,
raising him off the ground. But lightning just cracks, ZAM! and then it's gone;
this was sort of steady. Also, if it was lightning, Steve would have been...

I: Wait a minute...

R: No, seriously, I know how this sounds, but hear me out, ok? You said you
wanted the whole thing, and this is it.

I: Ok, ok. So he's knocked across the room...

R: No, not across the room, he was standing still but he was just sort of rising
up, right there, and the lightning was still coming through the window, still
hitting him. So that's pretty freaky. He started to turn in a circle, spin around,
and finally he's whizzing around so fast and the light is glowing so bright blue...

I: Blue?

R: Yeah, like a cobalt blue, and really bright so we couldn't see him, see his face...
then suddenly he stops, midair, and out of the blue comes some kind of gold light,
like a rainbow but only one shiny gold color -- and it's like, pouring into his
mouth, down his throat. We're all just standing there like idiots, just watching --
I mean, what the hell do you do, right? And then the lights just, SNAP! disappear,
and Steve falls straight down, SLAM! I heard the guys all run over to him; I was
just staring out the window. I looked out when the light went off, to see where it
was coming from, and I was just staring...

I: What did you see?

R: Well, it was, like...O.K., there's nothing back there, right? Just parking lots
and stuff. So I know what I saw, ok?

I: Ok, settle down, I'm listening. What did you see?

R: It was... I don't know what it was, it was just sort of there... Ok, I don't
wanna talk about that anymore.

I. Ok, that's ok.

R: So the guys figure out that Steve is still alive, they're asking all these
questions. Steve didn't know anything more than they did, he just said that his
throat felt weird, heavy. They were checking him out, and he looked different, right?
All of a sudden his hair was really long and much thicker, his neck was like, giraffe-neck,
longer and really strong. And his nose...!

I: Wasn't his nose already pretty big? I know the kids at school used to call
him "Beaky"...

R: Yeah, yeah! You wouldn't believe it could, but it got even bigger, his
cheekbones sort of went up and out some -- his whole face looked like it was
spreading out, like making room for something. One guy looked down Steve's
throat and just said 'Oh... wow. Oh, man, i don't know. Steve, you gotta see
this." Like that.

I: And what did he see?

R: It was all sort of... uh...I dunno, man. I didn't get a really good look.

I: Are you sure?

R: But look, after that, Steve's voice? I mean, he was good before, really good.
But this was something else. It was, like, "who is that?" And, you know, next thing?
He's in a band called 'Alien Project', you believe that? That was before Journey --
Alien Project? I mean, what the f*ck, right?

I: Why did they call it that?

R: Uh... I don't know. Listen, I gotta go. That's all I know -- I'm done now, o.k.?

I: (name withheld)... what did you see out the window that night?

R: Seriously, I don't wanna talk about this anymore. I'm done.
END TRANSCRIPT

Let’s take a moment here.

Because, as Dr. Poirier himself told me, right up front, “what I have to tell you might make you wonder about my sanity. But I assure you, it is all quite true.”

I’m not saying it IS true, just as Dr. Poirier couldn’t swear to me that the levitation story was true. All I can tell you is that exactly one year ago I sat in a room with a man who appeared to be the very definition of rationality. I am pretty good at spotting the little things we all do when we’re telling stories: embellish, deflect, spin, withhold, and sometimes flat-out lie.

The man in front of me didn’t appear to be doing any of those things. I think the best way I can describe his manner is to say that he was a man telling the truth about something he’d give anything not to have to tell the truth about. He wasn’t excited or edgy or tense… I’d say his manner was resigned as he told me his version of the lightning story, the one he had heard from Perry himself, the one I later confirmed with my source.

“This was during our conversation about whether I would join them on tour. We’d been introduced by a good mutual friend, so Mr. Perry had reason to trust me when I saw his throat during a standard physical exam. I’ll tell you,” Dr, Poirier laughed, “it’s not precisely what one expects to see when one says ‘Say Ah’. The exact chemical composition I have never been able to determine. Mr. Perry and I have called it simply The Glow.”

When I asked Dr. Poirier what it looked like, his smile was almost beatific. “It’s beautiful,” he said, “really, just stunning. It is something between a liquid and a gas. It is woven into Mr. Perry’s vocal structures, but also moves through and around them, looking something like mist or smoke. It is relatively easy to extract the substance simply by drawing the floating mist of it into a syringe. The interesting thing about the Glow is that it is easily transferred by droplet or sample inhalation.”

I promise, I was thinking just exactly what you would have thought, namely “this guy is nuts”. but he didn’t seem actually dangerous, so I decided to play along and asked him how, if this Glow was so easily transferred, was it never transmitted to anyone else?

“Oh it was! His girlfriend Sherrie had a beautiful singing voice. And ask anyone who was close to them at the time, her cats were unusually sonorous. We noticed that these chance transmissions wore off after a short time, and the recipients never received the physical transformation that Mr. Perry experienced upon first receiving The Glow…”

“You mean the hair, the neck…”

“Yes, and other… things.”

“Things?”

The doctor, to my surprise, turned absolutely beet red. “Well, yes, the… uh… hm. It cannot have escaped your notice… I mean to say anyone’s notice…” He cleared his throat. “I believe some have made humorous reference to… ‘Stevie Jr.‘?”

“Uh… OH! Oh. I see.”

“Yes. A benefit not lost on the stand-ins. But it was a side-effect only and not one of the changes I believe to be most pertinent to sound production, those being in the face, the sinus cavities, the throat, and of course the nose. Given the ease of transmission and the lack of physical effect, you might have found any number of close friends at the time who… well. Mr. Perry is a generous man. In any case, we theorized that only a deeper integration would cause those widespread physical changes… To take on the full effect of The Voice, the Glow had to be injected.”

I cringed. “And who was going to volunteer for this delightful experiment?”

“Well!” The doctor smiled proudly, “I have a Pomeranian named Foo Foo…”

“Never mind! I don’t really want to know.”

“Suffice to say, we tested the injection and it worked beautifully. Foo Foo was quite a sight to see, I can tell you! And so when we went to speak with the first stand-in Mr. Perry had in mind, we had the whole plan laid out.”

“And he was good with that?”

“He was ecstatic! Ms. Owen, can you imagine sounding like Steve Perry, but not quite? Having such a clear image of success to invite comparison, knowing that the best you can ever do is “not bad”? And then imagine being chosen — by the man himself, mind you — to receive that by which you have judged yourself? None of the stand-ins ever gave it a moment’s thought, although we explained to them all that even the injection would dissipate with time, between six months and a year.”

Dr. Poirier explained that The Glow would simply fade, and the singer’s original voice would return: “That original voice did reflect some damage, not from the Glow, which seemed to have a protective effect, but from the rigorous tour schedule and the difficulty of the material. After some recovery time, however, some of the power and clarity that had come from the Glow would return. I examined them and could not find any residual physical changes; it may well be that the improvement is simply the result of training and experience.”

“Dr. Poirier, I must ask… Arnel Pineda?”

He laughed, “I can see how you might think that; quite a find isn’t he? But possibly the most astonishing thing about Mr. Pineda is that Mr. Perry had nothing to do with him. And no, Mr. Perry did not travel in the Philippines in his twenties… or would that have been his teens? In any case, Mr. Pineda is the genuine article.”

“Good to know. So, did Steve Perry’s voice return to its original state too?”

“Well! That is an excellent question, and it is true that The Glow has faded. More slowly, but after so many years it is almost gone and my samples are all that remain. However, and this is fascinating, Mr. Perry has retained the structure, the strength, everything The Glow seemed to change. As a medical professional, I cannot find any way in which these structures differ from any that might have developed naturally. I have a pet theory, actually, that the lightning did nothing more than push Mr. Perry’s natural development forward, that he was not so much changed as chosen by the Glow.”

“Chosen? So you think there’s some kind of intent behind all this?”

The doctor sat back down at his desk. “I suppose we’ll never really know, but personally, I think it’s about singing. Do you sing, Ms. Owen?”

I am a terrible singer, and told him so.

He nodded, “So many people would say just the same. We all sang as children, of course, without worrying how we sounded or what others would think. Over time, all but the most talented of us stopped singing altogether. Which is a tragedy, really; the physiological and psychological benefits of singing are well-documented. Singing reduces stress, increases levels of beneficial hormones, connects us to our fellow human beings.

“Imagine opening your mouth to sing, right this moment, and hearing something beautiful. How would that feel? How would I feel, listening? And if, after that particular beauty had faded, your own voice became beautiful in its own way? Certainly you would continue singing, share your voice with others, inspire them to sing. You see the possibilities of such a gift… and Mr. Perry is a generous man.”

“And after all these years, Perry’s voice…”

“…is magnificent. Different, yes, but richer, deeper, more eloquent, more nuanced. And no, I have no idea if he will ever sing in public again; as I say, Ms. Owen, he is a complicated man.”

“So I gather. But I still don’t understand; why come forward now?”

Dr. Poirier simply shrugged: “The time is right, it’s as simple as that. Mr. Perry’s motives are often as mysterious to me as to anyone else, but I can say that he had a mischievous look in his eye. I’d say he’s got something up his sleeve.”

“What could that be?”

He smiled. “We’ll all just have to wait and see, now won’t we?”

I left his office in stunned silence. The easiest thing to believe was that Dr. Cantor Poirier was insane, or simply trying to wangle his fifteen minutes of fame. Later, I would find the independent verification of the lightning story, which changed my perspective, but at that moment I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or sue!

I drove out of the parking lot, passing the medical building again, and stopped outside Dr. Poirier’s open ground-floor window. I could see the doctor inside, watering a Fernkloof Haemanthus… and singing to himself in a pure, strong voice that rang out like a bell:

“Cupid, draw back your bow
And let your arrow go…”

A generous man indeed.

I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned just in time to see a figure in black leather riding away on a retro-classic Harley, no helmet, his black hair streaming out behind him. Over the sweet thrum of a finely tuned machine, with none of the rattle you’d expect from an older model, I could have sworn I heard him laughing.

by **ChildInTime** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 10:52 am

That was some weird piece of fanfic.... O_o o_O Sounds like a storyline of a comic book superhero. :lol:

by **TRAGChick** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:08 am

Nice touch with the April 1st post date....

:wink:

by **parfait** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:13 am

So Perry got his voice, hair, nose and dick from a magical lighting bolt?

The voice and dick I get, but come on... The sparkling bolt of superpower decided to give him a big nose? A god damn nose?! :lol:

Website · by **steveo777** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:17 am

I was relieved to hear Pineda is the genuine article. I was sure for awhile that someone transferred some of Perry's glow juice to AP. :wink:

by **ChildInTime** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:37 am

Seriously though, that shit was straight from X-Men or something.

Steve should hire John Williams to create a superhero themesong for him, so that whenever he walks into a room it's like TOTAL AND COMPLETE EPICNESS. :lol:

by *Laura » Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:52 am

"... out of the blue comes some kind of gold light,
like a rainbow but only one shiny gold color -- and it's like, pouring into his
mouth, down his throat."

This sounds much better than what Herbie said. :lol:

by **annpea** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 12:40 pm

Good fanfic.. :lol:

by **portland** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 9:39 pm

This is downstairs as well........................... :lol:

by **Michigan Girl** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 9:50 pm

steveo777 wrote:I was relieved to hear Pineda is the genuine article. I was sure for awhile that someone transferred some of Perry's glow juice to AP.

No, not even close!!! :wink:

Website · by **steveo777** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 2:26 am

Michigan Girl wrote:
steveo777 wrote:I was relieved to hear Pineda is the genuine article. I was sure for awhile that someone transferred some of Perry's glow juice to AP.
No, not even close!!!

I thought you were dead. Haven't seen you around for a few days. :wink:

by **Michigan Girl** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:30 am

steveo777 wrote:
Michigan Girl wrote:
steveo777 wrote:I was relieved to hear Pineda is the genuine article. I was sure for awhile that someone transferred some of Perry's glow juice to AP.
No, not even close!!!

I thought you were dead. Haven't seen you around for a few days.

You were wishin' and hopin' or did you miss my 'terms of endearment'?!?!

Website · by **steveo777** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:53 am

Michigan Girl wrote:
steveo777 wrote:
Michigan Girl wrote:
steveo777 wrote:I was relieved to hear Pineda is the genuine article. I was sure for awhile that someone transferred some of Perry's glow juice to AP.
No, not even close!!!

I thought you were dead. Haven't seen you around for a few days.

You were wishin' and hopin' or did you miss my 'terms of endearment'?!?!

Actually, I can't believe I noticed. Don't take that to mean I care about ya or anything. :wink:

by **Sarah** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:55 am

I'll post the same thing I did in the SP forum, cause it really sums it up

Website · by **steveo777** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:59 am

Sarah wrote:I'll post the same thing I did in the SP forum, cause it really sums it up

There used to be a long read out there about SP discovering someone who looked a lot like him, going to his house, riding motorcycles, SP cooking him pasta and them spending gay time together. Another ridiculous read like this.

by **Sarah** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:06 am

steveo777 wrote:There used to be a long read out there about SP discovering someone who looked a lot like him, going to his house, riding motorcycles, SP cooking him pasta and them spending gay time together. Another ridiculous read like this.

Well hey I can't gang up too much on fanfic as I used to write it myself, but I admit it is pretty silly usually. lol

I'm surprised I haven't heard of the one you're describing (or maybe I just didn't read it)

Website · by **steveo777** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:47 am

Sarah wrote:
steveo777 wrote:There used to be a long read out there about SP discovering someone who looked a lot like him, going to his house, riding motorcycles, SP cooking him pasta and them spending gay time together. Another ridiculous read like this.

Well hey I can't gang up too much on fanfic as I used to write it myself, but I admit it is pretty silly usually. lol

I'm surprised I haven't heard of the one you're describing (or maybe I just didn't read it)

The story has been taken off the web, probably at the requirement of SP's legal team.

The gist of it was something like this:
SP was in San Francisco one day and literally bumped into someone while walking. The two noticed they looked a bit alike and started talking. A friendship was struck up and SP invited his new friend to his place. They went for a motorcycle ride and SP made him pasta. They cliqued and SP supposedly had thought he was straight up until then, but he had an encounter with this other person, which proved to himself maybe he wasn't straight.

Anyway, that is what I can remember reading a couple years ago. I can no longer find the story.

by **Sarah** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 5:30 am

steveo777 wrote:They cliqued and SP supposedly had thought he was straight up until then, but he had an encounter with this other person, which proved to himself maybe he wasn't straight.

Ok this part sounds familiar. too bad you can't find it, now I'm curious! I probably know the person that wrote it too.

by **brywool** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 5:31 am

When I first started reading, that was super interesting. Soon as it got to the 'doubles' thing...

And Paul is dead, right?

Website · by **steveo777** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 6:13 am

brywool wrote:When I first started reading, that was super interesting. Soon as it got to the 'doubles' thing...

And Paul is dead, right?

Not until 2027

by **Arianddu** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:30 am

steveo777 wrote:
brywool wrote:When I first started reading, that was super interesting. Soon as it got to the 'doubles' thing...

And Paul is dead, right?

Not until 2027

Yeh, trust Paul to be 15 years late for the end of the world. :roll: